Parent Visa

103 - Parent Visa

The Parent visa option exist to allow Australian resident children to sponsor their overseas parents for permanent residency in Australia. Applications for a Parent visa can take up to 18+ years to be granted. The reason for this is a capping system whereby the Government only allocate a limited number of places for Parent visa each year. Once the limit is reached then applications are placed in a queue.


There is no points test for this visa.

Main Criteria

The Parent visa is termed an 'off-shore' visa which means that you can apply for it while you are onshore in Australia (providing certain restrictions do not apply to you such as a “no Further Stay” condition on your current visa) and you can stay in Australia for as long as your current visa lasts. However, when your current visa runs out you would have to go off-shore until the Parent visa was granted.

The main criteria for a Parent visa are;  

  • You must meet the Balance of Family test whereby the majority of your children must be lawfully and permanently resident in Australia.
  • You must be the parent of a child who is a settled Australian citizen or settled permanent resident and who will sponsor your application; and
  • Your sponsor must be approved (their application is lodged at the same time as yours); and
  • You and your partner must both meet health, public interest, special return and character requirements.
  • You will also be required to provide an Assurance of Support (mandatory) which is a legal agreement made by your assurer to financially assist you if necessary, to ensure that costs to Australia are minimised. Your assurer agrees to repay any social security payments claimed by the you. Generally the Assurance of Support is provided by a family member or friend living in Australia, providing they can show sufficient taxable income in Australia to meet the requirements to be approved as an assurer. It is possible for up to 3 people to lodge a joint AoS and the income of each person is counted towards the required minimum. Assurances of Support can also be given by corporations or unincorporated bodies. The assurer puts up a bond for the main applicant and an additional bond for each adult included in the application which is held by the Government for 2 years and then refunded with interest less any deductions against claims.
  • You will be required to pay Visa Application Charge(s) to the Dept. of Immigration.