Partner visa relationship statement: what to write, and how it fits your Form 888s
Published by Form 888 Australia · publisher and review details
as at October 2026, design date 08/26
A partner visa relationship statement is the couple's own written history of their relationship, which the 820 and 309 visa pages ask for under 7 topics, from how, when and where you first met to your plans for the future.
Form 888 is a different document, a supporting statement from a person aged 18 or over who knows you both and the history of your relationship, so the dates, places and events in your statement and in each supporter's Form 888 should tell the same story.
| Topic the 820/309 pages list | What the couple's statement gives | What a supporter's Form 888 can confirm from first-hand knowledge | Details that must agree |
|---|---|---|---|
| How, when and where you first met | The date, place and circumstances | Question 3: how and when they came to know each of you | Year or date, place, who introduced you |
| How the relationship developed | The stages, in order | Question 4: the reasons they give for believing the relationship is genuine and continuing | The order and timing of events |
| When you moved in together, got engaged or married | The dates and addresses | Question 3 or 4, where they visited your home or attended the engagement or wedding | Dates, addresses, the event |
| What you do together | Shared activities and social life | Question 3: how often they are in contact with you, and shared occasions | The activities named, how often |
| Time you spent apart | When, why and how you kept in touch | The other-matters box, only where they know it first-hand | The periods and the reasons |
| Significant events in the relationship | The events that matter to you | The other-matters box: events they attended | Names, dates, places |
| Your plans for the future | Your plans | The other-matters box, only where you have told them | The plans, named the same way |
A supporter covers only what they know first-hand, so not every Form 888 touches every topic.
The “Details that must agree” column is practical advice for checking your documents, not a separate Home Affairs requirement that the documents match word for word.
Have your relationship statement checked against every Form 888 by an Australian migration lawyer before lodgement.
What is a partner visa relationship statement?
A partner visa relationship statement is the couple's written account of their relationship history, which Home Affairs asks for under the heading “Relationship history” with the words “Tell us in writing about” on the 820 and 309 visa pages.
The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) page asks for “written statements showing the history of your relationship”. Home Affairs does not publish a form for it.
Searchers also call this a statement of relationship, a relationship history statement or a personal statement. On this page, those names refer to the couple's own account; “relationship history” is the term used on the Home Affairs Partner visa (subclass 820) and Partner visa (subclass 309) pages.
The distinction is who is speaking. The relationship history is the couple's own account; Home Affairs Form 888 records what people who know them know and believe about the relationship, for assessment of its social aspects.
The legal basis for considering other people's opinions is “the opinion of the persons' friends and acquaintances about the nature of the relationship”, in regulation 1.15A(3)(c)(ii) for married couples and regulation 1.09A(3)(c)(ii) for de facto couples of the Migration Regulations 1994.
Keep those perspectives separate when writing. Your account explains your relationship from inside it. A supporter describes their own connection with you and the occasions or conversations they know about, rather than retelling your entire history.
What does a relationship statement cover?
A relationship statement covers the 7 topics the Home Affairs Partner visa (subclass 820) and Partner visa (subclass 309) pages list:
- how, when and where you first met
- how the relationship developed
- when you moved in together, got engaged or married
- what you do together
- time you spent apart
- significant events in the relationship
- your plans for the future
Specific dates, places and names make the account checkable against your supporters' statements; vague summaries leave little to compare. Describe the events in their actual order and distinguish an exact date you know from an approximate period you remember. For future plans, describe your actual intentions rather than treating a hoped-for event as something that has already happened.
Is there a sample relationship statement?
Home Affairs does not publish a form for it. The Home Affairs Partner visa (subclass 820) page asks you to tell your own history in writing, so the table below shows, for each of the 7 topics, what a weak line and a strong line look like.
Illustration, not wording to copy: a fictional couple (Jo Example and Sam Sample), fictional places and dates written 20X0–20X9.
| Topic | Weak (vague) | Strong (specific) | What the strong line adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| How, when and where you first met | “We met through friends a few years ago.” | “We met on 14 February 20X3 at a friend's birthday dinner at a café in the city, where the host seated us together.” | A date, a place and the circumstances |
| How the relationship developed | “Things got serious quickly.” | “Our first date was two weeks later; we met each other's families at Easter 20X3 and from June 20X3 spent most weekends together.” | The stages, in order, with times |
| When you moved in together, got engaged or married | “We live together now.” | “We signed a lease together on 1 March 20X4, got engaged in December 20X5 at Sam's parents' farm and married on 20 May 20X6.” | Dates and the events supporters may have attended |
| What you do together | “We do everything together.” | “We cook for Sam's sister every Sunday and have shared a plot at the community garden since 20X5.” | Named, regular, checkable activities |
| Time you spent apart | “We were apart for a while for work.” | “From August to November 20X4 Jo worked overseas; we spoke by video every evening and Sam visited for 10 days in October.” | When, why and how contact continued |
| Significant events in the relationship | “We've been through a lot together.” | “When Jo's father died in July 20X5, Sam travelled with Jo to the funeral and helped organise it.” | One event, dated, with what each partner did |
| Your plans for the future | “We want to be together forever.” | “We are saving for a house deposit to buy in 20X8, and plan to start a family after Jo finishes a nursing course.” | Concrete plans and a timeframe |
These are separate illustrations of specificity, not a continuous statement to adapt. The statement should be your own true account. Public interest criterion 4020 in Schedule 4 of the Migration Regulations 1994 addresses bogus documents and information that is false or misleading in a material particular; providing that information risks refusal.
Home Affairs' general warning on its “Providing accurate information” page says: “Do not modify or create documents using digital editing tools, artificial intelligence (AI), or any other method.”
That is a general document-integrity warning, not an explanation here of who may help with drafting. The practical point is to describe real events accurately, not manufacture details to make an account sound more specific.
What does the Prospective Marriage visa ask for?
The Home Affairs Prospective Marriage (300) visa page asks for “written statements showing the history of your relationship”, such as these 6 topics:
- how, when and where you first met
- how your relationship developed
- when you got engaged
- what you do together
- significant events in the relationship
- your future plans as spouses
The Home Affairs subclass 300 list has no “time you spent apart” item, and it asks about the engagement rather than moving in or marriage.
“Such as” introduces examples on that page. Use the list to explain your actual history, keeping any supporter’s knowledge distinct from your own.
How is a relationship statement different from Form 888?
A relationship statement is different from Form 888 in who writes it and what it shows: the couple tells its own history, while each Form 888 is a supporter's account of what they know, used by Home Affairs to assess social aspects.
| Attribute | Relationship statement | Form 888 |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes it | The couple | A person aged 18 or over who knows the applicant, the partner or fiancé(e) and the history of the relationship |
| Home Affairs form | None: the visa pages ask for it “in writing” | “Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application”, design date 08/26 |
| What it shows | The couple's own history under 7 topics (6 on the 300 page) | The social aspects of the relationship: the Department uses it “among other things” to assess them |
| What it asks | The 7 topics on the 820/309 pages | Question 3 (how you know them, how often in contact), Question 4 (whether genuine and continuing, and why) and an unnumbered “other matters” box |
| Visa pages that ask for it | 820 and 309 (the 7 topics); 300 (“written statements”) | 820, 801, 309, 100 and 300: statements from 2 witnesses |
Agreement means compatible facts, not identical coverage or language. A supporter who attended your wedding might confirm that occasion without knowing when you first met. Another supporter might have known each of you before the relationship began but have little direct knowledge of a later period overseas.
How do you make your relationship statement and the Form 888s agree?
You make your relationship statement and the Form 888s agree in 4 steps, starting with your own timeline and ending with a check of every document before lodgement.
Write your own statement first, under the 7 topics listed on the Home Affairs Partner visa (subclass 820) page. Establish the dates, places and names from your own history before comparing other accounts.
Let each supporter write from first-hand knowledge, in their own words. Home Affairs Form 888 asks how they know you and how often they are in contact in Question 3, their belief and reasons in Question 4, and any other matters in an unnumbered box.
Give them no wording to copy. If they are unsure of a date, they should describe what they know or check their own records rather than borrow your recollection. If they know a future plan because you told them, their account should make that basis clear.
Read every Form 888 against your statement before lodgement, comparing dates, places, names and events. Where accounts conflict, find out which detail is accurate; do not assume the couple's account is automatically right.
Do not alter a signed statement. For a correction before lodgement, prepare a new form for the supporter to check, sign and date again; Home Affairs Form 888 contains the supporter's signature and date fields.
The Home Affairs “Attach documents to your application” page says attachments cannot be removed once the application is submitted. Form 888 also warns that a supporter “may also be contacted for further comment and/or interview” about the information provided.
Keep copies of everything lodged. Home Affairs Form 888 advises the supporter to keep a copy of the statement and all attachments.
Keep the final versions, not just working drafts. Later statements and the sponsor's second-stage declaration can then be checked against the account actually lodged, with later developments distinguished from corrections to earlier facts.
Illustration only, not wording to copy
A fictional couple's statement puts their engagement in December 20X5, but a supporter’s Form 888 puts it in December 20X4. The supporter checks their own saved engagement-party invitation and confirms 20X5. They correct their own account on a new form and sign and date it again; nobody copies the couple's wording.
The useful correction is to the fact, not to the supporter’s voice. If records do not settle a precise date, do not manufacture certainty merely to make the documents look alike.
Should the sponsor's second-stage declaration match it too?
Yes, the sponsor's second-stage declaration should match it too, because the topics Home Affairs lists for the sponsor's Commonwealth statutory declaration at the 801 or 100 stage cover the same history, including “When your relationship began and how long you have lived together for”, “The social aspects of your relationship” and “Your plans for the future”.
The Home Affairs Partner visa (subclass 801) and Partner visa (subclass 100) pages say to submit permanent-stage documents once two years have passed since you first applied, and not before that time.
For what it covers and how it is made, the guide to the sponsor's partner visa statutory declaration explains the separate declaration. Compare its account of earlier events with the relationship statement and Form 888s already lodged, while identifying what has happened since.
Home Affairs asks for information about “any of the following”, not every listed topic; its sponsor-declaration list includes the nature of the household and whether the relationship is genuine and continuing, so those subjects belong to that separate declaration rather than being additional headings in the couple's 7-topic list.
Why a migration lawyer reads your statement with the Form 888s
A migration lawyer reads your statement with the Form 888s to flag conflicting dates or events before lodgement. The review compares the couple's account, every supporter's statement and, later, the sponsor's declaration, rather than reading each document in isolation.
Home Affairs Form 888 says a supporter may be contacted for further comment or interview. Public interest criterion 4020 in the Migration Regulations 1994 addresses bogus documents and false or misleading information in a material particular, which risks refusal.
A difference between two recollections is not, by itself, a prediction of refusal. The concrete review task is to identify the difference, ask which account is supported by the facts, and flag where a correction or clarification is needed before lodgement.
An Australian migration lawyer can review the couple’s account, Form 888s and sponsor’s declaration together. To ask an Australian migration lawyer about your Form 888s, send the question through this site's enquiry form and explain which documents need to be compared.
Form 888: what your supporters write
Form 888 is what your supporters write for the same application, and the core guides on this site cover it in full.
Who can write one: Home Affairs Form 888 specifies a person aged 18 or over who knows you both and the history of the relationship; the guide to who can complete Form 888 explains that requirement. The Home Affairs partner and prospective marriage visa pages ask for statements from 2 witnesses.
What they write: Home Affairs Form 888 asks about how they know you and their contact in Question 3, their belief and reasons in Question 4, and any other matters in the unnumbered box; the Form 888 example answers illustrate useful detail, not wording to copy. Supporters' answers to Form 888 Question 3—how they know you and how often they are in contact—can overlap with your first relationship-statement topic: how, when and where you met.
Home Affairs says it uses the statements “among other things” to assess the social aspects of the relationship; the guide to the purpose of Form 888 explains where that supporting account fits.