Have you always wanted your mum or dad to stay with you longer when they visit you here in Australia? The Sponsored Parent (Temporary) subclass 870 visa might be the solution for you. This visa allows your sponsored parent to continuously stay here in Australia for up to five years.
This visa has a two-stage application process – the first stage is for sponsorship application and the second stage is the visa application. The sponsorship application was made available from the 17th of April 2019 and the applications for this visa will open on the 1st of July 2019.
To be eligible as a family sponsor, the following should be satisfied:
• You are currently not an approved parent sponsor.
• You are not an ineligible sponsor. This means that in your previous sponsorship/s, the parent/s you sponsored exited Australia before their 870 visa expired (assuming the sponsored parent did not apply for another visa while in Australia).
• You are at least 18 years old.
• You are an Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen who in the last 4 years from the date of application lodgement has been
living in Australia.
• You pass the income test. Your income is at least $83,454.80 in the most recent tax year from the date of application lodgement. This amount can be a combined family income of the sponsor (yourself), the sponsor’s spouse or de-facto partner (your husband, wife or partner) and the sponsor’s child (your child) who is also an Australian permanent resident, an Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen.
• You have no outstanding public health debt in Australia.
• You are required to provide national police checks from any country that you have lived for at least 12 months in the last 10 years and since you have turned 16 years of age.
The application for this sponsorship can be made online via an IMMI Account. Sponsorship fee is $420.
Once you are an approved family sponsor of a temporary sponsored parent visa, your parent will be able to apply for this visa. Here are the eligibility requirements for this visa. The parent you are sponsoring should:
• Be your biological parent, adoptive parent, step-parent or parent –in– law.
• Have complied with all the visa conditions of their previous Australian visa/s (if they have held any)
• Satisfy the health and character requirements
• Be a genuine temporary entrant
• Have a private health insurance during their stay in Australia
This visa can be applied online via IMMI account and should be made within 6 months of sponsorship approval for applicants outside Australia. If the parent you are sponsoring is already in Australia and was given a Permission to Apply, the visa application should be made within 60 days of sponsorship approval. The visa application fee for the Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa subclass 870 is $5,000 for a 3 year stay period and $10,000 for a 5 year stay period. This fee is broken down into two payments– the first payment is $1,000 at the time of visa lodgement and the remaining amount will be due before the visa is granted.
Knowing the high cost of application rates for an 870 visa, do you think this is a cost-effective way of getting your parents to stay with you longer in Australia? Compare the cost of a visitor visa (visa fee is $140) multiplied by the number of times you would have to apply for it (depending on how many months of stay will be granted) and the airfare cost, as some visitor visas have a 3-month maximum stay. This means that for a five-year visa, you might need to pay for return flights for a year five times. Do your math and decide if this is the correct visa that you need based on your objectives.