Australian Child Visa Subclass 101 is a type of visa that allows a child who is outside Australia to move to the country to live with their parent or parents. This visa is typically for dependent children of an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen.

Overview

Child Migration (Subclass 101) is a permanent visa. So, it grants the holder the privilege of staying in Australia for an indefinite period of time as a law-abiding permanent resident. The visa also entitles the child to travel into and out of Australia with no limitations for up to 5 years. After 5 years the visa holder gets the opportunity to apply for the Australian Citizenship.

Who May Apply

Australian Child Visa requires a sponsor to apply for the relocation of the child to the Australian Government. In such cases, the Department of Home Affairs clearly sets the criteria that determine who technically is a qualified sponsor as well as the eligibility of the dependent child. The standards are also aimed at inspecting whether a child can rightfully be considered dependent on their parents (sponsors).

Eligibility of a Child

Two crucial factors dictate whether an individual can be rightfully considered a dependent child. The first is an age criterion, the second is dependency on the parent (sponsor).

To satisfy the age criteria, the child in question must classify into one of the following categories:

• The Child is under 18 years of age
• The Child is above 18 years of age but below 25 years of age
• The Child is over 18 and has a disability

The dependency criteria is different for each age criteria. The child above 18 years of age and below 25.

• Must be a full-time student
• Must not work full-time and not earn a remuneration (salary).
• Does not have and never had in the past a spouse or de facto partner
• Financially reliant on their parents or sponsor.

A child with disability and aged above 18 is not required to be a full-time student and is eligible for Subclass 101 Visa.

Other Requirements

• A child aged 16 or older must provide verifiable character certification.
• Medical clearances (health certifications)
• Police Clearance and No Crime Records
• No academic gap more than 6 months between finishing school after turning 18 and enrolling for higher studies as a full-time student.

It is recommended to seek advice and service from a Registered Migration Agent (RMA) regarding proper documentation of a child’s medical clearance reports, academic and identity documents, proof of dependency and character certificate etc in order to improve the credibility of the lodged application and reduce any error.

Once the child satisfies all the primary eligibility criteria (age and dependency), only then should a sponsor lodge an application to the Australian Government on behalf of the child to grant the child a Subclass 101 Visa. Thus, it is crucial to understand who may qualify as a rightful sponsor for the child.

Eligibility of the Sponsor

The legitimacy of a sponsor under the Australian Child Visa depends on the nature of his/her relationship to the child. Conventionally, the biological parent is considered most eligible to be a sponsor, however, based on the sponsor’s justification of their ability to provide financial support and housing to the child, a step-parent may also qualify as an eligible sponsor.

A more well-defined sponsor eligibility criteria dictates:

• The sponsor is a biological parent of the child and financially capable to provide care.
• The sponsor had adopted the child before the sponsor earned Australian Permanent Residency.
• The sponsor is not the biological parent but is married to the biological parent or is a de facto partner.

How To Apply

It is advisable to contact a Registered Migration Agent (RMA) who can provide advice and lodge an application to the Department of Home Affairs on your behalf maintaining all the legal procedures. These complex visa lodging steps that an RMA can assist you with are:

• Verification of eligibility of child and sponsor
• Validate your application form and prevent information errors filling the form
• Proper documentation and proof of health exams, full-time studentship and identity documents, character certificate, police clearance etc.
• Proof of disability of child and other dependency factors
• Proper documentation of sponsor details, to verify sponsor’s relationship with child
• Documentation of sponsor’s financial capacity, related abilities to care for the child.
• Verification of sponsor’s intent for the best interest of the child.
• Validating the sponsor’s de facto relationship with the biological parent

Overall Cost

AUD 2,710 is the visa application fee for the Primary applicant. Associated charges owing to medical clearings, police certification, character certificate and biometrics might apply variably based on the current residence of the child.

Processing Time

The Visa has a comparatively speedy processing time. Within 9 months 50% of the applications are processed. A detailed schedule is given here:

Providing credible documents for verification and proper justification of the sponsor’s financial capacity to provide support to the child is likely to reduce process delay.

After the Approval of Australian Child Visa

The holder of the Australian Child Visa (Subclass 101) can enjoy the following benefits by the Australian government:

• Live in Australia as a permanent resident with no time limitations.
  Unrestricted travel in and out of Australia.
• Avail the same Australian healthcare facilities that are provided to citizens
• Access educational and work opportunities.
• Apply for Australian citizenship after 5 years.
• The child can sponsor more relatives at a later stage after gaining Australian citizenship.

The proper lodgement of a Subclass 101 Visa is subject to providing valid documents and following the necessary steps as per guidelines of the Department of Home Affair (DHA) Australia. To get expert advice, send us your query right now.