4.3 Subclass 300 and Current Family Violence Evidence Rules

4.3 Subclass 300 and Current Family Violence Evidence Rules

The Prospective Marriage visa and the family-violence provisions address different stages and should not be collapsed into one automatic pathway. The agent must first identify the visa held or applied for, the relationship history, location, sponsor, and the precise prescribed criterion the client seeks to satisfy.

Subclass 300 foundation

Subclass 300 supports a person who genuinely intends to marry an eligible prospective spouse and live together as spouses. The current Schedule 2 criteria should be checked for application and decision location, sponsorship, age, intended marriage, personal meeting, and health, character, and integrity requirements.

The applicant and prospective spouse generally must have met in person and be known to each other personally after the relevant age threshold. Online communication alone does not satisfy a personal-meeting criterion. Evidence should cover the meeting, continuing relationship, intention and legal capacity to marry, wedding plan, communication, family knowledge, and future life. A ceremony booking is evidence, not a guarantee of grant.

When family-violence provisions matter

Division 1.5 of the Migration Regulations defines relevant family violence and the evidentiary mechanisms. The provisions can allow eligible partner or specified secondary applicants to continue despite relationship breakdown, but they do not apply to every visa or every abusive relationship. First establish the prescribed visa criterion, that the required relationship was genuine where relevant, the alleged victim and perpetrator, and that at least part of the violence occurred during the relationship period required by law.

Safety comes first. Use secure contact details, avoid sending correspondence to a controlling partner, arrange an interpreter independent of the alleged perpetrator, and explain emergency and specialist legal or support services. Consider conflict and confidentiality before acting for both partners.

Judicial and non-judicial evidence

Judicial evidence can include the court orders, injunctions, convictions, or findings specified in regulation 1.23. Not every interim order or police event automatically fits; compare the document with the current definition and obtain the complete order or record.

For the evidence route in regulation 1.24, the applicant provides:

1. a statutory declaration under regulation 1.25 that contains the prescribed allegations and identifies the alleged victim and perpetrator; and
2. the type and number of evidence items specified by the current legislative instrument made under paragraph 1.24(b).

Current Home Affairs guidance ordinarily describes a minimum of two non-judicial evidence items, with only one document counted from each category. Categories include medical, police, child-welfare, family-violence support, social-work, psychology, family-consultant or relationship-counsellor, and education-professional evidence. The content requirements vary by category. Cite the current instrument rather than superseded “competent person” regulation 1.26 language.

A joint undertaking made before a court can be a separate non-judicial pathway under regulation 1.23. Extra evidence may inform the whole assessment even where it is not one of the minimum prescribed items.

Independent expert

Under regulation 1.23(10), if a qualifying non-judicial claim is before the Department and the Minister is not satisfied on the material, the matter is referred to an independent expert in the prescribed way. The independent expert may interview the alleged victim and forms an opinion; where the regulation requires, that opinion is taken as correct. The applicant should be given the procedural opportunity required by law if an adverse opinion is to affect the decision.

Regulation 1.27 does not create this referral. It restricts admissibility of specified family-violence documents outside review, judicial review, or prosecution contexts. Accurate section attribution matters in Capstone answers.

Scenario

Ana, a provisional partner applicant, separates after violence and provides her statutory declaration, two medical records from the same category, and messages. The two medical records may count as only one prescribed category. The agent should check eligibility, obtain a second compliant item from a different category, preserve the messages as additional material, secure communications, and explain the independent-expert process without promising a finding.

Safety-led file management

Family-violence work requires both legal precision and safe process. Confirm a communication method that the alleged perpetrator cannot access, restrict portal and file permissions, record interpreter and support needs, and avoid joint communications that reveal location or evidence. Build a chronology separating the qualifying relationship, cessation, alleged violence, and each evidentiary source. Check the current instrument for the permitted evidence categories and formal requirements instead of accepting generic letters. Where a non-judicial claim may be referred to an independent expert, explain the process without predicting the opinion. Preserve urgent visa, review, safety, child, and court deadlines in one plan and refer for family-law, criminal-law, housing, or crisis assistance outside the migration retainer. The agent's role is to present accurate evidence and protect the client's participation, not to investigate trauma through repetitive or unsafe questioning.