Age requirements
The regulation 1.03 aged parent definition requires the persons to be old enough to be granted an age pension under the Social Security Act 1991. Refer to the Department of Social Services website for the current age requirements for eligibility for the age pension in Australia: Women born before 1949 have already qualified for the Age Pension. Women born in 1949 and beyond now qualify at age 65, the same as men.
The pension age for men and women born from 1 July 1952 will be gradually increased from 65 to 67 years as set out in the table below.
Period within which a person was born | Pension age | Date pension age changes |
From 1 July 1952 to 31 December 1953 | 65 years and 6 months | 1 July 2017 |
From 1 January 1954 to 30 June 1955 | 66 years | 1 July 2019 |
From 1 July 1955 to 31 December 1956 | 66 years and 6 months | 1 July 2021 |
From 1 January 1957 onwards | 67 years | 1 July 2023 |
Meet the balance-of-family test
You must meet the balance-of-family test. You meet the balance of family test if:
- at least half of your children and step-children are eligible children, or
- there are more eligible children living in Australia than in any other single country
Children counted in the balance of family test
You and your partner’s children, including stepchildren and adopted children, are counted in the balance of family test.
Children are not counted if they:
- are deceased
- have been removed from their parents’ exclusive legal custody by adoption, court order or operation of law
- are registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as refugees and live in a camp operated by the UNHCR
- live in a country where they suffer persecution or human rights abuse and can’t be reunited with their parents in another country
A stepchild is:
- your current partner’s child, or
- your former partner’s child who is under 18 years of age and in relation to whom you have guardianship, custody or a parenting order in force under the Family Law Act 1975. Stepchildren born from polygamous or concurrent relationships are not counted in the balance of family test
Meaning of ‘eligible child’ and ‘ineligible child’
A child is an eligible child if they are:
- an Australian citizen, or
- an Australian permanent resident usually resident in Australia, or
- an eligible New Zealand citizen usually resident in Australia
Any other child of the parent is an ineligible child. An ineligible child is taken to be resident overseas.
We don’t consider children who are in Australia on a temporary visa as usually resident in Australia.
If a child’s whereabouts are unknown, we consider they are resident in their last known usual country of residence.
Eligible New Zealand citizens
You are an eligible New Zealand citizen if you arrived in Australia on a New Zealand passport and were:
- in Australia on 26 February 2001 and were a special category visa (SCV) holder on that day, or
- in Australia for a period or periods totalling 12 months in the 2 years immediately before 26 February 2001, and returned to Australia after that day
- assessed as protected SCV holders before 26 February 2001
With this visa you can
- stay in Australia indefinitely
- work and study in Australia
- enrol in Australia’s public healthcare scheme, Medicare
- sponsor your family members to come to Australia
- apply for Australian citizenship, if eligible
Apply from
You must be in Australia, but not in immigration clearance, when you apply for this visa and when we decide on your application. Any family members who apply for the visa with you must also be in Australia, but not in immigration clearance, when you apply.
Assessment
The department assess applications for this visa in 2 stages.
- Check eligibility and either add the application to the queue or refuse it.
- Continue assessing the application when a place becomes available and make a decision.
Don’t arrange to stay permanently in Australia until we grant the visa. We will let you know in writing if we grant you the visa.
Differences between onshore and offshore parent visas
Onshore | Offshore |
The primary applicant must meet the aged requirement at time of application, See Booklet 3 – Age requirements | Do not have to be “aged parent” |
Must meet health and character requirements prior to queuing | Do not have to meet health and character prior to queuing s499 Direction 44 |
If the applicant is in Australia and they hold (or last held) a visa subject to a “No Further Stay” condition 8503, 8534 or 8535, they will not be able to apply for any parent visa, including an offshore parent visa, whilst they remain in Australia with that condition
If the applicant is in Australia and they are not “aged” and there is no bar on their applying, they may still be able to make a valid visa application for an offshore Parent (subclass 103) visa or an offshore Contributory Parent category visa whilst they remain in Australia. The application must however be sent to the Parent Visa Centre (PVC) in line with the legislative instrument under Schedule 1 item 1130(3)(b). In these circumstances, the applicant is not eligible for a Bridging visa and will need to obtain another type of visa to remain in Australia while their application is being processed