Registering a de facto relationship in Australia — the exit ramp for couples under 12 months

Your relationship is real, you’ve been living together for 7–8 months, and you want to lodge a de facto partner visa. Then you read the requirement: the de facto relationship must have existed for at least 12 months immediately before lodgement. So you have to wait another half-year?

Not necessarily. Australian migration law has an exit ramp many Vietnamese couples don’t know about: relationship registration in certain Australian states. Once registered, the 12-month requirement is waived — you can lodge straight away. But the tool has clear limits, and misunderstanding it is one of the reasons de facto files get refused.

What the 12-month rule actually is — and why couples miscount

For de facto partner applications (both the onshore 820 and the offshore 309), the de facto relationship generally must have existed for at least 12 months at the date of lodgement — unless the relationship is registered, or there are compelling circumstances (for example, a child of the relationship).

Here is where many couples miscount: 12 months de facto is not 12 months of dating. The de facto clock starts when the relationship carries the full character of a spousal relationship in practice — a mutual commitment to a shared life, usually living together or at least not living separately on a permanent basis. Three years of dating but only six months since moving in together, or a mostly long-distance relationship with a few weeks of visits a year — the 12-month clock may have only just started, or be hard to show as having started at all.

Relationship registration — which states have it

Relationship registration is a state/territory civil procedure, run by each state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) registry. The current map:

The effect on a visa application: a relationship registered in one of those states is exempt from the 12-month de facto requirement. That is real, significant legal value.

But — and this is the most important “but” in this article — registration does not waive the obligation to prove the relationship is genuine. The certificate only opens the time gate; the case officer still assesses your relationship across all four evidence pillars of reg 1.15A: financial, household, social, commitment.

How registration works — the general shape

Details differ by state, but the common framework is:

• Residency requirement: usually at least one partner (some states require both) must be living in that state. This condition rules out many couples from the start.
• Not currently married or registered to anyone else — anywhere.
• Documents: identity documents, proof of residence in the state, and the BDM’s prescribed declaration.
• A waiting period: some states have a gap between lodging the application and the certificate being issued — it is not same-day paperwork.

We deliberately don’t list each state’s specific fees, waiting periods and residency tests here: they are set by each state and change. Check the BDM website of the state you live in before building your plan around it.

After registration — the file still stands on the 4 pillars

The most common mistake: treating the certificate as a master key and lodging a thin file. A few months of relationship + a registration certificate + sparse evidence = still a weak file, and short relationships tend to attract closer scrutiny, not less. The certificate answers “are we eligible to lodge?” — it does not answer “is the relationship real?”

Before and after registering, keep building the four pillars: a joint account with real transactions, a lease in both names, photos with family and friends across time, communication history, concrete future plans. The pillar-by-pillar guide is in the 4 pillars of relationship evidence — and the failure patterns are in 7 reasons partner visas get refused.

Who CANNOT use this tool

• Both partners in Vietnam: the state residency requirement makes registration practically unavailable. For these couples, the realistic options are: accumulate the 12 months of de facto history, marry and apply as spouses, or take the subclass 300 route if not yet married.
• Couples living in WA or NT: no register exists there. Options: wait out the 12 months, marry, or establish compelling circumstances if they genuinely exist.
• Couples who think registration replaces evidence: as above — it doesn’t.

The bottom line

Relationship registration is a genuine legal tool that solves one specific problem: a real de facto couple who haven’t yet accumulated 12 months, living in NSW, VIC, QLD, ACT, TAS or SA. It waives the time requirement — not the truth requirement. If you’re weighing up waiting for the 12 months, registering, marrying, or the 300 route, each path has its own consequences for timing and evidence depth — book a free assessment with VisaAffairs to pick the right door for your circumstances.

References

• Department of Home Affairs — Partner visa (onshore) 820/801 — the official de facto requirements.
• Department of Home Affairs — Partner visa (offshore) 309/100 — offshore stream requirements.
• Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) — register of migration agents.

This article is general information current at publication. Australian migration rules change regularly — check the date and contact VisaAffairs before relying on it for your own case. Book a consultation for advice on your specific circumstances.