Family Migration
If you have a close family member or prospective spouse (fiancé or fiancée) in Australia who is willing to sponsor you, you may be eligible to migrate to Australia under one of the Family Migration categories.
Your sponsor must be an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen, and would normally be over 18 years of age.
You can migrate under the Family Migration stream if any of the following categories apply to your situation: Partner Migration, Child Migration, Parent Migration and Other Family Migration.
Please note that you may be required to undertake an assessment of your skills for some of these categories (skilled stream) and that some additional factors may apply.
Partner Migration
Partner migration applies to you if you are the spouse, the prospective spouse or interdependent partner of an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.
There are three partner migration categories:
- Spouse - if you are married or are in a de facto relationship with your sponsor.
- Prospective spouse / fiancé(e) if you are outside Australia, are engaged to your sponsor and plan to marry.
- Interdependency - if you are over 18 years old and are in an interdependent relationship with your sponsor. Interdependent relationships include, but are not restricted to, same sex couples.
Child Migration
The Child Migration stream is applicable for the migration of a dependent child, orphan relative or adopted child of an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.
The following are child migration categories:
Child - for a natural child, adopted child, or stepchild of their sponsor. If a child has been adopted after the sponsor became a permanent resident, application should be made under the Adopted Child category. A stepchild can only be granted this visa if the natural or adopted parent is not longer a spouse of the step parent, and the step parent has been granted legal responsibility for the child by a court
Orphan relative - for a child under 18 years old who has no parent to care for them
Adopted child - for a child under 18 years of age who has been adopted or is in the process of being adopted by their sponsor. The adoption must be sponsored by a State or Territory welfare authority, unless the parent has been resident overseas for a period of at least 12 months at the time of the application, in which case, they must be able to demonstrate that their residence overseas was not a deliberate act to bypass the requirements concerning entry of adopted children
Dependent Child (temporary) - for a natural child, adopted child or stepchild of a holder of a provisional Partner visa
Parent Migration
The Parent Migration stream applies to you if you are a parent of an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen who is willing to sponsor you
To qualify for migration in this category, you must have at least half of your children living in Australia, or more children residing in Australia than any other country
Other Family
You can apply for residency under this migration stream if you are an aged dependent relative, a remaining relative outside Australia, or carer of an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen
A relative means a child, parent, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew (or step relative of the same degree)
There are three categories in this class of visa:
- Aged dependent relative - if you are a single, widowed or divorced aged person who is dependent on a relative in Australia
- Remaining relative - if you are a brother, sister or child (or step relative to the same degree) of a person in Australia, who would be on your own overseas if you did not migrate to Australia
- Carer - if you are willing and able to provide continual assistance to a relative who is an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen, who has a medical condition which is causing intellectual, physical or sensory impairment of their ability to attend to the practical aspects of daily life
Factors affecting Family Stream applications
There are three factors which apply to Family Stream applications:
Assurance of Support
Certain categories of Family Stream applicants are subjected to an Assurance of Support (AoS) before their arrival in Australia, which includes a payment of a bond for applicants over 18 years
Other applicants who are assessed to be at risk of becoming a possible charge on Australia's welfare system may also be subjected to an AoS
An AoS is a two-year legal commitment by a person to reimburse the Commonwealth of Australia any recoverable social security payments made to the party who is covered by the AoS. It is also an agreement to provide financial support to the assured party
The assurer need not be the same person as the sponsor, and should be:
- an adult Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen
- a usual resident in Australia
- financially capable of supporting the sponsored persons including covering necessary social security payments if such payments were made to the persons under the assurance
Capping of Visas
A number of visa classes have a cap i.e. a limit for the maximum number of visas that may be granted in that class per year. Once this limit has been reached, no further visas in that class can be granted within that year.
Priority Processing
In general, applications within the dependent children, fiancé(e), spouses and interdependent partner categories are given a high priority. Parent and other family stream applications have a low priority
For more information on family migration, please do not hesitate contact us.
