What delightful news for the families who happened to be together in Australia on various visas and waiting on the processing of their offshore Family stream visas that require the visa applicants to be outside Australia at time of visa application and at time of decision. The COVID19 pandemic has made international travel impossible and many families were anxious with looming visa expiry dates on the temporary visas of their loved ones currently in Australia. The options for these families were to be apart from their loves ones for an indefinite period of time if the temporary visa holders were to depart from Australia. Many suggested that legislative change would be appropriate to allow the approval of these offshore visas for applicants who are currently onshore.
The Australian Government recognised the struggle and announced they would keep families together. Last week the Department of Home Affairs announced that from 27 February 2021 they will start granting Partner visa (subclass 309), Prospective Marriage (subclass 300), Child visa (subclass 101), Adoption visa (subclass 102) and Dependent Child visa (subclass 445) to applicants who are currently present in Australia, although the Migration Regulations require that these applicants travel outside Australia for the visa approval. This is a temporary concession for the applicants who are unable to travel outside Australia as a result of the COVID19 pandemic travel restrictions.
A month later from 24 March 2021 the same concession would be made available to eligible applicants for the Contributory Parent categories (subclass 173 and subclass 143) as well as Parent visa (subclass 103)
Contact Assent Migration Lawyers for assistance with the lawful status in Australia should your family members' temporary visa is about to expiry so that you can take advantage of the above concessions.
Further details on the Departmental announcement can be found; https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/covid-19-visa-concessions