The Australian Government approved the Migration Amendment Bill on 28 November 2018 that will eventually suppress Family Violence especially on Partner Visa applicants.

For now, the Bill is not implemented yet and has to pass the Governor General's Royal Assent for the bill to take effect.

It is unclear at this point, when it will commence but DoHA states it is likely to be sometime this year.

What are the Changes?

The major changes in the application will be the Sponsor must apply for a sponsorship first and must be approved first before the lodgement of the Partner Visa. The same with the old process, a bridging visa will be granted once the partner visa is lodged. The process for the approval of sponsorship still remained unanswered and yet to be confirmed.

The amendment might be inevitable since the focus will be on character checks, to ensure sponsors don’t have significant criminal convictions/domestic violence or child offense. 

This will also limit the number of onshore applications made by the applicants before their current visa expires since they still need to wait for the sponsorship approval. If their visa is about to expire, it is likely they need to go offshore.

All eligible onshore partner visa applicants must apply as soon as possible so they are not caught up with the changes.

If you are planning to apply for a partner visa, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..