Family Sponsored Visas

1. General.

These are visas for applicants who qualify on the basis of their family relationship to a sponsor in Australia and they are essentially defacto or married couples, fiancés, interdependent partners, aged dependent relatives, orphaned relatives, dependent child or children, and parents who meet the “balance of family test.” They are exempt from the skills test and English language test that are normally required from other General and Business Skills migrants.

2. Defacto or Married or Interdependent Partner visa.

The applicant may choose to lodge his or her application onshore or offshore with the assistance of our Migration Specialists in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. To be eligible to apply for this visa, you must: –

Be in a married or defacto relationship or interdependent relationship with an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen and be sponsored by your partner or interdependent partner;
If you are in a defacto relationship then you must show the Department of Home Affairs that the defacto relationship has been in existence for a minimum period of 12 months; and
Be able to provide evidence to the Department of Home Affairs that the relationship with your sponsor is genuine and continuing.

3. Fiancé Visa.

This is a Prospective Marriage Visa, and you must be offshore to lodge this visa. To be eligible to apply for this visa, you must:-

Be engaged to be married to an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen and be sponsored by your fiancé; and
Be able to prove to the Department of Home Affairs that there is a genuine intention to marry your fiancé and live together in a married relationship within 9 months of the grant of your visa.

4. Parents Visa

To be eligible to apply for this visa you must: –

Be the parent of your child who is an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen;
Your sponsoring child must be “settled” in Australia. This generally means that the sponsoring child has resided in Australia for at least two years; and
Pass the balance of family test. This means that at least half of the number of your children or at least you have more children living in Australia than in any other country, and must live permanently in Australia as Australian citizens or Australian permanent residents;

You can lodge your application onshore if you are of the Australian pensionable age. Otherwise the application MUST be lodged offshore.

5. Temporary Sponsored Subclass 870 Parents Visa

With effect from 17 April 2019 the Australian Government announced the launch of the Temporary Sponsored Parent Subclass 870 visa. The applicant for this visa does not have to meet the balance of family test or post any sponsorship bond. There are two streams of the visa, namely the three-year validity visa and the five-year validity visa. The salient features of this visa are as follows:-

Maximum 10 years cumulative stay permitted.
Condition 8103 ‘no work’ will be applied to this visa.
Sponsors for this visa must be at least 18 years old and must be either Australian permanent residents, citizens, or eligible New Zealand citizen.
Sponsors must not have any debts to the Commonwealth or outstanding public health debts and have a minimum household taxable income of $83,454.80.
Applicants must have access to sufficient funds to meet the costs and expenses of their intended stay in Australia including adequate medical insurance cover.
Sponsorship application fee currently is $420 and the visa application fee for the three-year visa is $5,000 and for the five-year visa is $10,000.

The downside of this visa is that the applicant will not be allowed to treat this visa as a pathway to permanent residence to Australia. Therefore if an applicant, having resided in Australia cumulatively for 10 years, will not be able to apply for the Parent visa, the Aged Parent visa, the Contributory Parent visa, the Contributory Aged Parent visa, or the Contributory Parent (Temporary) visa.

6. Dependent Child or Children Visa.

To be eligible for this visa, the child applicant must be:

A biological child, stepchild or adopted child of the parent;
Sponsored by the same person sponsoring their parent with limited exceptions;
Able to meet health and character requirements;
Single (the child cannot be married, engaged to be married, or in a de facto relationship);
Younger than 18, or else be one of the following:-
- Financially dependent on the parent holding the temporary Partner visa and
- Incapacitated for work due to the total or partial loss of bodily or mental functions.

7. Aged Dependent Relative visa

To be eligible for this visa, the applicant:

Is sponsored by a relative or their partner who lives in Australia;
Do not have a spouse or de facto partner;
Meet the dependency requirements;
Meet the Australian pensionable age;
Have someone who will provide an assurance of support; and
Meet health and character requirements.

8. Orphaned Relative Visa

To be eligible for this visa, the applicant must:-

Be younger than 18 years old; and
Be sponsored by a relative who is:
- The brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, uncle or step-equivalent of the child;
- Older than 18 years of age; and
- An Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen.
Not be married or in a de-facto relationship;
Be in situation where their parents are unable to care for them; and
Meet health and character requirements.

9. Conclusion.

If an applicant is able to meet all the requirements of any particular category of visa he/she intends to apply for, then he/she is invited to contact James Tan Immigration Consultants by completing the Assessment Form in this website for a proper assessment to determine whether an application should be lodged with the Department of Home Affairs. This assessment costs only $150.00 and is credited to the applicant’s fees payable if he/she proceeds to instruct our Immigration Specialists in the Eastern Suburbs to proceed with an application. In all instances, lodgement fees (which can be quite substantial) once paid to the Australian Department of Home Affairs are non-refundable. Therefore the $150.00 assessment fee paid is money well spent.

10. Please note that the immigration information provided in this website is a guide only. You are advised to contact James Tan Immigration Consultants or the Department of Home Affairs for specific answers to any question affecting your case. For a prompt reply to any query in regards to your case, you are invited to submit your confidential completed Assessment Form to our Immigration Specialists in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne for an accurate and quick assessment of your specific case.