Partner visas · Relationship registration
Registering Your Relationship for a Partner Visa
The de facto partner visa usually needs twelve months of living together before the application. A relationship registered under a state or territory law is an exception: it lets a couple apply sooner. It is useful, it is quick, and it is often misunderstood, because registration replaces the twelve-month requirement and nothing else.
By Keshab Chapagain, registered migration agent (MARN 1576536) since 2015 · WIDEN, Sydney · Reviewed October 2026
Keshab Chapagain · MARN 1576536 · Registered since 2015 - Replaces
- The 12-month de facto requirement
- Does not replace
- Evidence of a genuine relationship
- No register
- WA and NT
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About the CPD →MARN 1576536
Thinking of registering to apply sooner? Get the sequence right first.
In the consultation, with your partner on the call, I check whether registration helps your timing, what evidence you need beside it, and which partner visa and lodgement point fit your current visa.
What it costs. $220 inc. GST for 30 minutes by video with Keshab Chapagain (MARN 1576536), credited in full against our professional fee if you engage WIDEN. Advice confirmed in writing after the call. There is no free consultation or free assessment.
What registration does
For a de facto partner visa, the couple must generally have been in the relationship and living together for at least twelve months before the application. If the relationship is registered under a prescribed state or territory law, that twelve-month requirement does not apply, and the couple can apply once the relationship is registered and otherwise genuine.
Which states have a register
New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory have relationship registers. Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not. Each register has its own conditions (commonly that at least one partner lives in that state, that neither is married or in another registered relationship, and in some states a short cooling-off period before registration takes effect) and its own fee and processing time; check the register in your state before relying on a date.
What it does not do
- It does not prove the relationship is genuine and continuing. The application still needs evidence across the four aspects: financial, household, social and commitment. See the evidence checklist.
- It does not fix a status problem: an applicant without a substantive visa still faces Schedule 3.
- It does not lift a "no further stay" condition on the applicant's current visa.
- It does not shorten processing of the partner visa itself.
Timing with other visas
For a partner on a working holiday or other temporary visa with time running out, registration can be the difference between lodging an onshore partner visa before the current visa ends (and holding a bridging visa) and having to leave. The register's own processing time has to be counted into that plan.
General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. 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.
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Questions we get asked first
Do we need to live together for 12 months for a partner visa?
For a de facto partner visa, generally yes, unless your relationship is registered on a state or territory register, in which case that requirement does not apply.
Which states let you register a relationship?
NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT. Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not have registers.
Is registration enough evidence on its own?
No. You still need evidence that the relationship is genuine and continuing across financial, household, social and commitment aspects.
How long does registration take?
It depends on the register; some have a cooling-off period before the registration takes effect. Check before relying on a date.
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