Contributory Parent Visas - Apply Sooner Rather Than Later

If you are contemplating applying for a Contributory Parent Visa it would be wise to get an application lodged with the Department of Immigration as soon as possible, as processing times for this category of visa are already significant and likely to become longer with the demise of other options.

Based on current planning levels, contributory parent applicants can expect to wait 12 to 24 months for a visa grant to be made.

The Minister for Immigration has the power to ‘cap’ the number of visas which can be granted each year in a particular visa class. All parent Visa subclasses (103, 143, 173, 804, 864 and 884) are subject to capping, meaning that once the number of visa places set by the Minister for a class has been reached in a particular year, no further visas in that class can be issued and any outstanding applications will ‘rollover’ into the next processing year. For the 2014/2015 migration year the minister has allocated a total of 7175 contributory parent Visas.

 

Gradually over time, if the number of applications continues to exceed the annual cap, there can be a build up of large numbers of applications waiting to be finalised with the result that visa grants can take several years to finalise. For this reason, it is most important to get an application into the system as quickly as possible.