Your expert guide to: Partner Visa Evidence

There are four aspects of your relationship that you’ll need to cover with your partner visa evidence examples: financial, social, household, and nature of commitment.

Financial evidence for a partner visa

Some financial partner visa evidence examples include:

• Joint purchase or loan agreements for assets you’ve bought together, e.g. property, vehicles, major household appliances
• Joint bank account statements that show active use of the account for a reasonable amount of time before your visa lodgement
• Taking on financial obligations on behalf of one another, like one partner becoming a guarantor for a loan or power of attorney for the other partner
• Receipts for daily household shared expenses
• Household bills or accounts in joint names

Household evidence for a partner visa

To demonstrate shared domestic responsibilities, your partner visa evidence examples could include:

• Documents that show joint ownership of residential property
• Joint lease agreements
• Rent payment receipts or evidence of shared rental payments via bank statements
• Joint utilities accounts and other household bills, e.g. electricity, gas, water, phone, internet, subscriptions
• Mail addressed to each partner (jointly or separately) at the same address
• Shared responsibility for care and support of children
• Shared housework responsibilities, e.g. a joint written statement explaining the division of household chores

Social evidence for a partner visa

Partner visa evidence examples for the social aspects of your relationship include:

• You must include at least two Form 888s – statutory declarations from supporting witnesses who can attest that your relationship is genuine
• Additional written statements from family, friends, or colleagues who are known to you both, describing your relationship
• Documents that show you’ve declared your relationship to an institution or authority
• Joint memberships or subscriptions for groups, including sporting, social, or cultural activities
• Travel documents to demonstrate joint travel, e.g. flight, accommodation bookings, itineraries, receipts, photos
• Social media posts where you have declared your relationship
• Invitations and greeting cards addressed to you both
• Personal correspondence between you and your partner, e.g. letters, cards, emails, text messages
• Evidence of attending social events together, e.g. tickets, booking confirmations, photos
• Friends in common, demonstrated through photos or in written statements (written by you or third parties)

Nature of your commitment evidence for a partner visa

The evidence of your relationship for a partner visa should show that you and your partner are in a committed, long-term and exclusive relationship with partner visa evidence examples like:

• Written statements by you and your partner describing your relationship and commitment to each other
• Documents that show the duration of your relationship
• Documents that prove the length of time you’ve lived together
• Documents that show the extent of companionship and emotional support that you provide to each other
• Documents that show you view your relationship as being for the long-term, e.g. you’ve combined your personal matters or declared each other as the beneficiary of your will and superannuation
• A knowledge of each other’s personal circumstances in a written statement or interview with Immigration, e.g. understanding of each other’s personal background and family
• Proof that you’ve staying in contact while apart, e.g. letters, emails, text messages, and phone bills, logs or transcripts
• Shared plans for the future as a couple, e.g. purchase of a property, getting married, having children

The partner visa evidence you’ll need to include in your prospective marriage visa application should include:

• Two Form 888s – a statutory declaration by a supporting witness who is 18 or older, knows you and your partner, and knows about your relationship, along with proof that they are an Australian citizen or resident (if applicable)
• Proof that you and your prospective spouse have met face-to-face as adults and know each other personally
• Documentation to show that you intend to marry your prospective spouse within the visa period, e.g. notice of intention to marry, receipts for wedding bookings, witness statements
• Proof that you and your prospective spouse intend to live as spouses, like plans or research for where you and how you will live in Australia, witness statements, and personal messages
• Written statements by you and your partner that cover details like:
  • How, when and where you first met
  • How your relationship developed
  • When you became engaged
  • Joint activities or hobbies
  • Significant events in the relationship
  • Your future plans as spouses

A good balance of documents that demonstrate the ways you currently live as a married or de-facto couple will help you to prove your relationship is genuine and continuing.

You and your Australian partner’s written statements or letters should show that you have a genuine and continuing relationship by addressing examples of the four relationship aspects (nature of commitment, financial, household, and social) in your own words and be backed up by your other documents. See our partner visa evidence examples.

When applying for a partner visa, photo evidence can include pictures of yourself and your Australian or New Zealand partner together, and with family and friends. Include photos in a variety of settings taken throughout the course of your relationship to illustrate the length of your relationship and that people know about your relationship. You should aim for a maximum of 20 photos.

Any documentation that shows shared expenses, or even expenses taken on behalf of each other, will be useful in your visa application.

See our examples of what types of evidence to include in your application.