If you’re considering sponsoring your partner for an Australian partner visa, it’s important to first understand what the partner visa sponsor requirements are. Keep reading to find out more about eligibility, character requirements, financial requirements, registering as a sponsor and answers to frequently asked questions.
Published 24 November 2025
Written by Con Paxinos (MARN 1460971), owner and director of PAX Migration
Con is a leading expert in the migration industry with 11 years of experience and is the former Vice President and South Australian State President of the Migration Institute of Australia and Chair of the Migration Institute Temporary Visa Program Advisory Panel. Together with his team of experts at PAX Migration, Con has been awarded the Leading Adviser Award (2022), the ThreeBestRated® Award (2020–2025) and the Fellow of the Migration Institute of Australia, an award bestowed on those practitioners who have made significant contributions to the migration profession, recognising their contributions to the Institute, profession and society generally, and their good standing and ethics.
Explore the partner visa sponsor requirements expert guide
Partner visa eligibility for sponsors
To meet eligibility requirements for sponsoring a partner visa, you and your partner must be married, in a de-facto relationship or engaged to be married. As the sponsoring partner, you need to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen.
What are the partner visa options?
There are two main pathways available for a partner visa in Australia:
Both options begin with a temporary partner visa and offer a pathway to permanent residency in Australia.
Another option available to visa applicants who are engaged to be married is the subclass 300 prospective marriage visa, which also provides a pathway to permanent residence.
“Making sure you choose the right visa for your circumstances is the best way to increase your chances of a successful visa grant. Look closely at the partner visa sponsor requirements before you lodge an application to steer clear of avoidable mistakes that can be costly and time-consuming to fix. If you’re not sure which visa to apply for or whether you meet the criteria, the PAX Migration team can help. We’ve helped over 500 clients make sure they meet partner visa and sponsor requirements in Australia.”
Your relationship and sponsor requirements for a partner visa in Australia
To meet Australian partner visa sponsor requirements, your relationship must match one of the following descriptions:
- Your marriage is considered legally valid in Australia
- You and your spouse have a mutual commitment to a shared life together as a married couple, to the exclusion of all others
- Your relationship is genuine and continuing
- You live together, or are not living separately and apart on a permanent basis
- Your relationship has existed for at least 12 months before lodging your partner visa application (this requirement may be waived if there are compelling and compassionate reasons to grant the visa, or if your relationship has been registered with an Australian state/territory government)
- You and your partner have a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others
- Your relationship is genuine and continuing
- You live together, or are not living separately and apart on a permanent basis
- You and your partner must not be related by family
- There must be no legal obstructions to your marriage in Australia
- You must have met your prospective spouse in person, since you’ve each turned 18
- You and your prospective spouse must know each other personally
- You must genuinely intend to marry your prospective spouse within the visa period
- You and your partner must share a genuine intention to live together as spouses
Your residency status in Australia as the sponsoring partner
To meet partner visa sponsor requirements, as the sponsor, you’ll also need to be either an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen.
Australian citizens are born in Australia or have been issued an Australian Citizenship Certificate.
An Australian permanent resident is a non-citizen who holds a permanent visa in Australia and usually resides there.
An eligible New Zealand citizen is a New Zealand citizen who holds a protected special category visa (SCV), which allows you to remain in Australia as long as you are a New Zealand citizen.
Feeling overwhelmed? We can help!
Our team of highly skilled migration experts can help with your partner visa application, including explaining the partner visa sponsorship requirements and obligations that apply to you. We can take care of your sponsorship application and prepare your main partner visa application. We use our qualifications, training, skills and experience to keep you informed of the latest developments in the migration provisions and policy, with an in-depth knowledge of the ins and outs of the process, knowledge which can only come from being embedded in the industry for many years and actively involved in the migration space.
Stay aware of these sponsorship limitations
If you’re sponsoring your partner for their Australian partner visa, there are limitations that will apply to you as the sponsor. Read the information below to find out more about sponsor limitations and bars that might apply to you.
You can sponsor a maximum of two main applicants for a partner or prospective marriage visa in your lifetime. If you’ve previously sponsored a partner or prospective spouse, you’ll need to wait at least five years since the date of the previous lodgement before you can sponsor your current partner.
If you previously received a partner or prospective marriage visa and are now a permanent resident sponsoring a new partner, you’re only able to do so five years after lodging your own visa application.
“It’s important to note that these limitations may be waived if compelling circumstances exist. We’ve got experience working with clients to get these limitations waived in circumstances where their applications would have otherwise been refused.”
If you’ve been granted a contributory parent visa (subclass 143) or a contributory aged parent visa (subclass 864), you can’t sponsor your partner or fiancé for five years from the date of the visa being granted, but this limitation may not apply if you have compelling circumstances (non-financial).
If you were charged with or convicted of a registrable offence, you may not be able to act as a sponsor for a partner visa.
There are circumstances where the Department of Home Affairs might let you become a sponsor, for example, if the charges have been disposed of or the sentence was completed, or if more than five years have passed between the completed sentence and applying for sponsorship. Other conditions may apply, so we strongly recommend speaking to a legal and immigration professional for advice specific to your situation. Speak to the PAX Migration team today.
You won’t meet partner visa sponsorship requirements if you have been:
- Convicted of a relevant offence (e.g. violence against a person, harassment, breach of AVO, possession of dangerous weapons, people smuggling, human trafficking, slavery or kidnapping)
- Have a significant criminal record in relation to the relevant offence (e.g. a single or multiple terms of imprisonment totalling 12 months or more)
The Department of Home Affairs may still decide to approve the partner visa sponsorship in circumstances where it considers it reasonable to do so. The sponsor has to agree to the disclosure of any conviction for a relevant offence, which will be shared by the Department with each applicant included in the sponsorship, unless the sponsor’s conviction has been nullified or pardoned.
With each of these limitations, there are circumstances where you may still be eligible for sponsoring your partner. Speak to the team at PAX Migration for professional legal immigration advice specific to your circumstances.
Australian partner visa sponsor requirements checklist
To become a sponsor for your partner, you’ll need to meet the following partner visa sponsor requirements:
- You’re in a spousal or de-facto relationship with the main visa applicant, or engaged to be married
- You’re an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen
- You aren’t subject to any partner visa limitations
- You’re 18 years of age or older
- You meet the sponsor character requirements
Financial and housing support for your partner’s visa
As a sponsor for a partner visa, you must help your partner, to a necessary extent, with financial and accommodation support for two years following the grant of an 820 partner visa, or two years following your partner’s first entry into Australia after the grant of a 309 partner visa. You will also need to follow these partner visa sponsor requirements for a 300 prospective marriage visa sponsorship.
Partner visa sponsor requirements: Frequently Asked Questions
When you sponsor someone on a partner visa, one of your requirements is that you’ll help to provide financial assistance (as is reasonable) and accommodation for your partner for the first two years following their visa grant (for an onshore 820 visa) or the first two years following their entry to Australia after their visa is granted (for an offshore 309 visa).
As part of your partner visa sponsor requirements, you’ll need to meet character requirements, which include providing police certificates from any country you’ve lived in for over 12 months in the last 10 years, and showing that you have no significant criminal record.
To lodge a sponsorship application, you’ll need to lodge a sponsorship form (40SP) at the same time that your partner lodges their partner visa application, submitting it with your ImmiAccount. If you’re working with a migration agent from the PAX Migration team, we’ll submit both the sponsor and main visa applicant forms on your behalf.
If you don’t meet the sponsor requirements for a partner visa in Australia, that doesn’t mean that your and your partner’s visa pathway is at an end. The PAX Migration team specialises in helping our clients with complicated visa applications and visa refusals, whether that’s by navigating appeals with the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) or figuring out alternative visa pathways with different visas that work for your goals.
Not sure where to start? Let’s talk.
At PAX Migration, we’re experts in all things migration, and we’ll be by your side at every stage of your partner visa journey, from understanding partner visa sponsor requirements and gathering relationship evidence to submitting your application.
About the author
Con Paxinos is a dedicated immigration expert who has helped over 200 clients with their partner visa applications.
Con holds a Bachelor of Laws and Graduate Certificate in Migration Law, a Bachelor of Commerce and is a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand. A recognised leader in the immigration advice industry, he’s served on the board of the Migration Institute of Australia and advisory panels to educate and improve Australia’s immigration system, including the Migration Institute Temporary Visa Program Advisory Panel (2024), the South Australian Ministerial Advisory Council for the Minister for Innovation and Skills (2020 – 2022) and is a current member of the South Australian State MIA Committee (2023 – 2025). He’s provided testimony to the Commonwealth Joint Standing Committee on Migration on four occasions (2019 – 2023) and presented at dozens of seminars and conferences on visas and migration. Con works closely with state and federal governments as well as senior officials within the Department of Home Affairs and other stakeholders in the Australian immigration ecosystem to advocate for improved policy outcomes.