Australian Partner Visas – What if you’re still married?

To successfully apply for an Australian Partner Visa, you cannot be still involved in a relationship with someone else. Of course you can HAVE previous relationships and ex-wives or ex-husbands, but the must BE “ex’s”! Previous relationships must be well and truly over, and your new relationship with your Australian sponsor must be exclusive, ie “to the exclusion of all others”.

Subclass 309 Offshore Partner Visa

Subclass 820 Onshore Partner Visa

That “to the exclusion of all others” rule applies to all Australian Partner Visa applications, regardless of which one and by which option you apply for. 

How can you apply for an Australian Partner Visa? Do you have to marry?

Again, you must be in a committed and exclusive relationship with an Australian man or woman to even LOOK at Australian Partner Visa options. 

Sound obvious? Well, many get that one wrong……so I’m here to explain.

If you are boyfriend and girlfriend only, or if you are not get ready to commit? Then WAIT A WHILE! At this stage at least, no…..Australian Partner Visas are not for you. 

If you were thinking of trying out living together to see if you feel committed later? No, this is still not the visa for you. 

If you’re thinking that this could be a great option to swap some intimacy and some housework in exchange for freedom from poverty? Or that swapping taking care of you and your health/age problems in exchange for an escape from poverty would be OK? Again, this is still not the visa option for you at all!

Australian Partner Visas and Marriage

This is the most common and the most obvious option for committed couples in love! This is what Australian Filipino couples do. Marriage is alive and well, and most couples see it as the way they want to live. This applies as well as Australian Thai couples, Australian Vietnamese couples and Australian Cambodian couples. But it can be more challenging for Australian Filipino couples especially when she’s still legally married!

So yes, you can marry (IF legally-free to marry!). And if you apply for an Australian Partner Visa based on marriage, then you must be married to each other BEFORE the visa will be granted. 

If you’re not married but intend to marry in Australia, there is a Prospective Marriage Visa aka PMV (Subclass 300) option for you! (NOTE: a PMV is for marrying…..not for applying as a de facto couple!)

Otherwise? 

• Subclass 309 Offshore Partner Visa for those who lodge the visa application OUTSIDE Australia. 
• Subclass 820 Onshore Partner Visa for those who lodge the visa application INSIDE Australia.

Where should you marry? Which is best?

You can marry anywhere you like, as long as it’s a legal marriage in the country where the wedding took place! Thailand has some ceremonial Buddhist wedding ceremonies where the couple may forget to register the wedding at the Government District Office! Other than that? Australia recognizes weddings that are legal in the countries where they took place. No polygamous marriages. No underage marriages. No marrying close relatives. No forced marriages.

The Department don’t care where you marry! No option is preferred by the Department!

But please do look at the practicality as well as individual wishes. Some countries (like the Philippines) are bound by red tape and trying to marry in less than a month is both difficult and stressful. If you only have a week off work, don’t try to rush a wedding through!

Australian Partner Visas – Applicant (OR Sponsor) is still legally married!

Don’t bother telling me “Oh, the man she married disappeared a week after the wedding” or “….but he never supported the kids” or anything about him being a worthless drunk, drug addict, wife-beater and/or a lazy useless pile of flesh! If they were legally married and are still legally married, then she remains legally married unless this marriage was legally dissolved!

Get a legal divorce (if in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia), or get a legal annulment (if in the Philippines)!

Special Issues in the Philippines

There are two countries in the world which still do not have legal divorce. Vatican City and the Philippines. 

And before you say “Oh, I hear the laws will soon change” please trust me when i tell you that a bill goes before Congress every few years and has always been soundly defeated. Don’t hold your breath waiting on that happening soon! 

So no “No Fault Divorce” in the Philippines in February 2025. 

The Philippines has annulments, which I won’t explain in depth here.

Just understand that it’s:

• Expensive

• Takes a year or more to do….sometimes 3 or 4 years

• Requires lots of court appearances and other work to be done

• The outcome is not a certainty

• And it means you won’t be together in Australia and in marital bliss anytime soon!

What if you don’t want to marry…..or can’t marry?

Some couples have issues around marrying. They don’t believe in marriage and don’t want to do it.

Others? Faced with annulments or complicated divorces (sponsor usually!) they decide to look at the de facto option.

De Facto Relationships

NOT the lazy-mans-alternative-to-marriage! NOT just living together! And NOT something you can apply-for because you “feel in your heart” that you are a de facto couple!

• Still requires the same level of commitment to each other and to a permanent relationship that is to the exclusion of all others!

• Need to be in a shared-life relationship for *12 months or more BEFORE applying

• *NOTE this MAY be shortened to around 6 months IF you are in a state that allows Registered Relationships (through the state Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages) and IF neither of you is still legally married to someone else!

• Need to have moved in together and set up a proper household (ie not just stayed in resorts!) from the start of that 12 months

• MAY have time not under the same roof during the 12 months if this was basically unavoidable, as long as the de facto relationship continues when physically apart

• Requires lots of evidence of a shared-life relationship

• And there is NO option to get a partner visa for a de facto relationship that you haven’t already started!

What if you CANNOT marry, but have not lived together?

Good question! And a very common scenario!

Not everyone is ready. Not everyone is prepared. And couples DO fall in love where one of them (or sometimes both of them) is still legally married to someone else. They want to be together, yet the thought of waiting for years for an annulment is far from appealing! The older you get, the more you’re aware of your time limitations. And when you meet that special someone, you want as many years together as you can get! 

So what do you do?

And more importantly? What can these wonderful people at Down Under Visa do to bring you together sooner rather than later?

Yes, we’re not new to this situation. And we manage 200+ Australian Partner Visa applications every year, with MANY of them having not lived together! 

Not going to explain it all here. This isn’t a “how to do it yourself?” article. If this is your situation and you need help, then talk to us and we will advise you accordingly. Rest assured we are VERY good at this, and can help you develop a genuine de facto relationship as well as manage your Australian Partner Visa application for you.

It starts with getting a FREE VISA ASSESSMENT HERE

Jeff Harvie is a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 0959797) from Australia, but resident in Philippines since 2010 with his Filipina wife Mila and large extended family. Experienced with the Philippines culture, cross-cultural relationships and bureaucracy as well as Australian visas and Australian Migration Law, he writes with authority and fortunately with enough informality and humour that the average Aussie gets it! Down Under Visa specialises in visas for Australians in relationships with ladies and gents from Philippines, Thailand, China and Vietnam. Read MORE