Individual Immigration

Could you, or someone in your family, move to Australia?

Nearly every personal route into Australia runs through one of five doors: a family visa (partner, parent or child of an Australian), a skilled visa based on your occupation, sponsorship by an employer, study, or fixing a refused or cancelled visa.

Each door has strict rules, and the yearly migration program is capped, so some people have no current option at all. The requirements, costs and realistic waiting times below show which routes are worth testing for your situation.

• You’re married to, engaged to, or living with an Australian — partner and fiancé visas. No points, no age limit, no occupation test.
• Your child, parent or relative is Australian — parent, child and other family visas. Real options, but with waits measured in years or decades, so the workarounds matter.
• You have an occupation Australia wants — skilled visas, by points, with no employer needed.
• An employer will sponsor you — the 482 and its permanent pathway, often the fastest door of all.
• You’d study first — a student visa that can lead somewhere, if the course is chosen with the end in mind.
• A visa was refused or cancelled — appeal deadlines run in days, so this door closes fastest.

Are you in a relationship with an Australian?

Partner visas are the largest family visa Australia grants, and the only test that matters is the relationship. You qualify through marriage, a de facto relationship (usually 12 months living together, or a registered relationship), or an engagement, using the prospective marriage visa to marry in Australia within its validity. Same-sex couples are treated identically.

The government fee is $11,710 from 1 July 2026, paid once and covering both the temporary and permanent stage. Cases are won on evidence across four areas: your finances, your household, how friends and family see you, and your commitment to each other. Thin evidence, not ineligibility, is why partner visas get refused.

Apply inside Australia (subclass 820/801) or from overseas (309/100); which is open to you depends on your current visa situation, and getting this wrong is expensive. Start with our partner visa guide.

Which family visa fits which relative?

The waits differ so much by relative that the family label misleads people. The figures below are the Department’s own estimates for new applications:

• Children — the strong pathway. A dependent child of an Australian citizen or permanent resident has a direct route with no capped queue, and a child born overseas to an Australian citizen parent may already be a citizen by descent and need no visa at all.
• Parents — a trade of money against time. The contributory visa costs about $43,600 per parent in its second instalment and still waits around 15 years; the cheaper queue is around 33 years. Parents at age pension age (currently 67) can apply for the aged parent versions from inside Australia and usually wait here on a bridging visa, which changes the maths. The 870 visa buys parents 3 to 5 years at a time in Australia (10 years maximum) with no work rights and no permanent residence at the end.
• Siblings and other relatives — at about 22 years, the family queue is rarely the real answer. A sibling with an occupation, an employer offer or a study plan usually reaches Australia decades sooner through those doors.
• Family of New Zealanders — NZ citizens themselves have had a direct citizenship pathway since 1 July 2023; their non-NZ partners and children use the 461 visa.

Parent strategy in particular rewards planning years ahead, and the queue estimates move with each year’s migration program. Current queue positions are published on the Home Affairs parent visa page.

Do you have skills Australia wants, without an employer?

The points-tested skilled visas (189, 190 and 491) need no job offer: you are scored on age, English, qualifications and work experience, and invited to apply if your score competes. You must be under 45, hold an occupation on the relevant skilled list, and pass a skills assessment for that occupation before anything else.

The pass mark is 65 points, but treat it as a floor, not a target: invitations go to the highest scores, and competitive scores sit well above the floor for most occupations. State nomination (190) and regional (491) routes add points and are where most realistic cases now land. A small separate door, the National Innovation visa, exists for people with an internationally recognised record of exceptional achievement.

Could an employer sponsor you?

Employer sponsorship is usually the fastest permanent pathway for working-age applicants, measured in months rather than years. The Skills in Demand (482) visa needs a job offer in an occupation on the skilled list, a salary of at least $79,423 (and at market rate), and at least one year of relevant experience. After two years with the sponsoring employer, the 186 visa converts it to permanent residence.

Regional employers can also use the 494 visa, and regional concession deals (DAMAs) relax age, salary or English rules for some occupations and areas. If any employer is genuinely willing to sponsor you, test this door before the slower ones: details in our 482 guide.

Can you study your way in?

Yes, but only if the course is chosen backwards from an occupation. Study in Australia may lead to a post-study work visa and, for some graduates, a skilled or employer-sponsored visa; study chosen for cheapness or easy admission leads to an expensive dead end. The student visa itself requires genuine student intent, funds, English and health cover.

The honest framing: a student visa is a pathway project measured in 4 to 8 years and six figures of cost, with no guaranteed permanent outcome. The graduates who do convert to residence usually decided their target occupation before enrolling, then picked the course, the city and their work experience to serve it. Start with the student visa guide.

What if a visa was refused or cancelled?

Most onshore refusals can be appealed to the Administrative Review Tribunal within 28 days of notification, and nothing can extend that deadline. An appeal also keeps most applicants lawfully in Australia on their bridging visa while it runs.

A refusal also locks the onshore door for most new applications (the section 48 bar), with a short exception list that includes partner, protection and the 190/491/494 skilled visas. Which move to make first is a strategy question with clocks running on every option; our merits review page covers appeals, bridging visas, work rights and the court stage, and the cancellation guide covers cancellations.

What will all this cost?

Government fees are the fixed part, and they rose sharply on 1 July 2026: a partner visa now carries an $11,710 application charge, and every visa on this page has its own fee, payable to the Department whatever the outcome. Check any figure against the Home Affairs fee estimator before budgeting; fees change every July.

Our professional fees are fixed, quoted in writing before we start, and listed openly on our fees page. If our assessment is that no pathway currently works for you, we tell you that at the assessment stage, not after a fee.