Parent visas are accessible to persons seeking a permanent visa on the basis of being the parent of a child who is a settled Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. The Parent Visas are divided in two broad categories based on the processing time: Contributory Parent visa and the standard Parent visa.

What does this visa let me do?

The Permanent Parent visas allow you, your accompanying partner and dependent family members to live as permanent residents in Australia. You can also: work and study in Australia receive subsidised healthcare through Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) access certain social security payments (subject to waiting periods) be eligible to apply for Australian citizenship (subject to the residency eligibility criteria) sponsor people for permanent residence (subject to waiting periods).

Apart from the contributory parent (temporary) visa, all parent visas are permanent visas.

Common Criteria

The main criteria are as follows:

1. The parent must be sponsored by a child who is an Australian citizen or permanent resident. The sponsor must be "settled" - generally the sponsor would need have been lawfully resident in Australia for at least 2 years.
   
2. The applicant must pass the "balance of family test". That is, the number of children who are lawfully and permanently resident in Australia must be:
        - Greater than, or equal to, the total number of children who are resident overseas; or
        - Greater than the greatest number of children who are resident in any single overseas country.
   
3. An assurance of support is required in all cases.

Sponsorship

Any person seeking a Parent Visa will be required to have a sponsor. The sponsor will usually be either:

• the applicant’s child (including natural, adopted or step-children) – unless the child is under 18
  
• the spouse of an applicant’s child who is living with the applicant’s child.
  

 Assurance of support ('AOS')

All Parent visa applicants must obtain an AOS before the visa can be granted. 
An AOS is a legal commitment by a person (‘assurer”) to provide financial support to the applicant and repay to the government the amount of any welfare payments made to the applicant within either:

Parent Category visas (temporary or permanent residence)

Within the Parent category there are two visa subclasses:

• Parent (Migrant) - Subclass 103, and
  
• Aged Parent (Residence) - Subclass 804
  

Parent (Migrant) - Subclass 103

The Parent visa (subclass 103) lets parents live permanently in Australia if they have a child who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who is settled in Australia.

Aged Parent (Residence) - Subclass 804

This visa lets older parents live in Australia if their child is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who is settled in Australia.

There can be long waiting times of up to 30 years before this visa is approved.

Contributory Parent Visas

There are two types of contributory parent visa:

1. Contributory Parent (Permanent) subclass 143: This is a permanent visa which is generally processed within 18 months. Total cost for the application could be over $50,000 per parent
   
2. Contributory Parent (Temporary) Subclass 173: This is a 2-year temporary visa which is about half the cost of the permanent contributory parent. Applicants would generally look at applying for a permanent contributory parent visa within the 2-year validity of the visa.