Partner Visa Changes as of the 17th of November 2017 – The End of Paper Applications

Hey Guys! A really quick update this week but really big news for anyone who is in the process of, or thinking about lodging a partner visa application…

On 18 November 2017, the following changes occurred to Partner and Prospective Marriage Visa (PMV) application arrangements. That’s the Subclass 820, Subclass 309 and Subclass 300 visas.

The changes are:

• Partner and PMV visas must be lodged online.
• Paper applications received after COB on 17 November 2017 at any office of the Department, Service Delivery Partner, overseas embassy or High Commission will be invalid. Any paper applications submitted AFTER 17 November 2017 will be returned to the applicant.

Ok, so what do these changes mean for you?

If you have a registered migration agent handling the visa for you then they should be aware of these changes. If you are doing it alone, lodging the visa by yourself and you already have an ImmiAccount AND lodging online then keep going with what you are doing. You won’t be affected.

If, on the other hand, you had planned to lodge your application via the paper forms then STOP right now. You will need to get yourself set up with an ImmiAccount and start the process again.

Payment of the visa application charge must be made by credit card, Paypal, China Union Pay or BPAY at time of lodgement.

Where applicants have pre-paid for an unlodged or now invalid paper application, the applicant will need to revoke their payment.

The online forms are not exactly the same as the paper forms so you might find a few discrepancies.

If you know anyone who is putting together their application right now then please share this info with them (You can do that by tagging them in the comments section below) as it would really suck if you put all that effort into filling out paper forms only to find out that you will have to do the whole process again with the online forms.

Feel free to comment below as we love to hear your feedback…

IMPORTANT: Please note, this does not constitute Immigration advice. Always seek advice from a Registered Migration Agent before applying for an Australian Visa. Migration Law is constantly changing. This information is accurate only at the time of publication.