Your Prospective Marriage Visa Is Running Out and the Wedding Has Not Happened
Three Things to Know Before Anything Else, if the Visa Is Running Down.
There is no extension on a subclass 300. No form, no fee, no compassionate pathway. The weeks you spend looking for one matter more than the search.
Australian marriage law needs about a month of notice. So if the visa expires in six weeks, the real deadline for the Notice of Intended Marriage is roughly two weeks away.
A registry ceremony with two witnesses is a legal marriage. You can keep both the visa and the celebration you planned by separating them.
People talk about the prospective marriage visa as a nine month visa. That is the floor, not the rule. Before you read anything else on this page, find your grant notification and write down the date your visa ends.
They Are Not What You Assume, and Three of Them Matter.
The subclass 300 is currently granted for a period of around nine to fifteen months from the date of grant, and the actual period is stated on your grant letter. Two people granted in the same month can have very different deadlines.
If you were outside Australia when the visa was granted, you had to enter by this date. It is not your expiry date.
The date the 300 ceases. The marriage must happen before this, and the partner visa must be lodged before this.
The one thing in this list you can still change, and usually the one people try hardest to protect.
The Rule, Stated Plainly
You must marry your sponsor before the visa period ends. It is a condition of the visa rather than a suggestion, and the visa was granted on the basis that you genuinely intended to do it within the period.
To stay in Australia afterwards, you then lodge the onshore partner visa, subclass 820 and 801, while you are in Australia and while the 300 is still in effect.
There Is No Extension.
No source we checked describes any extension mechanism, and none exists in the way people hope: there is no form, no fee and no compassionate pathway to add time to a 300.
Australian Marriage Law Requires a Notice of Intended Marriage to Be Lodged With an Authorised Celebrant at Least One Month Before the Ceremony.
So if your visa expires in six weeks, your real deadline for lodging that notice is about two weeks away, not six.
If your visa expires in under a month, speak to a celebrant today, because there are limited circumstances in which that notice period can be shortened and you need to know quickly whether yours is one of them.
Send Us Your Expiry Date and Where the Wedding Is Up To.
We will tell you plainly whether the timeline still works and what the realistic options are if it does not. If the answer is that you need a celebrant more urgently than a lawyer, we will say that. There is no cost for the initial review.
Condition 8515, the Trap at the Other End
This one catches a different group: couples who did the obvious thing and married as soon as they could.
The Condition in Plain Words
A subclass 300 is generally granted on the basis that the holder does not marry, or enter a de facto relationship with the sponsor, before entering Australia. If you married overseas before you first arrived, that is a problem, and it is not fixed by the marriage being genuine or by nobody having explained the condition to you.
If that describes you, do not lodge anything before getting advice. The position is recoverable in some circumstances and the worst thing to do is to lodge an application that puts the breach in writing without having thought about it first.
The Money, Which Is Better Than Most People Expect
A common reason couples panic about the 300 is a belief that they are paying for two visas. They are mostly not.
The visa application charge for the 300 is reported at $11,710 for the primary applicant from 1 July 2026. The onshore partner visa that follows carries a substantially reduced charge for people who held a 300.
| Applicant | Subclass 300 charge | 820 and 801 charge for former 300 holders |
|---|---|---|
| Primary applicant | $11,710 | $1,955 |
| Additional applicant 18 or over | $5,860 | $980 |
| Additional applicant under 18 | $2,935 | $485 |
So the total across both stages is far closer to the ordinary partner visa route than to double it. Confirm the current figures on the Department fee page before you budget, because these move, but the structure is the point: the second charge is a fraction of the first, and it is one of the few genuinely good pieces of news in this process.
Why This Matters for the Decision Today
That reduction is tied to having held the 300 and to lodging the partner visa in the ordinary way. It is another reason not to let the visa lapse and start again.
If the Wedding Is Simply Delayed
A venue fell through, a parent is unwell, a visa for a family member did not come through, the celebrant has no dates. This is the most common version of the problem and it has the least sympathetic answer.
The law does not care why. There are three things you can actually do.
Bring the Wedding Forward
A registry office ceremony with two witnesses is a legally valid marriage in Australia and it satisfies the condition. Couples routinely do a small legal ceremony before the visa expires and hold the wedding they planned months later with family present.
The marriage certificate is what the Department needs, not photographs of a reception.
Marry Overseas, After You Have Entered Australia
The marriage can take place outside Australia provided it is valid under Australian law, and provided you entered Australia first so that condition 8515 is not an issue. This is worth raising with an adviser rather than acting on alone, because the travel and the lodgement timing interact.
Find Another Visa, if Neither of the Above Can Happen in Time
This is the weakest option and it depends entirely on what you are eligible for. It is not a partner visa and it does not preserve the reduced charge.
What you cannot do is wait and see. If the visa expires without the marriage, you do not get a grace period and you do not get a second attempt onshore.
If the Visa Expires and You Have Not Married
Be clear about what that means, because it is worse than most people expect and it is better to know now.
- You become unlawful once the visa ends, unless you hold something else.
- You cannot lodge the ordinary onshore partner visa, because the marriage is the basis of it.
- A second subclass 300 has to be applied for from outside Australia. The application must be made while you are offshore, even though the visa itself can now be granted while you are in Australia. So this is a departure, not a fix from here.
- Unlawful time creates its own problems. If you later lodge onshore, Schedule 3 comes into play and it is a materially harder application. Our page is at Schedule 3 partner visa waiver.
- If anything has been refused or cancelled while you were in Australia, the section 48 bar may also apply. See the section 48 bar.
The practical point is that the window before expiry is worth far more than any amount of effort after it. A week of advice before the date is more useful than six months of options afterwards.
If the Engagement Has Ended
This is the section to read if the wedding has not happened because the relationship has, and it contains something that did not exist three years ago.
What the 2024 Regulations Added for Subclass 300 Holders
The Migration Amendment (Family Violence Provisions for Partner Visa Applicants) Regulations 2024 commenced on 1 July 2024. Among other things, they extended access to the relationship cessation provisions to subclass 300 holders, including certain former holders who did not marry their sponsor.
In plain terms, a 300 holder who never married may be able to apply for and be granted an 820 and 801 under those provisions.
But if family violence is any part of why the engagement ended, that is precisely the situation these changes were made for, and the position for 300 holders is better than almost any page written before mid 2024 will tell you. We set out the provisions, who can use them and what evidence is accepted at family violence and your partner visa.
What to Do, by How Much Time You Have Left
| Time left on the 300 | What matters most this week |
|---|---|
| Under one month | Speak to a celebrant today about whether the notice period can be shortened in your circumstances, and get migration advice in parallel. Do not assume the visa expiry is flexible, because it is not. |
| One to three months | Lodge the Notice of Intended Marriage now, even if the ceremony date is not settled. Book a registry ceremony as a fallback you can cancel. |
| Three to six months | You have room, but use it. Confirm the expiry date, get the notice lodged, and have the partner visa documents assembled rather than started. |
| Already expired | Get advice before you do anything else, including before you leave. Departure and lodgement both have consequences that are hard to reverse. |
| Engagement has ended | Read the section above and get advice. Do not assume there is nothing available, particularly if family violence is involved. |
For the partner visa requirements that follow the marriage, and how the two stages work, our main guide is at the Australian partner visa guide. For the relationship evidence you will need at lodgement, see proving a genuine relationship. Current processing figures are at 820 partner visa processing time.
Frequently Asked Questions
If the Visa Expires in Under a Month, You Need a Celebrant More Urgently Than a Lawyer. If It Is More Than That, You Need Both.
Send us your expiry date, the date you entered Australia, and where the wedding is up to. We will tell you plainly whether the timeline still works and what the realistic options are if it does not.
Written by
Founder and Editor, Aussie Migration Guide
Karan Rawat is the Founder and Editor of Aussie Migration Guide. With nearly 4 years of experience in SEO and digital content, including work with Australian migration law clients, he specialises in turning complex Australian visa rules, fees and eligibility criteria into clear, practical guides. Every article is checked against current official sources such as the Department of Home Affairs before it goes live. Karan is not a registered migration agent, and the content on this site is general information, not migration advice.