'More falling in love overseas' but thousands face long wait to reunite

Australia's cross-border couples urge government to reconsider delaying offshore partner visas Each day feels like a window is closing for Nadine Chamas, who wants to start a family but is facing indefinite separation from her husband, Aboudi Alsaidy, in Lebanon. The 44-year-old's doctors had advised her to remain in Australia if she planned to become pregnant due to her medical condition. However, Mr Alsaidy has been waiting for a partner visa so that they could be reunited in Australia. "That stress of undergoing complex fertility planning while constantly worrying about my husband's safety in a conflict zone, it's an unbearable emotional weight," she said. They are among couples urging the federal government to hear their stories and reconsider its decision to prioritise partner visa applicants living in Australia over those who applied offshore. After they married in June last year, Ms Chamas hoped to stay with her husband in Lebanon, but they had to change plans when war erupted in the Middle East early this year. "That's when we decided we needed to be in a safe place together," Ms Chamas, who is an Australian citizen, said. She returned to her home city Melbourne and her husband applied for a partner visa in March. They are now waiting for the outcome of an Australian visitor visa application submitted last month. In a submission to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke this week, a group of partner visa applicants and their Australian sponsors have urged him to explain his decision in July to deprioritise the processing of offshore partner visa applications. Applicants face waits of more than three years for subclass 309 visas, with 90 per cent of cases processed in up to 39 months, compared to 29 months for onshore partner visa applicants. "The relationships are no less genuine. The Australian sponsors are no less Australian," the submission says. "Yet one group receives more favourable administrative treatment, while the other carries the greater human burden of separation." Sasha Bellamy, who helped write and coordinate the submission, said the minister's decision to prioritise onshore over offshore applications was "fundamentally unfair". She was motivated to act partly because she had been separated from her own partner for a year as he awaited a partner visa in Belgium, and she felt she could use her experience as a lawyer to put the submission together. "I don't believe there has been enough transparency on the why or how, the modelling under which such a big decision has been made that's had massive human consequences." A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson told the ABC while offshore partner visa applications would have lower priority, they would still be processed and granted "in accordance with the planning levels and priorities set by the government". "An onshore-focused program will support timely transitions to permanent residency for migrants already living, working and contributing to Australia, and further reduces the program's impact on net overseas migration." 'Go back to video calls' Emily Hill-Ogbonnaya's husband Nick applied for a partner visa from Nigeria in March last year and was later able to secure a 12-month visitor visa in December. When she became pregnant, wait times were shorter and the couple did not expect to face a prolonged separation if Mr Ogbonnaya's partner visa didn't arrive before their baby's due date in January. "Suddenly in the last month or so, they've [wait times] just jumped so much since this new ministerial direction has come in," Ms Hill-Ogbonnaya said. "He might not be back until mid-2028 if they don't give him another visitor visa." Ms Hill-Ogbonnaya has a six-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and is concerned about how she would take Mr Ogbonnaya's departure. "That's going to be so destabilising for her to just have one of the most important people in her life just disappear and go back to video calls." Another Australian sponsor of a partner visa applicant, David Elms, is working long hours to be able to visit his wife and daughter in the Philippines every few months while they wait for a decision after lodging in June last year. The uncertainty combined with the additional financial pressure from travel and other costs has impacted his health. "I always try to remain positive, but it does affect you. You get these little bouts of depression here and there," he said. Mr Elms said because he was the sole provider for his wife and daughter, he believed their chances of proving strong ties to the Philippines and securing a visitor visa to Australia were low. He said it seemed there was "no hope" the partner visa would be granted soon after the government's decision to deprioritise overseas applications. "Hopefully someone who has some power or control over things might be able to look at it and maybe change things." 'More Australians fall in love with people overseas' Department of Home Affairs data shows the number of onshore and offshore partner visa applications increased from 52,479 in 2019–20 to 68,105 in 2024–25. In his National Press Club address last week, Mr Burke acknowledged demand for partner visas had grown. "We do have a situation now where more Australians fall in love with people overseas than they used to," he said. Mr Burke said planned changes imposing a "no further stay" requirement on visitor visas would lead to more being issued to offshore partner visa applicants wanting to spend time with their spouses in Australia. "The practice that we've had of people being able to, from visitor visas, automatically transfer on to bridging visas has meant a whole lot of these visas don't get issued at all,"he said. Department of Home Affairs documents show 10,000 offshore applications had been on hand for more than 12 months in March, while a further 2,500 had been on hand for more than two years. The Home Affairs Department spokesperson said migration laws did not allow capping but provided "scope in administering migration programs to consider planning levels and prioritise processing accordingly". They allowed the minister to "consider visa applications in such order as he or she considers appropriate", the spokesperson said. "All visa programs, regardless of whether there is a planning level in place, are subject to limited resourcing which can result in delays in application assessment, especially in programs with high demand." Australian National University Migration Hub director Alan Gamlen said the "planning levels" worked as an effective cap. "They can choose which order to prioritise visas in. Once they reach a certain number of visa grants, they can decide to stop processing the partner visas and go and prioritise other visas," he said. "If that approach were challenged successfully in court, it would have an impact on other areas where the government is using this approach to regulate migration. "It probably will be a court case at some time, and it probably should be tested in court." Peter Van Vilet, chief executive of peak body for migration agents and lawyers, the Migration Institute of Australia, said the government's decision to prioritise onshore applications put offshore partner applications "at the bottom of a very long caseload". "It is very unclear when and if offshore partner visas will be processed under this direction," he said. "It will blow out the already long processing times even further." Meanwhile, he said the impact of partner visas on net overseas migration was small. "Partner visas should not be a part of the population debate. Australians living with their life partners is a basic human right and governments should not get in the way of this." Loading...