Parent Visa

Overseas Parents may be able to migrate to or temporarily stay in Australia if they have a child/children in Australia who is an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.

Parent includes an adoptive parent and a step-parent.

Generally, the following requirements are common for all Parent Visa Subclasses:

• Applicants must be a parent of a child who is an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen;
• Your child must be settled in Australia (in most cases, resident for at least 2 years) and must sponsor you;
• Applicants must pass the Balance of Family Test – which basically requires at least half of your children to live permanently in Australia or you must have more children living permanently in Australia than in any other single country;
• Applicants must meet Health and Character requirements;
• Applicants must, in addition to paying the 1st Visa Application Charge upon lodging a visa application and meeting the requirements listed above, must also pay a second instalment of the Visa Application Charge;
• If applying for any permanent Parent Visa, you will also be required to provide an acceptable Assurance of Support and provide evidence of payment of an Assurance of Support bond;
• If applying for any Aged Parent Visa, you must be an Aged Parent.

Once all the legal requirements for the grant of a visa in the Parent category are met, applications are placed in a queue for visa grant. Given the number of parent visa applications exceeds the number of places available, applications for the existing parent visa will be held in a queue, possibly for several years.

All applicants for a visa in the Parent category can expect a very substantial wait before their applications are finalised.

Therefore, subject to finances applicants should, consider the Contributory Parent Visa Subclasses.

The Contributory Parent category was introduced in mid-2003 to allow the expansion of the Parent migration program on the basis that applicants pay a higher visa application charge and a larger Assurance of Support (AoS) bond (with a longer Assurance of Support period.) There are considerably more places available in the Contributory Parent category each year than are available in the Parent category. 

What does the contributory visa cost?