Prospective Marriage Visa Subclass 300: What It Is

In short: The Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage visa lets someone engaged to an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen travel to Australia and marry there. It is temporary. It is not a partner visa and it does not grant permanent residence. You must be outside Australia when you apply and when it is granted, you must marry within the visa’s validity period, and you then lodge a separate onshore partner visa application, with its own application charge. It solves one specific problem well, and for a large number of couples who search for it, a straight partner visa is the better instrument.

What the Prospective Marriage visa is

The Subclass 300 exists for a narrow situation within the Australian visa system: two people intend to marry, one of them is Australian, and the marriage cannot conveniently happen before a visa application is made.

It allows the applicant to travel to Australia, marry their partner, and then apply for a partner visa from inside the country.

The sponsor must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, and both parties must be at least 18.

What it is not deserves equal emphasis, because it is the source of most disappointment we see. It is not permanent residence, it is not a partner visa, and it does not put you further along the partner visa queue than you would otherwise be. It is a bridge to the starting line, not a shortcut past it.

The offshore rule

You must be outside Australia when the application is made and when it is granted.

This single requirement removes the Subclass 300 from consideration for a great many couples who find it while searching. If you are already in Australia with your partner on a student, working holiday or temporary work visa, this is not your pathway, and the onshore Subclass 820/801 almost certainly is.

It also has a practical consequence for those who do use it: a poorly timed visit to Australia while the application is pending can complicate the grant. Coordinate travel once the file is with the Department.

The clock it starts

Once the visa is granted, the marriage must take place within the visa’s validity period.

After you marry, you apply onshore for the Subclass 820/801 partner visa. That subsequent application is where the pathway to permanent residence actually begins.

Letting the period run out without marrying is the failure mode to design against. It puts the entire plan at risk, and it is more common than it sounds, because couples plan weddings around family availability and venue bookings rather than around a visa grant date that nobody can predict in advance. Plan the wedding after the grant, not before it.

It is still a relationship application

A recurring misconception is that being engaged rather than married lowers the bar. It does not.

The Department still tests that the relationship is genuine and that the two of you intend to live together as spouses after the marriage. The evidence you assemble looks much like partner visa evidence: how you met, how the relationship developed, the nature of your commitment, and the substance behind the intention to marry.

Processing also runs to a range broadly similar to the partner visas, so the Subclass 300 is not a fast option. It is a differently shaped one.

Engaged and unsure which route fits? The eligibility check takes about a minute. If you would like someone to weigh the Subclass 300 against a straight partner visa for your circumstances, our MARA-registered advisers can do that.

The cost structure differs, and it matters

This is the point most comparisons miss.

The Subclass 820/801 and the Subclass 309/100 are each a single combined application: one charge covers both the provisional and the permanent stage.

The Subclass 300 is not the first half of such a pair. It is a separate application. After you marry, the onshore partner visa application is a fresh application with its own charge.

So a couple who takes the Subclass 300 route pays two charges over the path, where a couple who marries overseas and lodges a 309/100 pays one. That does not make the Subclass 300 wrong, but it does mean the comparison should be made across the whole path rather than on the first application alone.

When it is the right choice, and when it is not

It is right for genuinely engaged couples who cannot marry before applying. The reasons are usually legal, religious, family-related or logistical: a marriage that must happen in a particular place, with particular people present, or that cannot be solemnised in the applicant’s country.

It is the wrong instrument in three common situations.

If you could simply marry and then lodge a Subclass 309/100, that is one application and one charge instead of two, and it goes directly to the partner visa pathway.

If you are already living together in Australia on a valid substantive visa, the onshore Subclass 820/801 is the route, and the Subclass 300 is not available to you in any case because of the offshore rule.

If you are a de facto couple who meets the cohabitation requirement, you may not need to marry at all. Both partner visa pathways cover de facto and married couples on the same terms.

Common mistakes

Applying from inside Australia. The applicant must be offshore at application and at grant.
Treating it as a route to permanent residence in itself. It permits entry so the marriage can happen; the partner visa that follows is the actual pathway.
Underestimating the evidentiary standard. Engagement does not reduce what the Department expects to see.
Forgetting the second application charge when comparing costs against a partner visa.
Booking the wedding before the visa is granted. Grant dates cannot be predicted, and the marriage has to fall inside the visa period.

Conclusion

The Subclass 300 is a well-designed answer to a narrow question: how does an engaged couple get married in Australia when marrying beforehand is not realistic. For couples in that position it works, and it is worth doing properly.

For everyone else, and that is most people who search for it, the partner visa pathways are simpler, cheaper across the whole path, and aimed directly at where you actually want to end up.

If you are weighing the two, our MARA-registered advisers can give you a written view on which fits your circumstances before you commit to either.

The Prospective Marriage visa (Subclass 300): what it is and who it suits