Proposed Changes to Partner Visa [2020-21 financial budget]

Following the 2020-21 Budget released on 6 October 2020, the Australian Government released important details about changes coming to the Partner visa program.

While there is no fixed date for these changes to commence, we anticipate that all the changes will commence in the next six months.

Key Changes

1. English Requirement

With the intention of fostering greater social cohesion, the Government will require all new partner visa applicants to meet a new English language requirement before being eligible to apply for their partner visa. If the partner visa applicant is being sponsored by an Australian permanent resident, then the permanent resident sponsor will also need to meet an English language requirement. This is a completely new eligibility requirement for the partner visa application process.

2. Mandatory Partner Visa Sponsor Pre-approval

A partner visa sponsor will need to be pre-approved before being eligible to sponsor a partner visa applicant. This preapproval will be similar to the current mandatory family sponsorship provisions that require character checks and the sharing of personal information with the visa applicant.

This change had been previously legislated by the federal government but not yet implemented. This budget announcement is a reiteration of a federal government policy measure to reduce the risk of family violence within the community. Currently, a partner visa and sponsorship application are accepted and assessed simultaneously by the Department of Home Affairs. This announcement will change this process as a sponsor will need to be pre-approved before a partner visa application will be able to be lodged.

3. Increased Program Caps

The government has increased the number of yearly places allocated to Partner Visa Applicants. While the government has long denied that the Partner visa program is capped, the number of Partner Visa grants has remained fixed over the past few years at around 40,000 while the backlog of undetermined applications has increased to 100,000.

Following the budget, the government has announced that 72,300 of the 77,300 proposed places in the family stream will be allocated to partner applicants. This means that processing delays might not be as common moving forwards.

Each of the above are initial government announcements. The government is yet to release the proposed legislation and supporting regulations that will contain all the specific details. Straits Lawyers will provide updates on specific changes and to the expected timeline for such changes as this information is released by the Federal Government.

If you would have any enquiries with regards to your visa application, Straits Lawyers are here to help. We are now offering online services in both English and Chinese.

Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice and Straits Lawyers will not be legally responsible for any actions you take based on this article.