Onshore Focus
Family visa applications are now subject to a new processing priority under Ministerial Direction 117, introduced in late July 2026.
Aligning with their Skilled Migration Direction, Immigration has moved to focus on cases where the applicant was in Australia at the time of lodgement, and the visa can be granted while the applicant is in Australia.
While this change means that those already here move off a Bridging Visa much faster, it also means that those who cannot apply while in Australia will have longer waiting times where families remain separated.
Which Family Visa types are affected?
Within these categories, Ministerial Direction 117 sets out the following order of processing Family visa applications:
- Any family migration applications that have been subject to ministerial intervention
- Partner (820/801, 309/100, 300) and dependent Child (802, 101, 102, 445)
- Orphan Relative (837, 117)
- Contributory Parent (143, 173) or a Contributory Aged Parent (864, 884)
- Carer (836, 116)
- Aged Parent (804), Parent (103), Remaining Relative (835, 115) or Aged Dependant Relative (838, 114).
Within each group, onshore applications are always a higher priority (i.e. an onshore 820/801 Partner visa has higher priority than an offshore 309/100 Partner visa.
This applies to all applications currently in process and those lodged after 25 July.
What happens now?
The order of processing for Family visas remains generally unchanged, except for a higher priority for onshore visas.
Immigration’s systems will identify applications that meet the new priority arrangements based on location of the applicant at the time of lodgement.
Based on the lengthy processing times for these visas in general, applicants should continue to monitor published timeframes before undertaking medicals and police checks noting these are only valid for 12 months. In many cases, it is best to wait to hear from an officer before proceeding.
