This is a note to those who are intending to apply for subclass 804 Aged Parent and subclass 103 Parent visas: we think it is prudent to lodge your visa application sooner rather than later.

The Productivity Commission has reported to the Australian Government, and has suggested that the criteria for granting non contributory parent visas should be narrowed to cases where there are “strong compassionate grounds”.

The Productivity Commission report also said that elderly parents cost Australia anywhere between A$335,000 to A$410,000 each.

The Productivity Commission is an independent Commonwealth agency which is the Australian Government’s principal review and advisory body on microeconomic policy and regulation.

Those of us who advise parents on visa strategy will recall the abolition of the subclass 103 and 804 visas to new applicants by the Federal Government in mid-2014, only for a successful Disallowance Motion in the Upper House (the Senate) to lead to the re-introduction of these visa subclasses to new applicants in September 2014.

At a time when budget savings are a key issue for the Federal Government there is clearly a real risk of a renewed effort to close off the non Contributory Parent visa pathways.

We invite concerned intending parent visa applicants to contact Go Matilda Visas to discuss strategy: we can prepare and submit parent visa applications quickly and with the minimum of fuss.