Applicant Eligibility

This page provides information on the eligibility requirements for this visa.

Relationship and custody

The child must be the child or step-child of a parent who holds one of the following visas:

• a temporary Partner visa (Subclasses 309 or 820)
• a temporary Spouse visa (Subclasses 309 or 820)
• a temporary Interdependency visa (Subclasses 310 or 826)
• an Extended Eligibility visa (Subclass 445).

The child's parent must also satisfy one of the following:

• they 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, they must obtain a statutory declaration from this person or people, granting permission for the child to migrate
• they possess a valid court order allowing them to permanently remove the child from the child's home country
• they have a residence order, contact order or care order issued by the Family Court of Australia, and the grant of the visa is consistent with that order.

Sponsorship

The child must be sponsored by the same person sponsoring the child's parent.

Age

Children under the age of 18 are generally considered dependent. If the child has turned 18 years of age, they must be financially dependent on their visa holding parent, except where the child has a disability that stops them from working.

Relationship status

The child must be single. They must not be married, or in a de-facto relationship or engaged to be married.

Health requirements

The child must meet health requirements.
See: Health Requirements

Character requirements

Applicants who have turned 16 years of age must be of good character to enter or remain in Australia.
See: Character and Penal Clearance Requirements

Sponsorship limitation and best interests of the child

Where an applicant is under 18 years of age, the sponsorship cannot be approved (except in very limited circumstances) where the sponsor or the sponsor’s spouse or de facto partner has a conviction or an outstanding charge for an offence against a child. The applicant 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 the sponsorship and the best interests of the child requirement, sponsors of children under 18 years of age, and their spouse or de facto partner, are required to submit an AFP National Police Check and/or foreign police certificate/s, depending on their circumstances.
See:
Sponsor Eligibility
Stronger Measures for the Protection of Children
AFP National Police Checks

Australian Values Statement

All visa applicants aged 18 years or over, must declare that they will respect Australian values and obey the laws of Australia. For applicants of this visa, the values statement is included in the general declaration section of the application form. By signing the form applicants will also be signing the values statement. Applicants for this visa will not be required to have read the Life in Australia book, but may do so if they want.

Visa applicants are also encouraged to gain an understanding of Australia, its people and their way of life, before applying for this visa.
See: Australian Values - Overview

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