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RPM Immigration Lawyers We specialise in Australian partner visas & appeals of visa refusals. Applying for a Partner visa is a big step. Many of our clients are overseas or interstate.

We Specialise in Partner Visa Applications and Appeals

If you need an Australian Partner visa or a Prospective Marriage visa to be with your Australian partner, we can help. It's complicated, time consuming, and needs to be done absolutely correctly. It's an exciting and hopeful time, but often stressful. We understand this, and we smooth the process for you.

Our years of experience and exceptionally high success rate with Partner visa and Prospective Marriage visa applications will give you peace of mind. You deserve honest advice and skilled representation at this critical time. Many of our clients have written Google reviews of our services.

We can have a consultation with you via Zoom videoconferencing or telephone. Wherever you are, we can help.
The Expert Services we Provide:

Advice on Australian partner visas and prospective marriage visas - best option, strategies, costs, timeframes, how to succeed.

Professional preparation, lodgement and management of married, de facto, same-sex & fiancée visa applications for partners of Australians.

Representing you in dealing with the Australian Immigration Department.

Appealing visa refusals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. If your visa application has been refused, an appeal is a second chance of success. Do you just need advice?

Immigration lawyer Ross McDougall will consult with you for one hour to get full details about your situation and what you need. He will then advise you on your options and the best solution for you, answering all your questions. Your consultation can either be by telephone or by Zoom video conferencing - one or both partners are welcome to attend. Our fee for this consultation is $195.

Contact us to book - either telephone us on : 08 8528 9187 or send an email to : [email protected]

Commonwealth Statutory Declarations - witnessing of them is now easier.Commonwealth Statutory Declarations can now be ma...
16/09/2026

Commonwealth Statutory Declarations - witnessing of them is now easier.

Commonwealth Statutory Declarations can now be made online without the need for a person to witness them.

This is potentially very useful for preparing partner visa applications.

You can now create and download a digital Commonwealth statutory declaration in English using the myGov website or the myGov app.

Digital ID is used to verify your identity and ensure your declaration is legally binding.

This means you don’t need a person to witness your statutory declaration.

This is the link to access this free of charge service:

https://my.gov.au/en/about/help/digital-id/commonwealth-statutory-declarations/create-a-digital-commonwealth-statutory-declaration-through-mygov?fbclid=IwY2xjawUUF2hwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5uArEw55b7LhhBJ4t_naJEX0IwNUWD_xPK4aAyepUtaE1z8MFY91-BLoez9g_aem_K9vKE3T2ewLtBOqh90DE2Q

Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.

Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on September 16th, 2026. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

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Onshore partner visa applicants now to be given priority over offshore partner visa applicants.On 25 July 2026, Immigrat...
06/08/2026

Onshore partner visa applicants now to be given priority over offshore partner visa applicants.

On 25 July 2026, Immigration Ministerial Direction 117 commenced, which changes the order the Department of Home Affairs should process partner visa applications.

Partner Visa applicants who apply for the visa onshore (whilst in Australia) are now given the highest priority - these are subclass 820/801 applicants.

Accordingly, we can expect to see offshore Partner visa applications (subclass 309/100) and Prospective Marriage visa applications (subclass 300) to be subjected to extended processing times.

The 'takeaway' from this develeopment is that, where possible, applicants should endeavour to lodge an onshore, rather than an offshore, partner visa application.

It is recognised however that this is not possible, or desirable, for all partner visa applicants and an offshore application may be the only, or the preferred, option - irrespective of the processing time penalty.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.

Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on August 6th, 2026. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

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The government's partner visa application charges increased on July 1st 2026 - by a lot.As it does most years, the gover...
14/07/2026

The government's partner visa application charges increased on July 1st 2026 - by a lot.

As it does most years, the government has increased from July 1st, 2026, its visa application charges for partner and prospective marriage visa applications.

This year's increase has been significant.

The new visa application charges that apply from July 1st, 2026, are

Partner Visa (lodged onshore or offshore) $11,710

+ Any Dependent Child aged under 18 $2,935

+ Any Dependent Child aged 18 or over $5,860

Prospective Marriage Visa $11,710

+ Any Dependent Child aged under 18 $2,935

+ Any Dependent Child aged 18 or over $5,860

A new initiative sees lower partner visa application fees for passport holders of the following countries:

Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
Kiribati
Nauru
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Timor-Leste
Tonga

The partner visa application fee for passport holders from these countries from July 1st, 2026 is:

Partner Visa (lodged onshore or offshore) $9,600

+ Any Dependent Child aged under 18 $2,405

+ Any Dependent Child aged 18 or over $4,80

These new visa application charges only apply to visa applications lodged after July 1st, 2026. Applications lodged before then won't be affected.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.

Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on July 14th, 2026. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

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Permanent Partner Visa applications and Police ChecksPartner visa applicants can lodge the forms, Statutory Declaration ...
14/05/2026

Permanent Partner Visa applications and Police Checks

Partner visa applicants can lodge the forms, Statutory Declaration and relationship evidence that Immigration requires to process their permanent partner visa application (subclass 801 or 100), two years after their original partner visa applications (subclasses 820 & 801 or 309 &100) were lodged.

When lodging the documents for processing of the permanent partner visa aplication, the question often arises of whether new police checks are needed for the applicant and for their sponsor.

For the sponsor, the answer is no - new police checks are normally not required.

For the applicant, the answer is, it depends! It depends on the person's individual situation.

Visa applicants need to provide an overseas police certificate from any country, including their home country, where they spent a total of 12 months or more (cumulatively) since the grant of their temporary (subclass 820 or 309) partner visa. Occasionally, this is an applicant's situation and an overseas police clearace is required.

Additionally, Immigration may ask an appicant to provide a new Australian police certificate if their previous certificate has expired. For immigration purposes, police certificates are valid for 12 months from the issue date.

So, you may or may not be asked for a new Australian Police Certificate.

Notwithstanding that, I generally advise applicants to provide a new Australian Police Certificate of their own free will and before they are (potentially) asked for it.

Why? - because it avoids delays in processing the permanent partner visa application.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.

Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on May 14th, 2026. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

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How not to run out of space when uploading evidence to a partner visa application. After a partner visa application is l...
08/04/2026

How not to run out of space when uploading evidence to a partner visa application.



After a partner visa application is lodged, a range of evidence that the relationship is genuine and ongoing needs to be uploaded to the application.

Whilst the application is being processed, new relationship evidence documents should also be uploaded periodically.

Evidence can include financial documents, social activity documents, household documents, Form 888s, photographs, etc. etc.



The maximum number of documents that can be uploaded to a partner visa application is one hundred.

It is easy to reach this limit of one hundred documents unless similar documents are combined before they are uploaded.



For instance, rather than uploading individual photographs to an application, combine multiple photgraphs into one document and then upload that one document that contains multiple photographs.



The same applies with evidence such as electricity/gas bills and bank account statements – combine similar documents (e.g. a few years of bank statements) into one document and then upload that one document.



By doing this, it is highly unlikely that the one hundred document maximum will be reached – and a lot of evidence will still be able to be uploaded.



Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.



Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on April 9th, 2026. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

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Should new relationship evidence be added to a lodged partner visa application? - Yes.As partner visa processing times h...
03/03/2026

Should new relationship evidence be added to a lodged partner visa application? - Yes.

As partner visa processing times have significantly increased in the last year, the question can arise as to how to keep a lodged partner visa application 'fresh' and current.

The answer to that question is to continue to add evidence of your genuine and ongoing relationship to the partner visa application after it is lodged.

Evidence could include, new joint bank account statments, household bills, evidence of travel together, photographs, etc.

Best practice is to upload new evidence to your partner visa application regularly during the visa processing period - to maximise the chances of success for the application.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.

Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on March 4th, 2026. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

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The number of unprocessed visa applications from the partners of Australians has ballooned to almost 100,000.Luke Kinsel...
30/01/2026

The number of unprocessed visa applications from the partners of Australians has ballooned to almost 100,000.

Luke Kinsella writing in the Australian Financial Review on January 6th, 2026, reported that:

'The number of unprocessed applications from the spouses of Australian citizens has ballooned to almost 100,000, as pressure from record-high net overseas migration creates unprecedented backlogs in the visa system.

The pile of unprocessed applications has grown by 72 per cent under Labor, due to limits maintained by the Albanese government that were described as “cruel” and “illegal” by Labor’s assistant minister for multicultural affairs, Julian Hill, when the Coalition was in power.'

You can read the full article by clicking here:

https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/labor-accused-of-breaking-the-law-on-migration-rules-20251211-p5nmyi

Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.

Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on January 30th, 2026. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

Labor’s Julian Hill said the rules were “cruel” and “illegal” in opposition, but the Albanese government has continued the Coalition’s policy.

Hold a Bridging Visa A and travelling outside Australia this Christmas? Don't get stuck.A person who holds a temporary p...
23/12/2025

Hold a Bridging Visa A and travelling outside Australia this Christmas? Don't get stuck.

A person who holds a temporary partner visa - such as subclass 820 or subclass 309 visa - is free to leave and to re-enter Australia whilst they hold that visa.

However, partner visa applicants who currently hold a Bridging Visa A will need to apply for and to be granted a Bridging Visa B before travelling outside Australia - so that they can re-enter Australia.

A Bridging Visa A allows a person to leave Australia - but not to re-enter. Don't get caught out!

Feel free to contact me if you would like to book a consultation for more information about anything mentioned here.

Regards.

Ross McDougall.

Immigration Lawyer & Solicitor.

www.rpmlawyers.com.au

[email protected]

This information is correct on December 24th, 2025. But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.

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