Your Review Rights After a Subclass 300 Refusal in 2026
Explains where review rights come from after a Subclass 300 refusal, whether your decision can be reviewed, and how the review process works.
If your Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) application has been refused, your review rights — including whether you have any — are stated in the refusal notification itself. According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs' Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) page (as at July 2026), a refusal notice sets out the reasons for refusing the visa and tells you whether the decision can be reviewed. Where review rights do exist, they take you to an independent administrative review body that re-examines the decision, rather than to the same office that made it.
This article explains the general legal framework behind that arrangement — the criteria the original decision was measured against, what makes a decision reviewable, and how the review process works. It is general information only and not advice about your own circumstances; review outcomes turn on the specific facts of a case, and you should rely on current official information and your own professional advice when deciding what to do.
Does every subclass 300 refusal carry review rights?
Most refusals decided by a Department delegate do, but the categories are not identical, and the wording of your own notice governs. The practical distinction runs through who made the decision and on what basis. A delegate of the Minister applies the visa criteria set out in the Migration Regulations 1994 and, if the criteria are not met, refuses the visa; that kind of decision is the one that normally attracts merits review. Decisions that fall outside that pattern — for example where a power is exercised personally by the Minister, or where a refusal follows from grounds that sit outside the ordinary criteria — may not carry the same pathway. This is why the "review rights" section of your notice, rather than any general rule, is the starting point.
Where the right to review comes from
Review rights are statutory: they are created by migration legislation, not granted at the Department's discretion. The substantive test your case failed comes from Part 300 of the Migration Regulations 1994, which sets out the primary criteria for the subclass. The ability to have that failure re-examined comes from the Migration Act 1958, which establishes review of certain migration decisions by an independent body.
That distinction matters for how you approach a review:
- Merits review asks whether the correct or preferable decision was made on the material available. The reviewer can look again at the facts and evidence, not only at whether the Department made a procedural mistake.
- Judicial review, by contrast, asks only whether the decision was lawful. Errors of fact, disagreements about the weight of evidence, and missing documents that were never provided are not, on their own, grounds that a court will correct.
A subclass 300 refusal notice that offers review is offering merits review. That is the more useful of the two, because the reviewer is not confined to asking whether the delegate followed the rules.
Is your decision actually reviewable?
The question is not whether the refusal feels wrong, but whether the decision falls within the class of decisions that can be reviewed. Reading the notice carefully answers most of it, since the Department records there whether review is available. Beyond that, three features of subclass 300 cases shape what review can achieve.
The decision must be one the reviewer has power to re-make. Where a refusal rests on a criterion that no evidence could satisfy at the relevant time, review can confirm the outcome even if it is conducted perfectly.
The decision date usually frames the evidence. Clause 300.221 is a "time of decision" criterion: it requires the applicant to continue to satisfy the relationship and intention criteria at the time the decision is made. As a result, a review generally examines whether those criteria were met as at the delegate's decision. Improvements that happen after the refusal often belong in a new application rather than in the review.
Procedural steps in the original process can be examined. Two obligations sit in the background of every partner-related application. Section 56 of the Migration Act requires the Department to invite an applicant, in writing, to provide further information where it has concerns that would lead to refusal, and to allow a reasonable period to respond. Section 104 requires an applicant to notify the Department of changes in circumstances before a decision is made. A reviewer can see whether concerns were put to you before the decision was made, and whether you met your own notification obligations.
Which criteria do review bodies look at?
The table below maps the criteria most commonly cited in subclass 300 refusals to what the evidence needs to address at review. The purpose is not to repeat the whole relationship history, but to respond to each ground the delegate identified.
| Refusal ground | Criterion | What the review evidence has to address |
|---|---|---|
| The parties did not meet in person after turning 18 | cl. 300.214 | Physical presence together; electronic or telephone contact does not satisfy this. The Full Federal Court confirmed the physical-presence requirement in Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v Yucesan. |
| Genuine intention to marry not established | cl. 300.215(a) | Evidence pointing to a settled intention, such as an authorised marriage celebrant's letter covering date or date range and venue, or proof that a Notice of Intended Marriage has been lodged. |
| Marriage not intended within the visa period | cl. 300.215(b) | A wedding date falling inside the visa period, which is generally 9 to 15 months from grant. |
| No genuine intention to live together as spouses | cl. 300.216 | Evidence of a shared commitment and a genuine, continuing relationship, assessed against concepts including mutual commitment and exclusivity. |
| An impediment to marriage under Australian law | cl. 300.221A | Proof that any earlier marriage was lawfully ended, such as a divorce order, or a statutory declaration explaining why such proof cannot be obtained. |
| Sponsorship not approved, or no longer in effect | cl. 300.222 | The status of the sponsorship lodged by the prospective spouse, including whether sponsorship limits apply. |
| Public interest criteria not met | cl. 300.223 | Health, character, identity and related criteria (including PIC 4001–4004, 4007, 4019, 4020 and 4021). |
| Special return criteria not met | cl. 300.224 | SRC 5001 and 5002 where the applicant has previously been in Australia. |
| A secondary applicant does not qualify | cl. 300.226 | Whether the dependent is still a member of the family unit and meets the relevant criteria — the "one fails, all fail" rule means a family member's failure can defeat the whole application. |
A review that simply restates the relationship story without answering each numbered reason tends to leave the delegate's conclusions untouched. Matching the response to the ground is what gives the reviewer something to work with.
How a review application is started
The sequence follows the information in your notice rather than any fixed template:
- Read the review section of the refusal notice. It names the body that can review the decision and tells you whether review is available at all.
- Note the deadline stated in that notice. A 21-day period is frequently quoted in commentary about partner-related refusals, and it reflects how these time limits have traditionally operated, but the binding figure is the one printed in your own notice. Time limits and the structure of review bodies are set by legislation and do change, so confirm the current position in official guidance before relying on any number carried over from elsewhere.
- Apply to the body identified, using the method it publishes. Application requirements, including any fee, are set by the review body, not by the Department.
- Provide the decision record, usually the refusal notification and any earlier requests for information, so the reviewer can see what was before the delegate.
- Attach evidence directed at each refusal ground, with a short written submission linking each document to the criterion it answers.
Nothing in this process pauses automatically. What matters is whether the application reaches the review body within the stated period and speaks to the reasons given for refusal.
What review can and cannot change
A review can end with the original decision confirmed, with a different decision substituted, or with the matter returned to the Department for reconsideration. It cannot produce a visa where a criterion is still unmet at review, and no outcome can be treated as guaranteed.
Two limitations are worth understanding before starting:
Refusal does not refund the application cost. The Department's Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) page states that the application fee is not refunded if the application is refused. Review looks at the decision, not at recovering what was paid.
Some refusals reflect eligibility that no longer exists. If you married while the application was being processed, you were no longer eligible for this visa. The Department's official page sets out that you must notify it of the marriage through ImmiAccount, provide evidence that the marriage is valid, request consideration for a Partner (Provisional) visa (subclass 309) and Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 100), and ask to withdraw the subclass 300 application; if you do not withdraw, the application will be refused because eligibility has gone. In that situation review of the subclass 300 refusal is rarely the useful step — the partner pathway is. The same logic applies where the relationship itself has ended, since the criteria depend on an intention to marry and to live together as spouses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I automatically get review rights after a subclass 300 refusal?
Not automatically. The refusal notification tells you whether the decision can be reviewed, and that statement governs what you can do. Refusals decided by a Department delegate on the ordinary visa criteria normally carry merits review, while some other categories of decision do not.
How long do I have to apply for review?
The deadline is stated in your refusal notice, and that is the number that counts. A 21-day window is widely quoted for refusals of this kind, but time limits are set by legislation and have been subject to change, so check the period in your own notice against current official guidance.
Can I give the reviewer evidence I did not submit with my original application?
Yes, merits review generally allows further evidence, because the reviewer re-examines the decision rather than only checking whether the Department acted lawfully. New material is most effective when it answers the specific criterion the delegate relied on, rather than adding volume to the relationship narrative.
Will my visa application fee be refunded if my review succeeds?
The Department's official page states that the application fee is not refunded when an application is refused. The review process examines whether the decision was the correct or preferable one; it is not a mechanism for recovering the application charge.
If my partner's child was included in the application, can their part be reviewed separately?
The application is dealt with as a whole. A secondary applicant must still be a member of the family unit and meet the relevant criteria at decision time, and a failure affecting one family member can defeat the entire application, so the review needs to address that ground directly.
Can I reapply instead of seeking review?
That depends on why the application failed. Where a criterion can be met in a fresh application — for example with stronger marriage-intent evidence — a new application may be the practical route, though it means another application charge. Where eligibility changed during processing, such as marrying before the decision, the appropriate pathway is usually a partner visa application rather than review of the subclass 300 refusal.