Before grant · preparationGuide record · 3 October 2026

How to apply for a Prospective Marriage visa: the ImmiAccount application, step by step, for the applicant and the sponsor

Applications for the Prospective Marriage visa are best prepared and lodged by an Australian migration lawyer, who handles both the applicant's application and the sponsor's sponsorship; the steps below show what that work involves. The page on subclass 300 legal help explains how that help works.

A Prospective Marriage visa application is lodged online in ImmiAccount from outside Australia, using the 'Stage 1 – Partner or Prospective Marriage Visa' form, and is not processed until the AUD 11,710 charge (from 1 July 2026) is paid.
After payment, Home Affairs directs the applicant to give the sponsor the Transaction Reference Number (TRN) for the free online sponsorship application.
Home Affairs allows up to 100 documents per person: both sets are gathered before starting, as colour scans with no certification needed.
Home Affairs processing data at 3 October 2026 shows half of recent applications decided within 14 months and 90% within 26 months.
The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page says to await written grant before booking travel; the charge is not refunded on refusal.

A partner visa with Australian Migration Lawyers usually costs $14,000 plus GST in professional fees, separate from the Home Affairs visa application charges.

Before you apply: check the requirements and gather the documents

Under Schedule 1 item 1215(3)(b) of the Migration Regulations 1994, the applicant and every family member applying must be outside Australia when applying. The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page, updated 10 August 2026, sets a limit of up to 100 documents per person.

Whether both of you qualify, from meeting in person since turning 18 to the sponsor's status, is set out under Prospective Marriage visa requirements on the homepage.

Every document, split between the applicant and the sponsor, is on the Prospective Marriage visa checklist, with what each one proves and how long it stays valid.

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page tells the sponsor to apply “as soon as possible” after the applicant lodges, so collect both sets of documents together.

Application at a glance

Important: Under section 280 of the Migration Act 1958, a person without registration or an exemption cannot lawfully give immigration assistance. Unlike a practising Australian lawyer, an unregistered agent is not required to carry professional indemnity insurance; if a filing error costs a visa charge, there may be no insurer to claim against.

How to apply for a Prospective Marriage visa in ImmiAccount

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page, updated 10 August 2026, gives this applicant sequence:

1. Applicant · Account: log in to ImmiAccount or create an account.
2. Applicant · Application category: select New application → Family.
3. Applicant · Form: select Stage 1 – Partner or Prospective Marriage Visa and complete it.
4. Applicant · Documents: attach up to 100 documents per person, using readable colour scans and attaching each document once.
5. Applicant · Payment: pay the visa application charge.
6. Applicant · Handover: note the TRN and give it, or the application ID, to the sponsor.

The applicant and sponsor sequence

A dash means there is nothing to do in that lane at that step.

Source: Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page, applicant and sponsor ‘Step by step’ tabs, updated 10 August 2026; charge under Migration Regulations 1994 Schedule 1 item 1215, from 1 July 2026.

On a phone, read each numbered row in order: Applicant action first, then Sponsor action.

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page states: “We will not process your application until you pay.”

Under Migration Regulations 1994 Schedule 1 item 1215, the standard charges from 1 July 2026, confirmed in Home Affairs visa pricing at 3 October 2026, are:

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page says ImmiAccount automatically applies the concession where the main applicant holds a valid passport issued by a Pacific-regional country; accompanying family members receive the corresponding lower charge.

There is no ordinary subclass 300 PDF lodgement route: the application is online in ImmiAccount. The Home Affairs Partner visa FAQs, updated 25 September 2026, say paper applications are accepted only by invitation and an uninvited paper application is invalid.

The sponsor's part: the online sponsorship application

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page gives the sponsor three steps:

1. Sponsor · Reference: wait for the applicant’s TRN or application ID.
2. Sponsor · Online form: in your own or your partner’s ImmiAccount, select New application → Family → Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia.
3. Sponsor · Completion: complete the form using that reference and attach your documents and consent to disclose relevant-offence convictions.

According to the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page, the sponsor applies from inside or outside Australia and pays no sponsorship application charge. Under clause 300.222 of the Migration Regulations 1994, Home Affairs must approve the sponsorship, and it must still be in force when the visa is decided.

The old paper Form 40SP was no longer on the Home Affairs form listing at 3 October 2026; the sponsorship is lodged online.

The sponsor's own checks, the limit on earlier sponsorships and the undertaking are covered in the guide to the subclass 300 sponsorship application.

Uploading documents: limits, scans and translations

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page, updated 10 August 2026, gives these upload rules:

1. Limit: attach up to 100 documents for each person on the application. The limit cannot be increased; attach each document once and label it clearly.
2. Format: use readable colour scans or photos. Save a multi-page document as one file.
3. No certification: Home Affairs states, “You do not need to have any documents certified.”
4. Translations: attach every non-English document with its English translation, keeping the original and translation together. Translators in Australia must be NAATI-accredited. Translators outside Australia need not be accredited, but must state their name, address, telephone number, qualifications and experience on each translation.

If ImmiAccount will not accept an upload, the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page directs you to use the Partner Processing Enquiry Form.

Common application mistakes

• Paying for certified copies: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page says no documents need certification.
• Using a non-accredited translator in Australia: that page requires NAATI accreditation for translators working in Australia.
• Waiting for paper Form 40SP: Home Affairs directs the sponsor to lodge online using the applicant’s TRN or application ID.
• Lodging while in Australia: Migration Regulations 1994 Schedule 1 item 1215(3)(b) requires the applicant to be outside Australia.
• Booking flights before written grant: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page says not to arrange travel before written confirmation.

The supporting statements and relationship evidence

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page asks for:

1. Statements from two witnesses: each witness must be aged 18 or over, know both of you and know about your relationship. Home Affairs Form 888, ‘Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application’, can be used. An Australian citizen or permanent resident witness adds evidence of that status, such as a passport or birth certificate.
2. Your relationship evidence: documents showing you met face to face as adults since turning 18, genuinely intend to marry within the visa period and intend to live together as spouses, plus a written relationship history. Home Affairs gives “a letter from the person who will officiate at the wedding” as an example of marriage-intention evidence.

The marriage deadline is the visa period under clause 300.215 of the Migration Regulations 1994. Home Affairs’ document list still refers to marriage within nine months of grant, although clause 300.511 allows a visa period of nine to fifteen months; do not treat that document-list wording as the length of every grant.

How to prove each of those three criteria, and what Form 888 is and is not, is covered under Prospective Marriage visa evidence.

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page also asks the applicant to attach evidence of former relationships: divorce documents, death certificates, separation documents or statutory declarations.

Including children in a 300 application

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page identifies these forms for children and dependants:

1. Home Affairs Form 1436, ‘Adding an additional applicant after lodgement (Details and payment form)’: use it to add a dependent child who is outside Australia after lodgement but before the decision. Attach the form in ImmiAccount, then tell Home Affairs through the Partner Processing Enquiry Form.
2. Home Affairs Form 1229, ‘Consent to grant an Australian visa to a child under the age of 18 years’: anyone with a legal right to decide where the child lives who is not migrating completes it. Alternatively, provide an Australian court order or evidence that the child’s home-country law allows permanent departure.
3. Home Affairs Form 47A, ‘Details of child or other dependent family member aged 18 years or over’: provide it with dependence evidence for dependants aged 18–23 who depend on you or your partner, or those over 23 unable to support themselves because of a physical or cognitive limitation.

According to the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page, family-unit members included at lodgement must be outside Australia and meet health requirements; character requirements apply from age 16. Under Migration Regulations 1994 Schedule 1 item 1215, standard additional-applicant charges from 1 July 2026 are AUD 5,860 for each person aged 18 or over and AUD 2,935 for each person under 18, with the Pacific-regional concession shown above.

Child-addition deadline: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page permits adding a dependent child using Form 1436 only before the decision; nobody can be added after the visa is granted.

Under Migration Regulations 1994 clause 300.614 and Schedule 8, a family member’s visa carries condition 8520: the main holder must marry the named prospective spouse within the visa period.

If a baby is born after lodgement, tell Home Affairs, as its ‘You had a baby’ page explains.

Health checks, police certificates and biometrics after you lodge

1. Health examinations: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page requires health examinations for the applicant and family members applying. Results are valid for 12 months from the examination; a health undertaking, if required, is valid for six months. The Home Affairs ‘What health examinations you need’ page explains the examination requirements.

2. Police certificates and Form 80: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page requires an AFP complete-disclosure National Police Certificate if you spent at least 12 months in Australia in the last ten years since turning 16, and overseas certificates from every country where you lived for at least 12 months in that period. Attach military records if you served, and Home Affairs Form 80, ‘Personal particulars for assessment including character assessment’. Certificates are valid for 12 months from issue for immigration purposes. The AFP National Police Checks page lists AUD 57 per application, or AUD 114 if fingerprints are needed, as at 3 October 2026; Home Affairs’ character requirements page explains the broader requirement.

3. Biometrics: provide them only if Home Affairs asks. The Home Affairs biometrics page, updated 24 September 2026, identifies Australian Biometrics Collection Centres, run by VFS Global, and the Australian Immi App for eligible applicants. Centres charge a service fee, but Home Affairs does not publish an amount.

The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page allows police certificates to be obtained before applying, but advises checking processing times first: expired certificates or health results may be requested again before the decision.

Is there a subclass 300 visa interview?

Home Affairs publishes no interview step for the Prospective Marriage visa. Its Prospective Marriage visa page, updated 10 August 2026, describes lodgement, documents, health and police checks, biometrics if requested and a written decision, and says: “We might ask you to provide more information.” That published sequence does not establish whether an individual applicant will be interviewed.

Instead of preparing from an assumed interview-question list, keep your application evidence current: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page asks applicants to update documents and relationship evidence regularly through ImmiAccount because processing is long.

For the sponsor, the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page requires notification through the Partner Processing Enquiry Form as soon as possible if the relationship ends.

After you lodge: travel, updates and the decision letter

1. Waiting: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page and Partner visa FAQs say not to contact the Department while your application is within the standard processing time. Check the application’s status and whether all documents are attached in ImmiAccount.

   The current figures, and why the 300 sits in the lower-priority group under Ministerial Direction 117, are on the Prospective Marriage visa processing time page.

2. Travel while you wait: the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page says, “Do not arrange to travel to Australia until we let you know, in writing” that the visa is granted. If you visit on another visa while the application is pending, that page says you must continue holding a valid visa throughout your stay.

3. Tell Home Affairs about changes: report a birth and, especially, a marriage; the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page says marriage before the decision ends 300 eligibility and requires withdrawal with a request for consideration for the 309/100, otherwise the 300 is refused, with the legal mechanism in regulation 2.08E of the Migration Regulations 1994.

   The ImmiAccount steps and documents for that case are set out under Married before the Prospective Marriage visa is granted.

4. The decision letter: according to the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page, a grant letter gives the grant number, start date and conditions, including the first-entry date; a refusal letter gives the reasons and whether review is available. Under clause 300.412 of the Migration Regulations 1994, the applicant can be in or outside Australia at grant, but not in immigration clearance. Home Affairs says the application charge is not refunded on refusal.

Applying for a subclass 300: what an Australian migration lawyer checks before lodgement

Under section 280(3) of the Migration Act 1958, an Australian legal practitioner may give immigration assistance in connection with legal practice. The Home Affairs ‘Using a legal practitioner’ page, updated 30 September 2026, says the applicant remains responsible for accurate information.

A pre-lodgement review by an Australian migration lawyer can focus on three practical checks:

1. Application validity: check the selected form, the applicant’s and accompanying family members’ locations, and the online lodgement route against Migration Regulations 1994 Schedule 1 item 1215 and Home Affairs instructions. The Partner visa FAQs say an uninvited paper application is invalid.

2. The separate sponsorship: check the TRN handover, sponsorship documents and disclosure consent. Under clause 300.222 of the Migration Regulations 1994, sponsorship must be approved and remain in force at decision; required consent to disclose relevant-offence convictions is also a visa criterion.

3. Evidence before payment: check missing documents and consistency across the two applications before the standard AUD 11,710 main-applicant charge is paid, under Schedule 1 item 1215 from 1 July 2026. Home Affairs says there is no refund on refusal, and its processing data at 3 October 2026 shows half of recent decisions took up to 14 months.

These checks concern the form, location, sponsorship and supporting documents—not a prediction of the visa decision. Enquiries about an application go to an Australian migration lawyer.

Where is the Prospective Marriage visa application lodged?

Online in ImmiAccount, according to the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page. Its ‘Using a legal practitioner’ page says the applicant remains responsible for accurate information, which is why an Australian migration lawyer's review before lodgement matters; section 280(3) of the Migration Act 1958 permits Australian legal practitioners to give that assistance in connection with legal practice.

Is there a PDF application form for the subclass 300?

The application is online in ImmiAccount, according to the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page. The Partner visa FAQs, updated 25 September 2026, say paper lodgement is accepted only by invitation and an uninvited paper application is invalid.

Can the applicant visit Australia while the 300 is processed?

Yes, on another visa, provided it remains valid throughout the stay, according to the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page. Clause 300.412 of the Migration Regulations 1994 permits grant while the applicant is in Australia, but not in immigration clearance.

How do I change my relationship status in ImmiAccount?

For a marriage before the decision, the Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa page directs you to Update details → Change in situation. Attach the registered marriage certificate, a request to be considered for the 309/100 and a statement withdrawing the 300, then notify Home Affairs through the Partner Processing Enquiry Form.

Ask an Australian migration lawyer

An Australian migration lawyer can check the form, location, sponsorship and supporting documents before lodgement. The page on subclass 300 legal help explains how that help works, and the enquiry page is where to put your question to Australian Migration Lawyers.