Including secondary applicants in your application

You can include the following secondary applicants in your visa application:

• your partner
• a dependent child of you or your partner
• a dependent relative of you or your partner.

Partner

A partner is your spouse or de facto partner (including same-sex partners).

Evidence to attach to your application
If you are legally married, you must include a certified copy of your marriage certificate issued by an official registry office. If you are in a de facto relationship, you must provide evidence to demonstrate that you have been in a genuine and ongoing relationship for the 12 months immediately before making the application, unless there are compelling reasons.
See: Fact sheet 35 One-Year Relationship Requirement

In all instances, you must include evidence that your relationship is genuine and continuing and you have a commitment to a shared life together. This may include:

Evidence of the history of your relationship
Both you and your partner should provide a statement including all of the following:

• how, when and where you first met
• how your relationship developed
• your domestic arrangements, that is, how you support each other financially, physically and emotionally and when this level of commitment began
• any periods of separation, when and why the separation occurred, for how long and how you maintained your relationship during the period of separation
• your future plans.

Note: Your statement does not need to be made on a statutory declaration form. Your statement or statutory declaration must, however, be signed by the author.

Evidence of a genuine and continuing relationship
There are four broad categories of evidence that you need to provide.

• financial aspects:
  • your living arrangements such as joint ownership of your house or joint names on a lease, correspondence addressed to both of you at the same address, joint responsibility for children
• social context:
  • evidence that you and your partner are generally accepted as a couple socially, such as joint invitations, evidence of common friends, assessments by your friends and family of your relationship, joint travel or joint participation in sporting, social or cultural activities
• your commitment:
  • knowledge of each other, intention that your relationship will be long term, through things such as the terms of your wills, and correspondence and phone accounts to show that contact was maintained during any periods of separation.

Dependent child

A dependent child is the child or stepchild, of the main applicant or the main applicant's partner. They must have legal responsibility for the child. The child must:

• not be married, engaged to be married or in a de facto relationship and
• be under 18
  or
• if they have turned 18, are wholly or substantially reliant on the main applicant, the main applicant's partner for their basic needs, or are incapacitated for work.

Note: You may include in your application a child that is born after you lodge your application but before your application is decided. Your child is automatically taken to have applied at birth and to have made a combined application with you.

Evidence to attach to your application
You will need to show evidence that the child is your or your partner's child or stepchild.

A stepchild is a child of your current partner or a child of your former partner when the child is under 18 years and you have a legal responsibility to care for that child (for example, when your former partner is deceased and you have legal custody of your former partner's child).

You should provide a certified copy of each child's birth certificate or adoption papers. If you have a stepchild, you should provide evidence that you have legal responsibility for that child.

Custody requirement

If your application includes a child under 18 years of age and the child's other parent is not migrating with you, or there is any other person who has the legal right to determine where the child can live, you will need to provide:

• evidence that the law of your home country permits the removal of the child to Australia.
  Example: Overseas court order granting you sole custody of the child
• evidence that each person who can lawfully determine where the child is to live consents to the grant of the visa. Such evidence must be either:
  • a statutory declaration or a legal document signed by the child's other parent (or any other person who can lawfully determine where the child shall live), consenting to the grant of the visa
  • evidence that the child's other parent is dead, such as a certified copy of the death certificate
• evidence that the grant of the visa would be consistent with any Australian child order in force in relation to the child.
  Example: Original or certified copy of the Australian Court order providing you with sole responsibility to decide where the child should live.

For a stepchild, you will need to provide evidence that you were in a partner relationship with the child's parent and that you have one of the following:

• a residence order in force for the child under the Australian Family Law Act 1975
• a specific issues order in force under the Australian Family Law Act 1975 giving you responsibility for the child's long-term or day-to-day care, welfare and development - known as a 'care order'
  or
• guardianship or custody, whether jointly or otherwise, under a Commonwealth, State or Territory law or a law in force in a foreign country.

Other dependent relatives

Other relatives of you or your partner may be considered in the application if they meet all of the following:

• they have no other relative able to care for them in their own country and they either:
• they are not currently married, engaged or in a de facto relationship
• they are usually resident in your household
• they rely on you for financial support for their basic needs
• you have supported them for a substantial period
• they rely on you more than any other person or source.

Example: an aged, unmarried relative.

Evidence to attach to your application

You must complete Form 47A for each dependant aged 18 years or over, whether they are migrating with you or not. You cannot lodge this form electronically. You must send the form and all supporting documentation by post or courier directly to the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre.
See: Form 47A Details of child or other dependent family member aged 18 years or over (248KB PDF file)

You will also need to provide:

• a certified copy of your relative's birth certificate and evidence of their relationship to you
• evidence that the relative resides in your household
• evidence that your relative has been dependent on you for at least the last 12 months
• if your relative is divorced or separated, evidence of their divorce or legal separation.

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