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If you apply offshore you will not get any sort of bridging visa - those are for onshore applications only. Nor will you get any other sort of visa automatically. You can apply for a visitor visa of some type (eVisitor?) that will allow you to holiday in Australia while you wait, but it won't allow any sort of work, and depending on the type of visitor visa you get you may have to fly out of Australia every three months to renew it.
If you, say, went to Australia on a holiday using a tourist visa and THEN decided to apply for a partner visa... THEN you would get a Bridging Visa that would kick in as soon as your current stay* on your visitor visa ended, and allow you to stay in Australia and give you full work rights, study rights, and the ability to get a visa that allows temporary travel rights if you need to leave Australia and come back in while the visa is processing.
Tourist visas require you to be a "genuine entrant," though, so you wouldn't want to appear you were PLANNING to apply for a partner visa once onshore. Probably better not to carry your application materials with you.
* - Some types of holiday visas only allow three-month stays at a time, That's what I mean by current stay - if yours is one like this (which would probaby be ideal if you later decided to apply onshore since it would give you work rights earlier), at the end of the three months, you simply stay in Australia (as long as you've already applied for the 820) and the Bridging Visa A will activate.
If you, say, went to Australia on a holiday using a tourist visa and THEN decided to apply for a partner visa... THEN you would get a Bridging Visa that would kick in as soon as your current stay* on your visitor visa ended, and allow you to stay in Australia and give you full work rights, study rights, and the ability to get a visa that allows temporary travel rights if you need to leave Australia and come back in while the visa is processing.
Tourist visas require you to be a "genuine entrant," though, so you wouldn't want to appear you were PLANNING to apply for a partner visa once onshore. Probably better not to carry your application materials with you.
* - Some types of holiday visas only allow three-month stays at a time, That's what I mean by current stay - if yours is one like this (which would probaby be ideal if you later decided to apply onshore since it would give you work rights earlier), at the end of the three months, you simply stay in Australia (as long as you've already applied for the 820) and the Bridging Visa A will activate.
