The Government announced a new visa under the family migration programme on 5 May 2017. The Senate passed the Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2016 on 28 November 2018, this Bill includes provisions to introduce the new visa that will allow parents to visit their families in Australia for a continuous period of up to five years. This new visa does not replace current parent visas.
Both the sponsor and the applicant parents must go through a range of assessment criteria and both must be assessed separately. The new visa requires the sponsor to be pre-approved. The applicant parents can stay in Australia for 3 years at a cost of $5,000 or 5 years at a cost of $10,000. However, the maximum length of stay applicants can get is 10 years even if they are allowed to apply for the new visa multiple times.
Features
- Under the proposal Australian Citizens will be able to sponsor only 1 set of parents at any given time
- Balance of Family test will be removed from the Temporary Sponsored Parent Visa. This will enable children who have more siblings living overseas than in Australia to sponsor their parents under the new visa.
- Visa holders will not be able to work in Australia during their stay, however, they will be able to volunteer or take care of their grandchildren
- Visa Applicants will need to meet the following requirements in order to satisfy the visa criteria:
- Sponsorship by the Australian child must be approved;
- Parent will need to meet health, identity and character requirements for the visa;
- Parent will need to ensure that (s)he does not have any debt to the Commonwealth;
- Visa Applicant must hold private health insurance while in Australia on the new Temporary Sponsored Parent Visa.
- Sponsors must pass the following criteria to be allowed to bring their parents to Australia:
- Be Australian Citizen or Permanent resident eligible New Zealand Citizen;
- Live in Australia for at least 4 years before making application for Sponsorship;
- Must meet household income test;
- Must not have criminal record;
- Australian sponsors will be required to act as financial guarantors for any outstanding public health costs incurred by the visa holder whilst in Australia.
Applications for the Temporary Sponsored Parent Visa will be open in the first half of 2019.