Onshore or Offshore Partner Visa? Why Your Location Decides 820 vs 309

"Should I do the 820 or the 309?" is one of the most common partner-visa questions there is — and it's almost always asked as if it were a preference, something you weigh up and pick. For most people it isn't. Which partner visa you can lodge is decided by where you physically are when you apply and when the Department of Home Affairs makes its decision. There are only a couple of points where you genuinely have a choice, and knowing which situation you're in is the difference between a smooth application and lodging the wrong one.

This guide walks through the rule that decides it, what stays the same across both pathways, what actually changes, and the three situations you're most likely to be in.

The rule: your location decides, not your preference

The two partner-visa pathways lead to the same destination — permanent residency as the partner of an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen. They differ in where you have to be standing:

• Subclass 820/801 (onshore) — you must be in Australia when you lodge. You apply from inside the country, and if you held a substantive visa at the time, you're usually granted a Bridging Visa A that keeps you lawful while the application is processed.
• Subclass 309/100 (offshore) — you must be outside Australia when you lodge and when the Department decides the 309. That second half is the part people miss. You can visit Australia while you wait, but you can't be onshore at the moment the 309 is granted — if you are, it can't be granted.

So the question is rarely "which do I want." It's "which one am I eligible to lodge, given where I am right now."

What's the same either way

Before the differences, it's worth knowing what doesn't change — because a lot of the anxiety about "picking the right one" comes from assuming the two pathways cost different amounts or need different evidence. They don't:

• Cost. Both pathways carry a single combined Visa Application Charge that covers both stages of the visa — the provisional stage and the permanent stage — with no separate fee later. The charge is the same whether you lodge onshore or offshore. Fees are set by the Australian Government and typically rise on 1 July each year, so check the current figure on the Department's visa pricing estimator rather than a number you saw in an old forum thread.
• Evidence. The relationship evidence is identical. Both subclasses are assessed against the same four pillars — financial, household, social, and commitment. Nothing about being onshore or offshore changes what the Department wants to see about your relationship.

If cost and evidence are the same, the decision comes down to the things that genuinely differ — and they all flow from that location rule.

What actually changes between onshore and offshore

	820/801 (onshore)	309/100 (offshore)
Where you must be to lodge	In Australia	Outside Australia
Where you must be at decision	Either (must enter to activate if you left)	Outside Australia
Bridging visa while you wait	Bridging Visa A, usually automatic	None
Work in Australia while you wait	Yes — full work rights via the BVA	No — only once the 309 is granted and you enter
Cost	Same single combined charge	Same single combined charge
Evidence	The four pillars	The four pillars
Processing time	Varies — check current DHA figures	Varies — check current DHA figures

The two differences that matter most in practice:

Staying lawful while you wait. Lodge the 820 onshore on a substantive visa and the Bridging Visa A keeps you lawfully in Australia through processing. The 309 has no bridging visa at all — there's no offshore equivalent. You stay on whatever visa you hold in your country of residence, or you visit Australia on a visitor visa, but nothing bridges you the way the BVA does onshore.

Working in Australia while you wait. The 820 BVA typically carries full work rights once your original visa expires, so you can keep working in Australia through the wait. (Whether you can work immediately depends on the conditions of the visa you held when you lodged.) On the 309, you can't work in Australia until the visa is granted and you've entered — until then, you're not living in Australia anyway.

Processing times are broadly comparable, though the offshore pathway often runs a little longer in practice. They shift year to year and by lodgement queue, so treat any specific number as a review-date fact and check the Department's current published processing times.

The three situations you'll actually be in

Most applicants fall into one of three buckets:

1. You're in Australia on a visa with no condition 8503. The onshore 820 is usually the default. The Bridging Visa A — with work rights from the point your current visa expires — is the deciding factor for most people, which is why those who can lodge onshore generally do.
2. You're in Australia, but your visa has condition 8503 ("no further stay"). This changes everything (see the next section). Onshore is blocked unless the 8503 is waived first, and those waivers are hard to get — so the offshore 309, after you depart Australia, often becomes the realistic path.
3. You're already outside Australia. It's the 309. There's no "wait until I visit Australia and lodge onshore" version that doesn't require you to stay through processing — and you can't do that without a visa that allows it.

Where condition 8503 changes everything

Condition 8503 — "No Further Stay" is attached to some visitor visas, some student visas, and some temporary work visas. It prohibits the holder from lodging almost any further substantive visa application while in Australia. If you try to lodge an 820 onshore with 8503 active, the application is generally treated as invalid, you don't get a bridging visa, and you can end up unlawful when your current visa expires.

If 8503 is on your current visa, you have two realistic options: request a waiver of the condition before lodging anything (a high bar, granted only for compelling and compassionate circumstances that arose after the visa was granted), or leave Australia and lodge the 309 offshore. This is exactly the kind of situation where the cost of a consultation with a registered migration agent is small next to the cost of getting it wrong — so take advice before you lodge or book a flight.

How to work out your own pathway

The decision becomes simple once you take it in order:

1. Find your current visa and read its conditions. The fastest way to see them is VEVO (Visa Entitlement Verification Online), the free Department of Home Affairs tool. Note in particular whether condition 8503 is listed.
2. Establish where you'll be at lodgement. In Australia points you toward the 820; outside Australia points you toward the 309. Remember the 309 also requires you to be offshore at the decision, not just at lodgement.
3. Check for 8503. If it's present, the onshore door is closed without a waiver — re-read the section above.
4. Organise your evidence the same way regardless. Because the four pillars apply to both subclasses, you can start gathering and structuring your evidence before the pathway question is even settled. Building a complete, well-organised application is the part you control, whichever subclass you end up lodging.

Keeping that evidence organised — across financial, household, social, and commitment — is exactly what ReRooted is built to help with. It doesn't decide your pathway or assess your eligibility; it gives you a structured checklist so that whichever subclass applies, you walk into lodgement with a complete file.