Carer

Client Information Sheet 20

JULY 2011

CARER VISA APPLICATIONS*

(Reflects law as at 1 July 2011) The carer visa permits a family member to come to, or stay in, Australia as the carer of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. There are two possible types of carer visas which you can apply for and which are dealt with in this information sheet: • • subclass 116 Carer – for applications made outside of Australia. subclass 836 Carer – for applications made in Australia.

Who can be a carer?

The applicant must: • be sponsored by an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen (the Australian resident) who requires a carer or who has a member of their family unit who requires a carer (and is also an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen) be a spouse, child, parent, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew of the sponsor (this includes step relatives, half brothers and sisters and adopted relatives) of the Australian resident. be willing and able to provide their sponsor or a member of their sponsor’s family unit with substantial and continuing assistance as a carer – the applicant will generally be interviewed about what assistance they will be providing and an assessment will be made having regard to: their general capacity to provide the assistance the nature of the assistance their understanding of the nature and duration of the assistance, including their commitment to long term care if required their physical ability to provide the care their degree of maturity the efforts they have made to learn more about the needs, responsibility, condition etc how they propose to support themselves their commitments to other family members any training, employment experience or personal factors which impact on the provision of the assistance, and meet health, character, public interest and limited special return criteria (all members of their...