Offshore partner visa options
If you are looking to sponsor your partner to come to Australia, or looking to move to Australia to be with your partner, you have several visa options to consider. Unfortunately, applicants from many countries around the world struggle or are ineligible to obtain short term visas (such as Visitor visas, Student visas, Working Holiday visas) which then allow them to make a partner visa application onshore. Even if they do get something like a Visitor visa, often a ‘no further stay’ condition will be put on it which prevents a partner visa application being made. In those circumstances, the only option is to apply for an offshore partner visa.
Option 1 - Offshore partner (subclass 309) visa (standard route)
The standard offshore partner visa option works well if you have been with your partner for a significant period. You will need to establish that you are in a genuine and continuing relationship, that you have a mutual commitment to the exclusion of all others and that you do not live permanently apart (genuine relationship). You will need establish the foregoing at the time of application and the time of decision (for married couples) and 1 year before the time of application, the time of application and the time of decision (for de facto couples). In order to do this, you will need to have significant financial evidence, household evidence, social evidence and commitment evidence. Things like bank statements showing how you share day-to-day expenses, lease agreements, photos and witness statements are good evidence. In my experience, if a couple are in a genuine relationship, I can always find enough evidence.
Once you have lodged this partner visa, it is much easier in practice to bring your partner to Australia on a Visitor visa. This is because your partner will have to leave Australia in order to be granted the partner visa which is persuasive evidence that they fulfil the genuine temporary entrant requirement.
Option 2 - Offshore partner (subclass 309) visa (intended spouse route)
The intended spouse route works well if you are intending to marry your partner and you do not have much evidence of your relationship at the time of application. In essence, it removes the time of application requirement from the stand route option, you only have to establish you are in a genuine relationship at the time of decision. Technically, you do not need to have met your partner in person at the time of application in order to be eligible for an intended spouse partner visa.
The downside to the intended spouse route is that you have to get married before the partner visa can be granted, you are ineligible if you fail to do so. Another downside is the risk involved, if you and your partner are separated for long periods of time (due to not being able to get Visitor visas for example) it will become difficult to establish that you are in a genuine relationship at the time of decision.
Option 3 - Prospective marriage (subclass 300) visa
In essence, to be eligible for this visa, you must intend to marry your partner and you must have met them in person. This visa is designed to take into account arranged marriages and traditional marriages where the bride and groom may not have had much to do with each other prior to the wedding. The benefit of this visa as opposed to the intended spouse partner visa is that is easier to obtain a prospective marriage visa and they are processed quicker on average. There is more certainty about your partner receiving a visa and being able to travel to Australia. The downside is that there is an additional cost and you must get married once your partner arrives in Australia.