Family Migration
Australia Cuts Parent Visa Places for 2026-27: What the Caps Mean for the Wait
Australia has set 7,060 parent visa places for 2026-27, down from 8,500 in each of the last two years. Home Affairs estimates 18 years for a new contributory parent application and 42 years for a non-contributory one, based on the places available each year.
Migration rules change regularly. Treat this article as a policy snapshot and confirm current requirements with a licensed advisor before relying on it.
Photo: Photo by Pixabay on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/grandmother-and-grandfather-holding-child-on-their-lap-302083/)
Australia has fewer parent visa places this year. The 2026-27 Migration Program sets 7,060 places for parent visas, down from 8,500 in each of the previous two years, a cut of about one in six. The Department of Home Affairs also publishes its own estimate for anyone applying today, based on the current number of places: 18 years for a contributory parent visa, and 42 years for the non-contributory Parent and Aged Parent visas.
For families who emigrated hoping a parent would follow, these figures decide what is realistic. A parent visa is a separate application with its own eligibility test, and the queue it joins is governed by a limit set in law each year.
What changed for 2026-27
The Government announced the 2026-27 Permanent Migration Program on 12 May 2026. The overall program stays at 185,000 places, and the family program moves only slightly, from 52,500 to 52,460. Inside it, places have shifted:
| Family category | 2025-26 | 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| Partner | 40,500 | 41,500 |
| Child | 3,000 | 3,500 |
| Parent | 8,500 | 7,060 |
| Other Family | 500 | 400 |
Home Affairs says the small adjustments in the Parent and Other Family categories “accommodate increases to the Partner and Child planning levels”. The family program is 40 places smaller overall: 1,540 places come out of the Parent and Other Family categories, and 1,500 are added to the Partner and Child levels, which the Department describes as indicative because those visas are demand driven.
Under last year’s instrument, the parent places covered the permanent Subclasses 103, 804, 143 and 864 and the temporary contributory Subclasses 173 and 884, and the Other Family places covered the visas for remaining relatives, carers and aged dependent relatives. The new levels apply to the program year that began on 1 July 2026.
The caps behind the queue
A planning level becomes a hard limit through a legal instrument the Minister makes each year under section 85 of the Migration Act 1958. Home Affairs explains the effect: once the maximum is reached, no more of those visas can be granted that year, and every remaining application stays in the queue until a place becomes available in a later year.
For 2025-26, the limits were set by LIN 26/042, signed on 10 June 2026:
| Category | Subclasses | Maximum grants, 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|
| Contributory Parent | 143, 173, 864, 884 | 6,800 |
| Parent | 103, 804 | 1,700 |
| Other Family | 114, 115, 116, 835, 836, 838 | 500 |
The temporary 173 and 884 are counted inside the same contributory places. They let a family pay the contributory charge in two stages, but they draw on the same capped places as the 143 and 864.
When this article was written, the 2026-27 instrument had not been made. The planning level gives 7,060 parent places in total, and how they divide between the contributory and non-contributory streams is a matter for that instrument. Last year’s was signed less than three weeks before the year it governed ended.
What Home Affairs says about the wait
The Department does not give exact processing times for parent visas. It publishes two measures instead.
The first is how far each queue has moved. At 31 August 2026, it had released applications for final processing with queue dates up to:
- November 2018 for Contributory Parent visas
- November 2020 for Contributory Aged Parent visas
- March 2014 for Parent visas
- October 2014 for Aged Parent visas.
An application is first assessed against the core visa criteria, including health and character, and only then given a queue date. At the same date, that assessment had reached Contributory Parent applications lodged in April 2024, Contributory Aged Parent applications lodged in April 2023, Parent applications lodged in February 2023 and Aged Parent applications lodged in January 2023.
The second measure is an estimate for anyone applying now, based on the number of places available each year:
- Contributory Parent visas: 18 years
- Parent and Aged Parent visas: 42 years.
The Department generally updates these figures at the start of each program year and lists changes to planning levels among the things that move them. Because releases stop once a year’s places are used, fewer places also means fewer applications released from the queue, for families already waiting as well as new applicants.
At 42 years, the non-contributory route is no longer a wait most families can plan around. Even at 18 years, a contributory application is a long-range decision, and a released queue date is not a grant: the application still goes through final assessment, and health and police checks are refreshed closer to the decision.
What it means if you are planning a move
If a parent is likely to want to join you in Australia, check three things before anything else.
The balance of family test comes first. Apart from an exception for some retirees, every parent visa except the 870 requires it. At least half of the parent’s children must be eligible children, or there must be more eligible children than children living in any other single country. An eligible child is an Australian citizen, or a permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen usually resident in Australia. A child in Australia on a temporary visa does not count as living there and is treated as resident overseas, so a family that has only recently arrived on a work visa does not yet count on the Australian side. All of the parent’s children are counted, including stepchildren and adopted children, unless they have died or have been removed from the parent’s custody by adoption or court order. A parent with three children, one an Australian permanent resident and two living in Germany, does not pass.
The stream is a financial decision made years ahead. The contributory visas carry a substantially higher charge in return for an estimate less than half as long. We do not publish charges, because the Department sets and revises them; they are confirmed at consultation.
The order of applications matters. The Subclass 870 Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa lets a parent stay for up to three or five years at a time, to a maximum of ten years, with no balance of family test. It is not counted against the parent places above, and it does not lead to permanent residence. Home Affairs also states that a parent cannot apply for a permanent or temporary parent visa while they hold, or have applied for, an 870. A family that wants both has to settle the sequence before anything is lodged.
Since 22 April 2026, Subclass 103, 804, 143 and 864 applications must be lodged online, with paper only in limited circumstances, while the 173 and 884 still go on paper. The queue is unaffected.
What a checklist cannot do here. Our advisers, registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA), check the balance of family position before anything is paid or lodged, set the 18-year and 42-year estimates against your family’s finances and your parents’ ages, and work out whether an 870 and a permanent application fit your family, and in which order. The eligibility check takes about a minute; for advice on your own family, book a consultation.
Further reading
For how the parent queue works and what the 870 offers, read the Australian parent visa queue: what the wait actually is. For all seven parent subclasses side by side, see parent visa Australia: waiting times, costs and how to plan honestly.
This article provides general information only and is not individual migration advice. Planning levels, visa caps and processing estimates change, and advice should be based on the circumstances of the individual case and the rules in force at the time.
Sources
- Permanent Migration Program planning levels, Department of Home Affairs, 2026-27 program announced 12 May 2026
- Parent visas: queue release dates and processing times, Department of Home Affairs, figures as at 31 August 2026
- Migration (Granting of Contributory Parent Visas, Parent Visas and Other Family Visas During Financial Year 2025-26) Instrument 2026 (LIN 26/042), Federal Register of Legislation, signed 10 June 2026
- Migration (Arrangements for Parent Visa Applications) Instrument 2026 (LIN 26/005), Federal Register of Legislation, in force from 22 April 2026
- Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa (subclass 870), Department of Home Affairs
- Parent visa (subclass 103), Department of Home Affairs
- Balance of family test, Department of Home Affairs
- Contributory Parent visa (subclass 143), Department of Home Affairs
- Contributory Aged Parent (Temporary) visa (subclass 884), Department of Home Affairs