Eligibility Quiz
Requirements
Child Applicant Eligibility
You qualify to apply for this visa if you are under 18 years old and meet all of the following:
Orphaned Status
You must have no parent capable of caring for you. This includes situations where:
- Both parents are deceased
- Both parents are permanently incapable of caring for you due to physical or mental incapacity
- Both parents cannot be found despite reasonable efforts to locate them
The Department interprets this strictly: if your parents are capable of caring for you but simply unwilling to do so, you do not qualify. The visa will not be granted.
Marital Status
You must be single — not married, engaged, or in a de facto relationship.
Location in Australia
You must be in Australia (but not in immigration clearance) when the application is made and when the Department makes its decision. If you leave Australia during processing, the visa cannot be granted. This requirement has no exceptions.
Valid Visa Status
You must hold a substantive visa at the time of application, or have applied for an Orphan Relative visa within 12 months of your previous substantive visa ending. Your current or previous visa cannot be a Subclass 771 Transit visa, and you cannot hold a visa with a "no further stay" condition.
Parental Consent
You must have written consent from everyone legally able to decide where you live, unless:
- The laws of your home country allow you to leave without parental consent, OR
- An Australian court order permits you to migrate
Health and Character
You must meet the health requirement (assessed through medical examination). If you are 16 years or older, you must also meet the character requirement, which includes providing police certificates from every country where you have spent 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning 16.
You cannot have had a visa cancelled or a previous visa application refused (though reapplication may be possible in some circumstances).
Government Debt
You must have paid back any debt owed to the Australian Government or have a formal arrangement in place to repay it.
Best Interests of the Child
The Department may refuse the visa if it determines that granting it would not be in your best interests. This is a discretionary assessment based on your overall circumstances.
Sponsor Requirements
Your sponsor (the relative in Australia) must meet all of these criteria:
Eligible Relationship
Your sponsor must be one of the following:
- Sibling or step-sibling
- Grandparent or step-grandparent
- Aunt, uncle, step-aunt, or step-uncle
Status in Australia
Your sponsor must be an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen and must be settled in Australia (generally meaning they have lived in Australia for at least 2 years).
Child Protection Clearance
Your sponsor and their spouse or de facto partner must not have:
- A pending registrable offence charge (sponsorship will be refused)
- A registrable offence conviction (sponsorship can only be approved in very limited circumstances)
Support Commitment
Your sponsor must agree to provide financial and housing support for you for the first 2 years in Australia (or 2 years following the grant of the visa if you are applying in Australia).
Conditions & Warnings
Child must be physically present in Australia when the application is made and when the Department makes a decision — if the child leaves Australia during processing, the visa cannot be granted.
Processing times vary widely: while 75% of applications are processed within 15 months, some cases take 6–9 years due to low quotas and high demand.
Orphaned status must be comprehensively proven — parents must be deceased, permanently incapable of caring, or unable to be found. Parents being unwilling to care is not sufficient grounds.
If the sponsor or their spouse/de facto partner have a pending registrable offence charge, the sponsorship will be refused; convictions can only be approved in very limited circumstances.
Children aged 16 or older must meet character requirements and provide police certificates from every country where they spent 12+ months in the last 10 years.
Written consent from any living parent is required, or proof that home country law allows the child to leave, or an Australian court order permitting migration.
Initial application must be submitted by post or courier only — there is no online lodgement option, though applications can be imported into ImmiAccount after acknowledgement (as of July 2025).
Each sibling must submit a separate application and pay the full application fee; they are assessed individually.
Qualifications
Fees
Main applicant fee. Dependent children incur additional charges; use Visa Pricing Estimator for exact total. Health checks, police certificates, and biometrics may incur additional costs.