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).
Ask in any partner-visa forum what to put in "the relationship statement" and you'll get twenty answers. The phrase itself isn't the Department's. What the Department of Home Affairs actually publishes, on the subclass 820 page and again on the subclass 309 page, is a short list headed "Tell us in writing about:", followed by four sections describing the evidence it says you can provide.
This post reproduces that material word for word, says exactly where it sits on the two pages, and notes where the four section headings come from in the Migration Regulations. It ends with what VisaBinder does with your answers, which is a short list: it stores what you type and prints it into your evidence PDFs. It writes none of it.
What you won't find here is a sample answer. The Department's pages don't carry one, and anything we added would be our idea of an answer rather than theirs.
Where the list lives
Both pages are laid out the same way. Under the Step by step tab, the second step is Gather and prepare your documents. Inside it, the item Evidence of relationships opens with Your relationship with your partner, which begins:
You must provide evidence of your relationship with your spouse or de facto partner.
The Relationship history list follows immediately, then Relationship documents. The item after those, Supporting evidence of the relationship, holds the four evidence sections.
- Subclass 820, onshore: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/…/partner-onshore/temporary-820
- Subclass 309, offshore: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/…/partner-offshore/provisional-309
We fetched both pages on 5 September 2026 and checked every quotation below against each of them. The wording is identical on the two pages, down to the punctuation, with one exception noted under Commitment.
One point of precision, because each page has an Applicant / For Sponsors switch at the top: everything quoted below is on the applicant side. The sponsor side of the 820 and 309 pages asks the sponsor for identity and character documents and does not carry this list. So although both partners live the relationship, the written account at this stage is something the Department asks of the applicant. (Stage 2 is different; see the note near the end.)
The Relationship history list
This is the whole of it:
Relationship history
Tell us in writing about:
- how, when and where you first met
- how the relationship developed
- when you moved in together, got engaged or married
- what you do together
- time you spent apart
- significant events in the relationship
- your plans for the future.
Source: Home Affairs, subclass 820 and 309 pages, "Your relationship with your partner", fetched 5 September 2026.
Seven items, one line each. The page attaches no format, length or order to them.
Immediately below, under Relationship documents, the page asks married applicants for a marriage certificate and de facto partners for evidence of the de facto relationship. For de facto couples who have been together less than 12 months, it uses the same "tell us in writing" phrasing once more:
If you haven't been with your de facto partner for 12 months, you can:
- provide evidence you have registered your relationship with an Australian State/Territory births, deaths and marriages agency or
- tell us in writing about any compelling and compassionate circumstances for us to grant the visa.
Source: the same section of both pages, under "Evidence of your de facto relationship".
The four evidence sections
The next item on both pages, Supporting evidence of the relationship, has four headings. Each opens with a one-line description and then a list introduced by "Evidence can include" or "Evidence must show". Most items on the lists are documents. Two are written by a person, and the text below points those out.
Finances
Finances
Evidence you and your partner share financial matters. Evidence can include:
- joint mortgage or lease documents
- joint loan documents for major assets like homes, cars or major appliances
- joint bank account statements
- household bills in both names.
Your household
Your household
Evidence you and your partner share domestic matters. Evidence can include:
- a statement about how you share housework
- household bills in both names
- mail or emails addressed to you both
- documents that show joint responsibility for children
- documents that prove your living arrangements.
The first item is the only place in the four lists where the Department itself names a statement written by you.
Social matters
Social matters
Evidence that others know about your relationship.
You must provide statements from 2 witnesses who:
- are 18 years old or older
- know you and your spouse or de facto partner
- know about your relationship.
Statements from witnesses can be done by completing Form 888 – Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application (241KB PDF).
If the witness is an Australian citizen or permanent resident, provide evidence of this such as a passport or birth certificate.
Evidence can also include:
- joint invitations or evidence you go out together
- proof you have friends in common
- proof you have told government, public or commercial bodies about your relationship
- proof you do joint sporting, cultural or social activities together
- proof you travel together.
The witness statements are the second written item, and they are written by the witnesses, not by you. Our Form 888 guide covers who can complete one and where it uploads.
Commitment
Commitment
Evidence you are committed to a long-term relationship with each other. Evidence must show that you:
- have knowledge of each other’s background, family situation or other personal details
- have combined your personal matters
- stay in touch when apart
- are not related by family.
You can also provide the terms of your wills as evidence.
The one difference between the two pages is here: the 309 page ends the first bullet with a full stop and the 820 page doesn't.
Source for all four sections: Home Affairs, subclass 820 and 309 pages, "Supporting evidence of the relationship", fetched 5 September 2026.
Where the four headings come from
The four headings aren't the Department's invention. Regulation 1.15A(3) of the Migration Regulations 1994 (for spouses) and regulation 1.09A(3) (for de facto partners) list the matters the Minister must consider, as part of "all of the circumstances of the relationship", under the same four heads: "the financial aspects of the relationship", "the nature of the household", "the social aspects of the relationship" and "the nature of the persons’ commitment to each other", each with its own sub-list. The Department's page is those four heads in plainer words.
The two regulations sit under the Migration Act 1958: regulation 1.15A is made for section 5F of the Act, which defines a spouse, and regulation 1.09A for section 5CB, which defines a de facto partner. Each regulation opens by saying it "sets out arrangements for the purpose of determining whether" the conditions in those sections exist. That is the whole chain: the Act defines the relationship, the regulation names the four aspects, the Department's page turns them into headings.
The regulations are on legislation.gov.au (F1996B03551; we read the compilation in force from 1 July 2026, on 5 September 2026). We cite them so you can see the source. We don't reproduce the sub-lists or the Act's definitions here, and nothing in this post is a view on whether any relationship meets them.
What about Stage 2 (801 and 100)?
The permanent-stage pages don't repeat the "Tell us in writing about" list. Instead they ask your sponsor to attach a Commonwealth statutory declaration "with information about any of the following", and list nine topics. Six of them are about the relationship as lived: when it began and how long you have lived together, the financial commitments you share, the nature of your household, the social aspects of the relationship, the nature of your commitment to each other, and your plans for the future. The first three on the Department's list restate the legal definition of the relationship and are left out here on purpose. That is a different document with a different author, and it's outside this post. The lists are on the subclass 801 and subclass 100 pages under "Relationship documents", checked the same day.
What VisaBinder does with this
Inside a VisaBinder pack there is a page called Your answers. It holds 37 optional questions in five groups that use the Department's own headings: Relationship history, Finances, Your household, Social matters, Commitment. Every question is one line from the lists above, turned into a question. "how, when and where you first met" becomes How, when and where did you first meet? "time you spent apart" becomes Have you spent time apart? When and why, and how did you stay in touch? Each question card has a Where this comes from toggle that shows the Department's line and the heading it sits under.
What happens to what you type:
- It's saved to your pack as you type. You can edit it until you generate your pack, and reopening the pack unlocks it again.
- It prints into your PDFs exactly as you typed it. Relationship history answers print into the Commitment PDF, after your relationship timeline. Finances, Household, Social and Commitment answers print at the front of their own evidence PDF, before the documents.
- It's attributed. Each block carries the line Written by [name] (applicant or sponsor) · last edited [date]. A pack can be run by the applicant or by the sponsor, and the attribution says who wrote the words.
What doesn't happen:
- Nothing is drafted, suggested, rewritten or completed for you. There is no example text in any field and no hint about what to put in one.
- Nothing is rated. The only counter on the page is N of 37 answered. An unanswered question changes nothing about your pack.
- Nothing is reviewed. The page says so at the top: "Everything on this page is written by you. VisaBinder formats your words into your PDFs — it doesn't review, score or advise on them."
The questions are pinned to the Department's wording. Every one cites the line it came from, and an automated check compares those lines against our dated copy of the Home Affairs pages. If the Department rewrites the list, the check fails and the question is re-authored from the new line.
Why there are no sample answers on this page
Searches for "relationship statement example" are common, and we know it. We don't publish one, for the same reason the questions carry no hints: an example would be our idea of what to say, and the Department's pages don't offer one. The lists above are the whole of what Home Affairs publishes on the 820 and 309 pages about what to write. What goes under each item is yours.
Sources checked
- Home Affairs, Partner visa (subclass 820): temporary-820, fetched 5 September 2026.
- Home Affairs, Partner (Provisional) visa (subclass 309): provisional-309, fetched 5 September 2026.
- Home Affairs, Partner visa (subclass 801) and Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 100): permanent-801, migrant-100, fetched 5 September 2026 (described above, not quoted).
- Migration Regulations 1994, regs 1.09A and 1.15A: legislation.gov.au F1996B03551, compilation in force 1 July 2026, read 5 September 2026.
- Form 888: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/form-listing/forms/888.pdf, linked from both pages.
If any of these pages changes, the dates above tell you how old this copy is. The Department's page is the source; this post is a dated reproduction of it.
A final note
The written part of a partner visa application is the part no tool can do for you, and the part the Department describes in the fewest words. The lists above are those words.
For the document side of the pack, see our subclass 820 evidence checklist. For chat exports, see the WhatsApp chat evidence guide. If you'd like the questions above in a form that saves as you type and prints into ImmiAccount-ready PDFs, that's what VisaBinder does — one purchase, no subscription, and no advice on what to write (that's a job for a registered migration agent; the MARA register is searchable at mara.gov.au).