The primary concern for everyone is how parent migration processing is tracking.

At present, Subclass 143 Contributory Parent visa further-information requests have progressed to early November 2016,which is quite a bitfasterthan earlier projections.

At the end of last financial year, grants had progressed to June 2016, and there were 3,049 applications lodged in July–October 2016.

The confirmed quota for parent migration this financial year is 6,000 places(as mentioned above, there is expected to be some increase — we are provisionally estimating an extra 1,500 places, bringing the total to 7,500). Based on last year’s ratio, paid parent migration should account for approximately 4,800 places and queued parent migration approximately 1,200 places.If all of those are granted, they would consume 64% of this financial year’s grant quota.

Projected processing timeline

The financial report expected to be published by late October — or possibly before then — should reveal exactly how much the parent migration quota will increase.Assuming the parent migration quota increases by 1,500 places to 7,500 total,this year’s parent migration quota would come close to recovering to the level of two years ago,and the share of quota consumed by cases currently being processed would fall to 51%.

Paid visa grants could then progress through to around February 2017(noting that this does not account for any quota that may be consumed by queued cases converting to paid),while further-information requests could potentially be issued through to March–April.Of course, the toughest stretch in 2017 is May and June — those two months alone account for 8,575 applications (see chart below):

About further-information requests

Please note that what was described above refers to further-information requests,with visa grants typically following one to three months later. Based on the volume of further-information requests currently being issued, a significant proportion of the quota has already been used.

Accelerating progress is good news, but the Department has previously issued a concentrated wave of further-information requests followed by a period of several months during which it focused on processing those cases without issuing new requests,so it is too early to be optimistic that parent migration will see a dramatic overall increase in pace — grant numbers are still ultimately constrained by the annual quota.

For example, if the Subclass 143 grant quota is exhausted by March or April, the Department will be unable to grant visas for the remaining months of the financial year — it may continue to process cases and issue further-information requests, but all grants will have to wait until the new financial year brings a new quota

Our Subclass 143 grant successes to date this financial year

Lodged 11 August 2016

Lodged 11 July 2016; received further-information request in April

Lodged 25 July 2016; the other parent added to the application in 2021; both granted in early August this year

Lodged late June 2016; granted on the first day of this financial year, 1 July

On another parent-related note — Subclass 870 processing has picked up noticeably, particularly for sponsorship approvals,

which previously generally took over six months,and are now more commonly taking around four to five months, with some individual cases approved in just over three months,representing a clear improvement in speed. For families considering a long-term arrangement for parents to remain in Australia while waiting for a permanent visa to be granted, this is a reasonably attractive option.

The Subclass 870 visaallows a maximum stay of 10 years in Australia; at the five-year mark, the holder must depart for at least 90 days before renewing for a further five-year period. This visa cannot convert to permanent residency (if parent migration is the goal, a migration visa must be lodged first, then the Subclass 870), so in practice this visa simply spares parents the hassle of repeatedly travelling in and out of Australia compared with a visitor visa,If parents are already in Australia, a Subclass 870 application can be lodged onshore on their behalf by first applying for permission to remain.

Processing: processing proceeds in two stages — the sponsor (the child) first has their sponsorship approval granted, and then the visa application is lodged.The previous estimate was 6–12 months, and there has been some improvement in speed.If parents are currently in Australia, prepare early while the visa is still valid.

Advantages:No education, work experience, or asset requirements; long onshore stay duration; no family balance test requirement.A single continuous stay of up to five years, with a maximum of two stays totalling 10 years.

Sponsor requirements: the sponsor must be at least 18 years of age and can only be the applicant’s child or the child’s partner.

Sponsor income requirements: if one person is sponsoring one parent, the sponsor must have earned at least$83,454.80 AUDin the financial year prior to the application. If that person’s income is insufficient, the sponsor’s spouse’s income may be added. The sponsor’s income and spouse’s income must be in a ratio of at least 1:1.

Our Subclass 870 approval successes to date this financial year

Subclass 870 sponsorship approval applied in May this year; approved in August — approximately three months’ wait

Subclass 870 sponsorship approval granted; approximately four months’ wait

Subclass 870 visa granted; approximately two months after sponsorship approval was received

The second parent-related update: the Condition 8503 waiver, which many people ask about.

Since Australia fully reopened its borders, obtaining a Condition 8503 waiver has become extremely difficult — recent applications, whether submitted by our clients or independently, have almost universally been refused.

Common reasons such as travelling with children or flight disruptions have all been rejected as grounds for a waiver.If parents have Condition 8503 on their visa, it is essential to make arrangements well in advance. Even if the waiver cannot be obtained, ensure parents can depart on time to avoid overstaying, which could affect subsequent applications.”

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