Sponsoring a partner visa on a low income, on Centrelink or unemployed: no income test, the undertaking, and what actually changes

MARN 1576536

The rule

The criteria for a partner visa sponsor are that the sponsor is the applicant's spouse or de facto partner, is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, is 18 or over, provides a police certificate and meets the character requirements for sponsors, and is not caught by the sponsorship limitations. There is no criterion about income, employment, assets or receipt of government payments. A sponsor who has never worked, who is on a payment, or who is supported by their own family meets the sponsor criteria exactly as a sponsor on a high salary does. The applicant's criteria are about the relationship, health and character, and likewise say nothing about the sponsor's means. The sponsor requirements guide lists the criteria in full.

What the sponsor undertakes

The sponsorship form contains an undertaking: that the sponsor will provide the applicant, and any dependants included, with adequate accommodation and financial assistance as required to meet their reasonable living needs, and with information and advice to help them settle, for the two years from the grant of the temporary visa or from the applicant's first entry on it. The undertaking is signed, not assessed; the Department does not ask the sponsor to show they can afford it, and does not refuse a sponsorship because the sponsor's income looks thin. It is a statement of responsibility within the couple, and a sponsor on a low income who will share their home and their resources is making it truthfully. It is not enforced by the Department as a debt, and a sponsor who later cannot support the applicant is not pursued for it by Home Affairs.

The Assurance of Support

An Assurance of Support is a legal commitment by a person, who may be the sponsor or a third party, to repay to the Commonwealth certain social security payments made to the visa holder during a period, backed by a bank guarantee; it is mandatory for the parent visas and some other family visas, and for the partner visas it is discretionary, requested where the Department considers the applicant likely to rely on social security. The Department's practice is not to request one for partner visa applicants in the ordinary course, and a sponsor's receipt of a payment does not by itself make a case unusual, because the applicant is in any event excluded from most payments for years. Where one is requested, it can be given by a relative or friend who meets the assurer's income test, and it is a bond rather than a refusal. The sponsored parent visas, by contrast, test the sponsor's income directly, and the 870 guide shows what an income test looks like when a visa has one.

What is actually assessed

The Department assesses the relationship, and one of the four aspects it considers is the financial aspect: how the couple manage money together, whether they share expenses, pool resources, hold joint liabilities, or support each other. A couple where the sponsor is on a payment and the applicant works, or where both are on low incomes and share a rented flat, show the financial aspect by the sharing as it is, which is the ordinary evidence of a genuine relationship; the amount involved is irrelevant. What the Department reads for is whether the finances are shared in some way that fits the couple's circumstances, and a couple who explain that the sponsor's pension pays the rent and the applicant's wages pay the rest have answered the question. The financial aspect guide sets out the evidence.

The applicant's own payments and Medicare

The applicant's access to government payments is governed by social security law, not by the visa, and it is restrictive: most payments require the person to be an Australian resident for social security purposes, which means a citizen or a permanent visa holder, and then to have served a newly arrived resident's waiting period, counted from the grant of the permanent visa, that runs for years. An applicant on the bridging visa or the temporary partner visa is not eligible for JobSeeker or the pension; some family payments, where the couple have children, and some supplements have their own rules. Medicare is different: an applicant in Australia on a bridging visa A with a pending partner application is eligible to enrol, and a 309 holder is eligible on arrival, so health care is covered while payments are not. The plan for the first years therefore assumes the applicant works, which the bridging visa and both partner visas permit without restriction. The bridging visa A guide and the Medicare guide cover the detail.

The sponsor's own payment

Services Australia assesses a person who lives with a partner as a member of a couple, and the couple rate and the partner's income and assets then apply, whether or not the partner is a citizen and whether or not the partner is eligible for anything themselves. A sponsor on JobSeeker whose partner arrives and starts work is reassessed on the partner's income from the date they live together, and the payment reduces or stops as the partner's earnings rise; a sponsor on the Disability Support Pension or the age pension is likewise assessed on the couple's combined position. The sponsor tells Services Australia of the change when the partner moves in, because an overpayment discovered later is recovered. None of this affects the visa; it is the social security consequence of being a couple, and it is the same for a couple who are both citizens.

A sponsor who was sponsored

The sponsorship limitations are the criteria that do refuse sponsors, and they have nothing to do with money: a person who has sponsored two partners before, who sponsored a partner within the last five years, or who was themselves sponsored as a partner within the last five years, cannot sponsor without compelling circumstances, and a person with convictions for certain offences cannot sponsor at all. A sponsor on a low income who is within the limitations is refused for the limitation, and a sponsor on a high income in the same position is refused equally. The consultation reads the sponsor's history against them before anything else.

Where income does matter

• The Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa 870, where the sponsoring child's household must meet an income test and the sponsor undertakes to meet the parent's health and other public debts.
• The permanent parent visas, where a mandatory Assurance of Support requires the assurer to meet an income test and lodge a bond.
• The remaining relative, carer and aged dependent relative visas, which carry a mandatory assurance.
• Employer sponsorship, where the sponsor is a business that must pay a salary at the market rate.

The partner visa is not on the list, and the applicants who worry most about it are usually the ones with the least to worry about.

Planning the first two years

1. Confirm the sponsor meets the actual criteria: status, age, character, and the limitations.
2. Assemble the relationship evidence across the four aspects, with the finances shown as they are.
3. Plan on the applicant's own work from the bridging visa or arrival, and on no main payments until years after permanent residence.
4. Tell Services Australia when the couple begin living together, and expect the sponsor's payment to be reassessed.
5. Keep the undertaking in mind as what it is: the couple's commitment to each other for two years, which they were making anyway.

Book a consultation — $330 inc. GST, credited

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Division 1.4B and regulation 1.20 of the Migration Regulations 1994 (partner sponsorship), the assurance of support provisions in Chapter 2C of the Social Security Act 1991 and the regulations that specify when an assurance is required, and the residence and waiting period rules of the Social Security Act 1991, as in force at the date above. Payment eligibility and rates are matters for Services Australia; WIDEN advises on the visa. 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.