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Including secondary applicants in your application
You can include the following secondary applicants in your visa application:
your partner
a dependent child of you or your partner
a dependent relative of you or your partner.
Partner
A partner is your spouse or de facto partner (including same-sex partners).
Evidence to attach to your application
If you are legally married, you must include a certified copy of your marriage certificate issued by an official registry office. If you are in a de facto relationship, you must provide evidence to demonstrate that you have been in a genuine and ongoing relationship for the 12 months immediately before making the application, unless there are compelling reasons.
See: Fact sheet 35 One-Year Relationship Requirement
In all instances, you must include evidence that your relationship is genuine and continuing and you have a commitment to a shared life together. This may include:
Evidence of the history of your relationship
Both you and your partner should provide a statement including all of the following:
how, when and where you first met
how your relationship developed
your domestic arrangements, that is, how you support each other financially, physically and emotionally and when this level of commitment began
any periods of separation, when and why the separation occurred, for how long and how you maintained your relationship during the period of separation
your future plans.
Note: Your statement does not need to be made on a statutory declaration form. Your statement or statutory declaration must, however, be signed by the author.
Evidence of a genuine and continuing relationship
There are four broad categories of evidence that you need to provide.
financial aspects:
your living arrangements such as joint ownership of your house or joint names on a lease, correspondence addressed to both of you at the same address, joint responsibility for children
social context:
evidence that you and your partner are generally accepted as a couple socially, such as joint invitations, evidence of common friends, assessments by your friends and family of your relationship, joint travel or joint participation in sporting, social or cultural activities
your commitment:
knowledge of each other, intention that your relationship will be long term, through things such as the terms of your wills, and correspondence and phone accounts to show that contact was maintained during any periods of separation. |
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