For Tourist and 485 Temporary Visa Holders ?

In my view if your evidence is very strong and you have planned correctly – always seek to lodge now rather than later.  No one in the industry had an inkling that partner visas would go from 9k to 11K overnight. No one really knows what is coming all we can do is made guesstimates on the basis of recent previous decisions and patterns of change.

Many of us that have been in the industry for a long time will remember when Malcom Turnball announced fundamental changes to the 457 visa in 2017. There was no warning. On the other side of the coin, for over 18 years I have heard rumours of the impending change that would require a partner sponsorship application to be lodged and approved before a partner visa application could be lodged. But still in 2026 still no change has happened in this respect.

Many of my colleagues hold the opinion, in light that there is somewhere in the vicinity of 90,000 undecided partner visa applications in processing – something has to give and change must happen to limit the massive number of partner visa applications & to lessen the burden on Medicare. Many of my colleagues believe that the Department can substantially curve the growing pool of applications by restricting the application of onshore partner visas from visitor visa applicants and temporary visa applicants. I do not totally agree with this hypothesis as it would be easier to achieve this outcome with a blanket issuing of condition 8503 (No Further Stay). Anecdotal evidence tells me that a growing number of visitor visa applicants are being issued with 8503 (No further stay) condition. This may be indicative of the approach that we are likely to see.

The moral to the story here is, no body knows what is coming. If all your partner visa ducks are clearly in line, get a professional assessment and apply now. Changes are not likely to have a retrospective impact on applicants that have already applied.

Reach out for a free consultation and assessment.