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Fact Sheet 31 - Family Stream Migration: Parent Category Visas

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The Family Stream of Australia's Migration Program enables the reunion in Australia of immediate family members, including parents.

There are two visa categories for parents wishing to migrate to Australia:

The differences between the two categories are:

This fact sheet provides an overview of the parent category.

The parent category comprises:

For applicants applying from outside Australia

For applicants applying from in Australia

See: Fact Sheet 39 Family Stream Migration – Contributory Parent Category visas

Requirements

The core requirements for both the parent category and the contributory parent category are similar. However, due to the high demand for the limited number of parent visas, applicants in the parent category have a longer wait for their application to be finalised.

To apply for a visa in the parent category, you must be the parent of a child, who is a settled Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. 'Settled' means a person must have been resident in Australia for a reasonable period, which under policy is usually two years.

For Aged Parent (subclass 804) visa applications the primary applicant must be aged. An aged parent is one who is old enough to be granted an Australian age pension. For men the qualifying age for an Australian age pension is 65 years. For women it is gradually being increased from 60 to 65 years.

Applicants are not able to lodge an application while in Australia if they are barred from doing so. Applicants may be barred if they have a 'No Further Stay' condition on their current visa, or if they do not hold a substantive visa and have been refused the grant of a visa since last entering Australia.

Applicants for a visa in the parent category should obtain the Booklet 3 – Parent Migration (Form 1129), which is available for A$10 from any departmental office or can be downloaded free of charge from the department's website.
See: Booklet 3 – Parent Migration

Withdrawal of any other parent visa application

To make a valid visa application in the parent category, the applicant must withdraw any existing parent application that has not yet been decided by the department. Withdrawal can be done by completing the relevant section of the Form 47PA application for migration to Australia by a parent.
See: Form 47PA

Similarly, an applicant must withdraw, or have finalised, any application for review of a refusal decision in relation to any other parent visa application before a visa in the parent category can be granted.

Balance of family test

All applicants for a visa in the parent category must meet the 'balance of family' (BoF) test. This means the applicants must have:

Children of both parents are counted in the test, including any children of previous relationships or de facto relationships of either parent.

Children to be considered for the purpose of the BoF test include natural, adopted and step–children. This is irrespective of whether they are dependent, self–supporting, married, single or divorced.

The quality of the parent's relationship with such children is not a relevant factor in this test.

The purpose of the test is to establish the nature of a parent's ties to Australia and the support likely to be available from their children in Australia.

Some single, aged parents who do not meet the BoF test may be eligible under the Aged Dependent Relative category if they are able to prove that they have been, and continue to be, dependent on their relative (child) in Australia.
See: Fact Sheet 32 Family Stream Migration – other family

Sponsorship

All applicants for parent migration must be sponsored. The sponsor must be either an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who is settled. 'Settled' means a person must have been a resident in Australia for a reasonable period, usually two years.

If the child of the parent is 18 years or older, then the parent can be sponsored by that child or by that child's cohabiting spouse.

If the child has not turned 18, applicants may be sponsored by the cohabiting spouse of their child if the spouse has turned 18, a close relative or guardian of their child, or a community organisation.

The sponsor cannot be changed after the application has been lodged.

Public interest criteria

Each parent, and all dependent family members included in the application, must satisfy certain public interest requirements, including meeting the health and character requirements.
See:
Fact Sheet 22 The Health Requirement
Fact Sheet 79 The Character Requirement

Capping and queuing

All parent visa categories are subject to capping. This means that once the number of visas set by the minister for a visa class for the migration program year has been reached, no further visas can be granted in that program year.

In the 2008-09 migration program year, there will be 2000 visa places available worldwide under the parent category and 6500 places for the contributory parent categories.

To ensure equity, all parent category visa applications are assessed in order of lodgement and then placed in a queue. Applications that have been queued are given a 'queue date'. The queue date is the date that the application was assessed as meeting the initial criteria for a parent category visa. Once a queue date has been assigned it is a fixed date and cannot be given priority ahead of other applicants. Applications are then considered for grant in order of their queue date as places become available.

Due to the high demand for the limited number of Parent category visas, there is a significant wait for visa grant.
See: Fact Sheet 21 Managing the Migration Program

Visa application charge

All applicants for a parent category visa are required to pay a first and second visa application charge (VAC).

First VAC
A first VAC must be paid per application and must be paid at time of lodging the application.
The first VAC is not refunded if the application is unsuccessful.

Second VAC
A second VAC is required for each individual applicant on the application. Payment of the second VAC is not required until just before grant of a visa.
The second VAC for the Parent category is considerably less than for the Contributory Parent category.
See: Fees and Charges (95KB PDF file)

Assurance of support

All applicants for a visa in the parent category require an Assurance of Support (AoS).

An AoS is a legal commitment by a person to repay to the Australian Government any recoverable social security payments made by Centrelink to those covered by the assurance.

An AoS is also a commitment to provide financial support to the person applying to migrate, so that they will not have to rely on any government forms of support. In the case of a visa holder in the parent category, this is for the first two years after the applicant migrates from overseas or for applicants in Australia from the date of visa grant.

In addition, an AoS bond (held for two years) of $5000 for the main applicant and $2000 for any adult secondary applicant must be paid.

The AoS and bond are not required until just before grant of the visa. They should only be provided when requested by the department.
See: Fact Sheet 34 Assurance of Support

Processing priorities

The minister has issued a direction for migration officers giving guidance on the order of priority for processing family stream applications.

In the family stream, all parent visa applications are given a lower processing priority than other family members such as partners and children.

In the parent visa categories, the contributory parent category has a higher processing priority than the parent category.
See: Fact Sheet 37 Processing Priorities

 

Further information is available on the department's web site.
See: www.immi.gov.au

The department also operates a national telephone service inquiry line.
Telephone: 131 881
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm (recorded information available outside these hours) for the cost of a local call anywhere in Australia.

Fact Sheet 31. Produced by the National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Canberra.
Revised 7 August 2008.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2008.