Your spouse can be included in your Australian skilled visa application — and if they meet the skills criteria, they can add up to 10 points to your score. Here's how it works.
Can My Spouse Be Included on My Australian Skilled Visa?
Yes your spouse or de facto partner can be included as a secondary applicant on your Australian skilled migration visa. This includes the Subclass 189, 190, and 491. Understanding how this works and what it means for your application is important for both your timeline and your points score.
How Secondary Applicants Work
When you lodge a skilled visa application, you are the primary applicant. Your spouse or de facto partner is listed as a secondary applicant on the same application. You both receive the visa at the same time, and both hold the same visa with the same conditions.
Your spouse does not need their own separate points score, skills assessment, or English test to be included — unless you want to claim the partner skills points bonus (more on that below).
What Does Your Spouse Need to Provide?
Even as a secondary applicant, your spouse must meet certain requirements and provide their own supporting documentation:
Identity documents: Passport, birth certificate
Relationship evidence: Marriage certificate or proof of de facto relationship (photos, shared finances, correspondence, statutory declarations)
Health examination: Both primary and secondary applicants must complete health examinations through an approved panel physician
Character requirement: Police clearances from every country your spouse has lived in for 12 months or more in the past 10 years
The relationship evidence is important. The Department of Home Affairs assesses whether the relationship is genuine. Couples who have been living together long-term generally have straightforward evidence. New couples or those in long-distance relationships may need more comprehensive documentation.
The Partner Skills Bonus: 10 Points
If your spouse meets the following criteria, you can claim 10 additional points toward your total score:
They have a positive skills assessment from an Australian assessing authority in a MLTSSL occupation
They score Competent English or above (minimum IELTS 6.0 in all bands, or equivalent)
They are under 45 years of age
This is a significant bonus. For applicants who are close to but below the competitive invitation threshold, a skilled partner who meets these requirements can be decisive.
Note: If you are the primary applicant and your partner has not obtained a skills assessment, you still include them as a secondary applicant — you simply do not claim the 10-point bonus.
De Facto Relationships: What Qualifies?
A de facto relationship is recognised for Australian immigration purposes if you and your partner have been living together in a genuine domestic relationship for at least 12 months prior to the visa application. Evidence of shared accommodation, finances, social recognition of the relationship, and duration is required.
Same-sex partners qualify on exactly the same basis as opposite-sex de facto partners.
What Happens If Your Relationship Status Changes?
If you separate from your partner before the visa is granted, you must notify the Department of Home Affairs. The secondary applicant's inclusion would then be removed. If you separate after the visa is granted, each person retains their permanent residency rights independently.
Children
Dependent children under 18 (or dependent children between 18 and 23 in full-time study, depending on circumstances) can also be included as secondary applicants. Each child requires health and character clearances.
New World Immigration prepares complete family applications including all secondary applicant documentation, relationship evidence, and health and police clearance coordination.