What Changes Must You Report While Your Partner Visa 100 Is Decided in 2026?

Updated 2026-10-15 · General information, not migration advice · Run by the Arrivau team

Yes — you do. Moving house, renewing your passport, or separating from your sponsoring partner while a Partner (Migrant) visa (Subclass 100) is awaiting a decision all trigger a duty to notify the Australian Department of Home Affairs. As of October 2026, the Department's official Partner (Migrant) visa (Subclass 100) page states that you must tell it about changes to your contact details and address, your passport, and your situation — including your marital or de facto status and the birth of a child — after you apply and before a decision is made. What follows is a general explanation of that rule rather than advice about your own circumstances, so the Department's current pages should be treated as the controlling source, and a qualified professional consulted where your situation is unusual.

What do I actually have to report while the Subclass 100 is decided?

The obligations are spread across several places on the Department's page, but they organise into four practical groups. None of them is optional, and none of them waits until the Department asks.

Do I have to report a new address, phone number, or email?

Yes. The Department asks you to give your contact details when you apply and to tell it if they have changed. The partner visa application form itself will ask you for your own phone number and email address, which is a signal of how much the Department relies on reaching you directly. A change of residential address sits under the same instruction and has its own topic on the Department's website.

What about a new passport?

Yes — the Department's page says plainly to let it know if you get a new passport. This matters for a mechanical reason as much as a legal one: Australian visas are digital, the Department does not place a visa label in your passport, and it links your digital visa record to your passport instead. For the permanent stage specifically, the identity document required is a copy of the pages of your most recent passport showing your photo, personal details, signature, and the passport issue and expiry dates.

Which changes in my relationship or family count?

The Department lists changes to your marital or de facto status, the birth of a child, any other change relevant to your application, and a request to withdraw your application. If your relationship ends, the page says you may need to complete the Notification of Relationship Cessation form in ImmiAccount, and it also notes that you might still be eligible for the permanent visa if your relationship ends or your partner dies, and that all information you provide is confidential.

Family members are covered too. For every family member who currently holds a Subclass 309 or 445 visa, the Department asks for copies of their passport, documents that show changes to their situation, and police certificates where applicable for dependents aged 16 or older.

And if I got something wrong on the form?

Tell the Department as soon as you can. Accuracy is treated as a continuing obligation rather than a one-off checkbox at lodgement: the Department states that, as a visa applicant, you must prove your identity and provide true information with your application. A mistake you noticed yourself is reported the same way as any other change.

Which channel do I use to report each one?

ImmiAccount is the primary route. Log in. Open the application. Attach the document that shows the change. Attach each document only once, even if you are using it to show more than one thing, and label documents clearly.

For the permanent stage, the Department sets out a specific path. Select 'New application'. Select 'Family'. Select 'Stage 2 – Permanent Partner Visa Assessment'. Attach your documents. The limit is 100 documents for each person on the application, and that limit cannot be increased; if you reach it for one applicant, you can attach further documents to other clients on the same application.

Documents need to be readable. Scan or photograph them in colour. Save a document that runs to several pages as a single file. You do not need to have any documents certified. Anything not in English needs a translation: in Australia, translators must be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI); outside Australia, they must include their full name, their address and telephone number, and their qualifications and experience in the language they are translating, in English, on each translation.

Changes are also handled as separate topics on the Department's own website. Contact details and address, passport details, having a baby, and a relationship ending each have their own page under the Change in your situation section.

What if I cannot upload the documents to ImmiAccount?

Sometimes ImmiAccount will not accept what you need to attach. In that case, the Department's page names the Partner Processing Enquiry Form as the channel for notifying it. The same form is named in further situations: after you attach Form 1002 for a dependent child who holds a Subclass 445 visa, where your relationship has ended and you no longer have access to ImmiAccount, after you attach Form 956A or Form 956 to withdraw a representative, and where you are unable to update your application in ImmiAccount after making a mistake.

Appointing or removing someone who deals with the Department on your behalf is done on paper forms. Form 956A appoints or withdraws an authorised recipient who receives your correspondence. Form 956 appoints a registered migration agent, a legal practitioner, or an exempt person to give you immigration assistance. After either form is attached to ImmiAccount, the Department is notified through the Partner Processing Enquiry Form.

Does it matter that my partner or a representative receives my mail?

No — the duty stays with you. The Department says it is important to provide your own contact details in case it needs to contact you directly about your application. It may contact you directly even if you nominated your sponsor's email address for all electronic correspondence, appointed your sponsor or someone else as your authorised recipient, or appointed someone to give you immigration assistance. Correspondence that a person appointed to give you immigration assistance sends is treated as if it came from you.

The same page advises protecting your ImmiAccount, your email account, and your passwords, and not sharing them with anyone.

When does this duty start and when does it end?

It runs from the moment you lodge the combined application until the Subclass 100 is decided. The Department states it twice: once for the period after you apply but before a decision, and again for the period after you lodge your permanent-stage documents but before a decision is made.

Two dates matter in between. You become eligible for consideration for the permanent visa two years after you apply for the temporary and permanent Partner visas together. You can check the date you submitted your application in ImmiAccount, and you should not send permanent-stage documents before two years have passed.

Suppose an applicant lodged the combined application in early 2024, moved house in 2026, and then lodged the permanent-stage documents once two years had passed. The address change is reportable, and so is anything that changes after the documents are lodged, because the duty continues until the decision is made.

Partner applications can take a long time. The Department says you should update your documents and evidence of your relationship regularly through ImmiAccount, and notes that published global processing times are estimates based on how long recently decided applications took rather than a guarantee that yours will be decided within that timeframe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to report a change of address if my mail already goes to my partner's address?

Yes. The Department asks you to provide your own contact details and to tell it if they have changed, and it says it may need to contact you directly even if you nominated your sponsor's email address for all correspondence or appointed someone else as your authorised recipient. A change of residential address is covered by the same instruction.

I renewed my passport — is there anything to do?

Yes. The Department's page says to let it know if you get a new passport. Australian visas are digital and linked to your passport rather than placed in it as a label, so an out-of-date passport record is precisely the mismatch the rule is meant to prevent. For the permanent stage, you will also need a copy of the pages of your most recent passport showing your photo, personal details, signature, and the issue and expiry dates.

My relationship with my sponsor has ended. Must I say so?

Yes. Changes to your marital or de facto status are listed among the things you must report, and the Department says you may need to complete the Notification of Relationship Cessation form in ImmiAccount. It also states that you might still be eligible for the permanent visa if your relationship ends or your partner dies, and that all information you provide is confidential.

We had a baby after applying. Does the Department need to know?

Yes. The birth of a child is listed as a change you must report. A dependent child can be added to your application before a decision is made if the child holds a Subclass 445 visa, is a member of the family unit, and meets the health requirement, plus the character requirement if aged 16 or older. Once the child holds a Subclass 445 visa, Form 1002 is completed and attached to ImmiAccount, and the Department is notified through the Partner Processing Enquiry Form.

I made a mistake on my application. Is it too late to fix it?

The Department's advice is to let it know as soon as you can. If you are unable to update the application in ImmiAccount yourself, the page names the Partner Processing Enquiry Form as the channel for notifying it. Nothing in the page suggests waiting until the Department spots the error.

Do changes affecting my family members need to be reported too?

Yes. For every family member who currently holds a Subclass 309 or 445 visa, the Department asks for copies of their passport, documents that show changes to their situation, and police certificates where applicable for dependents aged 16 or older. A change affecting them is therefore part of the same reporting duty as a change affecting you.

How can I check whether I am still being assessed for the Subclass 100?

Use VEVO to check which visa you currently hold. You can also check the status of your application and whether you have provided all supporting documents through ImmiAccount. The Department states that it will not provide further progress updates while an application is within the current standard processing time, which is separate from your obligation to report a change.

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