No. There is no income requirement for the sponsor of a partner visa. The Migration Regulations 1994 set no threshold, name no figure, and impose no assurance of support for the subclass 820 or the subclass 801. What the regulations do require is the sponsorship undertaking, and separately they require the decision maker to consider the financial aspects of the relationship — which is a question about how a couple organises money, not about how much of it they have. Both points were checked against the Migration Regulations 1994 on 23 September 2026.
What do the regulations actually require of a sponsor financially?
One thing: the undertaking in regulation 1.20. For the 820 and 801, lodged as a concurrent application for a Partner (Temporary) (Class UK) visa and a Partner (Residence) (Class BS) visa, subregulation 1.20(2)(c) says the sponsor undertakes to assist the applicant, "to the extent necessary, financially and in relation to accommodation", for the two years immediately following the grant of the temporary visa where the applicant is in Australia.
There is no figure in that provision, no schedule of amounts attached to it, and nothing elsewhere in the partner visa criteria that supplies one. There is no calculation to pass.
"To the extent necessary" is the operative phrase, and it is relative rather than absolute. If the applicant is working and paying their own way — and a granted 820 carries full work rights — the extent necessary may be very little. If the applicant cannot work, is caring for a child, or is newly arrived with no Australian income, it is more. The undertaking follows the facts.
"And in relation to accommodation" matters as much as the money: the undertaking includes having somewhere for your partner to live. A sponsor with a modest income and a stable home meets that part comfortably; a well-paid sponsor with no housing arrangement does not.
Is there an assurance of support for a partner visa?
No. An assurance of support is an undertaking under Chapter 2C of the Social Security Act 1991 to repay certain social security payments, and the Migration Regulations impose it on particular visa subclasses by writing it expressly into their criteria in Schedule 2. Several subclasses carry that criterion. Parts 820 and 801 do not — the words do not appear in either Part, checked on 23 September 2026.
So there is no bank security to lodge, no amount to set aside, and no second application to Services Australia. What the undertaking commits you to is set out under sponsor obligations.
Important
nobody should be asking a partner visa sponsor to pay a bond or to lodge an assurance of support. If you are told that a payment of that kind is needed, check the criteria before you pay anything.
Then why does the application ask so much about money?
Because the money questions are about the relationship, not about the sponsor's wealth. The Migration Regulations require the decision maker to consider four matters when assessing a married or de facto relationship, and the first of them is the financial aspects of the relationship. The regulation breaks that down into joint assets, joint liabilities, the pooling of financial resources, legal obligations owed to each other, and the basis on which day-to-day household expenses are shared.
Notice what is absent: income, savings, assets in any particular amount. Every item is about entanglement. Two people on low incomes who share a lease, split the electricity bill and have named each other on their superannuation are giving the decision maker exactly what the regulation asks for. Two people with large separate incomes and nothing shared are not. The evidence is dealt with under financial aspects evidence, within the wider set of relationship evidence.
What if the sponsor is on a low income or receiving payments?
It does not disqualify anyone. There is no income test to fail. Sponsors who are studying, retired, between jobs, running a business at a loss, carrying a disability or receiving a Centrelink payment can and do sponsor partners.
Two consequences are worth separating, because they get confused.
The visa side. The financial aspects of the relationship still have to be addressed. A sponsor with little income sometimes concludes there is nothing to show and leaves the section thin, which is the actual risk — not the income, the silence. Shared rent receipts, a joint utility account, a household budget the two of you keep, transfers between accounts, a car registered to one and insured in both names, evidence of who pays for the groceries: all of this exists regardless of income.
The Centrelink side. Whether the applicant can claim a payment, and how being a couple affects the sponsor's own payment, is decided by Services Australia under social security law, not by the Department of Home Affairs under the undertaking. Partnering can change a sponsor's own rate. The Department also warns that new arrivals might have to wait to access certain payments. That is covered under Centrelink payments, and questions about your own payment go to Services Australia.
How do couples with separate finances present it honestly?
By explaining the arrangement instead of manufacturing one. A joint account opened three weeks before lodgement with two deposits in it is worse than none, because it reads as a document created for the application rather than a record of a life.
- Say what your system is. If one of you pays the rent and the other pays everything else, write that down and show it happening over time. That is "the basis on which day-to-day household expenses are shared", stated plainly.
- Give the reason for separateness where there is one. Keeping finances apart after a difficult earlier relationship, because of a business structure, because of a debt one of you is clearing, or simply by preference, is normal and can be explained.
- Use what is naturally in both names. Leases, utilities, insurance policies, emergency contacts, beneficiary nominations, school forms. These accumulate without being engineered.
- Cover the length of the relationship, not the last month. Consistency over time carries more weight than volume.
- Do not overstate. Statements in an application are made to the Department, and the Department says information provided must be true. An exaggerated account of shared finances is a worse problem than modest finances.
The cost of applying is a separate question from the sponsor's income, and it is substantial; see 820 visa cost and check the Department's Visa Pricing Estimator for current figures, which change.
An application prepared by an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed where a couple's finances are unusual — separate by choice, structured through a business, or thin because one partner has just arrived. The financial section is the one most often left underdone by couples who assume the amounts are the point, and it is one of the four matters the decision maker must turn their mind to.
Next: build the evidence itself with financial aspects evidence, then read sponsor obligations for the rest of what you are agreeing to. To go back to the overview, see the sponsor's guide.
Common questions
Is there a minimum income to sponsor a partner visa?
No. The Migration Regulations 1994 set no income threshold for the sponsor of a partner visa. Regulation 1.20, which contains the sponsorship undertaking, requires the sponsor to assist the applicant to the extent necessary, financially and in relation to accommodation, for two years after the temporary visa is granted. It names no figure at all, and no other provision in the partner visa criteria supplies one.
Can I sponsor my partner if I am on Centrelink payments?
Yes. Receiving a Centrelink payment does not disqualify anyone from sponsoring a partner visa. There is no income test in the criteria and no assurance of support requirement for a partner visa. What still has to be addressed is the financial side of the relationship itself, which is about how the two of you organise money together rather than how much of it there is.
Does a low income make a partner visa more likely to be refused?
Not on its own, and not because of the amount. Applications are refused because the decision maker is not satisfied the relationship is genuine and continuing, not because a sponsor earns little. A low income becomes a problem only if it is used as a reason to leave the financial aspects of the relationship unevidenced, because that is one of the four matters the regulations require the decision maker to consider.
Do we need joint bank accounts to sponsor a partner visa?
No single document is compulsory. The regulations ask the decision maker to consider the financial aspects of the relationship, including joint assets, joint liabilities, the pooling of financial resources, legal obligations owed to each other and the basis on which day-to-day household expenses are shared. Couples who keep separate accounts can address all of that with other evidence, and should explain why their arrangements are what they are.
Does the sponsor pay the visa application charge?
The charge is payable on the application, and in practice couples decide between themselves who pays it. The Department of Home Affairs publishes current pricing and says the charge is not refunded if an application is refused. Who paid is not itself a criterion, although a sponsor paying can be one small piece of evidence about how the couple's finances work.
Sources
Keep reading
Sponsor Obligations and Responsibilities
What a partner visa sponsor is actually obliged to do - the two-year undertaking in regulation 1.20, why it is not a bond, and what happens when circumstances change.
Read the guide →
Sponsoring When You Live Overseas
Can you sponsor an 820 partner visa while living overseas? What the regulations require of the sponsor, what the applicant's location means, and when the 309 fits better.
Read the guide →