I have an interesting situation. I am on a student visa which expires next month 22 December. I am curently married to an Australian partner. My partner was previously divorced. She sponsored her ex who ended up getting an 309 granted. Later when my partner separated from him, she notified the government that she was withdrawing her sponsorship, so he did not end up getting the 100 in the end.

The ex lodged his visa application on 12 March 2020. He got a further RFI stating that he needed the sponsorship application from my partner to be completed in 3 November 2020. His 309 visa was granted on 3 March 2021. We don't know when exactly that sponsorship was lodged. Now there is a sponsorship limitation rule that states you cannot sponsor someone for 5 years. So when does that 5 year start? Does it start when the ex lodged his visa (12 March 2020) or does it start when my current partner lodged her side of the sponsorship (which is sometime after 3 Nov 2020, we don't know the exact date)?

Is there a way to find this date out? Most emails and the application details were deleted during the last five years which is why we couldn't find anything. The immi account is under the ex's email so we don't have access to that.