Marrying on a prospective marriage visa: condition 8515, the wedding before first entry that breaches it, the visa’s period and the wedding date, and when the partner visa is the right application instead

MARN 1576536

What the 300 is for

The prospective marriage visa, subclass 300, is a temporary visa for a person outside Australia who intends to marry an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, who has met the sponsor in person as adults, and whose marriage is intended to take place within the visa's period and to be valid under Australian law; it is granted for a period of between nine and fifteen months, permits the holder to enter, live and work in Australia, and exists so that the couple can marry in Australia and the holder can then apply for the partner visa onshore. It is the visa for a couple who are engaged and not yet married, and it is not the visa for a couple who are married, who are living together as de facto partners, or who intend to marry abroad before the move; those couples apply for the partner visa. The 300 guide covers the criteria and the sponsor, and the limitations guide the sponsorship limits that apply to a fiancé sponsorship as to any other.

Condition 8515

Condition 8515, imposed on every prospective marriage visa, provides that the holder must not marry or enter into a de facto relationship before entering Australia; the Department reads it as applying to the period between the grant and the holder's first entry on the visa, and as catching a legal marriage anywhere in the world and a de facto relationship begun in that period. The condition exists because the visa is for a person who will marry after arriving, and a person who is already married or already a de facto partner at entry is a partner visa applicant, assessed on the different and stricter criteria of a genuine and continuing relationship. A breach is a ground for cancellation under section 116, and a holder who enters Australia already married has entered on a visa whose condition has been breached, which the Department can act on when the 820 application discloses the marriage date. The condition does not prevent marriage after the first entry, in Australia or abroad on a later trip inside the visa's period, and it does not prevent an engagement, a religious or cultural ceremony that does not create a legal marriage, or a celebration, provided no legal marriage results.

The wedding abroad before first entry

The commonest breach is the couple who, with the 300 granted, hold the wedding in the applicant's country so that the family can attend, and then travel to Australia married: the legal marriage before first entry breaches condition 8515, the 820 application that follows discloses a marriage date before the entry date, and the Department can cancel the 300, refuse the 820 on the ground that the holder breached a condition, or, in practice, examine the case and sometimes grant the 820 where the couple did not know and the relationship is plainly genuine, with the breach noted. A couple who want the legal wedding abroad with the family present have two lawful ways: hold a ceremony that is not a legal marriage, with the legal marriage after entry; or marry legally abroad and apply for the partner visa, the 309, instead of the 300, which takes longer and is the visa for a married couple. A couple who hold the wedding abroad after the first entry, on a trip home during the visa's period, have not breached the condition, and the marriage abroad is recognised in Australia if valid where it took place. The long-distance guide covers the relationship evidence for a couple apart.

Marrying after lodgement and before grant

A couple who marry while the 300 application is pending have made the 300 ungrantable, because its criteria require that the applicant intends to marry the sponsor and that the marriage has not yet taken place; the Department, told of the marriage, refuses the 300 or invites the applicant to withdraw it, and the couple lodge the 309 partner visa with the marriage certificate, paying the partner visa charge, with the 300's charge not refunded for a withdrawal in the ordinary case. The Department has in some periods allowed a 300 applicant who married before decision to have the application treated as a 309 application without a new charge, under a specific provision for that case, and the consultation checks whether the provision is in force before the couple withdraw anything; where it is, the couple tell the Department of the marriage and ask for the application to be dealt with under it. A couple who are about to marry before the 300 is decided wait for the grant where they can, because the 300 is often faster than the 309.

The visa's period and the wedding date

The 300 is granted for a period the Department sets between nine and fifteen months from the date of grant, stated on the grant letter, within which the holder must first enter Australia, marry the sponsor, and, to stay, apply for the 820 partner visa in Australia; the visa's conditions include that the holder marry within the period, and the Department reads the period strictly. A couple who book the wedding read the grant letter first, because the fifteen months is not guaranteed and a nine-month grant with a wedding booked for the eleventh month is a wedding after the visa. The sequence that works is first entry as soon as practicable after grant, the wedding with months to spare, and the 820 lodged within weeks of the wedding with the certificate, leaving the 300 to run out while the bridging visa takes over. Travel in and out during the period is permitted, and the holder who returns home for a wedding there after the first entry does so inside the period.

The visa expiring before the wedding

The 300 is not extended, no further 300 can be applied for in Australia, and a holder whose visa expires before the wedding has no visa unless another is applied for before the expiry; the Department does not grant more time for a venue, a family member's travel, a religious date or a pandemic, though it did make specific concessions in 2020 and 2021 that have since ended. A couple whose wedding cannot happen inside the period have the choices below: marry earlier at a registry; apply for the 820 as de facto partners before the expiry, where the couple have been living together and the relationship meets the de facto criteria, which condition 8515 does not prevent once the holder has entered; or leave at the expiry, marry abroad, and apply for the 309. A visitor visa applied for in Australia before the 300 expires may be granted but carries the no further stay condition in most grants, which prevents the 820 being lodged on it, and a visitor visa is not a route to the partner visa.

The registry ceremony and the celebration

The 820 needs a legal marriage, evidenced by the certificate from the state registry, and not a wedding in the sense the family means; a couple whose celebration is booked for a date after the visa's period, or who want time to plan it, marry at a registry office or before a celebrant with two witnesses inside the period, lodge the 820 on that certificate, and hold the celebration when they like. The notice of intended marriage must be lodged with the celebrant at least a month before the ceremony under Australian marriage law, with a shortening available in limited circumstances, so the registry date is planned at least five weeks ahead and inside the period. A religious ceremony in Australia is a legal marriage where the officiant is an authorised celebrant and the notice was given, and a religious ceremony without those is a celebration only.

After the wedding: the 820

The holder applies in Australia for the partner visa, the 820 and 801 combined, before the 300 expires, with the marriage certificate, the sponsorship by the same sponsor, and the relationship evidence across the four aspects as for any partner application; a bridging visa A is granted and takes effect when the 300 ends, with full work rights. The 820 application by a 300 holder is assessed on the relationship as it is, and a couple married weeks ago with little shared history are examined on the history before the 300, the 300 application's own evidence, and the life since arrival; the Department does not require two years of relationship for an 820 lodged by a 300 holder, since the 300 itself was the Department's acceptance of the relationship's genuineness. The 801 follows two years from the 820 application in the usual way. The partner visa guide covers the application.

The couple who change their minds

A holder who no longer intends to marry the sponsor has a visa whose basis has ended, and the Department can cancel it under section 116 on the ground that the circumstances that permitted the grant no longer exist; the holder tells the Department, and either applies for another visa before the 300 ends, a student, skilled or sponsored visa in their own right, or leaves at the expiry. A holder who stays on the 300 with no intention to marry, works, and lets it run out is a holder whose later applications disclose a visa used for a purpose it was not granted for. A sponsor who withdraws the sponsorship tells the Department, and the holder's position is the same. A couple who remain together without marrying, living as de facto partners, can apply for the 820 on that basis where the relationship meets the de facto criteria, which the condition does not prevent after first entry. A holder who marries a different Australian has the new relationship assessed on its own in a fresh partner application, with the 300's history disclosed.

When the partner visa is the right application

• The couple want a legal wedding in the applicant's country, with the family, before the move: marry, then the 309.
• The couple are already living together as de facto partners for the period the criteria require: the 309 or, if the applicant is in Australia on a visa that permits it, the 820.
• The couple are already married: the 309 or 820.
• The 300 was lodged and the couple married before decision: the 309, or the treatment of the 300 under the provision where in force.
• The couple cannot be sure of marrying inside nine months: the 300 is risky, and a marriage followed by the 309 is safer.

The 300 is the right visa for the couple who are engaged, who will marry in Australia or on a trip after the first entry, and who want the applicant in Australia sooner than the 309 allows; the arranged marriage guide covers the genuineness questions the 300 draws, and the conditions guide every condition on the grant.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The subclass 300 criteria in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, conditions 8515 and 8519 in Schedule 8, section 116 of the Migration Act 1958, the subclass 820 criteria for a holder of a subclass 300 visa, and the Marriage Act 1961 on notice of intended marriage, as in force at the date above; the Department’s practice on a 300 applicant who marries before decision and on breaches of condition 8515 is a matter of its policy and the current position governs. 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.