Straight answers, before you book.

A lawyer reviews your relationship timeline, both visa histories and any earlier applications, identifies the right subclass, flags the risks and tells you honestly whether the file is ready. You leave with the pathway, the costs and the next steps. If we do not think an application will succeed yet, we say so in that meeting.

We work on fixed professional fees agreed in writing before any work starts, covering both stages of the partner visa. Government charges are separate and paid to the Department of Home Affairs. See the fees and process page for every current charge.

Yes. We are based on St Kilda Road but act for couples across Australia and overseas. Consultations are available in person, by phone or by video, booked in your time zone, with both partners welcome on the call.

Lawyers. The Partner Visa Lawyers is a website of Skyline Migration Lawyers, a registered Australian legal practice. That means legal professional privilege over what you tell us, regulation by the Victorian Legal Services Board, and lawyers who can appear at the Administrative Review Tribunal if a matter goes that far.

Where the applicant is on the day of lodgement decides it. In Australia on a valid visa without a no further stay condition, the onshore 820/801. Outside Australia, the offshore 309/100. Engaged and not yet married, the Prospective Marriage 300 from offshore. The charge is $11,710 for the partner visas and $11,710 for the 300, as at 1 July 2026.

Often, if the visitor visa does not carry condition 8503, no further stay. Check VEVO first. Lodging while the visitor visa is in force means a bridging visa A follows with work rights. A visitor visa granted with 8503 blocks the onshore application unless the condition is waived.

Either. Marry first, anywhere the marriage is valid under Australian law, and apply for a partner visa. Or lodge the 300 from offshore, enter, marry within the visa period, and apply for the 820 at the reduced charge of $1,955. The choice turns on where you each are and how soon you want to be together in Australia.

The government charge is $11,710 for the main applicant as at 1 July 2026, covering both stages. Adult dependants are $5,860 and children $2,935. Health, police certificates and translations are paid to third parties. Our professional fee is fixed and quoted in writing after the consultation.

A de facto couple normally needs twelve months of the relationship, not just twelve months of knowing each other, before lodgement. Registering the relationship under a state scheme, which Victoria allows, removes that requirement. Married couples have no minimum period.

You must be in a genuine and continuing relationship, sharing a life to the exclusion of others, and not living separately and apart on a permanent basis. Couples kept apart by work, visas or family can succeed with clear evidence of the reason and of ongoing commitment.

Through Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria. At least one of you must live in Victoria, neither can be married or in another registered relationship, and there is a 28 day waiting period after lodging the application. The certificate removes the twelve month rule for the partner visa.

The Department assesses your relationship across four areas: financial, household, social and commitment. Genuine couples are refused every year because their evidence was thin or badly organised. We build the file across all four pillars, dated across the whole relationship, before lodgement.

A statutory declaration by an Australian citizen or permanent resident who knows you as a couple. Two are expected, more are useful. We give your witnesses a structure so each declaration says something specific about what they have seen, not that you are a lovely couple.

Some, with dates, places and the names of the people in them. Photographs support the social pillar but they are the weakest evidence on their own. Bank statements, leases, mail and consistent personal statements carry more weight.

An Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen aged 18 or over. The sponsor lodges their own sponsorship application, provides police certificates and gives support undertakings. Sponsors who were themselves sponsored as a partner in the last five years need a waiver.

Usually only two partner or fiancé sponsorships in a lifetime, at least five years apart. Waivers exist for compelling circumstances, such as a previous partner who has died or a child of the new relationship, and they are argued with evidence.

Yes. The sponsor provides Australian and overseas police certificates. Convictions for violent, sexual or child-related offences can lead the Department to refuse the sponsorship unless there are compelling reasons, and the applicant is told what the certificate shows.

Most partner visa refusals made in Australia can be reviewed at the Administrative Review Tribunal, and offshore refusals can be reviewed by the sponsor. Strict deadlines start from the moment the decision is notified, often 21 days and for character decisions 9 days. Call the day the decision arrives.

The Administrative Review Tribunal application fee for a migration decision is $3,727, reduced by half in financial hardship, and part of it is refunded if the decision is set aside. Our professional fee for the review is fixed and quoted in writing.

Public Interest Criterion 4020 lets the Department refuse a visa where false or misleading information or a bogus document was given in this or a recent application, and bars further visas for three years. An earlier application that told a different story is the usual trigger. It is addressed head-on in a submission, not left to chance.