Depending on your visa, there are always options for a partner and dependent children. In most visa situations, such as a student visa, work, business or permanent residence visa, the principal applicant can include family members in their visa application. It means that the decision on granting a visa to the whole family will be made within the framework of one application. However, if you can not initially include family members in your application for some reason, you cannot add them later, after you lodge the application. In this case, the partner and children must apply for their visas separately as subsequent entrants, and the decision on their entry will be considered independently.

What family members can be included in your visa application

First of all, it must be your spouse or de facto partner. It is not compulsory to be officially married and have a marriage certificate, but it is vital to prove that your relationship is genuine and stable. Dating or online relationships do not count. 

You can also include your dependent children. A dependant child is:

• your or your partner’s child from a current or previous relationship;
• not married, engaged or in a de facto relationship;
• wholly or substantially reliant on you for their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter;
• under 18 years old.

As a rule, partners get the same visas with the same rights as the principal applicants. For example, partners of student visa holders (Subclass 500) also get student visas. Therefore, they can work for no more than 40 hours per fortnight in the academic year and unlimited hours during holidays. The exception is only for partners of students who study for a master’s or a doctorate. They can work unrestricted hours once the primary student has started their course.

Parents who come on a guardian visa (Subclass 590) supervising children under 18 years old do not have the rights to work in Australia.