Sponsor Eligibility

Sponsors must meet the following requirements to be eligible to sponsor an applicant for this visa.

Eligibility criteria

Sponsors must be one of the following:

• an Australian citizen
• the holder of an Australian permanent visa
• an eligible New Zealand citizen.
  Note: A sponsor who is an eligible New Zealand citizen must also meet health and character requirements.

A sponsor must also:

• be the child's brother or sister, grandparent, aunt or uncle, or niece or nephew, (or step equivalents)
• have been lawfully resident in Australia for a reasonable period (usually two (2) years)
• be 18 years of age or over.
  Note: If the sponsor is under 18 years of age, their cohabitating partner may act as sponsor if they are 18 years of age or over, and are one of the following:
  • an Australian citizen
  • the holder of an Australian permanent visa
  • an eligible New Zealand citizen.

Custody of children under 18 years of age

Sponsors must satisfy one of the following custody requirements when applying to sponsor children under 18 years of age:

• they must have the sole legal right to determine where the child shall live, or to remove the child from their home country.
• if another person can legally determine where the child can live, the sponsor must obtain a statutory declaration from this person or people, granting permission for the child to migrate.
• they must possess a valid court order allowing them to permanently remove the child from the child's home country.
• they must have a court order issued by the Family Court of Australia, and the grant of the visa must be consistent with that order.

Best interests of the child

Where an applicant is under 18 years of age, they will need to satisfy the requirement that there is no compelling reason to believe that the grant of the visa would not be in the best interests of the applicant. In order to assess this requirement, sponsors of children under 18 years of age are required to submit either an Australian National Police Check or foreign police certificate/s, depending on the sponsor’s circumstances. If the sponsor has spent a total of 12 months or more in Australia since turning sixteen years of age, the sponsor must provide an Australian National Police Check. If the sponsor has not spent a total of 12 months or more in Australia since turning sixteen years of age, the sponsor must provide police certificates from each country in which they have spent a total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning sixteen years of age.
See:
Applicant Eligibility
Stronger Measures for the Protection of Children
National Police Checks
Note: Sponsors required to submit a National Police Check must complete the National Police Check application form which is available from the Australian Federal Police website. Sponsors should use Code 33 at Question 1 on the form and include details of all names they have been known by. If an AFP Certificate is provided based on incorrect information, the department may request another certificate. Fingerprints are not required for National Police Checks.
See: Character Requirements Penal Clearance Certificates (233KB PDF file)

 

Before lodging an application, please read all related eligibility requirements.
See: Other eligibility