Types of Australian Visas
Visas and passports are a means of identifying and regulating people within a country. Immigration is part of the greater workings of the State system, upon which the global economy, and global politics is dependent. States have a responsibility to ensure they know who is leaving and entering their borders. The questions that must be asked are: who is seeking to enter Australia? Why are they coming here? How long will they stay? How will they support themselves? What will they do here? Visas address these questions.
There are at least 350 different Australian visas that non-citizens can apply. The Community Legal Centre cannot describe each visa separately, rather we try to explore the most popular visa types. We encourage the reader to refer the Home Affairs website to get a thorough understanding on the different visa options. To explore your visa options, use the immigration website visa finder.
Permanent Visas – Family and Skilled
Family Migration The Department administers family migration visas. Family migration visas assist parents, spouses (or prospective spouse), and child/ren (natural, adopted or orphan relative child) to emigrate and join family already in Australia. These visas require a sponsor. The sponsor must ...
Permanent Visas – Humanitarian
The Refugee Convention defines who is a refugee, their rights, and the obligations of states who have signed the Convention. Australia is a party to the Refugee Convention and has immigration law to discharge the obligations under that convention. As with other classes of visa, there are proce...
Temporary Visas – Student, Working Holiday and Medical Trearment
Student Visas Eligibility for a student visa depends on the applicant’s passport country and the courses of study. The Department has introduced seven streams within the subclass 500 student visa. Independent ELICOS sector Schools sector Vocational education and training (VET) sector...
Temporary Visas -Visitor and Transit
Visitor Visas There are several classes of visitor visa available for people seeking to enter Australia for tourism or family/friend visiting purposes. Broadly speaking, tourist visas allow visitors to come to Australia to visit friends or family, or to travel and visit Australia. The four visa ...
Other Visas
Contributory Aged Parent Visa If you are the parent of an eligible child (settled Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen), who is old enough to receive the Australian age pension, you may be eligible for this visa. Child Visa To qualify for a child visa, the per...
Page last updated 22/06/2020