Once a parent visa is granted, the main entitlement available immediately is access to Australia’s universal healthcare scheme, Medicare — most other benefits generally can’t be claimed until 10 years after the grant.

Like other PR visas, theirs generally requires 2 years’ residence within a 5-year period to renew for another 5-year Resident Return visa — if the 2-year residence requirement isn’t met, the Return visa renewal is usually only for 1 year or less.

Currently, Australian parent migration can be divided into the following categories

 For general (non-aged) parents:

– Queue-stream Parent visa (103)

– Contributory Parent visa (173) – temporary

– Contributory Parent visa (143) – permanent

For aged parents:

– Queue-stream Aged Parent visa (804)

– Contributory Aged Parent visa (884) – temporary

– Contributory Aged Parent visa (864) – permanent

Parent migration requirements

Basic requirements

Whichever category applies, parents must meet the following basic requirements:

– The child (sponsor) must besettled in Australiafor 2 yearsan Australian citizen, permanent resident (PR),or certain eligible New Zealand citizens

– Must satisfythe ‘balance of family test’

–An Assurance of Support (AoS) from an approved assurer is required — the AoS requirements have recently changed, which we’ll cover in more detail below

– Must meet health and character requirements

– Must sign the Australian Values Statement

Requirements for different parent migration categories

For general (non-aged) parents (Subclass 103 and Subclass 143 visas)

Most children will find this the applicable visa category. The difference between the general Subclass 103 and the contributory Subclass 143 comes down to:paying a contribution charge to shorten the waiting time.

General Subclass 103 visa:

–Application fee: $4,425 (primary applicant), $2,215 (secondary applicant)

– Waiting time: an estimated 30 years — applications from October 2010 are currently being processed, with a backlog of over 387,730,000 applications, and annual quotas have been shrinking in recent years.

Contributory Subclass 143 visa:

In addition to the visa application fee, a contribution charge must also be paid once the application reaches the front of the queue

– Application fee: $4,225 (primary applicant), $1,425 (secondary applicant)

– Contribution charge:$43,600 (current standard rate)

– Waiting time:an estimated 6 to 10 years — applications from May 2016 are currently being processed, with a backlog of over 56,386 applications.

The contributory Subclass 173 visa is designed as a temporary bridge to the Subclass 143 visa: it runs for 2 years, requires part of the contribution charge to be paid upfront, and the formal Subclass 143 application follows after those 2 years.

For aged parents (Subclass 804 and Subclass 864 visas)

Once a parent reaches the age the Australian Government defines as “aged”, they can consider applying for an Aged Parent visa.

According to Centrelink’s definition of “aged”, the age requirements are as follows:

The Aged Parent visa is likewise split into the general Subclass 804 and the contributory Subclass 864, with the same distinction: paying the contribution charge lets you jump the queue and shorten the processing wait. Similarly, the application fees, contribution charge, and processing times for these mirror the general Subclass 103 and Subclass 143 categories respectively.

The AoS financial guarantee needs to be provided once your parents’ application reaches the front of the queue for processing. The assurer can be the child or anotherAustralian PR/citizen or a company, and must provide income evidence for the past two financial years plus proof of payment of the assurance bond, and there are income requirements for the assurer, determined specifically bythe number of people being assured and the number of the assurer’s dependent childrenamong other factors — get in touch with me for the detailed calculation formula.

A common example: a couple acting as joint assurers, with one dependent child, assuring both parents — the combined annual income required is $72,000, and the bank assurance bond required is $14,000.

Yes — once parents are notified that they’ve successfully reached the queue, they can apply for a 5-year multiple-entry visitor visa.

Some readers ask whether they can apply for the Subclass 870 Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa. The Subclass 870 visa allows parents to remain in Australia for 3 or 5 years with unlimited entries, renewable up to a total of 10 years, at a cost of $5,090 AUD for 3 years or $10,180 AUD for 5 years. Note, however, thatonce you apply for or hold a Subclass 870 visa, you can’t apply for another parent migration visa during that time — you have to wait until the 870 visa ends.

Yes, you can.The queue time doesn’t need to be recalculated, and the contribution charge is also paid at the rate that applied at the time of the original application.

Yes, this is possible, but note that,once one parent has been granted PR,you need to wait a further 5 yearsbefore you can sponsor the other parent for partner migration,and the partner migration waiting period is a further 2 years,meaning the other parent won’t get PR until 7 years later.

Yes — simply paying the additional Subclass 143 visa fee will convert the application into the Subclass 143 queue, and the time already spent waiting on the Subclass 103 counts towards the Subclass 143 queue time.

No, you can’t, a Subclass 103 can convert to a Subclass 143, and a Subclass 804 can convert to a Subclass 864,but non-aged and aged visa streams can’t be converted directly into each other.

Once the parent’s PR is granted, they can access Medicare straight away — other benefits and payments, such as the age pension and unemployment benefits, can only be claimed after a 10-year wait.

Under the original rules for the Subclass 143 visa, no bridging visa is granted even if lodged onshore, and the applicant is required to be offshore at the time of grant.

However, due to special arrangements introduced during the pandemic,previously lodged Subclass 143 applications may now be granted while the applicant is onshore in Australia, with a bridging visa granted,provided all three of the following requirements are met:

1. The Subclass 143 application was lodged before 24 March 2021

2. The applicant held a valid Australian visa at the time the Subclass 143 application was lodged (a Subclass 600 visitor visa is acceptable)

3. The applicant is currently in Australia and holds a valid visa

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