Introduction

Overseas Parents may be able to migrate to or temporarily stay in Australia if they have a child in Australia who is an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.

Parent includes an adoptive parent and a step-parent.

Generally, the following requirements are common for all Parent Visa Subclasses:

• Applicants must be a parent of a child who is an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen;
• Your child must be settled in Australia (in most cases, resident for at least 2 years) and must sponsor you;
• Applicants must pass the Balance of Family Test – which basically requires at least half of your children to live permanently in Australia or you must have more children living permanently in Australia than in any other single country;
• Applicants must meet Health and Character requirements;
• Applicants must, in addition to paying the 1st Visa Application Charge upon lodging a visa application and meeting the requirements listed above, must also pay a second installment of the Visa Application Charge;
• If applying for any permanent Parent Visa, you will also be required to provide an acceptable Assurance of Support and provide evidence of payment of an Assurance of Support bond;
• If applying for any Aged Parent Visa, you must be an Aged Parent.

Once all the legal requirements for the grant of a visa in the Parent category are met, applications are placed in a queue for visa grant. There are currently around 15,800 parents in the queue and around 7,000 parents being processed towards placement in the queue.

As the number of parent visa applications exceeds the number of places available, applications for the existing parent visa will be held in a queue, possibly for several years.

All applicants for a visa in the Parent category can expect a very substantial wait before their applications are finalised.

Therefore, subject to finances applicants should, consider the Contributory Parent Visa Subclasses.

The Contributory Parent category was introduced in mid-2003 to allow the expansion of the Parent migration program on the basis that applicants pay a higher visa application charge and a larger Assurance of Support (AoS) bond (with a longer Assurance of Support period.) There are considerably more places available in the Contributory Parent category each year than are available in the Parent category. Indeed, the advice contained in the Level 1 Service is targeted toward making an application under one of the Contributory Parent visa subclasses.

Contributory parent category queue

In 2007-08, high demand for the contributory parent visa category meant that a queue formed for the first time.

In the 2008-09 Program year, the number of contributory parent category visa places available for both offshore and onshore applicants has been increased to 6500. The additional places will reduce the queue for contributory parent visas. However, should high demand continue, applicants may again be subject to queuing.

To ensure equity, all contributory parent category visa applications are assessed in order of lodgement. If the number of contributory parent category visas allocated for the migration program year has been reached, applications are given a 'queue date' and placed in a queue.

The queue date is the date that the application was assessed as meeting the initial criteria for a contributory parent category visa. Once a queue date has been assigned it is a fixed date and cannot be given priority ahead of other applicants. Applications are then considered for grant in order of their queue date as places become available

Success Stories

Over the years we have helped many people from all over the world realise their dream of a new life in Australia. Please see the Testimonial Section of the website and see for yourself.

The Level 1 Service (US$269) allows for a professional assessment of your visa eligibility and preparation of a written document containing advice, information, application forms and support to manage a parent visa application. This is our most popular service and many clients have successfully utilised this affordable alternative to traditional migration consultancy.

This service also comes with our ongoing email support and a free 30 minute telephone conversation. Our email support is now unlimited. It is our interest to ensure our clients are satisfied with our service, and if successful in migration know they can rely on us for any help and support they may need to make the transition to Australian life as easy as possible.