The Prospective Marriage visa or Australian Fiancé visa (300 visa) is a temporary visa for people who are outside Australia and are engaged to be married to an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen. This engagement visa is for people who wish to lodge an application for a visa to move to Australia to marry their fiancé.
The Prospective Marriage visa is valid for 9 months, during this time the applicant must marry their Australian fiancé and make an application for an Australian Partner visa.
This visa must be applied for outside Australia and applicants must be outside Australia at the time of visa grant. All applicants must also meet health and character criteria.
Am I eligible for an Australian Fiancé visa?
- I am in a relationship with an Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen;
- I am over the age of 18 years of age
- I am engaged to be married
- I have met my fiancé and we personally know each other
- I meet the health and character requirements
- My Australian partner also meets the character requirements.
You must demonstrate to the Department of Home Affairs that you and your fiancé are committed to a shared life together, to the exclusion of all others. Evidence must be provided to support this and is closely scrutinised. The Department of Home Affairs requires evidence that covers the financial and social aspects of your relationship AND evidence to demonstrate the nature of your commitment to each other.
A successful application depends on the quality and quantity of evidence provided to support the genuine and ongoing nature of your relationship.
Once this visa is granted, the holder must travel to Australia, marry their partner, and then lodge a Spouse visa application within the first 9 months. If the marriage does not take place and the Spouse visa application is not lodged within the 9-month period, then the applicant would be in breach of a visa condition, and this can lead to very serious consequences. There are many other conditions that are also attached to a prospective marriage visa. It is important that both the applicant and sponsor are fully aware of all the conditions attached to a prospective marriage visa and the serious consequences of non-compliance.
What does this visa allow me to do?
- Reside in Australia and lodge a Partner visa application (within 9-months of visa grant)
- Travel in and out of Australia
- Work and study in Australia
- Enrol in Medicare, Australia’s scheme for health-related care and expenses only after the Partner visa application is lodged.
We chose Immigration Downunder for our spouse visa application as Joe had already had a great experience with them before with a work visa. From the beginning to the end of our visa application Ben and Kelly demonstrated their expertise in this area and they made us feel confident in our application. We also felt they went above and beyond our expectations, by helping us to lodge our initial application in a short time frame to assist us in starting the process on-shore before Joe needed to travel again for work. We are pleased to say we were successful with our application and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Immigration Downunder to others.