Partner Visa 309 vs 820 for Indians: Offshore and Onshore Pathways Explained

Two pathways to the same visa: offshore (309→100) and onshore (820→801)

Australia's partner visa comes in two linked stages, and which pair you apply for depends on where you're living, not on your relationship type. If you're the partner of an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen and you're outside Australia when you apply, the pathway is offshore: Partner (Provisional) subclass 309, followed by Partner (Migrant) subclass 100 once assessed for permanent residence. In general terms, eligibility for the permanent stage opens two years after the original application is lodged (explanatory statement to the Migration Amendment (Location Requirements for Grant of Visa) Regulations 2023, F2023L01544, legislation.gov.au, accessed 25 July 2026). If you're already in Australia — on a student, work, or visitor visa, for example — the pathway is onshore: Partner (Temporary) subclass 820, followed by Partner (Permanent) subclass 801 on the same roughly two-year timetable.

Both pathways charge a single combined fee covering both stages — no separate charge applies when the permanent visa (100 or 801) is later assessed (Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026 (F2026L00874), Federal Register of Legislation, Schedule 1 items 1124B and 1129, accessed 15 July 2026).

Location matters when you lodge: you need to be outside Australia to apply for the 309, and inside Australia to apply for the 820. It matters much less at the end. Since 25 November 2023, the Migration Amendment (Location Requirements for Grant of Visa) Regulations 2023 allow both the 309 and the 820 to be granted while the applicant is in or outside Australia (though not in immigration clearance) — a change aimed at people who need to travel while a decision is pending. The permanent stages (100 and 801) already allowed grant in or outside Australia (F2023L01544, legislation.gov.au, accessed 25 July 2026).

Married or de facto: the evidence pathway that applies to you

Both routes accept marriage or a de facto relationship, and the starting evidentiary requirement differs.

Married couples can generally apply at any point after the wedding; the Regulations set no minimum cohabitation period before lodging, since a registered marriage certificate itself establishes the legal relationship. Home Affairs separately assesses whether the marriage is genuine and continuing, and — for Hindu marriages specifically — whether the required essential ceremonies were performed, since registration alone doesn't make an otherwise-invalid marriage valid under the Hindu Marriage Act (Australian High Commission, New Delhi, "Getting married in India" guidance, accessed 15 July 2026).

De facto couples generally need to show the relationship has existed for at least 12 months immediately before lodging. That 12-month requirement is set by regulation 2.03A(3) of the Migration Regulations 1994 — reg 1.09A instead lists the evidentiary factors, not a duration rule (Migration Regulations 1994 reg 2.03A, legislation.gov.au, accessed 25 July 2026). Two published exceptions can remove that requirement: registering the relationship with an Australian state or territory relationship register — available in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, but not WA or the NT — which waives the 12-month rule once registered (reg 2.03A(5)); or "compelling and compassionate circumstances", most commonly a child of the relationship, accepted case by case (reg 2.03A(3)(b)). Registering a relationship satisfies this one eligibility criterion; it doesn't itself grant a visa.

The four evidence pillars — and how arranged marriages fit

Whichever pathway applies, Home Affairs assesses the same four categories of evidence for a "genuine and continuing" relationship — these four are set out verbatim in reg 1.09A(3)(a)–(d) of the Migration Regulations 1994 (legislation.gov.au, accessed 17 July 2026):

• Financial aspects — shared income, joint bank accounts, joint loans or leases, shared bills
• Nature of the household — a shared address, division of domestic responsibilities, joint ownership or lease of the home
• Social aspects — being known as a couple by family and friends, joint social activities, how the relationship is presented publicly
• Nature of commitment — the couple's long-term plans and evidence of an intention to live together permanently

Arranged marriages are assessed under the same framework. Nothing in the criteria requires a courtship of any particular shape, so cultural or family-led marriage formation doesn't change the four evidence categories — but it does change what typical evidence looks like. A couple who married through family arrangement, with a shorter courtship or without an extensive shared history of travel or messaging before the wedding, is still assessed against the same four pillars; the practical gap most often shows up in the financial and social categories, since the evidence Home Affairs commonly sees by default — years of joint travel, long message threads — may not exist yet for a recently arranged marriage. Personal statements describing how the marriage was arranged and has developed since, plus corroborating letters from family and community members, are the commonly used substitutes.

309/100 vs 820/801 at a glance

(Grant-location rules: F2023L01544, legislation.gov.au. Medicare eligibility: Services Australia, "Enrolling in Medicare", accessed 25 July 2026.)

Fees and processing times

(Fees: Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026 (F2026L00874), Federal Register of Legislation — verified directly against the instrument text. Processing percentiles: Department of Home Affairs global visa processing times (official processing-times service, retrieved 17 July 2026) — 50th/90th percentile figures for each subclass.)

The roughly two-year wait before the permanent stage becomes eligible for assessment sits on top of the temporary-stage time above — total elapsed time from lodgement to a permanent grant is generally the temporary-stage time plus the permanent-stage time, not either figure alone.

For scale in rupees: AUD $11,710 was roughly ₹7.5–8 lakh at mid-2026 exchange rates — a figure that moves daily, so check the current rate before budgeting. Partner visas are also one of the larger categories in Australia's Migration Program: 2026-27 planning levels allocate 41,500 places nationally, up from 40,500 in 2025-26 (Department of Home Affairs, permanent Migration Program planning levels, immi.homeaffairs.gov.au, accessed 17 July 2026 — see this site's offshore vs onshore migration program guide).

Sponsorship limits, health and character requirements

A sponsor can generally be approved for a maximum of two partner visa sponsorships in their lifetime, with a five-year gap generally required between sponsorships, measured from the date the earlier application was lodged — and the limit does not apply if that earlier visa was never granted (Migration Regulations 1994, reg 1.20J, legislation.gov.au, accessed 17 July 2026). Someone previously sponsored on a partner visa faces the same five-year gap before sponsoring someone new. Home Affairs can waive these limits where there are "compelling circumstances affecting the sponsor" — which is the test reg 1.20J(2) actually sets. The commonly-cited examples — a shared dependent child, an earlier partner's death, or an earlier partner abandoning the sponsor with dependent children — come from the Department's own policy guidance (Procedures Advice Manual, PAM3), not from the Regulations themselves (Migration Regulations 1994, reg 1.20J(2); departmental policy guidance, accessed 17 July 2026).

Partner visa applicants are assessed under Public Interest Criterion 4007, which — because it applies to a visa leading to permanent residence — allows Home Affairs to consider a health waiver in some circumstances, unlike the non-waivable PIC 4005 used for many temporary-only visas (Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 4, legislation.gov.au). The assessment weighs whether a condition is likely to result in a "significant cost" to Australia's health and community services, against a Significant Cost Threshold currently set at AUD 86,000, generally assessed over five years (three if the applicant is 75+), or up to ten years for a permanent condition with a predictable course (Department of Home Affairs, "Protecting health care and community services" guidance, immi.homeaffairs.gov.au).

Character and integrity checks round out the criteria. Applicants are generally asked for police certificates from every country they've lived in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years (Department of Home Affairs character requirements, immi.homeaffairs.gov.au). A separate criterion, PIC 4020, deals with the integrity of the application itself: no false or misleading information and no bogus documents, in the current visa application or an earlier one (Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 4, legislation.gov.au).

Work rights and Medicare while you wait

An 820 application generally comes with an associated Bridging Visa A, which doesn't take effect until the applicant's current substantive visa expires; whether a bridging visa lets the applicant work depends on the conditions attached to that particular grant — the grant letter and VEVO are what count, though bridging visas issued with partner applications commonly carry no work restriction (Department of Home Affairs, Bridging Visa A, immi.homeaffairs.gov.au). Onshore applicants can also generally enrol in Medicare once the 820 application is lodged, since Medicare enrolment is open to people living in Australia who have applied for permanent residency (Services Australia, "Enrolling in Medicare", accessed 25 July 2026) — see Medicare, OSHC or OVHC by visa subclass for how that interacts with the Medicare Levy Surcharge once granted. Offshore 309 applicants have no Australian work rights or Medicare access while processing, since they're not in Australia; full work and study rights and Medicare eligibility apply once the 309 is granted and the applicant enters.

The prospective marriage visa 300 — an alternative starting point

For couples who are engaged but not yet married, and who don't separately meet the de facto threshold, the Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) is a published alternative starting point. Its criteria require the applicant to be outside Australia when applying, to have an eligible sponsor, to intend to marry the sponsor within the visa's validity period, to have met the sponsor in person as adults, and to meet the same health and character requirements as 309/820 (Department of Home Affairs, Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) page, verified via archived copy 25 July 2026). Validity is 9 to 15 months from the date of grant, per the individual grant letter, and the marriage needs to happen within that window for the visa to convert into a basis for the onshore 820/801 pathway (Department of Home Affairs, subclass 300 page, verified via archived copy 25 July 2026).

The subclass 300 primary applicant charge is $11,710 from 1 July 2026 — the same base charge as 309/100 and 820/801 (Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026 (F2026L00874), Federal Register of Legislation, Schedule 1 item 1215). If the couple marries and applies for 820/801 before the 300 expires, a reduced charge applies to that second application — $1,955 for the primary applicant, $980 per adult dependant and $485 per child (F2026L00874, Schedule 1 item 1124B: the discounted tier for a Prospective Marriage visa holder who has married the person specified as their intended spouse).

India-specific: registering the marriage, legalising documents, and VFS Global

Getting married in India for an Australian partner visa runs through Indian law, not Australian law — the Australian High Commission in New Delhi does not conduct or register marriages (Australian High Commission, New Delhi, accessed 15 July 2026). Three Indian statutes commonly apply by religion: the Hindu Marriage Act (Hindu, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist couples — a non-Hindu partner generally needs to convert first), the Christian Marriage Act (a ceremony by a minister following posted banns, or a registrar following a notice period), and the Special Marriage Act 1954, generally used for interfaith marriages, requiring a 30-day notice, affidavits and police residency verification before a registrar can solemnise it (Australian High Commission, New Delhi, "Getting married in India" guidance, accessed 15 July 2026). Registration under the Hindu Marriage Act isn't legally compulsory and doesn't itself validate a marriage that skipped the required ceremonies — but a registered certificate from the relevant State Registrar of Marriages is the standard evidence for a partner visa application (Australian High Commission, New Delhi, accessed 15 July 2026).

Non-English documents — marriage certificates, birth certificates, police clearances — need certified translation. Home Affairs' published guidance points to translators accredited by NAATI for translations completed in Australia; translations done overseas generally need the translator's name, qualifications and contact details on the document (Department of Home Affairs translation guidance; NAATI). Apostille is a separate step: India has been a Hague Apostille Convention member since 2005, and the Ministry of External Affairs is the sole apostille authority for Indian public documents including marriage certificates, via state home department attestation followed by MEA apostille — a process that commonly takes several weeks via the standard route (mea.gov.in, accessed 15 July 2026). Whether an individual case officer requires an apostilled certificate specifically, versus a certified copy, varies case by case.

VFS Global runs Australia's visa application and biometrics collection centres — the Australian High Commission's own guidance directs applicants to VFS Global's websites to find the nearest collection centre (Australian High Commission, New Delhi, "Biometrics" page, accessed 25 July 2026). Biometrics collection is country-dependent, though: that same New Delhi "Biometrics" page lists Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal as the countries in this region currently inside the formal in-country program, and does not list India — meaning Indian applicants aren't automatically required to give fingerprints and a photo at a VFS Global centre the way those three countries' applicants are, though Home Affairs can still request biometrics case by case. This is narrower than several migration-adviser blogs describe for India, so it's worth checking your own visa correspondence rather than assuming it's mandatory by default.

Where this fits with the rest of your move

This guide describes the published structure, fees and evidence criteria for Australia's partner visa pathways — it is general information, not advice on an individual's eligibility for any specific visa, which only a registered migration agent or immigration lawyer can properly assess. For the fee increase context behind the $11,710 figure, see Australian visa fees from 1 July 2026. For health cover once a partner visa is lodged or granted, see Medicare, OSHC or OVHC by visa subclass. And for the practical sequence of setting up bank accounts, a TFN and Medicare once you arrive, see your first 30 days in Australia.