Your partner visa is tested twice: when you apply, and when the Department decides. The relationship has to be genuine and continuing at both points. The long wait between them is the risk. Keep adding evidence during that wait so the file stays current.
The dual test runs at two moments, not one. Both the at-application criteria and the at-decision criteria require the relationship to be genuine and continuing. Most partner visa refusals turn on the second.
Default schedule is every 6 to 12 months. For established relationships with a strong baseline when you apply, two refresh batches a year is usually enough to keep the file decision-ready.
Accelerated schedule is every 90 days. For recent relationships (under about two years), thin baseline evidence, or risk-flagged files (large age gap, recent marriage, online-met with limited in-person time), we recommend quarterly batches.
Section 56 and section 57 are not the same letter. A section 56 request asks for more information. A section 57 letter signals the case officer has already identified information that would form a reason to refuse.
ImmiAccount lets you attach documents to a submitted application. You do not need permission. Five megabyte per file, named categories only, and a 30 to 60 file cap across the life of the application, so consolidate.
The two-year permanent stage is a separate event. Refresh schedule runs until the temporary visa is granted. The permanent assessment at the two-year mark is a different form that you have to start yourself.
If you applied for a partner visa six months ago and have not added anything to the file since, this post is the operator's manual you did not get on the day your application went in. Our earlier post on managing the partner visa after you apply covers what the April 2026 Department approach changed at a high level. This one is the schedule playbook: how often, what exactly, and through which screen in ImmiAccount.
The short version: add evidence to your own file on a regular schedule. Every six to twelve months for most applicants, every ninety days for higher-risk files. Do it in a structured way, and do not wait for the Department to ask.
Why a partner visa file goes stale (and why that matters now)
Partner visa criteria are tested at two moments: when you apply, and when the Department decides. That is the legal structure behind everything in this post. Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994 splits the criteria into two sets, one for the time you apply and one for the time of decision. Both sets ask the same thing: that you meet the "spouse" definition in reg 1.15A or the "de facto partner" definition in reg 1.09A. In plain terms, the relationship has to be genuine and continuing at both moments.
That second test point is where most refused files fall down. Say your most recent evidence is dated fourteen months before the case officer opens your file. The case officer then has to guess that the relationship continued, from documents that say nothing about the last fourteen months. The Tribunal applies the same two-point test when it reviews.
A joint account opened only after the case officer's decision failed the two-point test.
The other side of this is that the file the Department had when you applied is also tested. A relationship can look genuine on paper on the day you apply and still reach decision with thin coverage of the months in between. You have to bridge that gap with evidence dated to the wait.
Evidence rebuilt at the Tribunal passed the two-point test at both the application and the decision.
Case officers used to give applicants more benefit of the doubt at the decision moment. Under the April 2026 partner processing approach, they do not. The Department of Home Affairs Partner Processing Newsletter, April 2026 Edition made three things clear. A request for more information is now genuinely one chance. Files are expected to be decision-ready when you apply and kept up to date in the queue. And stale relationship evidence is one of the recurring, avoidable causes it names for delay and refusal. Plenty of real relationships get refused. What sinks them is a file that cannot show the relationship was genuine when you applied, and genuine still.
The same two-point logic applies at the Tribunal. The Tribunal re-decides the case the same way the case officer would have, and it applies the test at its own decision date. That date is usually months or years after the original decision. So the evidence trail after you apply matters even more on appeal than it did the first time round.
An 801 review where the Tribunal applied the dual-test at its own decision moment to an 18-month separation. Refusal stood.
How often should you refresh?
There is no fixed interval in the law. For most files we recommend a 6 to 12 month schedule. For an established relationship with strong evidence at the start, that is enough to keep the continuity story unbroken between when you apply and when the Department decides. You want a schedule tight enough to close the gap between the two test points, but not so tight that the file fills with repetitive evidence and starts to read as coached.
Tern Tip
Tighten the schedule to every 90 days if your file is higher risk, so no single gap carries too much weight. That covers recent relationships, files with thin evidence at the start, or risk-flagged fact patterns: a large age gap, a recent marriage when you applied, an online-met couple with limited in-person time, or country-pair patterns the Department flags for closer review. If you are not sure which applies, go with the tighter schedule. Refreshing too often costs you some calendar discipline. Refreshing too rarely leaves a gap in the evidence the second test point asks you to fill. For the refusal-pattern framing behind these triggers, see our post on age gap and cross-cultural scrutiny.
How section 56 and section 57 actually work
Two sections of the Migration Act 1958 decide what happens when a case officer notices a gap in your file. They look similar from the outside (both arrive as ImmiAccount notifications with a deadline), but they signal very different things.
What a section 56 request looks like
A section 56 request is the case officer asking for more information. Under s 56 of the Migration Act, the case officer may invite an applicant to give additional information in a specified form. In practice this looks like: "please provide updated joint bank statements," or "please provide a police certificate from country X," or "please provide evidence the relationship has continued since you applied." The tone is administrative. The deadline is typically 28 days, with limited extensions available under s 58.
A section 56 request is the Department's way of saying the file is thin at the decision-time test point. A file that already has refresh evidence on it usually does not get one for relationship reasons, because the evidence the case officer would have asked for is already there. By the time a case officer reaches for s 56, the file is in trouble. The applicant often has to rebuild the entire evidence package later, sometimes only at the Tribunal. A regular refresh schedule is how you never get the s 56 in the first place.
How section 57 is different from section 56
Section 57 is the natural-justice provision. Where the case officer has "relevant information" that would form the reason, or part of the reason, for refusing the application, the case officer must give the applicant particulars of that information, explain why it is relevant, and invite comment. The tone is adverse. A section 57 letter signals the case officer has read the file and seen something that, on its face, leads to refusal: a contradiction between two documents, a piece of third-party information, or a pattern that looks like coaching.
The functional difference matters. A section 56 says "we need more." A section 57 says "we have a concern." A file that contradicts itself over time, or that hands the case officer a single dated piece of evidence in isolation, is more exposed to section 57 than a file with a continuous evidence trail.
Why a regular refresh schedule reduces exposure to both
Continuous, dated, correctly labelled evidence does two things at once. It heads off section 56, because the evidence is not missing in the first place. And it guards against section 57, because the relationship story is unbroken, so there are no isolated documents for the case officer to read as inconsistencies. This is refusal-pattern encoding: the unwritten signals case officers look for. Continuity of living together. Continuity of shared finances. Continuity of social proof. A regular schedule builds those signals into the record.
The alternative, building evidence reactively once an RFI lands, reads as exactly what it is. Joint accounts opened in response to a refusal letter do not retrofit a relationship; joint accounts opened eighteen months ago and dated regularly do.
Adding evidence to your file without being asked
Home Affairs lets you attach additional documents to a partner visa application at any time after you apply, before any RFI lands, until the application is finalised. The function is documented at Attach additional documents to visa applications in ImmiAccount. You do not need a case officer's permission, and you do not need to email the Partner mailbox.
Three rules trip people up. Each file is capped at 5 MB. Accepted formats are pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, gif, and bmp, and the Department rejects compressed or encrypted PDFs outright. Each upload must go under a named category from the dropdown (for example, "Evidence of Relationship - Financial," not "Other document"). And the total number of files for the application is capped between 30 and 60, depending on the application type.
The 30-to-60 cap is the one that catches people. Upload twelve loose files per batch for two years and you will run out of slots well before the permanent stage. So the rule: one combined, captioned PDF per pillar, per batch. Name it to the calendar so the case officer can see the schedule: 2026-Q2_Financial_Smith-Jones.pdf. Four files per batch keeps you well inside the cap, even on the tightest schedule.
The schedule in practice
Pick a date and set a recurring calendar reminder for when statements naturally land. Use the first week of each calendar quarter for the 90-day schedule, or early January and July for the 6 to 12 month one. Every batch, every pillar gets at least one new dated item. If a pillar has nothing new for the period, find something before you upload rather than skip it. Inside each combined PDF, give every item a one-line caption ("Joint Origin Energy bill, billing period 1 April to 30 June 2026, addressed to Jane Smith and Mark Jones at 12 Smith Street, Coburg VIC"). The case officer is reading the story of your relationship. The captions write it for them.
What to add each batch, by pillar
Financial
The most recent joint account statement covering the period. New bills addressed to both names (electricity, gas, internet, water). Evidence of shared expenses across the period, whether that is a rent split, joint credit card payments, or transfers for groceries. Any new shared subscription or membership taken out in the window (gym, streaming, insurance). Updates to superannuation beneficiary nominations if they happened. Any joint loan, lease renewal, or credit application.
Household
Lease renewal documents or a rent ledger update for the period. Mortgage statements showing both names if you own. Mail to both names at the same address (council rates, government correspondence, AusPost delivery confirmations). Updated household contents insurance with both names. Driver licence change-of-address confirmations after a move. Electoral roll registration showing the shared address where eligible.
Social
A small set of dated, captioned photographs from gatherings during the period: Christmas, birthdays, weddings, weekends with friends or family. Travel evidence in both names (boarding passes, accommodation bookings). Event tickets in both names. Social media posts where you are tagged together, screenshotted with the date visible. Group chat screenshots with mutual friends or family, where the conversation is about you as a couple. Do not refresh Form 888 statutory declarations every batch; new declarations from the same witnesses on a tight schedule read as coaching. Refresh witnesses annually at most, and only when they have something genuinely new to say.
Commitment
Anniversary documentation when one falls in the period (cards, dinner reservations, gift invoices). Future plans in writing: a lease extending forward, joint travel booked months ahead, jointly purchased durable goods. Will updates naming your partner as beneficiary or executor. Power of attorney or guardianship documents. Joint pet adoption or registration paperwork. Long-horizon documents are particularly valuable in this pillar because they show the relationship is being treated as ongoing.
For the underlying four-pillar framework and what counts as strong evidence when you apply, see our ultimate guide to the Australian partner visa. Not sure which pillar is thinnest going into your next batch? Our free partner visa evidence checker gives an indicative, per-pillar read in a few minutes, so you can aim each refresh where it is needed most.
Common mistakes the discipline prevents
The most common mistake is going quiet after you apply. The file ages, the relationship visibly does not, and the case officer wonders why. A captioned 30-photo set spread across 24 months tells a better story than 200 undated images dumped in week 90.
Use the named categories. The April 2026 newsletter names misuse of the "Other document" category as a reason case officers miss evidence.
Pick one channel. Uploading to ImmiAccount and emailing the Partner mailbox both create duplicate records and slow the file down. And encrypted or oversized PDFs fail upload silently, so test each PDF after you upload it.
Keep your contact details current. A request for more information lands on the email of record. An applicant who has moved house and switched email without updating ImmiAccount can miss a one-chance deadline without ever knowing it existed.
When refresh becomes something else: the two-year permanent stage
The refresh cycle runs until your temporary visa is granted (820 onshore, 309 offshore). At that point the clock resets. Around the two-year anniversary of grant, you (or your representative) start the Permanent Partner Visa Assessment form in ImmiAccount. The Department does not do this for you. It is a separate event, with its own evidence pack. That pack covers the full two years since grant, plus fresh police certificates if the 12-month cumulative rule is triggered, and updated medicals if asked. To pass the 801 stage you have to still hold the temporary partner visa, still be sponsored by the same partner, and still be the spouse or de facto partner of that sponsor. You also have to be assessed at least two years after the original combined application was made.
An 801 case that set out the four limbs of cl 801.221(2), including the two-year timing rule. Refusal overturned.
The strongest reason to keep the schedule going: it turns the permanent stage into an assembly job. Two years of dated, captioned, pillar-coded PDFs already exist, so the permanent submission is mostly writing the cover narrative. Our post on managing the partner visa during the wait covers the two-year mechanics in detail.
How Tern fits in
Tern's partner visa service is built around the phase after you apply as much as the application itself. Every application is reviewed before submission by an immigration lawyer. After you apply, the platform prompts the refresh against the four-pillar checklist in this post, on the schedule that fits your file. On the top tier we hold the ImmiAccount and upload refresh batches for you. On lower tiers we hand it over and prompt you to upload yourself. The schedule is built in rather than optional. The Department named stale evidence and mis-categorised uploads as recurring, avoidable causes of delay, so the platform is designed to make both harder to do by accident.
Frequently asked questions
The bottom line
Partner visa criteria are tested on the date you applied and on the date the Department decides. Both test points need the relationship to be genuine and continuing. The refresh schedule makes the file prove the relationship across the whole gap between those two dates, end to end.
Pick your refresh interval: every 6 to 12 months by default, every 90 days if the file is recent, thin, or risk-flagged. Set a calendar reminder, and upload your first batch under the four pillars. For the broader picture and what the April 2026 update changed, see our guide to managing your partner visa during the wait. If you want the schedule handled for you, Tern's partner visa service builds it into the workflow.
