How to Fill Out Identity Declaration Form 1195

To fill out Form 1195, the Identity Declaration used for Australian visa and citizenship applications, you complete Section 1 with your own details, and a qualifying independent witness completes Section 2 and endorses your passport-sized photograph. You and the witness then sign and date the form together, in each other’s presence, before it is uploaded through ImmiAccount or mailed with your application.¹ Most rejections come down to a handful of avoidable errors, so it is worth working through each part carefully.

Download the current version of the form from the Department of Home Affairs website before you start. Using an older copy you saved months ago is a small risk you don’t need to take.

Section 1: Your Own Details

Section 1 is filled in by you, the applicant.¹ Write your full legal name exactly as it appears on your identity documents, list any previous names or aliases you have used, and include your date of birth.

Consistency across documents matters. If your passport shows one spelling of your name and the form shows another, the mismatch can push your application into additional review. Check the spelling of every name character by character against your passport before signing anything.

Section 2: Who Can Be Your Witness

Section 2 is filled in by the authorized witness, not by you. The witness writes their own full name, occupation, and contact phone number, and states how long they have known you.¹

Not just anyone can sign. The witness must meet every one of the following requirements:¹

Be an Australian citizen.
Have known you for at least 12 months.
Not be related to you by birth, marriage, or de facto relationship.
Currently work in one of the 39 qualifying professions listed on the form.
Be reachable by phone during business hours, because the Department may call to verify the declaration.

The independence rule is the one people most often miss. A spouse, parent, sibling, or partner cannot witness the form no matter what their profession is. The whole point is an impartial third party vouching for your identity.

The Qualifying Professions

The form lists 39 specific occupations. If a witness’s job is not on that list, they cannot sign, even if they have known you for years. Broadly, the list covers legal and court officials (legal practitioners, judges, magistrates, justices of the peace, court registrars, sheriffs, commissioners for declarations); registered health professionals (doctors, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, chiropractors, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, veterinary surgeons); certain finance and government roles with five or more years of continuous service (bank, building society, credit union or finance company officers; Commonwealth, state or local government employees; Australian Postal Corporation employees; Australian Defence Force members); police officers and members of Parliament at any level; members of the main Australian accounting bodies; Australian consular or diplomatic officers under the Consular Fees Act 1955; full-time teachers at a school or tertiary institution; unsuspended registered migration agents; marriage celebrants and ministers of religion registered under the Marriage Act 1961; members of Chartered Secretaries Australia; and members of Engineers Australia above student grade.¹

Read the fine print on service length. A bank officer with three years’ experience does not qualify. A part-time teacher does not qualify. Check the form itself against your prospective witness’s actual role.

The Photograph and How the Witness Endorses It

You need a recent passport-sized photograph measuring 45 mm × 35 mm, showing your head and shoulders against a plain background. The photo must be less than six months old at the time you lodge your application.¹

The witness endorses the photograph in two places, and both are required:¹

On the back of the photo, they write: “This is a true photograph of [your full name].”
On the front, they sign across a bottom corner without covering your face.

Missing either endorsement is one of the most frequent causes of a form being returned. The photograph is then glued to the designated space on the form, and the witness’s declaration on the form itself confirms that they have signed the photo and that it is a true image of you.

Signing the Form

You and the witness sign and date the declaration together, in each other’s physical presence.¹ Signing at separate times, or mailing the form back and forth to collect signatures, does not satisfy the requirement. The Department treats pre-signed forms as grounds for rejection because the witness is meant to physically verify your identity at the moment of signing.

Check every field one more time before you leave the witness. Missing signatures and missing dates remain among the most common reasons forms come back, and they are the easiest to prevent.

Submitting the Completed Form

Most citizenship and visa applications are lodged online through ImmiAccount, so you will scan the completed form and the endorsed photograph for upload. The Department accepts files up to 5 MB each for most documents, and digital photographs should be between 70 KB and 3.5 MB. Accepted formats include PDF, JPG, and PNG, but encrypted or password-protected PDFs are rejected.²

If you are attaching documents after already submitting a citizenship application, the size limit drops to 500 KB per file, so scan accordingly.² Make sure the scan clearly captures every signature, every field of handwriting, and the photo endorsements on both sides. A blurry or cropped scan that cuts off a signature is treated the same as a missing signature. Paper-based applications still exist for certain visa categories, and those require the original physical form to be mailed to the processing centre listed in your application guidelines.

After the Department receives the form, officers may phone your witness during business hours to confirm the details of the declaration and check that the identity verification really happened in person.³ Let your witness know to expect a possible call.

Mistakes That Cause Rejection

The same errors come up over and over, and almost all of them lead to the form being sent back:

The wrong person completes the wrong section. Each section is clearly labelled with who fills it in.
The photo endorsement is incomplete: either the statement on the back or the signature across the front corner is missing.
You and the witness sign at different times rather than together.
The photograph is older than six months at lodgement, regardless of how current it looks.
The witness does not meet every criterion. A registered nurse who has known you for ten months does not qualify. All requirements must be satisfied, not most.
Signatures or dates are missing from the form.

If You Are Applying From Overseas

If you are outside Australia and do not know an Australian citizen who meets the requirements, the witness can instead be a citizen of the country where you currently live.¹ They must still have known you for at least 12 months, work in one of the qualifying professions, and have no family connection to you. They do not need an Australian qualification; being licensed or registered in their own country is enough.

Children Under Six

The 12-month relationship rule is relaxed for children under six years old. For those applicants, the witness only needs to have known the child for less than 12 months.¹ Every other requirement still applies. There is no equivalent exception for adult applicants, so a recent arrival to Australia who cannot find a qualifying witness with 12 months of history will need to use someone from their previous country of residence.

False Information Carries Real Consequences

Submitting a false or misleading identity declaration is treated seriously. Visa applications can be refused and existing visas cancelled. Individuals involved may be barred from being granted any Australian visa for one to three years, and in some cases permanently excluded from Australia.⁴ These consequences apply to both the applicant and the witness. Tell your witness before they sign, so they understand the declaration is a legal document and not a routine formality.

1
Department of Home Affairs. Identity Declaration (Form 1195)
2
Department of Home Affairs. Attach Documents to Your Application
3
Australian National Audit Office. Verifying Identity in the Citizenship Program
4
Australian High Commission. Migration Fraud – Warning