When sponsoring your partner, it is important to understand the circumstances which could affect your eligibility. Failure to address certain requirements may have serious implications for your application as the Department of Home Affairs may not necessarily understand your circumstances should your issues be left unaddressed. This would usually occur when both the applicant and their sponsor are too focused on meeting their relationship evidence requirement and they forget to consider the sponsor’s history.
Under all circumstances, the sponsor in a partner visa application must be at least 18 years of age where they are either an Australian permanent resident, Australian citizen, or an eligible New Zealand citizen. The sponsor is also subject to limitations (More info here) on the number of sponsorships they have previously lodged. Here are the three visa subclasses which you need to meet the partner visa sponsorship requirements:
- Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage Visa
- Subclass 820/801 Partner Visa (Onshore)
- Subclass 309/100 (Offshore)
What if the eligible sponsor has a conviction?
Like the visa applicant, the Australian Sponsor needs to meet the character requirements where the department has the discretion to approve a sponsorship even when the sponsor has been incarcerated. However, the department will refuse sponsorships should there be a conviction for a registrable offence.
Registrable offences are aimed at the protection of children, by applying additional scrutiny to sponsors who have convictions of child sex offences of other serious offences. The sponsor must provide police clearances of countries where they have resided for more than 12 months over the past 10 years.
Other offences committed in or outside of Australia will be taken into account such as:
- Violent offences including breaching restraining orders
- Harassment and stalking
- Firearms and other weapons charges
- Human trafficking
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Contact
Phone: +61 8 9329 6890
Address: Level 3, 12 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000
Email: [email protected]
