This article is general information about Australian Partner Visa documentation. It is not migration advice. For advice on your circumstances, consult a registered migration agent (search MARA).
If you're applying for an Australian Partner Visa (subclass 820 or 801), you've almost certainly come across Form 888 — the official Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application. It's the form Home Affairs publishes for the witness supporting statements that sit under the Social category of your evidence — how friends and family who know your relationship formally tell the Department they've observed the two of you as a couple.
This guide walks through everything we know about Form 888 in 2026 — who can sign it, what each section means, what makes a strong supporting statement, and where it goes when you upload to ImmiAccount. (Form 888s aren't part of VisaBinder's evidence packs — they upload directly to their own ImmiAccount slot. If you'd like a tool that compiles the rest of your evidence into ImmiAccount-ready PDFs, VisaBinder handles the four relationship-evidence packs for a single one-time fee.)
🛠️ Free tool: Download an editable, pre-filled Form 888 — the current official Home Affairs PDF with the applicant's and sponsor's names already filled in, ready to print for each witness to complete. It fills only the factual details — every witness still writes their own statement.
⚠️ If you don't currently hold a substantive visa, Form 888 won't satisfy your statutory declaration requirement. Applicants without a substantive visa must include a minimum of two Commonwealth Statutory Declarations made within the last six weeks by an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen. Home Affairs has stated Form 888 is not a statutory declaration and the current and previous versions are not acceptable for that purpose. Download the Commonwealth Statutory Declaration form from the Attorney-General's Department.
What is Form 888?
Form 888 is the official witness supporting statement for the Social category of Partner Visa evidence — a written statement in which someone who knows your relationship describes what they've personally observed. Home Affairs has explicitly distinguished Form 888 from a Commonwealth Statutory Declaration: the two are different documents with different purposes, and Form 888 cannot be substituted where a statutory declaration is required. The Department publishes the official PDF and updates it from time to time, so always download the current version directly from the Home Affairs website rather than reusing an older copy you found online.
Each Form 888 statement uploads to its own dedicated category in ImmiAccount — separate from your photos, joint events, and other social evidence. Home Affairs says you must provide statements from two witnesses who are at least 18, know both partners, and know about the relationship. Its public guidance does not state a maximum.
The form is not a character reference. It's a formal supporting statement in which the witness describes what they've personally observed of your relationship and whether they believe it to be genuine and continuing.
Who can sign a Form 888?
According to Home Affairs' guidance, the person completing a Form 888 should:
- Know you both and the history of your relationship. They need to have met both partners, ideally socialised with you as a couple, and be able to describe specific things they've observed.
- Be at least 18 years old.
- Provide evidence of their identity and, where applicable, Australian citizenship or permanent residency — for example a birth certificate, an Australian passport, or a passport containing a permanent visa.
Home Affairs treats Australian citizenship or permanent residency as the usual expectation for a witness rather than an absolute bar. Its guidance notes one exception: where the visa applicant is outside Australia and can't get an Australian citizen or permanent resident to complete the form, any person who knows the applicant and sponsor may complete it. Either way, a friend back home or someone on a temporary visa who knows you both can also write a non-statutory letter of support that you include separately.
Follow the signing instructions printed on the current Form 888 PDF. Form 888 is a supporting statement rather than a statutory declaration, so its signing requirements are separate from those of the Commonwealth Statutory Declaration form — refer to the form's own instructions when completing it.
What goes into a strong Form 888
The form has structured fields (the witness's details, your names, how long the witness has known each of you) and three free-text prompts — how the witness knows you both and how often you're in contact, why they believe the relationship is genuine and continuing, and anything else they want to add. Those free-text answers are where applications are won or lost.
A weak declaration says: "I have known [Applicant] and [Sponsor] for two years and believe their relationship is genuine."
A strong declaration says, in the witness's own voice:
- How they know each of you, and for how long
- When and how they first met you as a couple
- Specific shared occasions they've attended (Christmas dinners, birthdays, weddings, holidays, casual catch-ups)
- Observations of how you interact — shared finances, joint plans, mutual support during difficult periods
- Any direct knowledge of your living situation, joint commitments, or family integration
- Their honest belief that the relationship is genuine and continuing
Home Affairs asks witnesses to describe specific facts they've personally observed about the relationship — when they met you and your partner, what events they've attended, what they've seen of your daily lives. The form's prompts call for concrete details rather than general statements — for example, "I attended their housewarming in Brunswick in March 2025; I've stayed at their place when visiting from Adelaide; they introduced me to her parents at the Easter lunch I hosted."
Form 888 sample answers: why you shouldn't copy one
One of the most common searches around this form is for "Form 888 sample answers" — a supporting witness example to hand to friends and family. The instinct is understandable: most witnesses have never written anything like this. But a copied sample supplies the one thing the form isn't asking for. Home Affairs' prompts call for specific facts the witness has personally observed — when they met you, what they've seen of your relationship — in the witness's own words, and (as the common mistakes below note) two declarations with identical wording will be noticed. A template can't contain your witness's observations; only your witness can.
What actually helps a stuck witness isn't sample wording — it's structure. If someone asks "what should I write?", give them this outline and let them fill in a plain paragraph under each point:
- Who they are and how they know you. How the witness met each partner, and how long they've known each of you.
- When they first knew you as a couple. The first time they saw the relationship for themselves, and what they remember of it.
- Two or three specific occasions. Events they attended with you both — with rough dates, places, and who else was there.
- What they've observed of your life together. Your living situation, shared plans, how you supported each other through something difficult — whatever they've personally seen.
- Their honest conclusion, in their own words. Whether, based on all of that, they believe the relationship is genuine and continuing.
A witness who writes real details under each of those headings is giving Home Affairs exactly what the form's prompts ask for — specific, first-hand observations in their own words — even if the grammar is imperfect. Polish isn't one of the prompts; specifics are.
This is also why our free Form 888 generator fills in only the factual fields — the applicant's and sponsor's names — and never any part of the statement itself. The statement has to be the witness's own.
How many Form 888s do you need?
Home Affairs requires statements from two witnesses who are at least 18, know both partners, and know about the relationship. Form 888 is the Department's published form for those statements. Its public guidance does not specify a maximum; the current form also notes that a witness may be asked to provide up to three statements at different times while an application is being processed.
Aim for declarations from people who represent different circles of your life: a friend from each partner's side, a family member, a colleague, a long-standing neighbour. That breadth reads as a couple genuinely embedded in a community.
Filling out the form: what each part asks for
The current form (design date 08/26) is short — a witness-details block followed by six numbered questions. Here's what the witness completes, in order:
Witness details
Full name, residential address, home and mobile phone numbers, and email address. The Department notes on the form that it prefers to communicate electronically, so an email address the witness actually checks is worth including. The witness writes this section themselves; don't pre-fill it for them. (The current form no longer asks for the witness's occupation, so don't be thrown if an older template you've seen included it — but it does ask for phone numbers and an email address.)
Questions 1 and 2 — who the statement supports
The visa applicant's full name, then the applicant's partner's full name — each paired with the question "How long have you known this person?". The names should match exactly what appears on the rest of the application; our free Form 888 generator pre-fills exactly those name fields onto the official PDF. The "how long" answers are the witness's own to give — the tool never fills them.
Question 3 — how they know you both
A free-text prompt: how the witness knows the applicant and the applicant's partner, and how often they're in contact with you. Specifics beat length here, as everywhere on this form.
Question 4 — the statement itself
Whether the witness believes the relationship is genuine and continuing, and the reasons for that belief — plus a separate, unnumbered box alongside it for any other matters they want to raise in support of the application. This is the section the outline earlier in this guide is for. Witnesses should write in first person, in their own natural voice — a polished, lawyerly declaration from a tradie friend reads as ghostwritten.
Question 5 — identity evidence
A No/Yes checkbox pair confirming the witness has attached evidence of their identity and, where applicable, Australian citizenship or permanent residency. The form's opening notes give the examples: a birth certificate, an Australian passport, or a passport containing a permanent visa.
Question 6 — signature and date
The witness signs and dates the form themselves. Since July 2023, Form 888 is a supporting statement rather than a statutory declaration, so no Justice of the Peace or other authorised witness is required. Download the current version from immi.homeaffairs.gov.au and follow the instructions printed on the form itself — because it is not a Commonwealth Statutory Declaration, its requirements sit on the form rather than under the Statutory Declarations Act 1959.
Attaching Form 888 to your evidence pack
Your witnesses don't send anything to Home Affairs themselves. The form's own submission instructions say completed statements are attached to the application in ImmiAccount by the applicant or their representative — so each witness hands (or emails a scan of) their signed form back to you. Once you have the signed declarations in hand, you need to:
- Scan each form to PDF. Use a clean black-and-white scan at 200–300 DPI. Phone scans are fine if they're flat, well-lit, and legible.
- Keep each witness's signed Form 888 as its own file along with whatever identity evidence (driver's licence, passport bio page) the witness attached. Since the July 2023 redesign, that attached ID no longer needs to be a certified true copy. Don't merge the forms into a single combined PDF — ImmiAccount's Form 888 category accepts multiple files and case officers prefer one Form 888 per witness.
- Compress each file to under 5MB. ImmiAccount rejects attachments over 5MB. See our guide on compressing Partner Visa PDFs to under 5MB if your scans push the limit.
- Upload each completed Form 888 to ImmiAccount's dedicated 'Form 888 — Supporting statement' category. This category accepts multiple files — one Form 888 per witness is standard. Don't bundle them into your social evidence; ImmiAccount provides a purpose-built slot.
VisaBinder handles the four relationship-evidence packs (financial, household, social, commitment) and the cover/index for your application. Form 888s upload separately — your witnesses hand their signed forms back to you, and you (or your representative) attach them to the application in ImmiAccount.
Common mistakes that hurt declarations
- Using an outdated form. Always download the current PDF from Home Affairs.
- Assuming any overseas friend can be a witness. Home Affairs generally expects a witness to evidence Australian citizenship or permanent residency; the main exception is where the applicant is outside Australia and can't arrange one.
- Generic, copy-pasted text. Two declarations with identical wording will be noticed.
- Witness only knows one of you. They need to have met both partners to credibly describe the relationship.
- Witness lists no specific shared experiences. The single most common weakness in Form 888s is vague praise without observable details.
Form 888 in the broader evidence picture
Form 888 is one piece of the evidence puzzle. A complete Partner Visa application also includes financial evidence (joint accounts, shared bills), household evidence (a lease or mortgage in both names), and direct evidence of your commitment to each other (Statement of Relationship, joint travel, photos across time).
For the full picture of what Home Affairs looks for, see our subclass 820 evidence checklist. And if your social evidence relies heavily on chat history, our guide on using WhatsApp chats as Partner Visa evidence walks through how to format and present that material.
A final note
Form 888 is a formal supporting statement, and it isn't consequence-free: giving false or misleading statements or documents to the Department is an offence under the Migration Act. Make sure anyone you ask understands they're being asked to describe what they've actually observed — not to advocate for an outcome.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by compiling everything Form 888 sits alongside in your application, that's fair — Partner Visa evidence is a lot of paperwork. VisaBinder turns the rest of the pile into ImmiAccount-ready PDFs so you can focus on getting the declarations themselves right.