Do I Meet the Requirements for a Bridging Visa A While Waiting on a Partner Visa Decision? (2026)
If you have lodged an onshore Partner visa (Subclass 820/801) application and you are still in Australia, you will usually meet the requirements for a Bridging visa A (BVA) (Subclass 010): the common criteria are that you hold or have held a substantive visa, you are in Australia when you apply, your partner application has been validly made and has not been finally determined, and you meet the character requirement. The Department publishes those criteria in plain form, with the complete legal criteria set out in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994. In most partner cases the visa is not something you chase separately — it arrives as part of the process.
What does a BVA actually do while the 820/801 is pending?
It is a temporary visa whose only job is to keep you lawful while the substantive application is decided. The Department describes it as letting you stay lawfully in Australia until your substantive visa application is finally determined, or, where it is granted in association with judicial proceedings, until those proceedings are complete. It is free, it is digitally linked to your passport rather than labelled, and it does not support return travel: if you leave Australia while it is in effect, the BVA ceases on departure.
Two practical consequences follow from that. First, if you want to travel and come back while the partner application is being processed, you need a Bridging visa B (BVB) granted before you leave. Second, the BVA is tied to that one application — it ends immediately if you are granted the substantive visa you applied for, if you are granted another bridging visa such as a BVB in relation to the same partner application, or if the Department cancels either the BVA or the substantive visa you held when it was granted.
Do you have to apply, or did you already get one?
Nearly all bridging visas are applied for automatically as part of applying for a substantive visa, and the Department says it will tell you when this happens. Whether you already hold one can be confirmed through VEVO. A separate BVA application becomes necessary in a narrower set of situations: where your substantive visa application did not also count as an application for a BVA; where you were granted a BVA or BVB that has since ceased and you now meet the requirements for another BVA; where you are seeking a further BVA without work restrictions; or where you have applied for judicial review.
One limit is worth stating plainly, because it catches people who assume a bridging visa covers every kind of waiting: you cannot use a bridging visa while you wait for a citizenship application to be decided.
What eligibility requirements does the Department list?
The published common criteria are:
- Have had a substantive visa — you must hold or have held one.
- Apply in Australia — you need to be in Australia when you apply.
- Applied for a substantive visa or judicial review — you must have made a valid application for a substantive visa that has not been finally determined, or have applied for judicial review of a decision relating to your substantive visa application within the prescribed timeframe, with those proceedings not yet completed.
- Prescribed timeframe for review — where you are applying on the basis of a review, you must apply within that timeframe.
- Age — any age.
- Character — you need to meet the character requirement.
Since these are described as "some of the common eligibility criteria", the full set for your situation is the Schedule 2 criteria for Subclass 010. The Department does not publish separate secondary criteria for this subclass, which is why each person included in a BVA application has to satisfy the primary criteria in their own right.
What does "hold or have held a substantive visa" mean for a partner applicant?
A substantive visa is a real visa category in its own right — a visitor, student, or skilled visa, for example — as distinct from a bridging visa, which exists only to bridge a gap. Because the published criterion is "hold or have held", the fact that your last visa has already expired does not by itself rule you out; the question the criteria ask is about your substantive visa history, not about whether something is still valid today.
Timing still matters. The situations set out in Subclass 010's Schedule 2 criteria generally turn on whether you held a substantive visa at the time the substantive visa application was made, alongside the requirement that the application be made in Australia. So a partner applicant who lodged the 820/801 while a visitor or student visa was still on foot is looking at a different position from someone whose last substantive visa had already ended before lodgement; in the latter case, where none of the other situations applies, a different bridging visa may be what is assessed instead. The wording in Schedule 2 is what governs, so check the current official version rather than a summary when your history is anything other than straightforward.
This is general information about how the published criteria fit together, not an assessment of your own case — if your visa history is complicated, rely on the official criteria as currently published and on advice from a registered migration professional.
Who can be included as a family member?
If you and your family applied together for the partner visa in Australia, you may also have applied together for the BVA, and VEVO will show whether family members already hold one. Where a BVA is applied for separately, you can include members of the family unit in that application if they are included in your substantive visa application.
Two things follow. The Department assesses each family member's application and decides which bridging visa that person can be granted — so a partner's child or other family member is not automatically granted the same visa as you. And everyone included must be in Australia both when the BVA application is submitted and when it is granted, because that is a stated requirement of applying from within Australia.
When does the BVA end, and what happens after a decision?
For a BVA granted on or after 19 November 2016, the visa ceases 35 calendar days after the refusal decision or an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision on the associated substantive application, after a determination that the application or AAT review application is invalid, or after you withdraw the substantive application or AAT review application. It ceases 28 calendar days after a judicial review body upholds the refusal, or after you withdraw a related judicial review application. For a BVA granted before 19 November 2016, the general period is 28 days from the relevant notification, withdrawal, or decision.
Once you have been notified of an outcome, VEVO shows exactly how long you can remain. You cannot extend a BVA to stay longer — a new visa application is required.
What if the 820/801 is refused and you go to judicial review?
If a merits review tribunal upholds the refusal and you apply for judicial review, you need to apply for a bridging visa to keep your lawful status during those proceedings, and a judicial review applicant can only apply by webform. The judicial review pathway carries its own timing rule: the application has to be made within the prescribed timeframe and the proceedings must not have finished. It also carries a work-related limit — you cannot be granted a new BVA that lets you work if your current BVA prevents or restricts work and it was granted because you applied for judicial review, or if you have applied for a protection visa.
Can you work while you wait?
Work rights depend on the conditions attached to your particular BVA, and your grant letter is what tells you what those are; VEVO also shows any work restrictions. While you still hold a substantive visa, you must keep complying with that visa's conditions, and the BVA conditions only apply once the substantive visa ceases. If your BVA does not allow work or restricts it, you can apply for another BVA that does, and that usually requires demonstrating financial hardship; the Department assesses the claim, and if it is not met but you are still eligible for a BVA, you get a new one carrying the same work prevention or restriction.
Departmental policy guidance lists partner (Subclass 820/801) applications among those where the associated BVA is granted without conditions, but the conditions on your own visa are what bind you — read the grant letter, check VEVO, and confirm the policy against the currently published official version.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to lodge a separate BVA application after lodging my 820/801?
Usually not. Nearly all bridging visas are applied for automatically as part of applying for a substantive visa, and the Department tells you when this happens. A separate application is only needed in specific situations, such as where the substantive application did not also count as a BVA application or where a previous BVA or BVB has ceased.
My last substantive visa expired before I lodged the partner application — can I still get a BVA?
Not necessarily excluded, because the published criterion is that you hold or have held a substantive visa. But the Schedule 2 criteria for Subclass 010 generally also look at whether you held a substantive visa when the substantive application was made, so where that is not the case a different bridging visa may be assessed instead.
Can I travel overseas and come back on my BVA?
No. A BVA does not support return travel, and an in-effect BVA ceases as soon as you leave Australia. To travel and return while the partner application is being processed, you need to have been granted a BVB before you depart.
Can the whole time on a BVA count toward waiting for citizenship?
No. The Department states that you cannot use a bridging visa while you wait for a citizenship application to be decided. The BVA's function is to keep you lawful until the substantive visa application is finally determined, or until associated judicial review proceedings are complete.
Will my partner's child on the same 820/801 application automatically get the same BVA?
Not automatically. Family members may be included in a separate BVA application if they are included in your substantive visa application, but the Department assesses each member of the family unit and decides which bridging visa that person can be granted. Everyone included must also be in Australia when the application is submitted and granted.
How long can I stay if my partner visa is refused?
For a BVA granted on or after 19 November 2016, it ceases 35 calendar days after the refusal decision or the related AAT decision, or 28 calendar days after a judicial review body upholds the refusal. VEVO shows the exact date once you have been notified of the outcome.
Is there a fee for a BVA linked to a partner application?
No. The Department lists the cost of the Bridging visa A (Subclass 010) as free. You and anyone included in the application must still be in Australia when it is submitted and granted.