Parent Visas in Australia: Queue Release Dates and Processing Times Amidst COVID-19 Disruptions

Immigration News

Australia is a popular destination for parents who wish to reunite with their children and grandchildren who live there.

However, the Department of Home Affairs has been dealing with a backlog of Parent visa applications for quite some time now,

and COVID-19 has only made things worse. In an effort to keep the public informed, the Department has released information

on queue release dates and processing times for these visas.

The Department of Home Affairs has made it clear that it continues to process Parent visa applications, even though disruptions caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic are being taken into account.

The Department has set queue release dates for Contributory Parent visa applications based on the date of application lodgement.

Any contributory parent application that was lodged before 1 June 2018 has a queue date of the application lodgement date. Additionally, applications that were lodged on

or after 1 June 2018 are assessed and given a queue date when it meets the initial visa criteria.

As of 31 December 2022, the Department has released the following for final processing:

Contributory Parent visa applications with a queue date up to March 2017
Parent visa applications with a queue date up to August 2011
Aged Parent visa applications with a queue date up to December 2012

It's important to note that the Department is required to process Parent and Contributory Parent applications in date order and within annual limits.

When the number of visas in the current visa program has been reached, any other applications that have been queued and released for final processing but not finalised will be finalised for a place in the subsequent year.

The processing times for Contributory Parent, Parent, Contributory Aged Parent and Aged Parent visa applications can vary for various reason recorded on the Departments website an the Department does not provide processing times for these visas, as they are subject to capping and queueing.

It is estimate that new Contributory Parent visa applications lodged that meet the criteria to be queued are likely to take at least 12 years to be released for final processing.

New Parent and Aged Parent visa applications lodged that meet the criteria to be queued are likely to take at least 29 years for final processing.

While the processing times may be long, it's important to note that the Department is committed to processing these applications

in date order and within annual limits to ensure fairness and transparency for all applicants.

If you are looking for an option that can get your parents to Australia quicker with a shorter processing time, you may want to consider applying for temporary parent visas that have a quicker processing time.

For further information about temporary parent visas please don’t hesitate to reach out and speak with NB Migration Law team.