Subclass 801 — Partner visa (onshore, permanent)

Eligibility snapshot

General information only — not immigration assistance or legal advice. The subclass 801 is the permanent stage of Australia's onshore partner pathway. In general terms, it is not a fresh, standalone application: most people reach it because they earlier lodged a combined onshore partner application that covered both the provisional (820) and permanent (801) stages at once, and were granted the provisional 820 visa while the permanent stage stayed pending. Broadly, the permanent stage is concerned with whether the partner relationship has continued to be genuine and ongoing over time, rather than re-testing the relationship from scratch. Typically the department begins assessing the 801 stage some time after the original lodgement — commonly described as around the two-year mark — and at that point the applicant is usually asked to supply updated evidence about the relationship. The sponsoring partner (generally an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen) usually remains part of the picture at this stage. As with most permanent visas, character and other standard requirements can be relevant, and an applicant's individual history matters. Exact criteria, relationship-evidence expectations, and any time thresholds change and depend heavily on personal circumstances, so check the official Home Affairs page for current requirements, and a registered practitioner can advise on how the rules apply to a specific situation.

Costs

General information only — not immigration assistance or legal advice. For the subclass 801 permanent stage there is typically no separate government Visa Application Charge: the charge for the combined onshore partner application is generally paid up front at the provisional (820) stage, and the permanent stage is assessed under that original payment. In other words, reaching the 801 stage usually does not mean paying a fresh visa charge for the visa itself. The Visa Application Charge is a government charge set by the Department of Home Affairs. It is separate from, and must always be read as distinct from, any platform fees or fees charged by a registered practitioner. Because charges change over time and depend on circumstances, the current amounts — and any reduced rates that may apply to certain applicants — are published on the official Home Affairs page; the department's online fee estimator is the reliable place to confirm what applies. Additional applicants included in the original combined application (for example, eligible dependent family members) can affect the overall charge, which is generally settled at the earlier provisional stage. Beyond the government charge, applicants typically budget for ancillary costs that can arise around the permanent stage, such as obtaining police or character documents from relevant countries, any health-related requirements if requested, certified copies or translations of documents, and the cost of professional help if a registered practitioner is engaged. These ancillary amounts vary, so treat the official estimator and a practitioner as the sources of truth for current figures.

Common questions