The Australian Government has removed discriminations against same-sex couples and their children effective 1 July 2009. For migration and citizenship purposes, same-sex couples and their children are now recognized as de facto partners with the same rights and responsibilities as opposite-sex de facto partners.

This affects any applications for Australia Spouse Visa (subclasses 309/100 and 820/801) and Interdependency visas (subclasses 310/100 and 826/814). Both the Australia Spouse Visa and the Interdependency visas will be replaced by the new Partner Visas. As such, these visa types will be closed to new applications from July 1st.

If you lodged an Australia Spouse visa or an Interdependency visa before the cut-off date and meet all the eligibility requirements, they you will be granted visas under the same classes for temporary and permanent stages of the application after July 1st. If you lodged the Australian spouse visa or Interdependency visa after July 1st and you meet all the eligibility requirements, then your application will be processed as an application for the new partner visa.

The new Partner Visas are for partners or fiances of Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents or eligible New Zealand citizens. It applies to people intending to get married, married (de jure) partners and de facto partners (for both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships).

There are three basic types of partner visas: temporary, permanent and prospective marriage visas. The subclasses differ for temporary and permanent partner visas, depending on the partner’s location at the time of the application.

The temporary partner visa (subclass 820 for on-shore partners or subclass 309 for offshore partners) is for the two-year period that shows that the relationship is still on-going. After such time, a permanent visa (subclass 801 for onshore partners and subclass 100 for offshore partners) may be granted.

The prospective marriage visa or subclass 300, on the other hand, is for overseas people planning to enter Australia to marry their fiance. The partner must be an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen.

About National Visas:

National Visas help people process their Australian visas.
Here is a visa type that is generally suitable for a person in a same-sex relationship with an Australian partner, which involves a mutual commitment to a shared life together.