Family Visas for Australia
The family migration stream facilitates sponsorship of family members who meet the requirements to apply for a family visa. The family visa category has been overhauled recently, mainly due to the growing number of parent visa applications, so the government has implemented a system where parent visa applications are placed in a queue. The current waiting time for (non-contributory) parent visa applicants is around 15 years. There is of course an alternative solution to avoid the 15 year waiting period. It’s called the “contributory parent visa” program. The processing time for this category is reduced to 12 – 24 months, however, along with the reduced processing time comes an additional visa application charge of around $40,000 per applicant. Visa options for family sponsorship:
- Child Visa (subclasses 101 & 102)
- Parent Visa (subclass 103)
- Aged Parent Visa (subclass 804)
- Contributory Parent Visa (subclasses 173 & 143)
- Contributory Aged Parent Visa (subclasses 884 & 864)
Information as at April 2013. Subject to change.