Australian Visa For Parents

How Parent Visa Works

Parents of Australian citizens, Permanent Residents or eligible New Zealand Citizens can apply for a Parent Visa if they meet the balance of family test and can be sponsored by at least one of their children living in Australia. To apply as a parent, you must be sponsored by your child, who must be an Australian Citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.

There are three kinds of Parent Visas which are as follows:

1. Non-Contributory Parent Visa
2. Contributory Parent Visa
3. Sponsored Parent (Temporary) Visa.

For Non-Contributory and Contributory Parent Visas:

• At least half of your children are living in Australia, or more children are living in Australia (as Australian citizens or permanent residents or eligible New Zealand citizens) than overseas.
• You will be sponsored by one of your children in Australia who is an Australian citizen, ‘settled’ permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.
• Applications can be made from within Australia, if you meet the Aged Parent definition and the visa you currently hold while in Australia does not have an 8503 (no further stay) condition.

Specific Criteria for a Non-Contributory Parent Visa

Visa Subclasses for Non-Contributory Parent Visas:

Lodged when you are outside of Australia – subclass 103

Lodged when you are inside Australia – subclass 804

Assurance of Support is AUD5,000 for the main applicant and AUD2,000 for a partner. This bond will be held for a 2-year period. The bond will be requested when the visa is being assessed, which will be after a significant amount of years. Processing time is expected to be around 30 years.

Specific Criteria for a Contributory Parent Visa

Visa Subclasses for Contributory Parent Visa:

Lodged when you are outside Australia – subclass 143 or for two-stage application, subclass 173

Lodged when you are in Australia – subclass 864 of for two-stage application subclass 884

Processing Time can be expected to be around 3.5 years.

Assurance of Support is AUD10,000 for the main applicant and for any adult secondary applicant it is AUD4,000. This bond will be held for the 10-year period. Interest can be paid while the bond is being held.

There are two payment options (adjusted annually) for Contributory Parent Visa applicants:

1. Permanent visa (subclass 143 or 864) – pay $47,755 which is the second Visa Application Charge per parent
2. Temporary visa (subclass 173 or 884) pay $31,670 for the second Visa Application Charge per parent, which would entitle parents to a two-year temporary residence visa including Medicare access and work rights. During this two-year period, parents may apply at any time for a permanent visa at which time the remaining payment of $19,420 is required.

The contributory parent visa category also requires a 10-year $10,000 Assurance of Support bond for main applicants and $4,000 for adult secondary applicants (for temporary visa holders, this is payable during the processing of the permanent visa) The assurance of support bond earns interest and is refunded after 10 years.

Other Requirements

A parent can only apply within Australia for a parent visa if they are aged. An aged parent is one who is old enough to be granted an Australian age pension.

The following is a table of how aged is determined. The pension age will be gradually increased from 65 to 67 years as set out in the table below:

A parent who meets the pension age definition of Australia can apply for a Parent Visa within Australia, so long as there is not an 8503 (no further stay) condition on the visa they are holding, which usually would be a visitor visa. Once onshore and have applied for a parent visa, they are entitled to go on a bridging visa A, which keeps them in Australia lawfully, for the remainder of the time it takes to assess their parent visa.

Sponsored Parent (Temporary Visa) Subclass – 870

This is a temporary visa for parents which does not extend or lead to a Permanent Residence Visa. Once a Subclass 870 visa is granted and while it is being held, the parent cannot apply for any other subclass of parent visa.

With this visa you can:

• reunite with children and grandchildren.
• visit Australia for up to 3 or 5 years at a time (depending which option you select at the application stage).
• re-apply for further visas to visit up to a maximum period in Australia of 10 years.

You cannot work in Australia

Stay Longer

You can apply to stay for a cumulative maximum 10-year period. You must be outside Australia for at least 90 days before being eligible to be granted another Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa unless you have a Permission to Apply in Australia.

If you have held Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visas for the cumulative maximum 10- year period, you must either depart Australia or apply for another visa that will allow you to remain in Australia. You will not be eligible for grant of a further Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa.

Sponsorship

You must have an approved Parent Sponsor to apply for this visa.

Costs:

• AUD5,000 for a visa of up to 3 years; or
• AUD10,000 for a visa of up to 5 years.

You must be outside Australia when you apply for the visa unless you have Permission to Apply in Australia, which must be requested by your sponsor

Permission to apply

Permission to Apply in Australia allows you to apply for this visa in Australia. It must be requested in Australia by your sponsor in their sponsorship application form.

If you have Permission to Apply in Australia, you must lodge your visa application within 60 days of sponsorship approval. If you do not apply within 60 days, you will have to lodge your visa application outside Australia within 6 months of sponsorship approval or make an application for a different visa to remain in Australia.

Travel

You can travel to and from Australia as many times as you want while the visa is valid.