Partner visas in Australia for Brits

If your other half is Australian, the partner visa is how you stay, and it's a two-stage marathon rather than a sprint.

The short version

Your partner must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, and you must be married or in a de facto relationship [1].
Apply in Australia for the 820/801, or from outside for the 309/100. Each is one application in two stages: temporary first, permanent usually about two years after you apply [1].
De facto couples normally need 12 months together before applying, unless they've registered the relationship, which you can do in NSW [1].
From 1 July 2026 the fee is AUD 11,710 (about £6,048) for the main applicant [4].
In November 2026, Home Affairs processing times showed half of 820s decided within 21 months and 90% within 30 months [2].

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = AUD 1.9363).

Onshore or offshore?

	820/801 (apply in Australia)	309/100 (apply outside Australia)
Where you are when you apply	In Australia	Outside Australia
While you wait	Usually a Bridging Visa A, so you can stay	Wherever you are; you can visit Australia on another visa
Where you need to be at grant of the first stage	Usually in Australia	Outside Australia
Fee from 1 July 2026	AUD 11,710 (about £6,048)	AUD 11,710 (about £6,048)

Most Brits already in Sydney on a working holiday or skilled visa apply onshore. The big advantage is that you lodge, get a bridging visa and carry on with your life here. Couples who are still living in the UK often go offshore, and the 309 can be granted while you're in London, so you arrive with a visa already sorted.

Two catches with onshore applications:

Condition 8503 (No Further Stay). If your current visa carries it, you can't lodge an 820 unless it's waived first [1].
Your bridging visa copies your old visa's work conditions. If your previous visa let you work, the Bridging Visa A normally does too. A bridging visa A doesn't let you travel, so ask for a Bridging Visa B before any trip home [1].

Married, de facto or engaged

Married couples need a marriage that's recognised in Australia, and a UK marriage is.

De facto couples need to have lived together, or be in a genuine committed relationship, for at least 12 months immediately before applying [1]. That 12-month rule doesn't apply if you've registered your relationship under a state or territory law. NSW has a Relationships Register run by NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and it's one of the prescribed registers; Western Australia and the Northern Territory have none [1]. Registering takes time, so it isn't an instant fix, but it can save waiting out the 12 months.

Engaged and still apart? The Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) lets you come to Australia to marry within the visa period, then apply for the 820/801. It costs the same as a partner visa from 1 July 2026, but the later 820/801 application then costs just AUD 1,955 (about £1,010) [4].

The evidence: the four pillars

Home Affairs judges whether your relationship is genuine and continuing using four broad areas [1]:

Financial: joint bank accounts, a joint lease or mortgage, shared bills, insurance naming each other.
Household: living together, splitting the chores and the rent, post to the same address.
Social: friends and family knowing you as a couple, holidays together, invitations addressed to both of you, and Form 888 statements from Australian citizens or permanent residents who know you.
Commitment: how long you've been together, plans for the future, time apart and how you kept in touch.

Practical tips from couples who've done it:

Start a folder on day one. Screenshots, flight bookings, a joint council tax bill from back home in Blighty, all of it.
Show time, not volume. A few documents from each stage of the relationship beat 300 photos from one weekend.
Get ACRO police certificates early. You'll need a UK police certificate and certificates from anywhere else you've lived for a year or more.
Your partner must be an approved sponsor. Someone who has sponsored two partners before, or sponsored or was sponsored as a partner within the last five years, may be refused unless there are compelling circumstances [1].

Costs and processing times

From 1 July 2026	AUD	About £
Main applicant (820/801 or 309/100)	11,710	6,048
Each extra applicant aged 18 or over	5,860	3,026
Each extra applicant under 18	2,935	1,516
820/801 after a Prospective Marriage visa	1,955	1,010

Sources: the main applicant and post-Prospective Marriage charges are from Home Affairs [4]; the extra-applicant charges are as published by a migration law firm quoting Home Affairs pricing [3]. The fee went up by a quarter in July 2026, so check the Home Affairs pricing estimator before you pay. Add medicals, police certificates and any translations.

Processing times from the Home Affairs processing times guide (last updated 2 November 2026) [2]:

Stage	50% decided in	90% decided in
820 (temporary, onshore)	21 months	30 months
801 (permanent, onshore)	6 months	19 months

The 801 clock only starts when you become eligible, which is two years after you first applied [1]. So from lodging to permanent residence is often three years or more. If you'd already been together three years when you applied, or two years with a child together, you may get the permanent visa straight away [1].

Life while you wait

Once you've lodged a permanent partner visa application, you can usually enrol in Medicare, which is a big relief for Brits who've been relying on the limited reciprocal cover. Our guide to Medicare for Brits explains the details.

You can generally work and study on the 820, open bank accounts, rent and get on with life in Sydney. On the 801 you're a permanent resident and on the road to citizenship; see Australian citizenship for Brits.

On the UK side, keep your National Insurance record in mind. If you're likely to spend years here, check your State Pension forecast, and remember the UK State Pension is frozen in Australia. Our guide to the frozen UK State Pension in Australia explains what that means.

If you're the Aussie bringing a Brit home

Plenty of couples meet in London and move to Sydney together. If that's you, our sister site ExpatCooee has a checklist for moving back to Australia, from tax residency to Medicare. And if the plan is ever to live in the UK instead, the UK family visa works quite differently: see bringing a non-British partner to the UK.

Partner visas are a bit of a minefield, and a refusal is expensive. Many couples use a registered migration agent; others do it themselves with the Home Affairs checklist. For moral support and to swap notes on the paperwork, our community group for Brits in Australia has plenty of mixed British–Aussie couples.

Partner visas in Australia: a guide for Brits with an Aussie partner