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If you are married to, engaged to, or living in a de facto relationship with an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, your partner may sponsor you for migration to Australia.



The main partner visa options are as follows:

Partner Visa
Partner visas are for people who are married or in a defacto relationship with an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible NZ citizen. This leads to permanent residence, usually after a period of two years.
Fiance (Prospective Spouse) Visa
The fiance or prospective spouse visa is a 9-month temporary visa which allows applicants to travel to Australia to marry their Australian partner. Once married in Australia, application for partner visa need to be submitted to get permanent residence.
Prospective Marriage Visa (Subclass 300)
The Prospective Marriage Visa (Subclass 300) allows an applicant to travel to Australia to marry their prospective spouse. After this visa is granted the visa holder has up to nine months to get married – they can get married in Australia or overseas. Once married, the visa holder can then apply for a Partner Visa (Subclass 820 & 801) onshore at a reduced visa application charge.
Process

Once your initial partner visa application is granted, you will in most cases be issued with a Temporary Partner Visa. This will allow you to stay in Australia with full work and travel rights, as well as access to government health insurance.
After the two year period, the Department of Immigration can provide a Permanent Partner Visa after reviewing evidence of ongoing relationship. In some circumstances, a waiver is available for the 2 year period.

This class has two visa options depending on whether you are in or outside Australia.

  • Partner Visa (Subclasses 820 & 801) - Onshore
    The Partner visa (subclasses 820 & 801) are for applicants who are onshore at the time of visa lodgement.
  • Partner (Subclass 309 & 100) - Offshore
    The Partner (Provisional) visa (Subclass 309) & Partner (Migrant) Visa (Subclass 100) is for applicant’s who are applying from overseas.

The Australian visa system has six classes of visas that people may be eligible to apply for if they want to migrate their parents to Australia.  A parent visa allows you to:
•    live in Australia for up to 2 years as a temporary resident, or
•    live in Australia as an Australian permanent resident.

Key requirements

Sponsor

  1. You are sponsored by your child who is an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen; and
  2. has lived in Australia lawfully for at least two years before the lodgement of the visa application; and
  3. is 18 years or over.

Balance of family test: You meet the balance of family test if:

  • at least half of your children live permanently in Australia, or
  • more of your children live permanently in Australia than in any other country.

Currently, there are two options for Parents wanting to be sponsored by their children to live in Australia.

OPTION 1
APPLY FOR AN AGED PARENT VISA (SUBCLASS 804) OR PARENT VISA (SUBCLASS 103)
This option has a very long waiting period for the visas to be processed, the Department of Immigration & Border Protection is currently advising that it could take up to 30 years for one of the above visas to be granted.

OPTION 2
APPLY FOR A CONTRIBUTORY (TEMPORARY) PARENT VISA (SUBCLASS 173) OR CONTRIBUTORY (TEMPORARY) AGED PARENT VISA (SUBCLASS 884)

When applying for this visa, it is a two stage process. If the requirements are met, you will be issued with your temporary visa and will then have two years to apply for your corresponding permanent visa.

The permanent visas are the Contributory Aged Parent visa (subclass 864) and the Contributory parent visa (subclass 143) depending on the age requirements.

The contributory parent visas have much higher visa application charges, and can be in excess of $45,000 for each applicant.
What is the difference between the aged parent visas, and the parent visas?

Depending on the age of the applicants, they will need to apply for a visa in respect to their current age. To be eligible to apply for an aged parent visa, you will need to be eligible for the ‘Aged Pension’ in Australia.