4.4 Parent Visas (Contributory vs Non-Contributory) and Balance of Family Test

4.4 Parent Visas and the Balance of Family Test

Parent advice is a comparison of legal eligibility, location, age, queue risk, cost, status while waiting, and temporary alternatives. Never present an onshore queue as a guaranteed lifelong stay strategy or quote a visa charge or queue estimate without a source date.

Pathway comparison

An aged parent must have reached the age at which the person would qualify by age for the Australian Age Pension. That age is currently 67. Check the definition, date of birth, location rules, current visa conditions, and Schedule 1 item before filing.

Parent classes are subject to capping and queueing under the Migration Act. As at 31 May 2026, Home Affairs estimated 15 years for a newly lodged Contributory Parent application and 33 years for a newly lodged Parent or Aged Parent application. The Department says it cannot give an exact individual timeframe. Record the source date and explain that program places, refusals, withdrawals, priorities, and future policy can change the estimate.

Balance of Family

Regulation 1.05 is satisfied if either:

1. at least half of the parent’s relevant children are eligible children; or
2. the number of eligible children is greater than the number of the parent’s children living in any one overseas country.

An eligible child is an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident usually resident in Australia, or an eligible New Zealand citizen usually resident in Australia. The regulation contains detailed rules about which children and step-children enter the calculation, usual residence, and excluded children. Build the family tree from primary records and apply the current text rather than relying on the client’s count or an informal “most children are here” test.

Example: a parent has five counted children—two eligible children in Australia and one child in each of three overseas countries. Two of five is less than half, but two is greater than one in every single overseas country, so the second limb is met. If four counted children are split one in Australia and one in each of three countries, neither limb is met: one of four is below half and one is not greater than one.

Assurance of Support

An Assurance of Support (AoS) is administered by Services Australia and can require the assurer to repay specified recoverable income-support payments. For current parent categories:

• Contributory Parent and Contributory Aged Parent assurances run for 10 years.
• Other Parent and Aged Parent assurances run for four years.
• For an individual assurer, the current bank guarantee is $10,000 for one adult or $14,000 for two adults for a ten-year AoS, and $5,000 for one adult or $7,000 for two adults for a two- or four-year AoS.

The period starts on the later of the assuree’s arrival or visa grant. The assurer must also meet the current income test. Check Services Australia’s current rules for the actual number of assurees and whether an individual or organisation provides the assurance; do not describe every AoS as ten years or every secondary adult as a separate flat bond without applying the table.

Onshore aged-parent status

Home Affairs says a valid onshore subclass 804 application is likely to result in a bridging visa. That is not the same as automatic grant, immediate effect, unrestricted work, travel, or Medicare. Obtain the current substantive visa, conditions including any further-stay condition, application validity evidence, bridging grant, commencement event, and VEVO record. A BVA does not itself authorise return after departure. Medicare eligibility can depend on separate health-law rules, reciprocal arrangements, and the person’s status. A refusal, withdrawal, travel event, or other change can affect lawful stay. Give advice from the actual grants rather than promising residence “for life” while the queue operates.

Subclass 870

Subclass 870 requires an approved Parent Sponsor before the visa application. The application is ordinarily lodged outside Australia within six months of sponsorship approval; permission to apply in Australia is limited and shortens the application period. The visa allows up to three or five years per grant and a maximum ten years cumulatively. It has no Balance of Family test and no AoS, but the parent must meet all other criteria, maintain adequate health-insurance arrangements, and cannot work.

It does not lead to permanent residence, and a person who has applied for or holds it cannot apply for a permanent or temporary Parent visa in that period. A repeat subclass 870 application is ordinarily made outside Australia, and grant generally requires at least 90 consecutive days outside Australia after the relevant departure unless the specific permission framework applies. Confirm sponsor obligations, household limits, health debts, application timing, and all grant conditions.

Advice file

Give the client a dated comparison showing eligibility, BoF arithmetic, application and decision locations, current charges, AoS, estimated queue, bridging uncertainty, health cover, work and travel, and failure consequences. Separate facts verified from documents from assumptions, and diarise changes to children’s residence, sponsor circumstances, visa status, and official queue information.