The Genuine Relationship Test for Australian Partner Visas: What IMMI Actually Looks For

Section 5F defines a spouse as two people in a married relationship (the marriage must be valid under Australian law) who have a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others, where the relationship is genuine and continuing, and where they live together or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis.

Section 5CB defines a de facto? partner with the same elements, except instead of marriage you generally need to have been in the de facto? relationship for at least 12 months before applying. The 12-month rule is waived if you register your relationship with an Australian state or territory, or if there are compelling and compassionate circumstances such as a child of the relationship.

What good looks like.

• ✓A joint bank account with regular activity from both sides. Not opened a week before lodgement. Ideally six months or more of statements showing actual flow from both partners.
• ✓Shared major expenses with documentation. A rental bond in both names. A mortgage in both names. Joint insurance policies (health, car, home, contents). Utilities (electricity, gas, internet) in both names or in one name with the other clearly listed as resident.
• ✓Joint financial obligations. A car loan in both names. A shared credit card. A joint phone plan with both lines.
• ✓Treating each other as financial dependants. Joint tax declarations of dependant status. One of you listed as superannuation beneficiary on the other's super fund. One of you nominated as next-of-kin on insurance.
• ✓Money flowing between you that looks like shared life. Regular transfers between accounts that align with rent, groceries, bills. Even if you keep your main accounts separate.

What weak looks like.

• —A joint account opened two weeks before lodgement with $200 in it and no transactions.
• —A single shared streaming subscription as your only financial evidence.
• —"We split everything 50/50" stated in a declaration with no supporting documents.
• —Bank statements that show the joint account exists but no actual financial life happening in it.

What good looks like.

• ✓A lease in both names, or a mortgage in both names. Dated, signed, current.
• ✓Bills addressed to both of you at the same address over time. The longer the history of joint bills, the stronger.
• ✓Mail delivered to both of you at the same address from independent sources: banks, government departments, doctors, employers. Multiple senders is more convincing than five letters from the same bank.
• ✓Photos of the home you share, ideally with both your belongings visible (your work setup next to their hobby gear, their kid's drawings on your fridge, both your toothbrushes in the bathroom).
• ✓A statement of how household responsibilities are divided. Who cooks, who cleans, who deals with the garden, who looks after the pet. This goes in your written relationship statement.

What weak looks like.

• —Six bills addressed to one of you at the shared address, none to the other.
• —A lease that names only one of you, with the other added as "occupant" or with no documented arrangement at all.
• —A statutory declaration from your partner saying you live together, with no documentary support.
• —All your shared-household evidence dated in the three months before lodgement.

What good looks like.

• ✓Photos at events with friends, family, colleagues. Not posed studio shots. Real moments. Dated where possible. A spread across years if you have been together a while.
• ✓Joint invitations. Wedding invites addressed to both of you. Christmas cards from family addressed to "you and Sarah." Joint dinner-party invites. Joint baby shower invites.
• ✓Joint travel. Booking confirmations, boarding passes, accommodation in both names. Holidays together. Visits to each other's families.
• ✓Joint activities. Memberships to gyms, clubs, hobby groups in both your names. A photo at the same event year after year.
• ✓Statutory declarations from people who know you both as a couple. This is what Form 888? is for, and it is its own section below.
• ✓Social media that documents the relationship. Tagged photos, joint posts, your partner appearing in your feed regularly over time. Not curated for the application. Real history.

What weak looks like.

• —Twenty selfies of the two of you in the same coffee shop.
• —Ten Form 888? declarations all from people in one circle (all your partner's family, or all your friends).
• —Social media that only shows the two of you together starting six months before lodgement.
• —No evidence at all of you appearing in each other's family or friend circles.

What good looks like.

• ✓A relationship statement from each of you. Written in your own voices, not by a migration agent. Covering how you met, how the relationship developed, key milestones, your current life together, and your plans for the future.
• ✓Wills naming each other as beneficiary or executor.
• ✓Powers of attorney naming each other.
• ✓Next-of-kin and emergency contact designations on workplace records, medical records, school records (for children of the relationship).
• ✓Joint legal or financial arrangements. A joint business, joint property ownership, joint guardianship documents.
• ✓Long-term plans documented in some form: a savings goal, a house deposit account, written future plans you can show case officers.
• ✓Knowledge of each other's family demonstrated through specific evidence: trips taken to meet family, family events attended, photos with each other's parents and siblings.

What weak looks like.

• —Two declarations that read like they were written from the same template, sentence by sentence.
• —A statement of commitment with no specifics. "We love each other and intend to spend our lives together" without any of the details that make a real relationship visible.
• —No legal or administrative recognition of each other at all.

means not fabricated. Not entered into for migration purposes. Not a marriage of convenience.

means still ongoing at the time of decision, not just at the time of application. This is why IMMI? re-checks relationship evidence at the permanent stage (the 801 or 100) two years after lodgement. The relationship must still be genuine and ongoing then, not just when you applied.

All your evidence is dated in the months before lodgement

A case officer can see when a document was created or stamped. If every joint bill, every photo timestamp, every shared registration is dated in the three months before you applied, it looks like preparation for an application, not a record of a real relationship. The fix is to gather evidence dated across the full span of your relationship, even if some of it is less impressive than what you have produced recently.

One pillar is empty

The most common pattern is strong household and social evidence and almost nothing on financial. A case officer will not refuse on a single weak pillar, but they will issue a request for more information, which adds months. The fix is to ensure each of the four pillars has something solid in it, even if one is thinner than the others.

Form 888 declarations are all from one side

If all your witness declarations are from the Australian partner's family and friends, the case officer sees a relationship that is only validated by one side. Aim for a mix: some from the applicant's side, some from the sponsor's side, some from people who know you as a couple independently of either family.

Generic relationship statements written by an agent

Case officers read thousands of these. They can tell the difference between a real personal statement and a template. The fix is to write your own, in your own voice, with specific stories nobody else could tell about your relationship. Get an agent to review it for legal soundness if you want, but do not let an agent write it.

No explanation of gaps or oddities

Every relationship has gaps and oddities. Long periods apart for work. A failed prior marriage. A child from a previous relationship. A weird timeline where you got engaged in the second month. Case officers do not need these to be tidy. They need them to be explained. The fix is to address the unusual things in your relationship statement directly, with context. Silence on an obvious oddity is what makes case officers suspicious.

Pillar one (financial), two (household), and three (social) are well covered. The application is in a strong position so long as pillar four (commitment) includes thoughtful relationship statements from each partner and at least some legal recognition (joint emergency contacts, wills if you have them, etc.). The common gap for couples in this shape is overconfidence in pillar four leading to thin written statements.

The de facto? 12-month rule applies. Either marry and avoid the rule entirely, or register the relationship with a state or territory (NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, ACT, Tas all have registries; WA and NT do not), or wait until you cross the 12-month mark. Without one of those, the application will not satisfy the de facto? definition.

Pillar two (household) is the hard one. The relationship has to show ongoing presence in each other's lives across distance: regular visits documented, video calls, plans to live together once the visa is granted. The relationship statement carries more weight here because the documentary evidence on cohabitation is necessarily thinner. Couples in this shape often apply through the 309 offshore path, which suits the geography.

The child's presence strengthens the application, both as evidence of a real family unit and through the best-interests-of-the-child consideration that runs through Australian immigration law. Make the child visible in the evidence: school enrolment documents naming both partners as contacts, photos of family life, the child mentioned in both relationship statements as part of the household. The strongest commitment evidence often comes from how a couple parents together.

Registration waives the 12-month de facto? rule, so you can apply as soon as the registration is effective. The application will still need to show a genuine and continuing relationship across all four pillars. Registration is not a substitute for evidence; it is a way to clear the 12-month threshold.

What does Section 5CB of the Migration Act require?

Section 5CB defines a de facto? partner. The relationship must be genuine and continuing, the two people must have a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others, and they must live together or not live separately on a permanent basis. For most applicants, the de facto? relationship must have existed for at least 12 months before applying, unless the relationship is registered with an Australian state or territory or there are compelling circumstances.

How much evidence do I need for an Australian partner visa?

There is no fixed amount. IMMI? looks for evidence across four pillars: financial, household, social, and commitment. A strong application typically includes 20 to 40 documents covering all four pillars, plus a written relationship statement from each partner and at least two Form 888? declarations from people who know you as a couple. Quality matters more than quantity. A case officer would rather see five strong documents in each pillar than fifty weak ones.

What is Form 888 and who can fill it in?

Form 888? ('Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application') is the standard witness statement form used in partner visa applications. The declarant must be 18 or over, an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and must personally know both members of the couple. The form must be witnessed by a person authorised to witness statutory declarations under the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 (JPs, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, teachers, police officers, and many others). Important exception: applicants who do not hold a substantive visa? at the time of application (Schedule 3? applicants) cannot use Form 888?. IMMI? requires Commonwealth Statutory Declarations? from the Attorney-General's Department instead.

Do we need to be married to apply for a partner visa?

No. You can apply as a married couple or as de facto? partners. Married applicants do not need to satisfy the 12-month cohabitation rule that applies to de facto? couples. Married applicants still need to show the relationship is genuine and continuing across the four pillars. Marriage is not by itself proof of a genuine relationship.

Can I register my relationship to skip the 12-month de facto rule?

Yes, in most Australian states and territories. NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT, and Tasmania all have relationship registries that recognise de facto? relationships. Registration with one of these waives the 12-month cohabitation rule under regulation 2.03A. Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not have registries, so couples in those states cannot use this pathway.

What is the difference between the four pillars of relationship evidence?

The four pillars are listed in Regulation 1.15A of the Migration Regulations. Financial aspects look at whether you share economic life (joint accounts, shared bills, financial dependency). Nature of the household looks at whether you actually live together and how you divide household responsibilities. Social aspects look at whether you are known to your communities as a couple. Nature of commitment looks at long-term legal and personal recognition of each other (wills, next-of-kin, future plans).

How long should our relationship statements be?

Each partner should write 800 to 1,500 words in their own voice. Shorter than that often feels thin to case officers. Longer than that loses their attention. The strongest statements include specifics about how you met, how the relationship developed, the everyday rhythm of your current life, difficulties you have weathered together, and your plans for the future.

What if our evidence is mostly from the last few months before applying?

That is a known weakness. Case officers look at evidence dates. A strong application has evidence dated across the full span of the relationship, not just the period before lodgement. If your strong documentary evidence is recent, supplement it with the older evidence you do have (older photos, older text message exchanges, older travel records) and address the timeline in your relationship statement.

Does IMMI re-check our relationship at the permanent stage?

Yes. The permanent stage (801 onshore or 100 offshore) is assessed two years after the original lodgement, and IMMI? reviews whether the relationship is still genuine and continuing at that point. You will need to provide updated relationship evidence, fresh police certificates, and any changes to your household or family circumstances. Most permanent stages are granted relatively smoothly when the relationship is still ongoing and the documentation is current.