Clients ask us for a date. The honest reply is that a partner visa has five dates that matter, and the couple sets four of them. The lodgement date. The day the health examination is done. The day each police certificate is ordered. The day any request from the Department is answered. The fifth date, the decision, belongs to the Department. This note is about the four.
In short: partner and dependent child applications sit near the top of the family stream priorities. Within that, the Department works in lodgement date order. The $11,710 charge buys a place in that order. The four dates you control decide how cleanly the file moves through it.
The date you do not control
The Department publishes a global processing times tool. It shows how long recently decided applications took, at two markers. It reflects the past, not a promise about your file, and it changes every month. We do not quote a number from it in a note like this, because the number would be stale before you read it.
What we can say is how the order works. A Ministerial Direction sets the priorities for family visas, and partner and dependent child applications generally rank ahead of parent and other family categories. Within a category, the Department progresses the oldest applications first. Capping and queuing applies to some family visas, but not to partner visas in the same way. The Department can prioritise a file with compassionate and compelling circumstances, case by case.
Date one: lodgement
Your lodgement date sets your place. Lodging earlier gets an earlier place, but lodging incomplete throws the place away, because a request and response cycle adds months. The date is therefore a balance between the calendar and the file.
Is the applicant's current visa ending soon?
Dates two and three: health and character
A health examination is done at a panel clinic after a referral. An outstanding medical is one of the items that pauses a file, so we book it before lodgement wherever possible. Police certificates are needed for every country where the applicant lived for 12 months or more in the last 10 years. Overseas certificates are the slowest documents in most files, so they are ordered first.
Both have expiry windows. We track them so that a certificate ordered too early does not lapse before the officer reads it.
A preparation sequence we use
- Week 1Fix the relationship start date and choose the route. Check the sponsor's own visa history.
- Week 2Order overseas police certificates. Book the health examination.
- Week 3Brief the Form 888 witnesses. Start both partners' statements.
- Week 6Assemble the evidence under the four aspects with a table of contents.
- Week 8Read the file as the officer will, then lodge once.
- After lodgementKeep collecting evidence and watch ImmiAccount weekly.
The weeks are ours, not the Department's. They describe preparation, and they stretch or shrink with the file. Our note on the pre-lodgement check covers the final reading.
Date four: the response
If the Department asks for something, the deadline in that request is the most important date in the file. A slow reply pushes the file back, because the Department works through many applications at once. Plan for one request, with no reminders, and answer it completely the first time.
The business calendar
Where one partner owns a company, the visa calendar and the business calendar need to agree. A sale of business changes the financial evidence and the sponsor's income. A financial year end produces the accounts and tax returns the file relies on. A lease renewal in both names is evidence worth waiting a fortnight for. Our commercial practice handles the transaction and tells the migration team which documents will exist on which date.
The sponsor's own visa history is part of the timing too. Sponsors are assessed, and an earlier partner visa or an earlier sponsorship can limit whether and when a person can sponsor again. We check that in week one, because it is the one date problem that cannot be fixed by working faster.
Dates to diarise
Does travelling overseas during the wait slow the file?
Not the decision itself. Travel affects your status, because a Bridging visa A ceases on departure and a Bridging visa B, at $575, must be granted before you leave. Keep your contact details current while you are away and make sure someone checks ImmiAccount. Our note on bridging visas while your 820 waits covers the travel rules.
Planning around the wait
Use the cautious marker on the Department's tool for budgeting and life planning. Treat the temporary and permanent stages as two events, not one. Keep your details current and your evidence growing. The migration practice plans these dates with every couple at the first meeting, so contact us before the calendar fills up.
Figures verified against Home Affairs visa pricing as at 1 July 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Should we wait until the business sale settles before lodging?
It depends on the applicant's visa and what the sale does to the evidence. Settlement changes the sponsor's income and the financial picture. If the visa allows, lodging with the completed sale documents is often cleaner than explaining a transaction in progress.
Does the sponsor's own visa history change the timing?
It can. Sponsors are assessed, and an earlier partner visa or an earlier sponsorship can limit whether a person can sponsor now. Check it at the start, because no amount of speed later fixes it.
Can we lodge before an overseas police certificate arrives?
Sometimes, when the visa date forces it, with proof of the order in the file. It is a decision for advice, because a missing certificate is a common reason for a request. Where the visa allows, we wait for it.
When should we book the health examination?
Before lodgement, once the lodgement date is set. An outstanding medical pauses the file. Book it so that it is done shortly before you lodge, and track its validity period.
Does lodging onshore rather than offshore change our place in the order?
Both pathways are progressed within their category by lodgement date. Onshore and offshore files sometimes move on a different rhythm, so do not assume the two report the same timeframe on the tool.
General information as at 2 September 2026. Not legal advice. Speak to the migration team about your own circumstances before you act.