Everything You Need to Know About the Child Visa in Australia

If you’re interested in bringing your child overseas to Australia, you can sponsor them for an Australian Child Visa. This visa allows you to bring your child to Australia where they can stay temporarily/permanently depending on the visa you applied for. Obtaining a Child Visa is no easy task and you need to know the requirements in order to lodge an application successfully. In this guide, we’ll be going over everything you need to know about an Australian Child Visa and how your child can become eligible for it.

Summary of Child Visa

Children who are born in Australia are automatically granted Australian citizenship, provided that at least one of their parents is an Australian citizen or permanent resident at their time of birth. However, this does not apply to children who are born outside of Australia and their parents are not Australian citizens, which makes them ineligible for citizenship by descent. Therefore, in order to enter Australia and remain in the country with their parents, they need to apply for a migration (i.e. permanent resident) visa.

Sponsorship

The applicant should be the child or stepchild of their sponsor who’s an Australian citizen, an eligible New Zealand citizen, or Australian permanent visa holder.

Stepchildren

In order for a stepchild to be included in the Child Visa category, they must be under 18 years of age. If the sponsoring step-parent is no longer be the partner of the stepchild’s parent they must have llegal responsibility for taking care of the stepchild.

Adopted children

For adopted children applying outside of Australia, they must be adopted prior to their parent becoming an Australian citizen, an eligible New Zealand citizen, or Australian permanent visa holder. The child will fall into the Adoption visa category if the child was adopted after their parent became an Australian citizen, an eligible New Zealand citizen, or Australian permanent visa holder.

Dependency

It is required that the child is fully dependent on their sponsor. In most cases, the age of under 18 is considered to be dependent. If the child has turned 18, they can be considered dependent on their sponsor under the following circumstances:

• They rely on their sponsor for financial support
• They rely on their sponsor to meet their basic needs (i.e. food, shelter, and clothing) for more than 12 months
• They rely on their sponsor to support their needs due to a disability that prevents them from working.

Note that disability means the child has partial or complete loss of their bodily or mental functions, thus deeming them unfit to work.

Age

At the time of the visa application, the child must be under 23 years of age. If the child has turned 18, they must be financially dependent on their sponsor and is studying full-time. The criteria for a full-time student is as follows:

• The child must be enrolled in a full-time postsecondary course that leads to a vocational, professional, or trade qualification.
• The child has been enrolled in their chosen course since turning 18 years old, or have started studying within six months after completing their secondary education.
• The child should be committed to participating in all school-related activities and is not working part-time or full-time.

Do note that the exception to the full-time student requirement is when the child has a disability that prevents them from working.

Relationship

The child must be single and is not married, engaged to be married, or in a de-facto relationship. If the child has turned 18 years old, they must not only be single, but they must also never have had a de-facto partner nor had been married.