Australia's New Temporary Parent Visa (subclass 870)

On 1 March 2019, the Department of Home Affairs announced the commencement of the new Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa (subclass 870), a new sub-class under the temporary parent visa stream. As you may already be familiar with other temporary visas such as ETA and subclass 600 visa, this new parent visa will only allow successful applicants to stay with their child(ren) in Australia temporarily and not lead to permanent residency.  

Sponsorship  

If you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident, you are eligible to be a sponsor and will not be required to meet the Balance of Family test for this visa. This means that, unlike other family-stream permanent residence visas, your parents will not need to show that at least half of their children and grandchildren are either Australian citizens or permanent residents. 

However, sponsors must still show that  

• they have been usual residents in Australia for at least 4 years,  
• their household income is over the threshold with supporting evidence and 
• provide police checks.  
• Applications to be an approved sponsor opened on 17 April 2019 and available via Immi Account for a fee of $420.  

Visa 

Parents must apply for the visa within 6 months of the date their children’s sponsorship has been approved. Applications opened on 1 July 2019 and the fee is $5,000 for a three-year visa and $10,000 for a five-year visa.  

When a parent’s first 870 visa expires, the parent will initially have to leave Australia and not be allowed to enter for a period of 90 days. However, the parent will be eligible to re-apply for the same visa to stay up to a maximum of ten years without any additional restrictions.  

Successful applicants will not have work rights on this visa and must provide evidence of access to funds and bear the burden of health insurance at their own cost. The number of grants will be limited to just 15,000 per year.  

The benefit of this new visa is that it does not require applicants to meet the Balance of Family Test and is relatively cheaper than other visas. The new subclass 870 visa is essentially a more affordable option for parents who visit Australia in order to help the delivery or raising of their grandchildren without having to apply for and stay on a short temporary travel visa.