The sponsor requirements are:

• The sponsor must be an Australian Permanent Resident, Australian citizen, or eligible New Zealand citizen
• The sponsor can only sponsor 2 spouses or De Facto partners in his/her lifetime, and can only sponsor 1 spouse or De Facto partner within 5 years unless in an exceptional circumstance
• The sponsor cannot hold a Spouse Visa sponsored by another person in the past 5 years
• The sponsor cannot be convicted of, or have had to pay a fine for hurting a child
• The sponsor needs to pass the character test

There are generally two processing stages for the Partner Visa application:

The first stage is to apply for a Temporary Residence Visa (TR) for the spouse or de facto partner. The second stage is to stay married/in the relationship for two years and to meet other conditions. If you do this, you will generally be able to process the Permanent Residency Visa stage after two years from your initial application date.

If you are currently offshore, there are two options for you:

Option 1: You can apply for a Subclass 309 Partner Visa (temporary) as the first step if you have sufficient evidence to prove your relationship and meet the requirements for lodging this visa. Once it is granted, you can travel to Australia and be assessed for the Subclass 100 Partner Visa (Permanent).

Option 2: If you are engaged to be married, you can apply for a Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage Visa. Once it is granted, you can travel to Australia, marry your fiancé/fiancée, and then apply for the Onshore Partner Visa.

If you are onshore in Australia, you can apply for the Subclass 820 Partner Visa (temporary) as the first stage. Once it is granted, you can be assessed for the Subclass 801 Partner Visa (Permanent) stage.

The checklist below shows the conditions that the applicant and the sponsor must meet:

• Both spouses are over 18 years old
• You cannot hold a 204 Refugee Visa (Woman at Risk Visa) or a Transit Visa such as the 771 Visa within 5 years.
• You must not have debt in Australia
• Both spouses are married or in a De Facto/de facto relationship
• For a De Facto partner, a relationship of more than 12 months or other certification is required, and the relationship needs to be maintained during the application period.

For de facto relationships, we need to prove that the applicant and the sponsor have lived together for at least 12 months.

However, a certain length of cohabitation period can be exempted in the following two situations:

• You have registered your de facto relationship with the state government (i.e. you have a Civil Partnership Certificate).
• The applicant and the sponsor already have children