Partner visa when you are not living together: long-distance couples and the evidence that works

MARN 1576536

Married couples apart

A spouse for the partner visa is a person in a marriage recognised under Australian law, where the couple have a mutual commitment to a shared life as husband and wife, or as spouses, to the exclusion of all others, the relationship is genuine and continuing, and they live together or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis. There is no requirement that they have ever lived together and no minimum period. A couple married last year who have been apart since because one cannot get a visa to the other's country apply as spouses on the marriage and on the evidence of the relationship around it. What the Department tests is whether the marriage is a real one and whether the couple are, in substance, a couple; a marriage that exists on paper and in a handful of visits, with no shared life evident between them, is the pattern it refuses.

De facto couples apart

A de facto partner must meet the same relationship test, mutual commitment, genuine and continuing, living together or not separately and apart permanently, and must also, for most partner visas, have been in the de facto relationship for at least twelve months before the application. The twelve months is where couples apart usually fall, because the Department's starting position is that a de facto relationship involves living together, and a couple who have never cohabited have to show the relationship existed for twelve months by other means or come within one of the exceptions. A long-distance couple who have visited each other for two years and never shared a home are a de facto couple only if the evidence shows a shared life conducted at a distance, and the twelve-month rule is met by registration or compelling circumstances rather than by cohabitation.

Separately and apart on a permanent basis

The phrase is the one that catches couples apart, and it does not mean what it sounds like. Living in different places is not living separately and apart; living separately and apart on a permanent basis means the relationship has, in substance, ended as a shared life, with no intention to resume it. A couple apart because of a posting, a visa, a border, a sick parent or a job, who speak daily, support each other, plan to reunite and are known to everyone as a couple, are not separated. A couple who live in different cities, have separate finances, separate social lives, and no plan to live together, are, whatever the marriage certificate says. The evidence that decides it is the evidence of the plan to be together and the steps taken toward it.

The three routes through twelve months

• Twelve months of relationship. For a couple who have cohabited, the leases and the shared address prove it. For a couple apart, the twelve months can still be shown by evidence of a de facto relationship conducted at a distance, but the Department reads that evidence sceptically and the other two routes are safer.
• A registered relationship. Registration under the relationship register of a state or territory, where at least one partner lives in that state, satisfies the twelve-month rule outright. It takes weeks and a fee, and it is the route for most couples apart where one partner is in Australia. The registration guide sets out each state.
• Compelling and compassionate circumstances. The Department may dispense with the twelve months where there are compelling and compassionate circumstances: a child of the relationship, a relationship that could not be conducted openly or in cohabitation because of the law or the danger in one partner's country, or other circumstances of that weight. Separation by visa or distance alone is not usually enough; it is the reason for the separation that counts.

The four aspects at a distance

The Department assesses the financial aspects of the relationship, the nature of the household, the social aspects and the nature of the commitment, and a couple apart show each one differently. Financial: money sent between you, a joint account used across borders, one partner meeting the other's costs, property or savings held together, each other as beneficiaries. Household: the household you keep when together, the household you plan, the lease or purchase for the reunion, and the domestic life conducted apart, each knowing the other's daily routine. Social: the families and friends who know you as a couple on both sides, the trips taken together, the events attended, the names on invitations. Commitment: the duration, the visits and their frequency, the communication and its continuity, the plans with dates, the wills and the emergency contacts, and what each of you has given up or changed to be together. The evidence checklist lists the usual documents; a couple apart substitutes where they must and explains where they cannot.

The statements

Each partner writes a statement of the relationship, and for a couple apart the statement carries the explanation the documents cannot: how you met, how the relationship developed, why you are apart, how the relationship is conducted at a distance, what you have done to be together, and the plan to live together with its dates. The two statements are written separately, are consistent without being identical, and are honest about the time spent apart and the reasons. A statement that minimises the separation, or that describes a shared life the evidence does not show, is the thing the interview tests, and the interview guide sets out how.

What the Department looks at

• A marriage shortly before an application, after brief acquaintance, especially where the sponsor has sponsored before.
• Few visits, short visits, or visits that stopped.
• Communication that is heavy around the application and thin before it.
• No financial interdependence of any kind.
• Families on one or both sides who do not know, or who oppose, the relationship, without an explanation.
• A large age gap, a language barrier, or a cultural distance, where the file does not explain how the relationship is conducted.
• A separation with no plan to end it and no steps taken.

None of these is a refusal ground. Each is a question the file has to answer before it is asked.

Which visa, from where

The applicant's location at lodgement decides the subclass: the 309 and 100 from outside Australia, the 820 and 801 from inside. A couple apart across a border usually applies for the 309, with the applicant remaining outside Australia at grant and visiting in between on a visitor visa where one is granted; the 309 guide covers it. A couple apart within Australia, the applicant on a temporary visa in one city and the sponsor in another, applies for the 820 on the same evidence, with the bridging visa keeping the applicant lawful. A couple where the applicant could travel to Australia and lodge onshore considers whether the visitor visa carries a no-further-stay condition before relying on that route.

The order to apply in

1. Decide married or de facto. A couple who can marry before applying remove the twelve-month question; a marriage arranged for that purpose alone is examined for genuineness like any other.
2. If de facto, choose the twelve-month route: cohabitation evidence, registration, or compelling circumstances, and get the registration done if it is available.
3. Build the evidence of the relationship at a distance across the four aspects, and write the two statements with the explanation.
4. Decide which subclass by where the applicant will be at lodgement and at grant.
5. Lodge, and keep the relationship evidence running through processing, because the Department assesses the relationship at decision as well as at application.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Sections 5F and 5CB of the Migration Act 1958, regulations 1.09A, 1.15A and 2.03A of the Migration Regulations 1994, and the partner visa criteria in Schedule 2, as in force at the date above. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.