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Partner Visa Evidence Step by Step Guide

July 8, 2024

Introduction

When you're applying for a Partner Visa for Australia, providing comprehensive Partner Visa evidence is crucial to demonstrate the genuineness of your relationship. It’s not enough to tell Home Affairs you’re in a relationship. You need to prove it!

The Department of Home Affairs require proof of your genuine relationship across four main categories: financial, social, household, and relationship evidence.

In this article, we will discuss each of these types of evidence in detail to help you prepare a strong application. We have lots of other resources to help, so make sure you check them out via the links.

Feeling confused?

Here are three ways we can help:

  1. Read more here about Partner Visas.
  2. Download our Free Guide to Partner Visas.
  3. Attend our Partner Visa Basics webinars to get a comprehensive overview of the Partner Visa application process.

Key Facts About Partner Visa Evidence

  • Comprehensive Documentation: Providing detailed evidence across financial, social, household, and relationship categories is essential to demonstrate the genuineness of your relationship.
  • Variety Matters: Include diverse types of evidence to create a well-rounded and authentic application.
  • External Support: Support from friends and family attesting to your relationship's authenticity can significantly strengthen your application.

Financial Evidence

Evidence of joint financial commitments is crucial in demonstrating the genuineness and authenticity of your relationship for your Partner Visa application. Evidence of joint financial commitments can include joint bank account statements showing shared financial responsibilities, such as paying bills or making significant purchases together.

Additionally, providing documents like shared loan agreements, leases, or utility bills can further substantiate your financial interdependence. Organizing these documents chronologically and highlighting joint transactions can help present a clear picture of your financial partnership, reinforcing the authenticity of your relationship to the case officer. 

Find out more about Financial Evidence here on your Youtube.

Social Evidence

Social evidence is essential to show the integration and recognition of your relationship within your wider social circles. This includes photos of you and your partner together at various events, gatherings with friends and family, and travel pictures. Additionally, invitations to social events addressed to both of you, as well as correspondence like greeting cards or emails from friends and family that acknowledge your relationship, can further support your case.

Photo Evidence is an important part of proving the authenticity of your relationship. You can learn more here on YouTube or click here to purchase our Partner Visa Canva Photobook templates to assist with collecting and presenting your photo evidence for the case officer.

Providing a variety of such evidence helps to establish the social aspect and authenticity of your partnership to visa authorities.

Household Evidence

Household evidence is vital for proving that you and your partner share a life together. This includes documents that show joint residence, such as rental agreements or mortgage documents with both names listed. Utility bills, like electricity or water, addressed to both of you at the same address also help establish shared living arrangements. 

Additionally, official correspondence, such as government letters or joint insurance policies sent to your common address, further supports your claim of a shared household. Providing these documents paints a clear picture of your cohabitation and mutual commitment.

Click here to learn more about Household Evidence on YouTube. 

Proving the Nature of Your Relationship (De Facto or Marriage)

To prove the nature of your relationship for an Australian Partner Visa, you must provide evidence that demonstrates either your marriage or de facto status. For married couples, this includes a marriage certificate and photos from the wedding, as well as joint financial accounts and shared household bills.

For de facto couples, you need to show a history of living together for at least 12 months, which can be evidenced through shared rental agreements, utility bills, and joint financial responsibilities.

Additionally, providing personal statements about your relationship, and declarations from friends and family, helps further substantiate the genuine and ongoing nature of your partnership.

Click here to learn more about Supporting Statements from Family and Friends or our YouTube or purchase our Relationship Statement Guide with templates for statements from family and friends.

Relationship Statement

Your Relationship Statement is one of the most important parts of your Partner Visa application. Your Relationship Statements is your opportunity to tell your relationship story to the decision maker who doesn’t know you and will (most likely) never meet you.

Click here to learn more about what to say in your Relationship Statement or purchase our Relationship Statement Guide for templates and checklists.

I need help!

Collecting evidence to support your genuine relationship can be confusing and overwhelming.

At Port Migration we are Registered Migration Agents with 8+ years industry experience and expertise. We are Partner Visa Experts. Since 2015 we have helped countless couples achieve partner visa success. Assisting with collecting evidence and presenting it to Home Affairs is one of the important ways we help our Partner Visa clients.

Click here to learn more about us or schedule a free call to learn more about how we can help with your application. 

What types of financial evidence are required for a Partner Visa?

Joint bank account statements, shared bills, rental agreements, and loan documents are all kinds of financial evidence. Learn more on our Youtube channel or download our Free Guide to Partner Visas.

How can I prove my relationship is genuine?

Provide personal statements, photos together, invitations to events, and statutory declarations from friends and family are all forms of evidence that prove the genuine nature of your relationship.

What documents count as household evidence?

Shared rental agreements, utility bills, and mail addressed to both partners at the same address show that you share a household. Your Relationship Statement is also important to explain your household living circumstances. Click here to purchase our Ultimate Relationship Statement Guide for advice and assistance.

Do we need to provide evidence of joint travel?

Joint travel including travel itineraries, tickets, insurance and photos from trips together can support your application.

How should we organize our evidence for the application?

Organize documents chronologically and categorize them into financial, household, social, and commitment evidence. Labelling documents clearly to make the decision makers job easy is really important.

Are supporting statements from friends and family necessary?

Yes! A least two and preferably more family and friends are required to provide statements supporting your relationship as they attest to the genuineness of your relationship from an external perspective. Click here to learn more on Youtube or purchase our Ultimate Relationship Statement Guide.

What social evidence should we include?

Social evidence can include Photos together, social media interactions, invitations to events, and correspondence from friends and family. Click here to learn more about social evidence.

Can we provide digital copies of our evidence?

Your application for a Partner Visa for Australia is a completely online application. All your evidence needs to be digital and should be clear, colour scans of original documents.

What is considered commitment evidence?

Marriage or Relationship Registration certificates are examples of relationship commitment evidence, along with evidence like wills, life insurance policies, and documents showing long-term plans like joint investments.

How much evidence should we provide?

It's better to provide a comprehensive set of evidence rather than too little. Aim for quality and variety to cover all aspects of your relationship.

Have questions about Partner Visas?

Download your FREE Partner Visa guide

Navigating partner visas can be complex and overwhelming, download our step-by-step Partner Visa Guide and checklist that simplifies the process for you.

Joanna Hill

Registered Migration Agent

Joanna Hill is a Registered Migration Agent with over 8 years experience assisting individuals, business owners and HR managers to apply for all Australian Visas. Joanna’s areas of expertise include Work Visas, Partner Visas, Visitor Visas and Australian Citizenship. She makes the complex and constantly changing process of applying for Australian visas simple and stress free for client sand achieves a 100% success rate for partner visa applications. Joanna is a Member of the Migration Institute of Australia and is registered with the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARN 1575613). In addition to her work in Migration, Joanna has over 15 years experience as a teacher, Leading Teacher and Learning Specialist in Primary and Secondary schools. She has a research Masters in Education and has presented research and workshops at conferences in Australia and internationally


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