Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300): the Australian fiance visa explained

If you have ever typed "fiance visa Australia" into Google and come away more confused than when you started, that is fair. The Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300), known as the PMV or sometimes the engagement visa, sits awkwardly between the well-trodden partner visa pathways and gets explained mostly through US fiance visa norms that do not apply here.

This post is the version we wish more couples had read before paying. It covers what the PMV actually is, when it is the right strategic move versus going direct on a 309 or 820, the cost and timing trade-offs, and the refusal patterns we see most often.

What is the Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300)?

The Prospective Marriage visa is a temporary Australian visa, usually granted for 9 months. It lets you enter Australia from overseas, marry your sponsor, and then apply onshore for a Subclass 820 partner visa at a reduced second-stage fee. It is governed by Schedule 2 Part 300 of the Migration Regulations 1994.

It sits inside the broader partner pathway as the "engaged but not yet eligible for a partner visa" entry point. There are four practical ways into Australia's partner-pathway system. Only one of them does not need a marriage or a 12-month de facto record when you apply:

Read in that order, the PMV stops looking like a separate product. It is a temporary bridge into the 820/801 partner-visa track, built for couples who cannot yet meet the marriage or de facto test.

One visa, two stages

A PMV is really a two-payment partner visa. You pay AUD $11,710 for the PMV, enter Australia, marry, then apply onshore for the 820 at a discounted second-stage fee. The 820 then moves to permanent residence (the 801 stage) roughly two years after you apply under current policy.

For a deeper look at the partner pathway as a whole, see the ultimate guide to the Australian partner visa.

When is the PMV the right path (and when is it not)?

The PMV is the right path when you are offshore, engaged, do not yet have 12 months of living together, and you want to marry in Australia. In most other situations, going straight to a 309 or 820 is cheaper, more predictable on timing, or both.

The most common mistake we see is couples paying for a PMV when they were already eligible for a direct partner visa, or when an overseas wedding would have been more efficient. Here is the decision tree as we use it in practice.

One point we keep coming back to: the PMV fits a smaller group of couples than the marketing around it suggests. If marrying overseas works for you, logistically and culturally, a 309 saves you a whole payment cycle and the hassle of running a two-stage application. Median processing times are broadly similar, and the 309's long tail is tighter.

For couples whose relationship started online or across borders, the partner visa for couples who met online or long-distance walks through the evidence implications in more detail. If 12 months of living together is the only thing missing, the de facto vs married partner visa comparison sets out the registration and waiver options. To see quickly whether you already count as de facto, our free de facto relationship checker works out in about two minutes whether you meet the 12-month rule and which states let you register your relationship to waive it. For some couples that is the difference between needing a PMV and going straight to a cheaper 309.

What are the eligibility criteria for the PMV?

The PMV has two sets of criteria: things you have to meet when you apply, and things you have to meet when the Department decides. The application criteria set out who can apply. The decision criteria set out who actually gets granted.

When you apply, you have to be at least 18 and sponsored by an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible NZ citizen. You also have to meet two relationship tests that people often mix up. The first is that you have met your fiancé in person, as adults. "In person" means physical presence. The Full Federal Court in MIAC v Yucesan [2008] FCAFC 110 held that Skype, FaceTime, Zoom and telephone calls do not count. We cover the Yucesan question in detail in our met-online and long-distance partner visa guide. The second test is that you know each other personally. Departmental policy treats this as separate from the meeting test: a single meeting plus thin ongoing contact can pass "met in person" but fail "personally known."

You also have to establish that you both genuinely intend to marry, and that the marriage is intended to take place within the visa's validity. That intention is what case officers spend the most time on, and where most refusals land. When the decision is made there has to be no impediment to the marriage in Australian law.

At decision time, you have to be outside Australia. The rule applies to the moment of grant, not to the whole wait. You can visit Australia on a visitor visa while your PMV is being processed. This is allowed and common, and given the 12 to 27 month wait most applicants do visit at least once (more on the right and wrong ways of visiting on a tourist visa while a partner pathway runs). The thing to watch is being onshore when the case officer is ready to grant. At that moment the visa cannot be granted. So the safer pattern is to visit earlier in the wait and be offshore once your file feels close to a decision. The Department does not tell you when decision day is, so if your file feels close, be offshore.

Sponsorship and the 5-year limitation

Sponsors are approved under the same partner sponsorship rules (regs 1.20J to 1.20KC) that apply to 820 and 309 sponsors. The same 5-year limits apply. If your sponsor has sponsored another partner before, or held a PMV themselves, cooldowns and prior-sponsorship checks can delay or block sponsorship approval.

For an overview of what the sponsor is signing up for, see the sponsor's role in an Australian partner visa.

What has to happen inside the 9-month window?

Once your PMV is granted, three things have to happen before it expires: you enter Australia, you marry your sponsor under Australian law, and the onshore Subclass 820 partner visa is submitted. Miss any of these and you reset the pathway and lose the discounted second-stage fee.

Submitting the Notice of Intended Marriage

Under section 42 of the Marriage Act 1961, you must give a Notice of Intended Marriage (NoIM) to an authorised celebrant no less than one month and no more than 18 months before the wedding. Since June 2024, the NoIM can also be witnessed remotely. That makes the form easy to submit to an Australian celebrant from overseas when the time comes.

The cleanest order is to wait until the PMV is granted, then submit the NoIM. You will still have around 8 months to marry inside the 9-month window. Some couples are tempted to submit the NoIM when they apply for the PMV, as extra evidence that they intend to marry. The form expires after 18 months, and PMV processing often runs longer than that, but re-submitting is just paperwork. The real reason to wait is to avoid committing to wedding plans (venue deposits, family travel, celebrant relationships) for a visa that has not been granted yet.

Marrying under the Marriage Act 1961

In practice the marriage happens in Australia under the Marriage Act 1961. Marrying overseas after grant is allowed, but it raises problems around recognition and timing. Marrying before the 300 is decided is different: you no longer meet the 300 criteria. The correct response is to tell Home Affairs in writing straight away and ask that the application be treated as a Subclass 309/100. If you do this before a decision is made, the change keeps your original application date and you pay no further visa charge. If you do it too late, the 300 is refused because your circumstances have changed, and a fresh 309 at the full charge is your only way forward.

Submitting the 820 before the PMV expires

This is the step that quietly decides whether the PMV paid off. The reduced second-stage fee only applies if the 820 is submitted before the PMV expires. Miss that window and a fresh 820 costs the full AUD $11,710, plus any Schedule 3 issues if the applicant has gone unlawful in the meantime. For what happens once that 820 is in the queue, see after you apply: managing your partner visa during the wait.

How much does the PMV path really cost?

In Australian government fees, the PMV pathway is two payments: AUD $11,710 for the PMV upfront, then a reduced second-stage 820/801 fee paid after marriage (currently AUD $1,955, with the price going up on 1 July each year). The same applicant going direct via a 309 or onshore 820 pays a single AUD $11,710. So the PMV pathway costs more, by that second-stage amount. You pay extra for one thing: the ability to bring a fiancé into Australia from overseas before you have a marriage certificate or 12 months of living-together evidence.

The piece couples most often miss when budgeting is that second-stage fee. People plan for the AUD $11,710 PMV alone and discover the 820 conversion fee with weeks left on their visa. It is reduced, but it is real, and it must be paid before the PMV expires.

If the PMV path adds a meaningful premium and you have a route to either marry overseas or build de facto evidence, the cheaper move is almost always to go direct. The PMV pays off when the direct routes are not available, not when they are inconvenient.

Is the PMV faster than a 309?

It depends where in the queue your case lands. At the median, the 300 actually moves slightly faster than the 309: around 14 months for the 300 vs around 15 months for the 309 as of mid-2026. At the 75th percentile both subclasses sit in the 20 to 22 month range. The gap opens in the long tail: the slowest 5% of 300s take around 34 months, versus around 27 months for the slowest 5% of 309s. So the typical 300 moves about as fast as the typical 309. A 300 that gets stuck, though, takes meaningfully longer to clear.

There is a reason for the long tail. PMV case officers run one extra check that 309 officers do not: whether you "genuinely intend to marry within the visa period." That sits on top of the relationship-genuineness check both subclasses share. When that extra check needs more evidence, the file sits longer. The Department publishes per-subclass percentiles on its Global Visa Processing Times page, and they shift every quarter, so always check the current figure before you rely on a number.

The practical implication: the PMV is not the fast path. Take it when the alternative is "wait years to build a de facto record" or "marry abroad without ever having visited Australia together." When a 309 is genuinely on the table, it usually clears faster.

What evidence does a PMV need?

A PMV asks for different evidence than an 820. An 820 leans on living together and shared finances. A PMV leans on two forward-looking things instead: that you have met in person and know each other personally, and that you genuinely intend to marry inside the visa period.

For the met-in-person and personally-known tests, case officers look for proof you were physically together: passport stamps, dated photos with both faces visible in varied locations, boarding passes, joint hotel or flight bookings, and statements from people who have met you both in person. Thin contact and a single meeting are the most common reason the "personally known" test fails.

For intention to marry, the single strongest piece of evidence is a NoIM already submitted to an Australian authorised celebrant. Backed up by a booked venue, a concrete date, engagement announcements, planning correspondence, and statutory declarations from both partners, that intention becomes hard for a case officer to refuse.

A relationship-genuineness layer still applies, but at a lower bar than the 820. At the PMV stage the Department wants proof the relationship is heading toward a shared life, and a newer couple can show that. The flip side: an established couple then has to explain why they are not already de facto, which can be harder to evidence than a straightforward 820.

Common PMV pitfalls

Refusals on the PMV cluster around a few patterns, and most of them are avoidable with planning rather than evidence.

The first is marrying before grant. Once you are married the 300 can no longer be granted. The correct move is to tell Home Affairs in writing straight away and ask that the application be treated as a 309/100. If you do this before the 300 is decided, the change is free and your application date is kept. If you do it after a decision has issued, the 300 is refused and you start over at the full 309 charge. Either way, the evidence bar shifts. The 309 tests a genuine, continuing relationship that already exists, and couples who married early are often light on the shared-life evidence a 309 officer expects.

The second is missing the window for the 820. The PMV expires, the applicant stays in Australia unlawfully, and the next partner visa costs the full AUD $11,710 with possible Schedule 3 issues. Once an applicant is onshore without a substantive visa (a bridging visa does not count), the section 48 bar and Schedule 3 criteria apply, and lawyer-led advice is essential before any new application.

The third pattern we encode against in our intake: underweighting the "personally known" limb. Two adults, one in-person meeting, sparse messages, large language barrier with no translator history, large age gap with no shared cultural anchor. That combination drives refusals. The relationship can be perfectly real; the evidence just does not establish the limb the regulations require. Genuine relationships still get refused when they are not proven, and the PMV is one of the subclasses where that shows up most. The thin-evidence partner visa playbook walks through how to prove a real relationship that does not have a long paper trail yet.

Can same-sex couples apply for a PMV?

Yes. The Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 took effect on 9 December 2017 and extended Australian marriage law to same-sex couples. The PMV has applied equally since.

This is one of the highest-value strategic uses of the PMV. For same-sex couples whose home country does not recognise same-sex marriage, or where marrying locally is unsafe or unlawful, the PMV lets the couple marry in Australia under Australian law and then step onto the partner-pathway track. A 309 usually is not available there, because there is no legally recognised marriage to apply under, and a de facto 309 needs 12 months of provable living together that the couple may not have been able to build safely.

How Tern handles the PMV pathway

Tern's partner pathway, which covers the 300, 820/801, and 309/100, is designed and reviewed by an immigration lawyer. The service fee for the partner pathway starts at AUD $1,400. That lower price comes from the modern, software-led workflow we run. The lawyer review is the same one you would get elsewhere.

For PMV applicants specifically, the intake encodes the offshore-at-decision rule, the "met in person" and "intention to marry" tests, and the NoIM timing question as live eligibility checks. You see whether the PMV is actually the right pathway before you pay. And the workflow flags the 820 deadline, so the second-stage fee discount never gets lost to a calendar miss.

Start your partner-pathway application with Tern and the platform will tell you whether the PMV, the 309, or the 820 fits your situation before you commit to any of them.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line on the PMV

The Prospective Marriage visa is a precision tool. It is the right move for offshore engaged couples who want to marry in Australia, for couples whose cultural or religious rules require marriage before living together, and for same-sex couples from countries where marrying locally is unsafe. For everyone else, a direct 309 or 820 will usually be cheaper, faster, or both.

If you are weighing the PMV against the alternatives, do not start with the visa. Start with four facts: where you are, where your partner is, whether you are married, and how long you have lived together. The answer almost always tells you which subclass fits before you read a word of the eligibility rules.

Start your partner-pathway application with Tern and we will branch you into the right subclass before you pay anything.