On 1 March 2019 the Australian Government announced the long awaited five year visitor visa for parents. This visa allows parents to stay for up to five years at a time without departing. The Department will grant up to 15,000 visas per year.
The visa will be the a subclass 870 visa and is a temporary visa that does not provide a pathway to permanent residency. Parents may apply for a second 5 year visa if they so wish.
A parent must be outside Australia for at least 90 days before being eligible to apply for a further Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa. A parent will be able to hold visas up to a total stay in Australia of 10 years.
SPONSORSHIP
To be eligible for the visa, a parent must be the biological, adoptive, or step-parent of the Australian sponsor, who must be an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen.
The balance of family test does not apply to this visa. A parent only needs one child in Australia to file an application for the 5 year visitor visa.
Only two parents per household can be sponsored for this visa at a time.
The Australian Sponsor must be approved before the visa can be lodged. Sponsorship applications can be lodged from 17 April 2019. The sponsorship application fee is $420.
The Australian Sponsor must meet the following criteria:
• Must satisfy the sponsor/parent relationship requirements
• be aged at least 18 years of age
• be an Australian citizen/permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who has been usually resident in Australia for four years
• have met any prior sponsorship obligations
• have no adverse information unless it is reasonable to disregard the information
• have no debts to the Commonwealth or public health debts unless appropriate arrangements have been made for payment
• a minimum household income threshold (based on the income of the sponsor, or the combined income of the sponsor and their spouse/partner and/or another child of the parent)
• provide police clearances for any country they have spent more than 12 months cumulatively in during the past 10 years
VISA APPLICATION
Once a sponsorship application has been approved, a sponsored parent will be able to apply for a Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa.
Parents will have to maintain private health insurance whilst holding this visa and will not have working rights in Australia.
The visa application charge is:
$5,000 for a visa of up to three years’ duration; or
$10,000 for a visa of up to five years’ duration.
The visa application charge is payable in two instalments, with one payment at time of application and the remainder paid prior to visa grant.
Visa holders will generally be subject to a “no work” condition and will have to maintain private health insurance.
Applications for the visa are intended to open from 1 July 2019.