RPM Immigration Lawyers

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

contactus@rpmlawyers.com.au

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

The Immigration Department’s publication ‘Guidelines for prioritising partner visa applications on compassionate and compelling grounds’ lists ‘Pregnancy’ as a circumstance that – on it’s own – would generally not be regarded as adequate to be granted priority processing of a partner visa application.

This is an extract from the Guidelines:

Circumstances which are neither compelling nor compassionate

While circumstances should be assessed on a case by case basis, under policy,
the following circumstances alone would not be considered compelling or
compassionate, unless other factors exist to support them:

• Financial hardship;
• Intending to start a family;
• Pregnancy;
• Access to English language classes and/or Commonwealth funded study
programs;
• Pain and suffering of separation;
• Employment;
• Travel;
• Pre-arranged wedding plans;
• Passport due to expire.

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

contactus@rpmlawyers.com.au

This information is correct on November 25th, 2025.  But keep in mind that immigration law changes from time to time.