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.

Bridging Visa E

Bridging Visa E is for those unlawful non-citizen people to legalize their immigration status. Those who are unlawful, when the time comes and they want to go home, they can get this Bridging Visa E that allow them to organize themselves with packing and buy airticket to fly home.

Bridging Visa E can be applied by post or in person at any DIBP office. It is free of charge.

If you are unlawful on-citizen, it is important to get Bridging Visa E before you fly out of Australia. Otherwise, you will be stopped and interview at the custom. That can cause the delay and you might miss your flight!!

Bridging Visa E also can be used in the case of visa applicants that apply for other substantive visa, having Bridging Visa A but it does not come into effect yet because current substantive visa still has not expired yet. For whatever reason, if visa applicants breach the conditions of that substantive visa, their substantive visa can be cancelled, hence the Bridging Visa A will be ceased as well. If they choose not to appeal (because they know that they won't win, or because they confident that their substantive visa that they are applying will be granted soon), then they can let the visa lapsed for a few days then apply for Bridging Visa E and wait for their substantive visa to be finalized.

Lots of students have been making a full use of Bridging Visa E in such a way that:

• they come here on student visa (long student visa)
• they meet their partner
• they apply for Partner Visa and then decided not to go school due to the tuition fee is expensive
• their student visas have been canceled
• they apply for Bridging Visa E and wait for the result of Partner Visa
• ... problems solved....

That is just 1 example of how to make a full use of Bridging Visa E. There are many ways to make a full use of Bridging Visa E. You just need to know how...

Bridging Visa C

It might be unfortunate for some that one becomes unlawful non-citizen (illegally stay), for whatever reasons. Once one becomes unlawful non-citizen, there will be some limitation on which visa subclass one can apply.

Once one apply for whatever visa that one allowed to apply, instead of getting Bridging Visa A as mentioned before, one will get Bridging Visa C instead. It will be granted automatically at no cost once unlawful non-citizen applies for another substantive visa. 

This is one of the ways that unlawful non-citizen people can legalize their migration status in Australia. However, there is a no travel right, just like Bridging Visa A. One thing that Bridging Visa C is different from Bridging Visa A is that Bridging Visa A is allowed the visa holder to apply for Bridging Visa B to travel out of the country. Bridging Visa C does not allow the visa holder to apply for Bridging Visa B, therefore the visa holder is stuck here. Cannot travel out until the outcome of the substantive visa has been finalized.

I would guess that travel out of the country is not really a big deal for unlawful non-citizen that some of them have been "underground" for long long time. They can wait for their substantive visa and holding Bridging Visa C for a while!!!

Bridging Visa B

As mentioned previously that Bridging Visa A is FREE of charge and it allowed the visa holder (or applicant) to stay indefinitely in Australia while s/he waiting for the outcome of the substantive visa.

However, Bridging Visa A doesn't have the travel right. It means that the visa holder is not allowed to travel out of Australia under Bridging Visa A. If the visa holder travel out of Australia under Bridging Visa A, s/he will not be able to come back under Bridging Visa A because the Bridging Visa A is automatically ceased once the visa holder passed through the custom at the airport or port.

So, what happen if the visa holder want to travel out of Australia, for whatever reasons??

Bridging Visa B is the answer. Those who want to travel out of Australia needs to apply for Bridging Visa B (form 1006). It comes with small fee of $140 (as of today). 

Visa applicant can apply for Bridging Visa B at any DIBP (Department of Immigration and Border Protection) office or apply by post. Sadly Bridging Visa B cannot apply online just yet (as of today).

Bridging Visa B usually can be granted within 1 day.

The maximum stay that Bridging Visa B allows the visa holder to stay out of Australia is 3 months. Therefore, it is important that the visa holder travel back to Australia before Bridging Visa B expires. Otherwise, s/he need to apply for another visa to come back to Australia. Usually people apply for Tourist Visa when they forgot to come back because of Bridging Visa B expires (too much fun overseas).

Bridging Visa A holder can apply for Bridging Visa B as many times as they like. However, it is important to remember to come back before 3 months period run out.