Hoping to Bring Your Parents to Australia? Read This About the Long Parent Visa Queue

News · 2026-08-31 · 5 min read

Many workers who build a life in Australia start to dream of one thing: bringing their parents over to live with them for good. Before you spend any money on that plan, there is one number you should think about carefully: 33 years. That is roughly the current wait for the non-contributory Aged Parent visa. The quicker contributory option costs close to $50,000 per applicant, and even that now takes around 15 years.

For many families, this wait is longer than the reason they wanted their parents here in the first place. This guide explains what is happening, what may change, and what you can do now.

The hard numbers behind the wait

This is not just a planning risk on paper. It is already happening to real families. Senate estimates data covering the 21 months to 31 March this year shows that more than 1,500 parent visa applicants died while they were still in the queue. These were people who paid tens of thousands of dollars, sent in every document they were asked for, and still ran out of time.

A 2023 government-commissioned review of the migration system used strong words about this. It said that offering people a visa that will probably never arrive in their lifetime is cruel and unnecessary.

What keeps the line so long

The slow queue is not an accident. It has been built into the system for years. Two main problems drive it.

Only a small number of places each year

The government sets a cap on how many parent visas it grants each year. That cap has actually become smaller. It fell from 8,500 places to 7,060 for this financial year. At the same time, the backlog has grown to more than 157,000 people.

Some applicants wait from inside Australia

Some parents enter Australia on a visitor visa and then lodge a parent visa application while they are already in the country. They can stay on bridging visas for as long as their case takes. They are often prioritised ahead of people who applied the correct way from offshore. Former deputy immigration secretary Abul Rizvi has called this a loophole that regulators now want to close. It is one reason offshore applicants can feel they keep moving further back in the line.

Changes that could be coming soon

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been expected to announce a wider overhaul of migration, and family visa settings are reportedly part of it. One proposal would stop spouses, children and parents of Australian citizens from lodging visa applications while they are in the country as tourists. This targets the onshore workaround directly.

This change could help in some ways and hurt in others:

Possible benefit: families who followed the rules and applied from offshore may see less queue-jumping.
Possible downside: it is not yet clear whether new arrivals can use the onshore pathway at all in future. That would remove one of the few ways families can keep parents in Australia while a permanent visa is pending.

Nothing is final yet. But if you rely on the route from visitor visa to onshore application, or plan to, watch the news closely over the coming months.

Why many working families need their parents close

For a lot of applicants, a parent visa is not just about feelings. It is a practical need. Skilled migrants often work long and demanding hours. Think of a Sydney-based surgical trainee: workers like this often rely on a parent to help with childcare and the household while they build a career here.

When that help is only possible in six-month blocks on a temporary visa, and parents must leave Australia for long periods in between, it causes real stress. It affects careers, money, and the health and stability of ageing parents.

Practical steps if your parents are already waiting

If your parents have already applied, do not just sit and wait. These actions are worth taking now:

Check which stream they are in. Contributory and non-contributory parent visas have very different costs and waiting times. Look again at whether you chose the right one for your situation.
Keep every temporary visa visit fully compliant. If your parents travel between Australia and their home country on visitor visas while the permanent application is pending, make sure each re-entry follows the rules. A breach can put the main application at risk.
Follow ministerial directions on processing priority. These directions decide which applications are processed first. They can change the real order of the queue a lot, no matter when someone lodged.
Ask for a realistic timeline, not a hopeful one. Processing estimates change. If your family plans depend on the visa arriving by a certain time, test that idea against current data, not an estimate you were given years ago.

If your family comes from Indonesia, keep your papers organised as well. When the visa rules ask for it, get Indonesian-language documents translated into English. If a police certificate is requested, the SKCK from the Indonesian National Police is the document to prepare. Having papers ready can save stress later.

A friendly final word for families

The parent visa system is under real pressure, and an overhaul will probably change the rules for both new and current applicants. For now, families already in the queue must deal with a system that even government-commissioned reviewers have called unsustainable. If you are thinking about starting this process, or you are partway through and unsure how a policy change could affect you, get advice that fits your own situation before your next step. Choosing the wrong stream or the wrong timing does not only cost money. It can cost years that your parents may not have.

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