Sponsor Eligibility

You must meet the following requirements to be eligible to sponsor an applicant for this visa.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to sponsor your fiancé, you must:

• be an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who wants to sponsor your fiancé as your partner to Australia
• generally be aged 18 years or over
• be known personally to your fiancé and have met as adults
• be free to marry your fiancé, with no impediment to your marriage.

Your parent or guardian must be your fiancé's sponsor if your fiancé is applying for this visa and you are all of the following:

• aged 16 or 17 years of age
• in Australia
• wish to sponsor your fiancé who is aged 18 years or over.

Your sponsoring parent or guardian must be an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen, and be aged 18 years or over.

New Zealand citizen eligibility

If you are an eligible New Zealand citizen who is sponsoring their partner, you must meet health and character requirements. The department will contact you to advise if you need to undertake health examinations and character checks.
See:
Health requirements
Character and penal clearance requirements

When you may not be eligible

You may not be able to sponsor your partner if any one of the following applies:

• you are not an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen
• you have previously sponsored two other partners for migration to Australia (including sponsorships you may have withdrawn where your former partner obtained permanent residence on family violence grounds)
• you have sponsored another partner within the last five (5) years
• you were sponsored for a partner visa as a partner yourself within the last five (5) years
• you are the holder of a Woman at Risk visa (Subclass 204).

If you have previously sponsored or been sponsored, you may still be permitted to sponsor your partner in compelling circumstances, such as:

• if your previous partner has died or abandoned the relationship leaving young children
• if your relationship with your current partner is long standing (i.e. five years or more)
• if you and your current partner have dependent children of your relationship.

Current and previous contributory parent category visa-holders

If you have been granted a contributory parent category visa on or after 1 July 2009, you are unable to sponsor your partner or fiancé for five (5) years from your visa grant date if you were in a married or de facto relationship with that person on or before the date you were granted the last contributory parent category visa. There are some exceptions to this limitation in compelling circumstances.

Best interests of the child

Where an applicant includes a dependent family member under 18 years of age in their application, there is requirement that there is no compelling reason to believe that the grant of the visa would not be in the best interests of that dependant. In order to assess this requirement, sponsors of children under 18 years of age are required to submit either an Australian National Police Check or foreign police certificate/s, depending on the sponsor’s circumstances. If the sponsor has spent a total of 12 months or more in Australia since turning sixteen years of age, the sponsor must provide an Australian National Police Check. If the sponsor has not spent a total of 12 months or more in Australia since turning sixteen years of age, the sponsor must provide police certificates from each country in which they have spent a total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning sixteen years of age.
See:
Family Member Eligibility
Stronger Measures for the Protection of Children
National Police Checks
Note: Sponsors required to submit a National Police Check must complete the National Police Check application form which is available from the Australian Federal Police website. Sponsors should use Code 33 at Question 1 on the form and include details of all names they have been known by. If an AFP Certificate is provided based on incorrect information, the department may request another certificate. Fingerprints are not required for National Police Checks.
See: Character Requirements Penal Clearance Certificates (233KB PDF file)

 

Before lodging an application, please read all related eligibility requirements.
See: Other eligibility