Some of what you need to know:
- Main applicant and spouse (if applicable) must have at least half of their children permanently resident in Australia or a greater number of children permanently resident in Australia than any other country at time of application. This is known as meeting the balance of family test.
- Main applicant must be sponsored by their Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand child or the spouse of their child.
- The sponsor must be able to show they have been living in Australia permanently for a minimum period of 24 months normally. (Call our office on 0845 644 5607 for exceptions to this requirement).
- An assurance of support is required and the assuror must be able to satisfy Australian Centrelink requirements with regard to level of income and ability to support the applicant, any family and the family of the assuror.
- Applicants will have to pay a significant financial lump sum 2nd VAC prior to visa grant.
- Applicants will have to pay a bond to the Australian Centrelink of A$10K for the main applicant and A$4K for each secondary applicant. This bond is held for 10 years.
- All applicants must satisfy health requirements.
- All applicants 16 years or older must satisfy character requirements.
- Visa gives permanent residence as at time of visa grant. This visa is valid for 5 years and allows multiple entry into and out of Australia during this period.
Note: Australian Immigration Department (DIAC) advice indicates that due to cap and queue requirements and limited annual allocation of visas, the waiting time for visa grant for this subclass of visa is currently 2-3 years. For further information on other Australian Famly class visas, click on the links below:
