Subclass 309 Partner (Provisional) Visa: The Complete Australian Guide

Australia's offshore partner pathway is deliberately staged. The provisional visa establishes that the relationship is genuine at the time of decision; the permanent visa confirms, some years later, that it has continued.

• Enter and live in Australia while the permanent subclass 100 stage is assessed.
• Work in Australia without restriction. There is no condition limiting hours or employer.
• Study in Australia, though without access to Commonwealth-supported places or HELP loans.
• Travel in and out of Australia as many times as you wish while the visa remains in effect.
• Enrol in Medicare, Australia's public health scheme, through Services Australia.
• Include eligible dependent family members in your application.
• Access certain settlement services, including free English language tuition where eligible.

The subclass 309 does not confer permanent residence, Australian citizenship eligibility, or an automatic right to sponsor other family members. Those follow the subclass 100.

Every partner visa application requires an approved sponsor. The sponsorship is assessed alongside the visa application, and a refused sponsorship will end the application regardless of how strong the relationship evidence is.

Who can sponsor

• An Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen.
• Usually at least 18 years of age.
• The person you are married to or in a de facto relationship with. Sponsorship cannot be provided by a third party.

Sponsorship limitations

These limits catch out a significant number of couples and are worth checking before you spend anything:

• A person can generally sponsor no more than two partners in their lifetime, counting subclass 820, 801, 309, 100 and 300 sponsorships.
• At least five years must generally have passed since a previous partner sponsorship application was lodged.
• If the sponsor was themselves granted permanent residence through a partner visa, they generally cannot sponsor a new partner until five years have passed since that earlier application was lodged.
• Previous sponsorships count toward the limit even if the visa was refused, withdrawn, or the relationship ended.
• The Department may waive these limitations where there are compelling or compassionate circumstances, such as the death of a former partner or dependent children of the current relationship.

To be granted a subclass 309 visa you must:

• Be the spouse or de facto partner of an eligible sponsor, in a relationship that is genuine and continuing.
• Be outside Australia when you lodge the application.
• Be sponsored by your partner, with that sponsorship approved.
• Meet Australia's health requirement, including medical examinations for you and generally for family members.
• Meet the character requirement, supported by police certificates.
• Have no outstanding debts to the Australian Government, or have arrangements in place to repay them.
• Sign the Australian Values Statement if you are 18 or over.
• Not be affected by an exclusion period or a bar arising from a previous visa refusal or cancellation, unless it can be addressed.

There is no age limit for the applicant beyond being of marriageable age, no English language requirement, no skills assessment and no points test. The subclass 309 is assessed on the genuineness of the relationship and on the standard health, character and integrity criteria, not on employability.

You must qualify either as a spouse or as a de facto partner. The two categories have different threshold requirements but are assessed against the same four evidentiary pillars.

Exemptions to the 12-month de facto requirement

• The relationship is registered under a relevant Australian state or territory relationship register.
• There are compelling and compassionate circumstances, which in practice most often involves a dependent child of the relationship.

The four pillars of assessment

Whether you are married or de facto, the Department assesses the relationship across four areas. Evidence that is thin in one area weakens the whole application, so aim for coverage across all four rather than depth in one.

Health

You must meet the health requirement, which involves examinations by a Department-approved panel physician. Examinations are generally required for the applicant and for dependent family members, including those not migrating with you. A significant medical condition can affect the outcome, though health waivers are available for partner visas in certain circumstances.

Character

You must satisfy the character requirement. This normally means providing police certificates from every country in which you have lived for 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning 16. Certificates have limited validity, so timing their collection matters.

Immigration history and debts

• Previous visa refusals or cancellations may trigger a bar or exclusion period that must be addressed before or within the application.
• Outstanding debts to the Australian Government, including public health debts, must be repaid or subject to an accepted arrangement.
• Providing false or misleading information can result in refusal and a lengthy exclusion period, and is treated seriously even where the underlying relationship is genuine.

Australian Values Statement

Applicants aged 18 and over must sign the Australian Values Statement, confirming they will respect the Australian way of life and obey Australian law. It forms part of the application rather than being a separate document.

Family members

Dependent children and certain other dependent relatives can be included in the application, either at lodgement or, in some cases, before a decision is made. Each must meet health and character requirements. Adding family members increases the visa application charge.

The application is lodged online through ImmiAccount. The applicant and the sponsor each complete their own part.

The period after lodgement is the part applicants find hardest, largely because very little visibly happens for long stretches. Here is what is actually occurring.

• Acknowledgement: you receive confirmation of a valid application. Your place in the queue is set by the lodgement date.
• Allocation: the file waits to be allocated to a case officer. This is usually the longest single phase, and silence during it is normal rather than a sign of a problem.
• Assessment: once allocated, the officer reviews the relationship evidence, the sponsorship, and your health and character material.
• Requests for further information: the Department may ask for additional documents, clarification, or a Form 888 statement. Deadlines are firm, and missing one can result in a decision on the material already held.
• Status updates: ImmiAccount shows the application status. Status labels are coarse and can change without meaning much, so do not read too much into a change.
• Decision: the subclass 309 is granted or refused, with reasons. If granted, you receive a grant notice specifying any initial entry date.
• First entry: if an initial entry date is imposed, you must enter Australia by that date. It is set by the Department and is not negotiable after grant.

As at May 2026, the Department of Home Affairs reported a median of approximately 20 months for the Partner (Provisional/Temporary) category, and indicated it was focusing on older and more complex applications.

Published processing times change regularly as caseloads shift. Rather than relying on any figure quoted on this or any other website, check the Department's own tool before making plans:

Department of Home Affairs visa processing times tool

What tends to affect timing

• Completeness at lodgement. Applications that arrive decision-ready avoid the request-and-wait cycles that add months.
• Complexity: previous refusals, health findings, character issues or complicated relationship histories all extend assessment.
• Responsiveness. Slow replies to requests for information push your file back in the officer's queue.
• Departmental priorities, which shift over time and are outside any applicant's control.

No migration agent, including us, can guarantee a processing time or an outcome. Anyone who offers such a guarantee should be treated with caution.

The list below is a practical starting point rather than an exhaustive legal checklist. What is genuinely required depends on your circumstances.

Documents not in English must be accompanied by translations from an appropriately accredited translator.

The visa application charge for the combined 309/100 application is substantial and covers both stages. Charges are reviewed regularly and increased significantly on 1 July 2026. See our breakdown of the 1 July 2026 fee increases.

Additional applicant charges apply for a partner or dependent children included in the application, and a second instalment may apply in limited circumstances. Because these amounts change and vary by circumstance, confirm your own total using the Department's calculator rather than any figure published here:

Department of Home Affairs Visa Pricing Estimator

Budget beyond the visa charge

• Medical examinations: typically a few hundred dollars per person, more if further tests are required.
• Police certificates for each country of residence, priced differently in each jurisdiction.
• Certified translations of any non-English documents.
• Document certification, courier costs and, where relevant, relationship registration fees.
• Professional fees if you engage a registered migration agent.
• Travel and relocation costs once the visa is granted.

The subclass 100 is the permanent residence stage of the same application. There is no new application and no further visa application charge.

The two-year eligibility point

Eligibility for consideration of the subclass 100 generally arises two years after the date the combined application was lodged. This is a meaningful distinction: because the provisional stage itself often takes well over a year, much of the two-year period is typically served while you are waiting for the 309. Many published guides incorrectly state that the clock starts at grant.

Reaching the eligibility point does not trigger an automatic grant. The Department will generally invite you to provide updated evidence that the relationship remains genuine and continuing, and will then assess the permanent stage.

Long-term relationship provisions

Where the relationship was already long-standing at the time of lodgement, the permanent visa may be granted without the usual two-year wait, in practice immediately following or together with the provisional grant. This generally applies where, at the time of application, you had been in the relationship for:

• Three years or more; or
• Two years or more, where there is a dependent child of the relationship.

If circumstances change

The permanent stage normally requires the relationship to be continuing. Limited provisions may still allow a grant where the relationship has ended, including where there has been family violence, where the sponsor has died, or where there are shared parenting responsibilities. These provisions are complex, evidence-intensive and genuinely difficult to navigate alone.

Health cover

Medicare enrolment is generally available to provisional partner visa holders, but it is administered by Services Australia and you should confirm your entitlement after arrival. Medicare does not cover everything. Ambulance cover is not included in most states, and dental and optical are largely outside the scheme, so many families maintain some private cover. If you have dependants included in the application, confirm their position separately.

Ongoing obligations

• Notify the Department of changes to your address, passport, relationship status or family composition.
• Respond to requests for information within the time allowed.
• Comply with Australian law. Serious offending can affect the permanent stage.
• Maintain evidence of the relationship, since you will need to demonstrate it continues at the subclass 100 stage.

The observations in this section are our own practical commentary rather than Departmental requirements. They reflect the issues we see most often in offshore partner matters.

• Lodging from inside Australia. The subclass 309 must be lodged while you are outside Australia. An application lodged onshore is invalid, and the correct onshore equivalent is the subclass 820.
• Overlooking sponsorship limits. The two-sponsorship lifetime cap and the five-year rule are checked at the sponsor's end, and discovering a problem after paying the charge is an expensive way to find out.
• Evidence clustered around the application date. A relationship documented only in the weeks before lodging reads as assembled for the visa. Evidence spread across the whole relationship reads as real.
• Treating Form 888 statements as a formality. Generic, near-identical statements carry little weight; specific, detailed accounts from people who genuinely know you carry a great deal.
• Ignoring gaps rather than explaining them. Periods apart, previous relationships and unusual circumstances are all survivable when addressed directly and unconvincing when left unmentioned.
• Letting health checks or police certificates expire. Both have validity limits, and repeating them is an avoidable cost.
• Missing a request for information deadline. The Department can decide on the material it already holds, which rarely favours the applicant.