• stay in Australia indefinitely
• work and study in Australia
• enrol in Australia’s public healthcare scheme, Medicare.
• sponsor your relatives to come to Australia
• if eligible, apply for Australian citizenship

Newly arrived residents may have to wait before they can access certain Australian Government payments and benefits.

Travel to and from Australia for 5 years

You can travel to and from Australia as many times as you want for 5 years from the date we grant this visa until the travel validity expires.

If you want to travel after the initial 5-year travel validity:

• you will need to apply for and be granted a Resident Return (RRV) so that you can re-enter Australia as a permanent resident
• you might also want to consider Australian citizenship. If you become an Australian citizen, you don’t require a visa to enter Australia. You will need to apply for an Australian passport and use it to leave and re-enter Australia. See more about eligibility requirements and current processing times for Australian citizenship

To see when your travel validity ends, use VEVO.

This is a permanent visa. It lets you stay in Australia indefinitely.

For citizenship purposes, you become a permanent resident at the time:

• you enter Australia on this visa; or
• if you previously have been present in Australia and held a permanent visa immediately before last leaving Australia, when we grant this visa

You can include members of the family unit in your application when you apply. You an also add them to your application at any time before we make a decision.

You should include details of all your family members, whether they are migrating or not, in the application form. 

Family members who apply for the visa with you must meet our health and character requirements.

Family members who are not coming to Australia might also have to meet our health and character requirements.

You must be outside Australia when you apply and when we decide your application.

We don’t provide processing times for this visa. Applications for this visa are subject to capping and queueing.

Your application might take longer to process if:

• you do not fill it in correctly
• you do not include all the documents we need or we need more information from you
• it takes us time to verify your information

We can’t process your application if you don’t pay the correct visa application charge. We will notify you if this is the case and if necessary return your application.

Family migration visas are in high demand. It might take many years for this visa to be granted. 

Assessment

We assess applications for this visa in 2 stages.

1. Check eligibility and either add the application to the queue or refuse it.
2. Continue assessing the application when a place becomes available and make a decision.

Don’t arrange to move to Australia until we grant the visa. We will let you know in writing if we grant you the visa.

You and your family members must obey all Australian laws.

We will digitally link your visa to your passport. You will not get a label in your passport.