Form 888 for a partner visa in 2026: who can sign it, example answers and the relationship evidence checklist

Form 888 is a supporting statement, not a statutory declaration, and needs no JP. Anyone 18 or over who knows you both and your relationship history can sign it. Home Affairs asks for 2 such statements, plus relationship evidence in four categories. ProofSnap checked every rule against the new Form 888 (08/26) and the Home Affairs pages in November 2026.

Open the evidence checklist See example answers Download Form 888 (PDF, Home Affairs)
No JP neededForm 888 is not a statutory declaration; the person signs and dates it
2 statementsfrom 2 witnesses, as Home Affairs asks; a witness may be asked for up to 3
18+, knows you bothand knows the history of your relationship; no nationality or residence condition
Portrait of Radim Motycka
By Radim Motycka, founder and lead engineer of ProofSnap
· 8 min read

General information, not migration advice. A registered migration agent can advise on your case.

Relationship evidence checklist

Partner visa relationship evidence checklist: what Home Affairs lists

This is the relationship part of the partner visa document checklist. The other documents your application needs are listed on the Home Affairs subclass 820 page.

Choose a category

The lists are the same on the Home Affairs pages for the 820, 801 and 309 visas. Wording as published by the Department of Home Affairs, read 13 November 2026.

Finances: what Home Affairs lists

  • Joint mortgage or lease documents
  • Joint loan documents for major assets like homes, cars or major appliances
  • Joint bank account statements
  • Household bills in both names

Presentation tips (ours)

  • Statements that show both names and cover the whole period are easier to follow than a single month’s statement.
  • Save each statement or bill as one PDF, even when it has several pages.
  • Give each file a plain name, for example "Joint account statements 2025".

Source: Home Affairs, Partner visa (subclass 820), Evidence of relationships

The form

What Form 888 is, who can sign it and how many you need

The current Form 888 (design date 08/26) is titled Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application. The Department must consider the social side of the relationship, and these statements are one of the ways it assesses it.

  • Who can sign. A person aged at least 18 who knows the applicant and their partner and the history of the relationship. The form sets no nationality or residence condition.
  • What they attach. Evidence of their current name and age and, where applicable, of Australian citizenship or permanent residency, such as a passport.
  • How many. Home Affairs asks for statements from 2 witnesses for both the onshore and the offshore visa. A witness may be asked for up to 3 separate statements during processing.
  • No JP. The form has no section for an authorised witness. The person signs and dates it under a warning that false or misleading statements carry maximum penalties of 10 years’ imprisonment or a fine of AUD313,000, or both.

How to fill it in

  1. Details of the person: name, address, phone and email, typed in English or printed in BLOCK LETTERS.
  2. Questions 1 and 2: the applicant’s and the partner’s names, and how long the witness has known each.
  3. Question 3: how the witness knows you both and how often they are in contact.
  4. Question 4: whether they believe the relationship is genuine and continuing, and why.
  5. Questions 5 and 6: confirm identity evidence is attached, then sign and date. The applicant or their representative uploads it to ImmiAccount.

Form 888 example answers (sample wording) for questions 3 and 4

Fictional examples written by ProofSnap to show the level of detail, not Home Affairs templates. Each witness describes only what they have seen themselves, in their own words.

Question 3: how you know them and how often you are in contact

I have known Sam since we started at the same school in Adelaide in 2009, and I met Mai in March 2023, about two months after they started seeing each other. I see them together roughly every fortnight, usually at dinner at their flat in Glenelg or at our netball games, and I speak to Sam most weeks.

Question 4: why you believe the relationship is genuine and continuing

I helped them move into their flat together in October 2023. I travelled with them to Hoi An in 2024, when Sam met Mai’s family, and I was at their engagement party in June 2025. When Mai spent three months in Vietnam caring for her mother, Sam spoke to her every day and they planned his visit together.

Variant: a parent (fictional)

I am Mai’s mother. I met Sam in Hoi An in December 2024, when he stayed with our family for two weeks. We speak by video call every Sunday and Sam joins most calls. When I was unwell in 2025, he booked Mai’s flights home and called me every day she was here.

Variant: a friend overseas (fictional)

I worked with Sam in Melbourne from 2018 to 2021 and now live in London. I met Mai on a video call in 2023 and in person in April 2025, when they stayed with me for a week. They planned the trip together, and we message in a group chat most weeks.

What not to write

  • General praise with no events or dates, such as “they are a lovely couple”.
  • Things the witness only heard about, written as if they saw them.
  • Wording copied from another witness or from an example like the ones above.

Common mistakes

  • Using an older edition, still copied on third-party sites, titled “Statutory declaration by a supporting witness”. Download the form from Home Affairs.
  • Choosing someone who knows only one of you. The form asks for a person who knows both partners and the history of the relationship.
  • Not keeping a copy. The form strongly advises the witness to keep one.

A different document

Partner visa statutory declarations: when you need one as well

Home Affairs asks for a Commonwealth statutory declaration, a different document from Form 888, in at least these two cases:

  • Applying for the 820 without a substantive visa. If you are eligible to apply, Home Affairs asks for at least two statutory declarations, each made within the last six weeks by an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, confirming your relationship, with evidence of each declarant’s status. Without them the application may be deemed invalid.
  • The permanent 801 stage. The 801 page asks for a Commonwealth statutory declaration from your sponsor about the relationship.
“Form 888 ‘Supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application’ is not a statutory declaration. The current and any previous versions of the Form 888 are not acceptable as they do not satisfy this requirement.” Department of Home Affairs, Partner visa (subclass 820), eligibility, read 13 November 2026

Relationship evidence

Relationship statement for a partner visa: what to cover

Home Affairs asks you to set out the history of your relationship in writing: how, when and where you met, how it developed, when you moved in together, got engaged or married, what you do together, time apart, significant events and your plans for the future. Use dates that match the leases, travel records and chats you attach. The four evidence groups in the selector above follow regulations 1.15A and 1.09A of the Migration Regulations 1994.

Also on the Home Affairs list

  • Marriage or de facto proof: a marriage certificate or other evidence the marriage is valid in Australia, or the de facto evidence in the selector above.
  • Former relationships and dependants: divorce, separation or death documents, and documents for children applying with you.

Preparing and uploading the files

  • Have every document that is not in English translated; translators in Australia must be accredited by NAATI.
  • Scan or photograph in colour, clear enough to read, and save a multi-page document as one file. No certification is needed.
  • On a partner application, ImmiAccount takes up to 100 documents per person, other documents up to 5MB each, and does not accept encrypted or secured PDF files. Attach each document once and label it clearly.
  • Processing can take a long time, so Home Affairs asks you to update your relationship evidence regularly through ImmiAccount.

Chats, posts and photos

WhatsApp chats and social media as partner visa evidence

The Home Affairs lists do not name WhatsApp or Instagram, but they ask for proof that you stay in touch when apart, that others know about the relationship, and that you go out and travel together. A cropped screenshot shows a few messages without their context or date.

  1. Keep the full export. WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram export a chat with its dates; keep the file as it came out of the app.
  2. Upload a dated extract for each period, especially time apart and key events. Keep each PDF within the ImmiAccount limits: up to 5MB and not encrypted.
  3. Capture posts with their web address, plus the date and time you captured them.
  4. Seal the files. A SHA-256 hash and a timestamp can later show that a file has not changed since you captured it.

There are two ways to use ProofSnap yourself, depending on whether you want public profiles and posts captured from a list of addresses, or the chats and social media you see in your own browser.

ProofSnap dashboard with a batch of URLs ready to capture, next to the same capture started through the API

Path 1

API and dashboard

For public profiles and posts, such as an engagement announcement or an event page. Paste the addresses into the web dashboard, once or on a schedule.

  • 1 to 50 URLs per request, each sealed as its own full-page package.
  • A PDF report in every package to attach in ImmiAccount; check each file is within the 5MB limit.
  • Scheduled captures, so a post is recorded on the dates you choose.

50 free test captures in the sandbox, no card. Live plans from US$1.49 (approx. A$2.20) per capture.

See the API and dashboard

Path 2

Chrome extension

For the chats and social media you see in your own browser. ProofSnap captures the page as you see it, including pages behind a login.

  • One click captures the full page, its HTML, text and metadata, and seals a package of 11 to 15 files.
  • Session mode records a browsing session across several tabs, with a snapshot of each tab you view.
  • Video recording of the capture or, in Manual mode, of your own browsing up to the moment you save.

7-day trial (card required), or a one-time SnapPack of 10 captures for US$4.99 (approx. A$7.20).

On a phone? Have posts captured for you

Rather hand it over? We turn your WhatsApp or Messenger export into a line-numbered transcript with SHA-256 hashes and an eIDAS qualified timestamp from Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List. US$59.99 (approx. A$87), in 48 hours.

Certify a chat

Method and data: how we built this page
  • Rules. Read on 13 November 2026 from Form 888 (design date 08/26), the Home Affairs pages for subclasses 820, 801 and 309, the ImmiAccount attachment page and the Migration Regulations 1994 (compilation 290). Where a rule could not be found in one of these sources, it is not on this page.
  • Search results. On 13 November 2026 we pulled the Google Australia top 20 (DataForSEO SERP API) for six searches about Form 888 on desktop and one on mobile: 117 result slots. Setting aside social and forum posts, government pages, unreadable or dead pages and pages not about Form 888 left 29 distinct pages.
  • Coding. Each page was read in full. 11 of the 29 repeat at least one rule of the old statutory declaration edition: 8 call Form 888 a statutory declaration, 8 limit the witness to citizens or permanent residents and 7 require a JP or authorised witness. A page that explains the old rules as history is not counted. The CSV lists page codes and positions, not addresses.
  • Statistics. The CSV also holds partner program figures from table 3.1 of the Home Affairs Report on Migration Program 2025-26.

Download the data

88 rows, CSV, CC BY 4.0. Please cite “ProofSnap, Form 888 and partner visa evidence checklist 2026” with a link to this page.

CSV file

FAQ

Form 888 and partner visa evidence: questions

What is Form 888 for, and is it a statutory declaration?

Form 888 is a supporting statement from someone who knows you both. The Department must consider the social side of a claimed relationship, and these statements are one of the ways it assesses it. Home Affairs says Form 888 is not a statutory declaration: the current form, design date 08/26, is signed under a warning about false or misleading information.

Does Form 888 need to be witnessed by a JP or certified?

No. The current form has no section for a JP or other authorised witness, so it does not need to be witnessed: the person making the statement signs and dates it, and the Home Affairs 820 page says the documents you upload need no certification. A statutory declaration you need for another requirement is a different document with its own witnessing rules.

Does Form 888 need to be handwritten?

No. The form asks for it to be typed in English, or printed in English in BLOCK LETTERS. The person then signs and dates it, and the applicant or their representative attaches it in ImmiAccount.

Who can complete Form 888, and can a family member or a friend overseas?

A person aged 18 or over who knows both of you and the history of your relationship. Someone under 18, or someone who knows only one of you, does not meet that description. The form excludes neither family members nor friends overseas and sets no nationality or residence condition; a citizen or permanent resident attaches evidence of that status.

How many Form 888s do I need?

Home Affairs asks for statements from 2 witnesses on its 820 and 309 pages, which cover the 820/801 and 309/100 applications. The form adds that a witness may be asked for up to 3 separate statements while the application is processed.

How much does a partner visa cost and how long does it take?

Home Affairs lists the 820/801 fee from AUD11,710 for most applicants and the 309/100 fee at AUD11,710 for the main applicant, with concessions in limited circumstances. It gives no fixed processing time: its processing time guide shows recently decided applications and warns that partner applicants may wait longer than expected.

What should a witness write on Form 888?

Question 3 asks how the witness knows both of you and how often they are in contact. Question 4 asks whether they believe the relationship is genuine and continuing, and why. Dated events the witness saw for themselves, written in their own words, answer both more clearly than general praise.

Can I use WhatsApp chats and Facebook posts as evidence?

Home Affairs asks for proof that you stay in touch when apart and that others know about your relationship, and chats and posts can show both. Rather than relying on cropped screenshots, keep the full export, upload a dated extract for each period (especially time apart and key events), and keep the web address and date of each post.

How do I prove a de facto relationship?

Show that you had been in a de facto relationship for at least 12 months before you applied, or register the relationship with a state or territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, or explain compelling and compassionate circumstances in writing.

Before you lodge

Keep the chats and posts that tell your story, with their dates

ProofSnap seals a chat or a page with SHA-256 hashes and a timestamp, so anyone can check in the free Trust Verifier that nothing has changed since.

Have a chat certified for you Have posts captured for you

Related reading

AustraliaStatutory declarations in AustraliaWhich form, who can witness it, and signing online. ChatsAre WhatsApp screenshots enough?What a decision-maker actually examines. MigrationSkills assessment documentsSeal the documents an assessment ran on.

Sources

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