When the permanent stage can be decided (801 and 100)

The clock starts at lodgement, not at grant

Partner visas are applied for once and decided twice. The onshore pathway grants a subclass 820 first and a subclass 801 later; offshore, a 309 then a 100. The waiting period between them is set in Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994.

801.221(2)(d) — subject to subclauses (6A) and (7), at least 2 years have passed since the application was made. 100.221(2)(c) — subject to subclauses (5), (6) and (7), at least 2 years have passed since the application was made.

Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 2 — Compilation No. 288, 1 July 2026, legislation.gov.au

This matters because temporary-stage processing can itself run for a year or more, and the wait is commonly described as running from the grant. Read that way, a couple whose 820 took eighteen months to grant would be counting to three and a half years from lodgement. The clause says otherwise: the time spent waiting for the temporary grant is inside the two years, not added to it.

One narrow exception runs the other way. Where the temporary visa was granted through a Ministerial intervention power rather than an ordinary decision, clauses 801.221(2A)(c) and 100.221(2A)(c) anchor the two years to the date of that decision instead. That is a small subset of cases, not the mainstream pathway.

For some couples the wait does not apply at all

The second misconception is subtler. The long-term relationship provision is usually described as letting a couple be assessed early. The text does something different.

801.221(6A) — Paragraphs (2)(d) and (2A)(c) do not apply to an applicant who at the time of making the application was in a long-term partner relationship with the sponsoring partner. 100.221(5) — Paragraphs (2)(c) and (2A)(c) do not apply to an applicant who at the time of making the application was in a long-term partner relationship with the sponsoring partner.

Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 2 — Compilation No. 288, 1 July 2026, legislation.gov.au

Every other criterion still applies, including that the relationship is genuine and continuing at the time of decision, and processing queues are unaffected by any of this. What changes is that no statutory two-year floor sits under the decision.

What counts as a long-term partner relationship

The term is defined, and the definition is short:

long-term partner relationship, in relation to an applicant for a visa, means a relationship between the applicant and another person, each as the spouse or de facto partner of the other, that has continued: (a) if there is a dependent child (other than a step-child) of both the applicant and the other person—for not less than 2 years; or (b) in any other case—for not less than 3 years.

Migration Regulations 1994, reg 1.03 — Compilation No. 288, 1 July 2026, legislation.gov.au

The date the test looks at

That makes this something to work out at the beginning rather than at the permanent stage. A couple already past three years — or past two with a mutual child — when they lodge is in a materially different timeline from the day they file, and nothing about it can be established retrospectively.

Two timing rules, at opposite ends

It is easy to conflate this with the other duration rule in partner visa law, so it is worth separating them. Regulation 2.03A applies at the first stage and asks de facto applicants for twelve months of relationship before lodgement, with three exceptions. Schedule 2 applies at the permanent stage and asks for two years since lodgement, with the long-term relationship provision disapplying it. Different provisions, different points in the process, different thresholds, and married applicants are outside the first one entirely.

What the permanent visa grants