From now on, all parent visa applications must be submitted directly to the Perth Visa Centre.
Whilst this may sound straight forward, immigration lawyer and migration agent Kris Ahn from says this does make things slightly more complicated.
“Because it’s gone to Perth, we have to make sure that it’s posted with an express or with a tracking number so that we know whether the department has received the documents or not, because it could mean that if the department does not receive it on time, and we won’t know whether it’s been lost or not. So, that’s really important to ensure that the department has received this application.”
Application fees also increase by roughly two per cent.
Parents applying for the subclass 173 temporary contributory parent visa pay $2,595 instead of $2,540.
Subclass 143 permanent contributory parent visa, subclass 884 temporary aged parent contributory visa and subclass 864 permanent aged parent contributory visa applicants now pay $3,855 – that’s an extra $85 dollars.
Kris Ahn says parents are waiting longer to get their visas even if they opt for the more expensive contributory visa pathway.
“We’ve been experiencing constant increases in processing times. Now, just last year, when we had a look at the department’s estimated processing time, it used to state somewhere about 3 years, now it’s 4.5 years - this is for the contributory parent visa, and longer it processes, the parents obviously would age, and as the parents age their health may deteriorate which may affect their parent visa outcome.”
Ahn’s migration agency has been getting a spike in enquiries about parent visas.
His clients have gotten over the panic from the government’s now repealed plan to double the earning threshold of parent visa sponsors.
Many are hurrying to get their applications in before the policy changes again.
“The current government is putting red tapes on many different visas. The major changes have been regarding work visas, also, recently, the general skilled migration. The minimum points from 60 have increased to 65. Those changes tend to suggest that Immigration is going to make Australian migration a bit harder.”
Natalya Khodan, a senior migration agent at is also noticing more interests in parent visa applications.
She is expecting to see further changes to the parent visa category.
“There’s lots of uncertainty with potential Assurance of Support, whether it will increase or not. There is speculation that it will also increase next year, not just the salary of Australian citizens and permanent residents but also the amount of bonds that applicants will have to pay will go up as well.”
Waiting in a 30 to 50-year-long-queue isn’t an option for older parents who simply can't afford the time.
With higher costs involved in the much faster contributory visa pathway, Khodan’s clients are starting to bring in only one parent instead of both to Australia for good.
“In some cases, we see split between parents. So, let’s say the mother will migrate, and dad will stay back to minimise the cost for the family and vice versa. So, that's another way of people dealing with the current fees. One would get the visa and the other would just travel here on a visitor visa.”
To speed things up, younger parents may have previously applied for skilled migration under the Employer Nomination Scheme 186 visa or the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme 187 visa, but that’s not an option anymore with the age limit now lowered to 45 instead of 50.
Many are entering Australia on visitor visas, but parents living in unstable parts of the world face a harder time getting permission to visit their families.
Iran-born permanent resident Maryam wasn’t initially planning to bring her parents to Australia permanently.
But since their tourist visa application was rejected twice in just two years, Maryam had to apply for the contributory parent visa for her mother.
“It became a concern for us that if we are a permanent resident of a country, of course you have your family and you want your parents to commute to your country, and if the government refuse that, it’s going to make my life very hard, and that was the only option that's really left for us after getting refused by those tourist visa.”
In the 2017-18 migration program the Australian government has allocated 1,500 non-contributory and 7,715 contributory parent visas.
Ahn recommends that applicants provide as much information as possible to reduce their waiting time.
“So the applications that has the full supporting evidences tend to be processed much quicker than those do not because if they don't have the necessary information and supporting evidences, the department of immigration, they tend to contact the applicants request for more information and that definitely slows the whole process down.”
