How to fill out Form 80Checked (personal particulars) correctly

The email from your case officer is short: "Please complete Form 80." Then you open the PDF and find 19 pages asking for every address you've lived at for a decade, every trip overseas, and every job back to your first one, plus every gap in between. It's the form people put off longest, and the one where small slips cause the most follow-up.

This guide walks through it part by part, quoting the form's own wording. It's general information, not legal or migration advice. A registered migration agent or lawyer can advise on your case, especially on the character questions.

What is Form 80 and who has to fill it in?

Form 80 is the Home Affairs form "Personal particulars for assessment including character assessment". Its first page says it "is to be completed in English by applicants who are 16 years of age or over, as requested by the office processing the application." So you fill it when asked, and each applicant 16 or over completes their own.

You'll often meet it with partner, skilled and family visas, but the trigger is the request, not the visa name. Download the current PDF from the Home Affairs form listing (opens in a new tab) and check the design date in the footer against the listing before you start. Our guide to Australian visa forms explains that check.

What does each part (A to T) ask for?

Form 80 runs from Part A to Part T. The early parts cover identity and documents, the middle parts cover history (addresses, travel, work, study), Part K is character, Part Q lists family and contacts, Part S is the declaration and Part T holds anything that didn't fit. Here's the full map.

A few details from Part A trip people up. The form says to give your names "as they appear in your official documents", and if you have one name only, "write it in the 'Family name' field". Question 4 asks for every other name you've been known by, including name at birth, names before or after marriage, preferred names and "other spellings of names".

How many years of addresses and travel do you need?

Ten years for both. Question 17 asks for "your address history for the last 10 years" and Question 18 asks whether you've travelled to any country other than Australia "in the last 10 years". If you're applying for a refugee or humanitarian visa, both stretch to 30 years. Addresses must run in order with no gaps.

For addresses, the form lists what to include: addresses inside and outside Australia, "places you resided for study/work", refugee camps, and "any other place you have resided such as share houses, university residences and temporary accommodation". It adds: "Provide your address history in chronological order with no gaps in the timeline. If there are gaps, you must provide an explanation at Part T."

For travel, it includes work or study outside your usual country of residence, holidays, business, military deployment and "visits back to your own country". That last one is easy to forget if you live away from home.

How do you show employment and unemployment with no gaps?

List every period from your first job (or your date of birth if you've never worked) to today, and treat every break as unemployment. Form 80 says: "Provide your employment and unemployment history with no gaps in the timeline. If there are gaps, you must provide an explanation at Part T – Additional information."

The form defines both sides. Employment includes paid work, self-employment and family business, internships and work experience, and "unpaid employment/volunteer work". Unemployment includes:

• "from date of birth up until first employment"
• "all gaps/breaks between employment"
• "all gaps between education"

For unemployed periods, the field asks how you "occupied your time and financially supported yourself". Two special cases are spelled out:

• Retired: write "CURRENTLY RETIRED" in the business name field.
• Never worked: put your date of birth in "Date from" and "NEVER WORKED" in the business name field.

Use the full business name ("no abbreviations") and a street address ("no Post Office box").

What do you put in Part T (additional information)?

Part T is the overflow page for every question that didn't fit. Write the question number, then the extra entries in the same format the original question used. If Part T itself runs out, the form says to "attach a separate statement to this form with further details". Explanations for timeline gaps go here too.

Good Part T entries are boring on purpose: question number, dates, facts. For example, "Q19 (continued): 03/2019 to 06/2019, unemployed, travelling and supported by savings." Keep each entry tied to one question so the officer can match it.

What about the character questions in Part K?

Question 36 lists yes/no questions about charges, convictions, court orders, warrants, associations, military training, removals, visa overstays and debts to the Australian Government. If you answer yes to any, the form asks for details "including the date of the charge, the outcome and any penalty imposed" and relevant court documents.

The form also notes it covers "you, or any other person included in this application". We won't suggest how to answer any character question. If you're unsure whether something counts, talk to a registered migration agent or lawyer before you sign.

What if you notice a mistake after lodging?

Tell the Department using Form 1023, "Notification of incorrect answer(s)". Its first page explains that the Migration Act requires you to inform the Department of incorrect information you gave in your visa application, and that "this obligation remains even if you are subsequently granted a visa." If your circumstances changed instead, use Form 1022.

The difference matters. A wrong date of a past trip is an incorrect answer (Form 1023). A new address after you lodged is a change in circumstances (Form 1022). Both are on the form listing (opens in a new tab).

Checklist before you sign the declaration

Part S has you declare that the information "is complete, correct and up-to-date in every detail" and that you've read form 1442i Privacy notice. Run through this list first.

• The footer design date matches the current form on the official listing, on every page
• Names match your passport, and all other names (including spellings) are listed at Q4
• Addresses cover 10 years (30 for refugee/humanitarian) with no gaps
• Travel covers 10 years, including trips back home
• Employment and unemployment join up month to month
• Dates match your Form 1221, CV and references, if you've given them
• Every Part T entry carries a question number
• All other people in Part Q have full names and dates of birth where asked
• You've saved a copy for your records, as the form advises

Can you fill Form 80 without retyping everything?

Yes, if your history lives somewhere structured. The work in Form 80 is gathering the facts once. After that, the same addresses, passports and jobs appear in Form 1221, partner visa forms and online portals, so it pays to keep them in one place and fill from there.

If you're applying for yourself, AppliFlo's free plan includes its library of 54 official forms, Form 80 among them, and filling an official form doesn't use AI pages. Save your details once and they're reused, including by Fill as me, which fills online forms from the same details and is free on every plan. For agents, PDF & Word forms fills Form 80 from the client's record and leaves anything uncertain flagged for you to check.

Whichever way you fill it, read the finished form line by line before you sign. The declaration is yours. Then read Form 1221 vs Form 80 if you've been asked for both, or browse the visa and immigration page for the rest of the application.