Australian Education and Migration Services
11 Feb 2016
This information is for people who can include a family member in their application for a visa.
Not all visas are the same. Read the requirements for the visa you are applying for to confirm who can be included in your application.
A member of your family unit can be your:
If a child is born after an application is lodged, but before it is decided, the child will automatically be included in their parents' application(s). It does not matter if the child is born in or outside Australia. The parent will need to tell us about the birth.
Your partner can be married to you or they can be your de facto partner. Your de facto partner can be the same or opposite sex. You must prove:
For a married partner, the marriage must be legal under Australian law. For a de facto partner, the relationship needs to have existed for six or 12 months before you lodge the application. The length of the de facto relationship depends on the visa you are applying for.
To include a dependent child in your visa application, the child must be:
Acceptable documents that can show a parent-child relationship include:
Your child or stepchild is considered to be dependent if any of the following apply:
A child of any age is not considered to be dependent if they are currently married, engaged to be married or in a de facto relationship.
Some visas require that the child has never been married or in a de facto relationship.
If your child is born after you lodge your application (but before it is decided), you must tell us as soon as possible. You can do this as follows:
Outside Australia: If your child is born outside Australia and either parent is an Australian citizen at the time of the child's birth, the child might be eligible for Australian citizenship by descent.
In Australia: If your child is born in Australia, they are automatically granted the same visa you and your partner hold at the time of the child's birth. If either parent is an Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident at the time of the child's birth, the child might be an Australian citizen by birth.
Australia must fulfil its international obligations in relation to the prevention of child abduction.
If a child is applying for a visa (on their own or as part of a family unit), each person who has the legal right to decide where the child lives must give consent for the visa to be granted, or a court order allowing the grant of the visa to the child will be needed.
Acceptable documents include certified copies of:
In the case of a stepchild from a former relationship, you must prove you were in a relationship with the child's parent and that you have been awarded one of the following:
A family member can be your parent, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew or step equivalent.
For any family member that you include in your visa application, you must provide evidence of their:
This evidence includes:
Your family member will be considered dependent if all of the following apply:
If your family member is divorced, legally separated or widowed, you must provide certified copies of supporting evidence, such as:
When there is not enough evidence to support a claimed family relationship, we might suggest you and the relevant family member have DNA tests to confirm the relationship.
If this happens, we will tell you what you need to do to arrange the test. We might not accept the results of tests done in any other way. You must pay for requested DNA tests.
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