Partner Visa Relationship Statement: How to Write It, With Examples

What is a partner visa relationship statement?

A partner visa relationship statement is a written account of the history of your relationship, provided to the Department of Home Affairs as evidence that the relationship is genuine and continuing. It is not a form. There is no prescribed template, no word limit and no box to tick. It is a document that you write, sign and date, and that is uploaded with the rest of the relationship evidence in a Subclass 820 onshore partner visa application, a Subclass 309 offshore application or a Subclass 300 prospective marriage application.

Two statements are expected, one from the visa applicant and one from the sponsoring partner. The Department's own application form, Form 47SP, sets the expectation in plain terms. Its document checklist asks for "written statements from you and from your partner detailing the history of your relationship (for example, when and how you met, when you started living together, joint activities, significant events in the relationship)". The same expectation applies to an online application lodged in ImmiAccount, where the statements are attached as evidence rather than typed into the form itself.

The statement matters because of what the decision maker actually has to decide. For a married couple, section 5F of the Migration Act 1958 requires that the couple have a mutual commitment to a shared life as a married couple to the exclusion of all others, that the relationship is genuine and continuing, and that the couple live together or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis. For a de facto couple, section 5CB of the Act imposes the same three requirements, expressed as a shared life rather than a shared life as a married couple.

Each of those is a conclusion about a relationship. None of them is a fact that appears on a document. A residential lease shows two names at one address. It does not show a mutual commitment to a shared life. A bank statement shows money moving. It does not show why. The relationship statement is the part of the application that connects the documents to the statutory test, in the couple's own words.

This is also why the statement often determines how smoothly an application is processed. A delegate reading a well organised statement can find the answer to every question the law asks, in order, with the supporting document named beside each answer. A delegate reading an unexplained bundle of receipts, photographs and screenshots has to build the case for the couple, and may not build it the way the couple would have. Practical guidance on the partner visa process as a whole is set out on the partner visa page, but the statement is the single document over which an applicant has the most control.

Is a relationship statement compulsory for a partner visa?

No. Neither the Migration Act 1958 nor the Migration Regulations 1994 requires a document called a relationship statement. What the law requires is that the applicant is the spouse or de facto partner of the sponsor. Subregulation 1.15A(2) of the Regulations then directs the Minister, when considering a Partner visa application, to consider all of the circumstances of the relationship, including the matters set out in subregulation 1.15A(3). Subregulation 1.09A(3) does the same work for de facto relationships. How an applicant proves those matters is left open.

In practice the distinction makes very little difference. Section 54 of the Act requires the Minister to have regard to all of the information in the application. If the couple provide no account of the relationship, the delegate decides on the documents alone, and the documents rarely speak for themselves. An applicant who chooses not to file a statement has not broken a rule. That applicant has simply given away the only opportunity in the application to explain the parts of a relationship that paper cannot show.

The gap is widest where the relationship does not look conventional on paper. A couple who live apart during the week because of work, a couple who keep separate bank accounts because one partner sends money to family overseas, a couple who married quickly after a long online courtship, a couple whose families do not know about the relationship because of the law or the customs of the applicant's home country. In each case the documents raise a question that only the couple can answer. Departmental policy expressly requires a delegate to take into account the extent to which the laws or traditions of an applicant's home country may discourage a couple from openly admitting a relationship. A delegate cannot apply that policy to a couple who never explain their position.

The statement continues to do work after the Department decides. If a partner visa is refused, the review application to the Administrative Review Tribunal is decided afresh on the evidence before the Tribunal, and the statement filed with the original application is part of that material. Anything written carelessly at the application stage is still there years later, and any inconsistency between the first statement and the evidence given at a Tribunal hearing will be put to the applicant. A statement is therefore worth writing properly the first time, on the assumption that it will be read closely by more than one decision maker.

What should a partner visa relationship statement include?

A relationship statement should be organised around the four matters the decision maker is directed to consider: the financial aspects of the relationship, the nature of the household, the social aspects of the relationship, and the nature of the couple's commitment to each other. For married couples those matters appear in subregulation 1.15A(3) of the Migration Regulations 1994. For de facto couples they appear in subregulation 1.09A(3). The wording of the two provisions is materially the same, so a couple applying on de facto grounds and a couple applying on marriage grounds are writing about the same four things.

The four matters are circumstances to be considered, not criteria to be ticked off one by one. Departmental policy is explicit on this point. A delegate must not decide the application by counting how many of the four matters are satisfied against how many are not. The assessment is made on balance, across the whole relationship, and the subparagraphs under each matter are a non-exhaustive list. A couple with no jointly owned property is not disqualified. A couple who cannot explain why they own nothing jointly has a problem that a paragraph of explanation would have solved.

De facto couples have one additional reason to be precise about dates. Regulation 2.03A requires the de facto relationship to have existed for at least the 12 months immediately before the application was made, unless an exception applies. The exceptions include compelling and compassionate circumstances, a relationship registered under a prescribed State or Territory law, and certain cases involving a partner who holds or has applied for a permanent humanitarian visa. A statement that does not say clearly when the relationship began leaves the delegate to work out whether that 12 month period is met. If an exception is relied on, the statement should identify it and set out the facts that support it.

Write the statement in the order set out below, with a heading for each of the four matters, and answer the specific subparagraphs under each. A delegate assessing the application works through those subparagraphs. A statement that follows the same structure is faster to assess and much harder to misread.

The financial aspects of the relationship

Paragraph 1.15A(3)(a) covers any joint ownership of real estate or other major assets, any joint liabilities, the extent of any pooling of financial resources, especially in relation to major financial commitments, whether one person in the relationship owes any legal obligation in respect of the other, and the basis of any sharing of day to day household expenses.

Answer each of those in turn, with dates. Departmental policy treats a joint account that has been operated with reasonable frequency over a reasonable period as carrying more weight than a recently opened account with few transactions, so state when the account was opened and what it is used for. Policy also accepts that some couples keep separate accounts, provided there is evidence of income or spending on shared costs such as rent, utilities or a mortgage. If the couple keep their finances separate, say so directly and explain the arrangement, including who pays which bill and how the balance is settled. Legal obligations between partners belong here as well, such as one partner acting as guarantor on a loan, or holding a power of attorney for the other.

The nature of the household

Paragraph 1.15A(3)(b) covers any joint responsibility for the care and support of children, the living arrangements of the couple, and any sharing of the responsibility for housework.

Housework appears trivial and is not. It is one of the three things the Regulations name, and it is the part most applicants leave out. Set out the living arrangements as a chronology of addresses with dates, including the date the couple began living together and any period they did not. Then describe the division of work in the home in specific terms. Who cooks, who does the laundry, who manages the bills, who drives whom to work. Where there are children, whether from this relationship or an earlier one, describe the practical responsibility each partner carries for them, because shared care of children is often the strongest single indicator available.

The social aspects of the relationship

Paragraph 1.15A(3)(c) covers whether the couple represent themselves to other people as married or as de facto partners, the opinion of the couple's friends and acquaintances about the relationship, and any basis on which the couple plan and undertake joint social activities.

Departmental policy gives useful examples of what counts. Declarations of the relationship to other government bodies and to commercial institutions, and the acceptance of those declarations, are directly relevant. So are joint memberships, joint participation in sporting, cultural or social activities, joint travel, and plans for the future. Name the people who know about the relationship and say how they know. Supporting witnesses can then give their own account on Form 888, which the Department now titles "Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application". Where a couple cannot be open about the relationship, the reason belongs in this section. That is a common and legitimate position for same-sex and LGBTIQ+ couples whose families or home countries would react badly, and Departmental policy requires a delegate to take that into account.

The nature of the commitment

Paragraph 1.15A(3)(d) is assessed as the mutuality of the couple's commitment to each other. Departmental policy directs the delegate to have regard to the duration of the relationship, the length of time the couple have lived together, the degree of companionship and emotional support the couple draw from each other, and whether the couple see the relationship continuing for the long term.

Policy also treats each partner's knowledge of the other's personal circumstances as relevant to mutuality, including family background and situation, and notes that this may be tested at interview. This section is therefore the place to write about the decisions the couple have made together, the support each has given the other through illness, unemployment, bereavement or family difficulty, and the plans they hold for the next few years. Vague statements of feeling add nothing. A short account of a decision the couple made together, and why, tells the delegate far more.

Partner visa relationship statement examples

The difference between a weak relationship statement and a strong one is almost always specificity, not length or sentiment. The examples below are generic illustrations written for this article. They are not taken from any application. They show the change in form, not content, and every applicant must write their own account in their own words.

Example: how the couple met and the relationship developed

Weak:

We met in 2022 and fell in love very quickly. We are very happy together and we want to spend the rest of our lives together.

Better:

I first met my partner in person on 14 March 2022, at a friend's birthday dinner in Parramatta. We had been introduced online by that friend about three weeks earlier and had been messaging daily since then. From late March 2022 we saw each other every weekend. On 2 September 2022 I travelled to meet her parents in her home city and stayed for two weeks. We agreed that we were committed to each other and would not see anyone else on 15 October 2022, which is the date given at question 58 of the application form. The photographs at documents 4 to 9 cover this period and are dated.

Example: the financial aspects

Weak:

We share everything. We support each other financially and we trust each other completely.

Better:

We opened a joint transaction account on 3 May 2023 and our rent has been paid from that account by direct debit every fortnight since. Both of our salaries are paid into it. We are both named on the electricity and internet accounts for our home. I am the named guarantor on my partner's car loan, signed on 12 June 2024. We do not own property together. We are saving for a deposit and have agreed to keep that saving in my partner's account because the interest rate is better. The bank statements at documents 14 to 22 show the account from May 2023 to the present.

Example: the nature of the household

Weak:

We live together happily and we share all the housework between us.

Better:

We began living together on 1 February 2023 at a unit in Burwood, and moved to our current address in Strathfield on 14 January 2025. Both leases are at documents 23 and 24 and both name us as co-tenants. My partner cooks on weeknights because he finishes work earlier. I do the laundry and the weekly shopping. We clean the flat together on Sunday mornings. My partner drives my mother to her appointments each month, as she does not drive.

Example: explaining a period apart

Weak:

We were apart for a while in 2024 but it was not a problem for our relationship.

Better:

Between 3 March 2024 and 28 August 2024 I worked on a mine site in Western Australia on a two week on, one week off roster, and my partner remained at our home in Sydney. We did not separate. We spoke by video call every evening, my pay continued to be deposited into our joint account, and my partner continued to pay our rent from that account. My employment contract is at document 31 and the flight records for each rotation are at documents 32 to 40.

That last example is the one most applicants need and most often omit. The statutory test is whether the couple live together, or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis. A period of physical separation is not fatal. An unexplained period of physical separation invites the delegate to draw the worst inference available.

How long should a relationship statement be and how should it be set out?

There is no prescribed length, so the correct length is whatever covers the four matters with dates and nothing more. Most couples need several pages. A statement that runs for twenty pages usually repeats itself, and a statement that runs for half a page has left out three of the four matters.

Set it out with headings that follow the four matters, and write in chronological order inside each heading. Write in the first person, in your own voice, and name the supporting document beside each factual claim so the delegate can find it without searching. Sign and date the statement. Number the pages.

Each partner writes a separate statement. The applicant writes one and the sponsor writes one, and the two must be consistent on dates and events without being copies of each other. Two statements written in the same phrases suggest one author, which undermines both. Where the couple are applying for a Subclass 309 offshore partner visa the sponsor's statement carries extra weight, because the couple are often living in different countries and the sponsor is the person explaining the arrangement from the Australian side. Where the application is a Subclass 300 prospective marriage visa, Form 47SP asks for something further again. Both parties must set out the history of the relationship and their future plans as a married couple, and must show they have met in person as adults and are personally known to each other.

If a statement is written in a language other than English, it must be accompanied by an accurate English translation. Where the translation is arranged in Australia, the Department recommends using a translator accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.

How is a relationship statement different from a Form 888 statement?

A relationship statement is written by the couple about their own relationship, and a Form 888 statement is written by somebody else about the couple. They are different documents with different authors, and one does not replace the other.

Form 888 is now titled "Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application". The Department retired the old title, which described the form as a statutory declaration by a supporting witness. The current form must be completed by a person who knows the visa applicant and their partner and knows the history of their relationship, and who is at least 18 years of age. That person must provide documentary evidence of their current name, age and, where applicable, Australian citizenship or permanent residence. The form asks the witness to state how they know the couple and how often they have been in contact with them, and then to state whether they believe the relationship to be genuine and continuing and to give their reasons. It is signed and dated by the witness, and the witness acknowledges that it is an offence under section 234 of the Migration Act 1958 to make a false statement in connection with a visa application.

Two points follow that are routinely misunderstood. The first is that the current Form 888 is not described by the Department as a statutory declaration and does not need to be made before an authorised witness. The second is that the number of supporting statements is not fixed at the outset. The form itself warns that a witness may be asked to provide up to three separate statements during processing, and that the witness may be contacted for further comment or for an interview.

The practical consequence for the couple's own statement is that it should not do the witness's job. A relationship statement that says "our friends all know we are together" is weaker than a relationship statement that names the friends, says how each of them knows the couple and what each has seen, and is filed alongside Form 888 statements from those same people saying the same thing in their own words. The couple's statement and the supporting statements should corroborate each other on facts, not echo each other in phrasing.

What mistakes damage a partner visa relationship statement?

The single most damaging mistake is a statement that contradicts the application form. The application form asks for the date the couple first met in person, the date they committed to a shared life together to the exclusion of all others, and whether they have lived separately and apart for any period since that date. Those answers sit in the Department's system. A statement that gives a different date, or that describes a separation the form does not disclose, creates an inconsistency the delegate must resolve, and the delegate is not obliged to resolve it charitably. Check every date in the statement against the form before lodging.

The other recurring failures are these.

• Two statements written by one person. Where the applicant's statement and the sponsor's statement share whole sentences, the delegate reads one voice pretending to be two. Each partner must write their own, and the two will naturally remember different details of the same events. That difference is a strength, not a risk, provided the dates agree.
• Claims the documents do not support. If the statement says the couple have lived together since a given month, and the first joint document is dated a year later, the statement must explain the gap rather than leave it. Every factual claim should be traceable to something on the file.
• Silence about the difficult parts. Previous marriages, an earlier de facto relationship, a previous partner visa sponsorship, a period without a substantive visa, a refusal or cancellation history, a large age difference, an arranged introduction. The Department holds its own records and will see these. A statement that deals with them calmly and factually is far stronger than one that hopes they will not come up. Where the sponsor has sponsored a partner before, the separate sponsorship limitation rules may also apply, and the statement should be written with that in mind.
• Feeling in place of fact. Paragraphs about how much the couple love each other are not evidence of any of the four matters. They occupy space that dates, addresses and decisions should occupy.
• A statement that is never updated. A partner visa is decided on the circumstances at the time of decision, and processing can run for a long time. If the couple move house, marry, have a child, separate for a period or change their financial arrangements, the Department should be told. An applicant also undertakes, in the application itself, to inform the Department if the relationship breaks down before the application is decided.

There is a further reason for accuracy. Public Interest Criterion 4020 allows a visa to be refused where false or misleading information is given in relation to an application, and a refusal on that ground can bar a further application for a period. Overstating a relationship in a written statement is not a small risk. The honest version of a difficult fact is always the safer document.

What changes at the second stage, for the Subclass 801 and Subclass 100?

At the second stage the couple provide a fresh statement covering the period since the first application was made, rather than a copy of the statement already on the file. The temporary visa is the first half of a two stage process. The permanent Subclass 801 or Subclass 100 visa is assessed later, and the Department's own material describes that assessment as usually occurring about two years after the partner visa application was made.

The second stage statement is often written badly because the couple assume the hard work is done. It is not. The decision maker is assessing whether the relationship remained genuine and continuing across the intervening period, so the statement should carry the chronology forward. New addresses, changes in the financial arrangement, the birth or care of children, travel taken together, difficulties faced and how the couple dealt with them. Where the relationship has changed form, for example where a de facto couple have since married, say so and provide the certificate.

Some applicants are eligible for the permanent visa without the usual two year wait. The Department's application material sets out the grounds, which include the couple having been in the relationship for three years or more at the time of application, or two years or more where there is a dependent child of the relationship, and cases where the sponsor was granted a protection visa or another permanent visa under the humanitarian programme and the relationship was declared before that grant. If one of those applies, the second stage statement should identify it expressly, with the evidence attached.

Where the relationship has ended, the position is different again and more urgent. There are limited circumstances in which a partner visa application can continue after a relationship ends, including where the applicant has suffered family violence by the sponsor, where the sponsor has died, or where there are children of the relationship. Those pathways have their own evidentiary requirements, and the family violence provisions in particular should not be approached without advice.

How My Migration Lawyers prepares a partner visa relationship statement

My Migration Lawyers treats the relationship statement as evidence rather than as writing, which changes how the work is done. The account in the statement belongs to the client. The firm's role is to ask the questions the Migration Regulations ask, put the client's answers in an order a delegate can follow, and check every sentence in the finished statement against the documents actually held on the file.

In practice that means the following.

• The documents are read before any drafting begins, so that the statement is built on what the couple can prove rather than on what they remember.
• Each of the four matters in subregulation 1.15A(3) or 1.09A(3) is worked through separately, and any matter that is thin is identified early, while there is still time to obtain further evidence.
• Every date in the draft is checked against the dates already given in the application form, because inconsistency between the two is the most common avoidable weakness in a partner visa file.
• The applicant's statement and the sponsor's statement are prepared separately, in each person's own words, so that they corroborate each other without reading as a single document.
• Supporting witnesses are told what Form 888 actually asks of them, so their statements address how they know the couple and why they believe the relationship is genuine and continuing.
• The draft goes back to the client to read, correct and approve. The statement is the client's own evidence, and the client decides which matters are put forward and how they are expressed.

Partner visa matters at My Migration Lawyers are handled by Weiwei Zhang, Principal Lawyer. Consultations are held by video and the firm acts for couples across Australia and overseas. If an application has already been refused, the statement usually needs to be rebuilt rather than resubmitted, and time limits for review are short and strictly applied. You can request a consultation online and a lawyer will reply by email.