When the sponsor or the applicant dies during a visa application: the partner provisions, parent visas, and dependants

MARN 1576536

Partner visa: the death-of-sponsor provision

The partner visa criteria require, at each stage, that the applicant is the spouse or de facto partner of the sponsor, and a sponsor who has died is no longer anyone's partner. The regulations meet the case directly: an applicant is taken to meet the relationship criterion where the sponsor has died, the Department is satisfied that the applicant would have continued to be the sponsor's spouse or de facto partner had the sponsor not died, and the applicant has developed close business, cultural or personal ties in Australia. The provision sits alongside the family violence and child-of-the-relationship provisions as one of the three ways a partner visa continues without the relationship, and like them it is applied on evidence. The family violence guide and the relationship breakdown guide cover the others.

The relationship would have continued

The first limb asks the Department to find that the relationship was genuine and continuing up to the death and would have gone on. The evidence is the evidence of the relationship as it was, which for an application already lodged is largely on file: the shared household, the finances, the social life, the commitment, up to the date of death, supplemented by the circumstances of the death itself, the applicant's role in the illness or the aftermath, the funeral, the will, the sponsor's family's statements. A couple who had separated before the death do not meet the limb; a couple apart because one was in hospital do. The Department reads the file for the last period before the death with particular care, and an applicant whose evidence stops a year earlier updates it.

Close ties to Australia

The second limb asks whether the applicant has developed close business, cultural or personal ties in Australia, and the Department reads the three words generously: employment, a business, a profession practised here; children at school or born here, the sponsor's family who treat the applicant as their own, friendships, a church or a community, a sporting club, volunteering; a home owned or leased, possessions, a car, the ordinary roots of a life. The ties are the applicant's own, not the sponsor's, and they are measured at the time of decision, so an applicant who had been here a short time at the death and has since built a life can meet the limb by the time the Department decides. Statements from employers, friends and the sponsor's family, with the documents of the life, are the evidence, and the consultation lists them for the applicant's circumstances.

Before the temporary stage, and before the permanent stage

The provision applies where the sponsor dies before the temporary visa, the 820 or 309, is granted, and the applicant is granted both the temporary and, in due course, the permanent visa on it. It also applies where the sponsor dies after the temporary visa was granted and before the permanent 801 or 100, which is the commoner case because the two-year wait is where most deaths fall; the applicant notifies the Department, provides the evidence at the permanent stage, and is granted the permanent visa. An applicant for the 309 whose sponsor dies before they have entered Australia has a harder case on the ties limb, because the ties are to Australia, and some of those cases are met by the applicant's entry on a visitor visa and the ties that follow. The 820/801 guide sets out the two stages.

The prospective marriage visa

The 300 is granted to marry, and the 820 that follows it requires the marriage to have taken place; the death-of-sponsor provision is a partner visa provision and the 300 holder was never a partner for the regulations' purposes unless the couple had also become de facto partners before the death, which a couple who had lived together for twelve months may have. For most, a fiancé's death before the wedding leaves the 300 with no onward visa, and the routes are the ones open to anyone on a temporary visa: a visa in their own right, or departure before the 300 ends, with the exclusion periods avoided. The position is examined for the de facto possibility first, because it is the one route that keeps the application alive. The 300 guide covers the visa.

Parent visas

A parent visa application is made by one parent as the primary applicant with the other included as a secondary applicant, and the primary applicant's death removes the person the application was assessed against. The secondary applicant can continue only if they satisfy the primary applicant criteria themselves, and the criteria that bite are the ones assessed at the time of application: for the aged parent visas, having been of pension age when the application was lodged; for all of them, the balance of family test, a settled sponsor, and the health and character requirements. Families who lodged with the younger parent as the primary applicant, and lost the older parent in the queue, have been refused on exactly this point after years of waiting, and the choice of primary applicant at lodgement is made with it in mind. The sponsor's death, where the sponsoring child dies, leaves the application needing a new sponsor, which another child can provide. The parent visa guide sets out the criteria.

Dependants whose primary applicant has died

A partner and children included in a skilled, employer-sponsored or student application are included as members of the primary applicant's family unit, and their criteria are that they are members of the family unit of a person who meets the primary criteria. When the primary applicant dies there is no such person, and the application cannot be granted to the family members; the Department notifies them and finalises the application. Each then considers a visa in their own right. A partner with a skilled occupation looks at the points-tested or employer-sponsored visas on their own account; a partner who has since formed a relationship with an Australian looks at a partner visa; a family with Australian-born children looks at whatever the children's position supports. The bridging visa continues until the application is finalised and then for the period after, and the time is used to lodge the next application. The family unit guide explains the structure.

An applicant who dies

An application by a person who has died cannot be granted, and the Department finalises it on being told. The application charge is generally not refunded, though the Department has a discretion for applications that could not proceed through no fault of the applicant and a request can be made. Family members included in the application are in the position above. A sponsor whose sponsored partner has died has no sponsorship on foot and the sponsorship limitations that would have applied to a later sponsorship, the five-year rule, are read against the circumstances. The Department's correspondence continues to the address on file until it is told, so telling it is an early step even where nothing else can be done.

Notifying the Department, and the bridging visa

The death is a change in circumstances that the applicant must notify, with the death certificate, through ImmiAccount or in writing, and the obligation is to notify within a reasonable time rather than immediately; a few weeks is not a breach. For a partner visa applicant, the notification is made with, or followed by, the submission that the death-of-sponsor provision applies, and the evidence of the relationship up to the death and of the ties. The bridging visa the applicant holds continues on the same terms; the application is still pending. The applicant does not need to lodge anything new, and should not withdraw, because the provision operates within the existing application. The change of circumstances guide covers the mechanics.

The first weeks

1. Obtain the death certificate, which every step needs.
2. Identify the application and the stage: partner temporary or permanent, prospective marriage, parent, or a family included in a skilled or sponsored application.
3. For a partner visa, gather the evidence of the relationship up to the death and start the list of ties.
4. Notify the Department within a reasonable time, with the certificate and, for a partner visa, the submission.
5. Keep the bridging visa's conditions, keep working if the visa allows, and keep the address current.
6. Where the application cannot continue, identify the visa in your own right and the date by which it must be lodged.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The death-of-sponsor provisions in the criteria for subclasses 820, 801, 309 and 100 in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, the primary and secondary applicant criteria of the parent and skilled visas, and section 104 of the Migration Act 1958 (notification of changes in circumstances), 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.