The contents of this article are correct as at 30 November 2010.
Priorities for processing family migration applications have recently been established.
Within the family migration stream, higher priority is given to immediate family members. This includes dependent children (including children for adoption), orphan relatives, partners and fiancés.
Lower priority is given to all other applicants, including carers, remaining relatives, parents and aged dependent relatives.
Non-Parent Family Migration
Apart from the parent visa category, applicants within each category will be considered in order of date of lodgement.
However, it is possible for an application (apart from parent visa applications) to be prioritised within each category, but only where there are compassionate or compelling circumstances.
For this to occur, the DIAC processing centre must be advised of the compassionate or compelling circumstances and evidence must be provided to support such claims. There is no guarantee that expedition requests will be successful.
Parent Migration
For parent migration, contributory parent visa applications will be prioritised over other applications.
Parent and contributory parent visa applications cannot be prioritised or expedited due to compassionate or compelling circumstances.
This is due to the limited number of visas in this category that can be granted each year for this category and the existing queues of applicants.
The DIAC website provides the following information about parent visa processing in the 2010–11 Migration Program year:
Contributory Parent category:
- 7500 places allocated
- This includes approximately 7000 places for Contributory Parent visas (subclass 173 or subclass 143) and approximately 500 places for Contributory Aged Parent visas (subclass 884 or subclass 864)
- Based on current planning levels new contributory parent category visa applicants can expect to wait up to two years before visa grant consideration.
(Non-contributory) Parent category:
- 1000 places allocated
- This includes approximately 700 places for Parent (subclass 103) visas and approximately 300 places for Aged Parent (subclass 804) visas
- Based on current planning levels, parent category visa applicants can expect an approximate 20 year wait before visa grant consideration after being allocated a queue date
The family migration processing arrangements are summarized below:
| Priority Categories | Non-Priority Categories | ||||
| Dependent children | Higher priority if compassionate or compelling circumstances | Otherwise processed in order of lodgement | Carer | Higher priority if compassionate or compelling circumstances | Otherwise processed in order of lodgement
|
| Orphan relatives | Remaining relative applications | ||||
| Partners & Fiances | Aged dependent relatives | ||||
| Parents | Higher priority if contributory parent application | Otherwise processed in order of lodgement | |||
If you have any questions concerning this article, please click this link to contact Visa Lawyers Australia .