“One of us is in Australia and the other is in China. We normally use WeChat and Alipay—who would open a joint account just for this?”
This is a question we often hear in partner visa consultations.
For couples living in different countries, not having an Australian joint account is hardly unusual. WeChat, Alipay and similar payment methods are particularly common in China, while using an Australian bank card there may involve fees and limited payment options. Maintaining a joint account specifically for a partner visa application may therefore not reflect every couple’s actual circumstances.
More importantly, Australian partner visa decisions do not assess whether a relationship is genuine solely on the presence or absence of a joint account. Financial circumstances are only one part of relationship evidence. Applicants also need to build a complete body of evidence covering their household life, social relationships and commitment to each other.
1. Australian partner visa processing times: onshore and offshore applications differ
Under the processing priorities currently in place, onshore Subclass 820/801 Partner visa applications and offshore Subclass 309/100 Partner visa applications have different processing arrangements.
For the onshore Subclass 820 temporary Partner visa, 50% of applications currently take around 22 months and 90% take around 30 months.
For the offshore Subclass 309 temporary Partner visa, 50% of applications take around 21 months and 90% take around 32 months.
The Department of Home Affairs’ published global processing data is historical and does not represent the actual waiting time for every application. Recent grants have also included a Subclass 820 application lodged in July 2024 and a Subclass 309 application lodged in November 2024.
Applicants should therefore pay attention to whether their documents are complete, their relationship evidence is sufficient and their application is as decision-ready as possible.
2. Why are financial aspects important evidence for a partner visa?
One of the central considerations in a partner visa assessment is whether the couple has genuinely established an ongoing relationship.
Financial aspects are an important dimension because genuine partners usually develop some degree of financial connection through living costs, shared spending and plans for the future.
For example, sharing rent, electricity, water, internet, phone bills and other household expenses can help demonstrate a shared life and financial connection.
However, a financial connection does not mean that an Australian joint bank account is compulsory.
For couples with one partner in Australia and the other in China, shared expenses may be covered in different ways. What matters is being able to explain transfers between the partners, shared spending and financial arrangements, rather than simply proving that they hold a particular type of bank account.
If you do not have a joint account, there is therefore no need to manufacture financial arrangements merely to tick a documentation box. It is more important to organise your existing, genuine financial dealings and explain them alongside other relationship evidence.
3. What financial evidence can you prepare without a joint account?
If you have lived apart for a long time and do not have a joint bank account, look to your actual lives for records that demonstrate your financial connection.
Transfers to each other
WeChat, Alipay and bank transfer records can all serve as supporting evidence.
The focus is not simply the amount of an individual transfer, but the frequency of transactions over time, the period they cover and what the money was used for.
If you regularly cover each other’s living expenses, travel costs or other shared spending, you can combine the relevant transfer records with chat records to explain the actual reasons for the transfers.
Shared travel expenses
If you have travelled together, you can provide payment records for flights, hotels, admission tickets, meals and similar expenses.
These documents can demonstrate shared spending and corroborate your travel photos, chat records and relationship timeline.
Shared rental and housing expenses
If you have lived together or currently do so, a lease bearing both your names can provide relatively direct evidence of a shared life.
For couples living in different countries, with one partner based in China and the other in Australia, shared contributions to Australian housing costs can also be explained using the lease and transfer records.
Buying gifts or everyday items for each other
Order records from Taobao, other e-commerce platforms or Australian shopping platforms can also serve as supporting documents.
For example, buying gifts and sending them to your partner’s address, gifts for special occasions and other purchases with clearly identified recipients and dates can help demonstrate ongoing financial interaction.
Chats about financial arrangements
Chat records can sometimes explain matters that bank statements alone cannot.
For example, discussions about rent, airfares, a shared travel budget or one partner temporarily paying an expense for the other can show how you manage shared spending.
Compared with providing an isolated transfer, chats explaining what the money was used for can make it easier for a visa officer to understand your actual financial arrangements.
Shared savings or future financial plans
If you are saving for a wedding, travel, a home or another shared goal, you can also provide relevant documents.
For example, jointly tracking savings progress, discussing savings plans in chats or having one partner manage funds over time under a mutual agreement can all serve as supporting evidence of your financial connection.
Shared money-management tools
Some couples use Alipay’s shared wallet, WeChat’s Family Card or other shared money-management tools.
If you have genuinely used these tools over time to manage everyday spending together, you can provide relevant records reflecting your circumstances.
The value of these records lies in their genuine reflection of how you use or manage money together, rather than their ability to “replace a joint account”.
International transfer records
For couples living in different countries, cross-border remittances between Australia and China are another form of evidence to consider.
If one partner sends money from an Australian bank account to a Chinese account, or transfers it in the opposite direction, you can provide the corresponding remittance records and explain their actual purpose.
Compared with a single small transfer, records showing genuine financial dealings over time usually have greater explanatory value.
4. Partner visa evidence is about financial connection, rather than necessarily having a joint account
For couples living in different countries without a joint account, the most important shift in thinking is to stop treating the presence or absence of a joint account as the sole test of whether a relationship is genuine.
What a visa officer really needs to understand is whether you are genuinely building a relationship together.
Rather than worrying about not having an Australian joint account, systematically organise your existing financial connections, including transfers, shared purchases, travel spending, housing arrangements and future financial plans.
Financial evidence also needs to be considered alongside other relationship documents. Living together, household life, social relationships and your commitment to a future together all need to be demonstrated in a way that reflects your actual circumstances.
Couples who have lived in different countries for a long time, have not yet lived together or maintain separate finances particularly need to explain their actual way of life and why certain conventional types of evidence do not exist.
The point of relationship evidence for a partner visa has never been to make your documents look as much like a template as possible. It is to let all your genuine documents work together to present a complete, coherent and credible account of how your relationship has developed.
