De-Facto Relationship Visa

Who is eligible to apply for a De Facto Relationship Visa?

If you are in a de facto relationship with an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, then you may be eligible for a Partner Visa on the basis of their sponsorship.

How do I qualify for a De Facto Partner Visa?

You may be eligible to apply if you and your partner:

• Have been in a relationship for at least 12 months before applying for the De Facto Visa, or have the relationship registered on the Relationship Registry depending on the State or Territory in which you reside
• You can to provide proof, including documented information, that you live together or if you don’t live together, it is just temporary
• Can provide proof that your relationship is continuing.

Some of the factors that the Department of Home Affairs takes into account in deciding whether partners meet the requirement are:

• Financial aspects of the relationship, including mutual financial obligations such as real estate, joint accounts and sharing everyday’s household expenses;
• Mutual knowledge of their personal circumstances;
• Social aspects of the relationship, statutory declarations from friends;
• The level of commitment & relationship duration, e.g. how long have the partners lived together and whether the partners see their relationship together in long term.

How do I apply for a De Facto Partner Visa?

Both the applicant and sponsoring partner must complete the application for a De Facto Partner Visa. First, applicants must apply for a Temporary Partner Visa, whether they are inside or outside of Australia. This Visa will allow you to stay in Australia and to travel, work and study.

The most crucial requirement for obtaining a Temporary partner visa through a de-facto application is to satisfy the 1 year relationship requirement or Register the relationship with the relevant bodies in the State where you reside.

In some circumstances, the 12 months relationship requirement can be exempted if you:

• have children with your partner.
• the sponsor is a holder of a permanent humanitarian visa, and the de-facto applicant has been in satisfactory relationship with the sponsor prior the humanitarian visa was granted, and the Department of Home Affairs has been informed about this relationship.
• The de facto relationship has been registered as prescribed relationship in an Australian State or territory as prescribed by Legislation.

Following the grant of your Temporary Partner visa it takes two years from the date of application lodgement to be granted Permanent Residence provided that you are still in a relationship with your sponsoring partner.

You may be entitled to make a request to waive this 2-years waiting period before obtaining permanent residence in certain circumstances, including:

• You have been in a de-facto relationship for more than three years at the time of application.
• You have a child together, and you have been in a de-facto relationship for more than 2 years.

It is possible to apply for Partner Visa on de-facto grounds if one person is still legally married to a third party in some circumstances (e.g. while one of the parties is awaiting a divorce).

All the general requirements, including health and character checks, minimum age of 18 years & Australian values statement must also be met in order to apply for a Partner visa under the de-facto relationship regime.

As each relationship is different, Point Migration Agency will be able to assist each applicant in compiling the most relevant evidence for each application.

Visa Charges

The government charges for visa applications can be found here.