A Barrister's Blog

For many years I have helped people with their visa applications as well as assisting in relation to reviews of refusal and cancellation decisions.

Since around 2013 the Australian Department of Home Affairs have used an online portal called the ImmiAccount where visa applications can be made electronically.

The Parent Visa Application

It’s been quite a long time since I have had to lodge a parent visa application for a client I and couldn’t find the visa class listed on the drop down menu on my ImmiAccount. I eventually discovered that Schedule 1 of the Migration Regulations specifies that all Parent subclass visa applications must be made at the place, and in the manner (if any), specified by the Minister in a legislative instrument made for this item under subregulation 2.07(5). The relevant legislative Instrument (IMMI 18/079: Arrangements for Parent Visa Applications) provides that an application must be:

(a)  posted to:

Parent Visa Centre
Department of Home Affairs
Locked Bag 7
NORTHBRIDGE WA 6865
AUSTRALIA; or

(b)  delivered by courier service to:

Parent Visa Centre
Department of Home Affairs
Wellington Central
Ground Floor
836 Wellington Street
WEST PERTH WA 6005
AUSTRALIA.

That answered my first question – only paper applications are accepted. 

You wouldn’t think that would be too difficult and you probably think you could walk in and lodge your application. However, departmental policy specifies that parent subclass visa applications may not be hand delivered unless they are couriered to the address specified in the legislative instrument.

If a Parent visa application is received in any location other than that listed above, the application is invalid and may be returned to the applicant/sponsor (if requested), after a digital copy has been made, with advice to post or courier the application to the addresses specified above. A departmental office that receives an invalid application cannot make that application valid by sending it through internal departmental mail to the correct processing office. Digital copies of invalid applications must be sent to the Parent Visa Centre in West Perth for record keeping purposes (so they get an electronic copy anyway!).

Clearly my client’s application was an important document and I decided to use the Australia Post express post (yellow envelope) with a tracking number to send the documents to Northbridge WA. After a day or two I was a bit concerned to find that, according to the online tracking on the Austpost website that my envelope was in Hobart on it’s way to Western Australia. Clearly freight and transport networks are more complicated than I thought. This actually caused me to check the photocopy of the envelope to make sure I hadn’t put an incorrect postcode.

About 2 weeks after posting, I finally received an acknowledgment from Home Affairs that they had received a valid visa application. What I found a little surprising was that the acknowledgement letter provided instructions about how I could import the details of my freshly made paper visa application into my ImmiAccount. 

Don’t get me started on why it couldn’t be lodged on the ImmiAccount in the first place. I honestly have no idea what the policy or rationale behind this convoluted process is, although I assume there must be one. Bureaucracy (along with the rest of the world) gone crazy!  

Creative commons acknowledgment for the photograph.