Applicant Eligibility

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

Relationship and custody

The child must be the child or stepchild 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 applicant must meet health requirements.
See: Health requirements

Character requirements

Applicants who are 16 years of age or over must be of good character to enter or remain in Australia.
See: Character and penal clearance requirements

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:
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)

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 wish.

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 eligibility requirements.
See: Other eligibility