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The parent visa is a permanent residency visa for those who have children living in Australia who are Australian citizens, Australian Permanent Residents or Eligible New Zealand Citizens. There are several different types of parent visa, but the main qualification criteria for all of them is that you have at least half your children living in Australia permanently. For example if you have 3 children 2 living in Australia and 1 living in the UK then you are likely to qualify for a parent visa. If you have 5 children and 2 of them live in Australia and 1 lives in the UK, 1 in Canada and 1 in South Africa, then you would not qualify as half of your children do not live in Australia. Also bear in mind that they all have to be able to live there permanently, so if you have 3 children and one is an Australian Permanent Resident, one is on a 457 employment sponsored temporary visa and one is in the Uk, then you would not qualify as only 1 child is allowed to stay in Australia permanently. The sponsor of the parent (which needs to be one of your children living in Australia) needs to be classed as "settled" in the eyes of the department of immigration, this is usually classed as being resident in Australia for 2 years, but it is possible to reduce this time and I would recommend contacting us if this is the case. As previously mentioned there are various different types of parent visa and the following is a summary of them: Standard Parent Visa: This is the main type of parent visa and can only be granted when the applicant(s) are outside of Australia. Due to their popularity there is a very long waiting list of currently about 18 years to obtain this visa. Standard Aged Parent Visa: This is the same type of visa as the standard parent visa, but you must be of retirement age to be able to apply. For men this is 65 and for women that is currently moving to up 65, but depending on your date of birth you may be able to before you reach 65. The advantage of this visa is that this visa can be granted in Australlia, so should you decide that you want to apply while you are in Australia you can actually stay in Australia while you wait for your visa to be processed, which again could currently be about 18 years. Just note that when the visa you entered Australia on expires you will automatically be given a Bridging Visa A (providing you have submitted your parent visa before your old visa expired) and this visa will allow you to stay in Australia, but you will not be able to travel outside Australia unless you have been special permission by the department of immigration or be able to work or receive any benefits. As you can see the waiting list for the parent visa is very long, but you are able to effectively jump the queue through another type of visa called a Contributory Parent Visa of which there are 4 types. The downside is that in order to be able to apply for this visa the cost of the visa rises considerably. The contributory visa allows you to either pay for everything up front and be awarded a permanent residency visa as soon as the visa is granted, or alternatively there is a 2 stage contributory parent visa which allows you to pay some of the cost up front and the remainder in the 2 years after you have been granted your visa. Please note that until you pay the final payment you will not receive permanent residency status in Australia, but you will be classed as a temporary resident. For each of these types of contribitory parent visa there are 2 options, a standard option and an age option. The age option works in the same way as the Standard Age Parent visa, except that obviously you will not have as long to wait for your application to be processed. For current parent visa costs click here. © Grist International 2009 - Click Here for Terms and Condition of Website Usage
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