The second stage of the partner visa: when the permanent 801 or 100 is decided, the evidence asked for again, the couple who separated and the three exceptions

MARN 1576536

One application, two decisions

An application for a partner visa in Australia is an application for the temporary 820 and the permanent 801 together, and an application outside Australia is for the 309 and the 100 together; one charge, one form, two visas, decided at two times. The temporary visa is granted first, on the relationship as it was at the time of the first decision, and the permanent visa is decided later, on the relationship as it is at the time of the second decision, which the regulations set at not less than two years after the application was made, except for the long-term relationships that are granted both at once. The second decision is a decision: the Department assesses the criteria afresh, including that the applicant is the spouse or de facto partner of the sponsor, that the relationship is genuine and continuing, that the sponsorship continues, and that health and character are met, and it refuses where they are not. The partner visa guide covers the application as a whole.

When the second stage is assessed

The two years run from the date the original application was lodged, not from the grant of the temporary visa, so that an applicant whose 820 took eighteen months to grant is assessed for the 801 six months after that grant, and an applicant whose 820 took three years is assessed for the 801 at the grant or soon after. The Department's practice is to write to the applicant around the two-year mark, in ImmiAccount and by email, inviting the second-stage evidence, with a period to provide it; an applicant who has moved, changed email or changed agent without telling the Department does not receive the invitation, and the Department decides without it. The second stage is processed in its own queue, with its own published times, which have run from months to more than a year, and the applicant holds the temporary visa with its rights throughout. An applicant can provide the second-stage evidence before the invitation, through the form for it, once the two years have passed.

The long-term relationship granted at once

An applicant who, at the time of the original application, had been in the relationship with the sponsor for at least three years, or for at least two years with a dependent child of the relationship, is a long-term partner relationship applicant, and the Department may grant the permanent visa at the same time as the temporary one, without a second stage; the evidence of the relationship's length is in the original application, and the Department decides whether to grant both on the strength of it. A couple who married three years before applying, or who lived together for three years, ask for the long-term treatment in the application and provide the evidence of the duration, and the Department grants the 801 with the 820 in most such cases, which saves the two-year wait and the second assessment. A couple whose relationship reaches three years after the application was lodged do not qualify for the treatment, since the length is tested at application.

What the second stage asks for

• The applicant's second-stage form, with the current address, the relationship status and the changes since the first stage.
• The sponsor's renewed sponsorship statement, confirming the relationship and the sponsorship.
• Statutory declarations by the applicant and the sponsor on the relationship over the two years, and by two Australian citizens or permanent residents who know the couple.
• The financial aspect: joint accounts, shared bills, insurance, loans, the way money is pooled or shared, over the two years.
• The household aspect: the lease or mortgage in both names, the address history, utilities, the division of domestic life.
• The social aspect: travel together, events, photographs across the period, family and friends' statements.
• The commitment aspect: wills, superannuation nominations, plans, children, the length and the future.
• Police certificates where the Department requests them, which it does where the first-stage certificates are old or where there is reason.

The second stage is assessed on the two years since the application, and a couple whose evidence stops at the first stage, who send the same documents again, or who send a statutory declaration and nothing else are examined; the Department's position is that a continuing relationship generates evidence continuously. The separate finances guide covers the couple whose money is not pooled.

Living apart at stage two

A couple living apart at the second stage, for a job in another city, a posting abroad, a family member's illness, study, or a child's schooling, are in a genuine and continuing relationship if the evidence shows that the relationship continues across the distance: the explanation of why and since when, the contact, the visits with the travel records, the shared finances continuing, the plans to resume living together, and the statements of the people who know them. The Department does not require cohabitation for a married couple, and for a de facto couple it accepts separation for reasons that do not end the relationship, and the second-stage statements say what the reason is rather than leaving the address history to raise it. A couple who have separated and call it living apart for work are found out in the finances, the contact and the statements of others. The long-distance guide covers the evidence.

The couple who separated

The permanent visa requires the applicant to be the spouse or de facto partner of the sponsor at the time of decision, in a genuine and continuing relationship, and a relationship that has ended does not meet it; the Department refuses the permanent visa, the temporary visa ceases when the refusal takes effect, and the applicant is left with the options the relationship breakdown guide sets out, which are a visa in their own right applied for before the temporary visa ends, review of the refusal where an exception is arguable, or departure. The applicant must tell the Department that the relationship has ended, as a change of circumstances, and the sponsor commonly does so first; an applicant who continues to claim a relationship that has ended, and whose sponsor says otherwise, has a PIC 4020 problem as well as a refusal. A separation after the permanent visa is granted has no effect on it. The breakdown guide covers what follows.

The three exceptions

1. The sponsor has died: the permanent visa can be granted where the sponsor died after the application and the Department is satisfied the relationship would have continued had the sponsor not died, and that the applicant has developed close business, cultural or personal ties in Australia; the death certificate and the relationship evidence to the death are the application, and the death guide covers it.
2. A child of the relationship: where the relationship has ended and there is a child of it, the permanent visa can be granted where the applicant and the sponsor have a court order or a formal agreement about parental responsibility for the child, or the sponsor has an obligation under a court order or a child support assessment to support the child; the child's birth certificate, the order or the registered agreement, or the child support assessment, are the evidence, and an informal arrangement between the former partners is not enough.
3. Family violence: where the relationship has ended and the applicant, or a dependent child or family member, suffered family violence committed by the sponsor, the permanent visa can be granted on the evidence the regulations specify, a court order, a conviction, or the combination of a statutory declaration and evidence from the professionals the instrument lists, with an independent expert's assessment where the Department requires it; the family violence guide sets out the evidence.

An applicant relying on an exception tells the Department the relationship has ended and that the exception is claimed, with the evidence, and the Department decides the permanent visa on it without the sponsor's participation.

Separated and reconciled

A couple who separated during the two years and are together again at the second stage are in a genuine and continuing relationship if they are, and the second-stage statements say so: the separation, its dates, its reasons, the reconciliation and the life since, with the evidence of the relationship resuming in the finances, the household and the statements of others. The Department does not refuse a couple for having separated, and it examines a couple who hide a separation the address history reveals; honesty about the break and the evidence of the resumption are what the second stage wants. A couple who separated, where the sponsor told the Department the relationship had ended, and who then reconciled, write to the Department together with the correction, and the earlier notification is on the file to be explained.

The sponsor who will not sign

The second stage requires the sponsor's continued sponsorship, and a sponsor who refuses to complete the statement while the relationship continues, as leverage in an argument or to control the applicant, leaves the Department to decide on the applicant's evidence; the applicant provides the evidence of the continuing relationship and tells the Department in the statement that the sponsor has declined to complete the form and why, and the Department writes to the sponsor. Withholding the form, threatening to withdraw the sponsorship and threatening the applicant's visa are conduct that the family violence provisions can treat as family violence where they are part of a pattern of control, and an applicant in that position reads the family violence guide with the consultation. A sponsor who refuses because the relationship has ended puts the applicant in the separated position.

Ignoring the invitation

An applicant who does not respond to the second-stage invitation, because it went to an old email, because the couple assumed the permanent visa was automatic, or because the relationship had ended and the applicant hoped not to be asked, has the permanent visa decided on the file as it stands, which with no second-stage evidence is a refusal; the temporary visa ceases on the refusal, the applicant is unlawful unless another visa or a bridging visa is held, and the refusal is reviewable at the Tribunal within the period, where the evidence can be provided. The Department's letters go to the authorised recipient and the email on the file, and an applicant who has changed either tells the Department before the two-year mark. An applicant who misses the invitation and realises before the decision provides the evidence at once with an explanation, and the Department accepts late evidence before it decides.

The refusal and its review

A refusal of the permanent visa to an applicant in Australia is reviewable at the Tribunal within the period on the notice, and the Tribunal decides the criteria afresh at the time of its decision: a relationship that is continuing at the hearing, on evidence the Department did not have, is granted; an exception that was arguable and not argued can be argued; and a relationship that has ended with no exception is refused again. An applicant outside Australia refused the 100 has review through the sponsor in the usual way. The temporary visa continues through the review by the bridging visa the applicant held or is granted, and the applicant stays lawfully until the Tribunal decides. The partner refusal guide covers the review.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The subclass 801 and 100 criteria in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, including the time-of-decision relationship criterion, the long-term partner relationship provisions, and the exceptions on the death of the sponsor, a child of the relationship and family violence, regulation 1.23 and the family violence evidence instrument, and section 104 of the Migration Act 1958, as in force at the date above; the Department’s processing of second-stage applications is a matter of its practice and the current published times govern. 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.