Partner Visa Rules in Australia: How 820 and 801 Work

The onshore Partner visa covers two subclasses: the subclass 820 (temporary) and the subclass 801 (permanent). To qualify, you must be in a genuine relationship with your spouse or de facto partner who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. This guide explains what each subclass is, who your Australian partner has to be as your sponsor, how applications are prioritised, and how to tell a genuine Partner visa rule from the '2026 changes' headlines that are circulating about other visas.

The onshore Partner visa (subclass 820 and 801) is for a person who is in Australia and in a genuine relationship with a partner who is an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen. 'Onshore' means you apply while you are physically in Australia. Your partner must be either your spouse (you are married to each other) or your de facto partner (you live together in a committed relationship, not married).

What the sponsor has to do is set out further down.

The onshore Partner visa is made up of two subclasses: the subclass 820, which is the temporary stage, and the subclass 801, which is the permanent stage.

The temporary subclass 820 is what lets you remain in Australia while the permanent subclass 801 stage is assessed. The genuine relationship with your Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen partner is what the permanent stage is built on.

The subclass 820 is the temporary stage of the onshore Partner visa. To be granted it, you must be in a genuine relationship with your spouse or de facto partner who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.

The subclass 801 is the permanent stage of the onshore Partner visa. The relationship requirement remains central: your genuine relationship with your Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen partner is what the permanent stage is built on.

Visa pricing in Australia is built from two parts that matter here.

These two parts interact in a specific way for a combined application, which is an application that includes more than one applicant.

One further rule follows from how the charge is structured: if the base application charge for an application is nil, then all the other first-instalment components are also nil, including the additional applicant charge.

There is one point about a child's path that depends on your own stage. If you hold a temporary Partner visa (subclass 820 or 309), your child can apply for a Dependent child visa (subclass 445). Whether that route is open to your child can therefore turn on your holding the temporary stage. Whether it applies to your particular family is a question for personal advice from a registered migration agent.

A sponsor is the Australian partner who formally supports your application. The sponsor is not a passive supporter — they have steps of their own to complete.

Partner visa applications are processed according to Ministerial Direction 117. Applications are generally assessed in the order in which they are received, with the highest priority given to onshore applications. On top of that received-order rule, the Department may prioritise a Partner visa application if you can show it involves special circumstances of a compassionate nature and there are compelling reasons.

This is a hypothetical, built only from the rules cited here. Treat it as an illustration of how the rules combine, not as a quote or an assessment of your case.

Priya is in Australia in a genuine de facto relationship with Sam, an Australian permanent resident. Because Sam is an Australian permanent resident and is in a genuine relationship with Priya, he is an eligible sponsor. Priya applies for the onshore Partner visa, which is made up of the subclass 820 (temporary) and the subclass 801 (permanent). As the main applicant, she has the base application charge for the application.

Priya's application also includes Sam's child from a previous relationship as an applicant. Because this is a combined application — one that includes more than one applicant — the base application charge is paid once for the whole application, and the child has an additional applicant charge on top. If Priya had listed a family member who was not migrating, no additional applicant charge would apply to that person.

Because Priya is onshore, her application sits in the higher-priority group under Ministerial Direction 117, and is otherwise assessed in the order it was received. If Priya and Sam had special circumstances of a compassionate nature and compelling reasons, the Department could prioritise the application further.

Is there a confirmed 'new rule' for the Partner visa in 2026? Not one that applies here. When a headline says 'partner visa changes 2026' but the detail underneath is about students or visitors, it has mislabelled a different visa's change as a Partner visa change.

The way to tell a genuine Partner visa change from a rumour is to look at which visa the rule actually names. A Partner visa rule names the Partner visa and its subclasses — 820 and 801. If a blog cannot point to a Partner-visa rule that names those subclasses, it has not shown you a Partner visa change at all.

Next steps, concretely. Confirm who your sponsor is and that they are an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen you are in a genuine relationship with. Have the sponsor's police certificate(s) ready to go in with the 'Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia', or lodge them as soon as possible after you apply. Work out who on your application is an applicant and who is a non-migrating family member, because the additional applicant charge is only for people who are actually applying, while the base application charge is paid once for a combined application. Keep the evidence of your genuine relationship together from the start, because it is what both the 820 and the 801 stages are decided on. For whether a specific rule applies to your own situation, and for the current charge figures, get personal advice from a registered migration agent — that is the one thing a general guide cannot settle for you.

You can read more on our Partner visa service page, start with a Partner visa assessment, or see how additional applicant charges work for family members in our guide to application charges and dependant fees.

This article is general information from Global Migrations (Global Migration & Education Solutions, ABN 22 998 014 414), prepared by registered migration agent Ranbir Singh (MARN 1069570). It is not personal migration advice. Whether a particular rule applies to your circumstances should be confirmed in personal advice from a registered migration agent.