Types and categories of Australian Partner Visa

Many people confuse Australian Partner Visa. How it's work and so on. Usually when you have an overseas partner and sometimes there is some miscommunication about this. Usually, when you have a language barrier, that will even make things harder.


Australian Partner Visa is for the couple who shared mutual life and commitment. Be it, same-sex or opposite sex. 

Australian Partner Visa, there are 2 ways to approach this:

• Partner Visa by marriage, and
• Partner Visa by de facto relationship.

Here is some important information that I really want everyone to know. Usually when the sponsor needs to sponsor your love one from overseas.

Partner Visa by marriage:

This is very straight forward. The name said it all; Partner Visa by marriage. That means one can sponsor his or her marriage spouse to Australia under this category. As long as the couple is married couple and the marriage has been recognized by the Australian government.

Please note that the Australian government does not recognize:

• same sex marriage
• incest marriage
• polygamy marriage.

The marriage needs to be recognized by the Australian government. Please also note that you need to register your marriage in just 1 country. If you marriage overseas, you don't need to re-register your marriage in Australia. 

Partner Visa by de facto relationship:

People can share a mutual commitment and life without marriage. That is just a personal choice or some time it is circumstances that they are facing, for example, same sex couple cannot legally marry in Australia.

The couple who can demonstrate that they have shared mutual commitment and shared life together for more than 12 months. That is considered a "de facto" couple from an immigration perspective. This is applied for both same sex couple and opposite sex couple.

For some couple who have shared mutual commitment and shared life together but less than 12 months, they still can apply for Partner Visa under de facto relationship stream, if and only if their relationship is "registered". This is applied for both same sex couple and opposite sex couple.

In order to get your relationship registered, it can be done ONLY in some states and territories. Each state and territory has its own requirement. I will write more about the register of relationship in a later post.