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 parent or step-parent of the child
• be 18 years of age or older.
  Note: If the potential sponsor is under 18 years of age, their cohabitating partner may act as sponsor if they have turned 18 years of age 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.

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 (if they have one) has a conviction or an outstanding charge for an offence against a child. The applicant will also 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 application 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. If the sponsor, or their partner, has spent a total of 12 months or more in Australia since turning 16 years of age, that person must provide an AFP National Police Check. They must also 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 16 years of age.

Note: Sponsors or partners required to submit an AFP National Police Check must complete the National Police Check application form which is available from the Australian Federal Police website. Sponsors or partners 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 AFP National Police Checks.
See:
Stronger Measures for the Protection of Children
AFP National Police Checks
Character Requirements Penal Clearance Certificates (233KB PDF file)

Adopted children

If the child was adopted, different eligibility criteria apply.
See: Applicant and Sponsor Eligibility – Adopted Children

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