820 Application - de facto date and 12 month requirement

Hi there,

We are DIYing our partner visa application, just at page 18 of the application and unsure what to put for “Date committed de facto relationship began”.

Background:
- We became exclusive March 9th 2025
- From around May-June 2025 our relationship developed to more so de facto status (we were buying and sharing groceries, cooking dinner/preparing meals together, sleeping together in the same bed on weekends, together with each other 24/7 apart from work commitments and pretty much doing everything apart a married/de facto couple did apart from living together (she had her own lease until March 3rd, 2026 & I was still living at home with family)
- We registered our relationship as a civil partnership on the 23rd of January, 2026
- We secured a joint lease on the 28th of January, 2026 and finally moved in together from 13th February, 2026
- We have joint finances/bank accounts, nominated as each other’s super beneficiaries, a lot of other evidence, written detailed statements about our relationship and addressing the four pillars

If we put the date we registered our relationship or moved in together as date our de facto relationship began, it flags it as not meeting the 12 month requirement and brings up a text to give reasons or provide compelling evidence.

What date should we put or what is our best course of action?

Thank you!