Bridging visa B — travelling while your visa is processing

What a BVB does

Per the Department's own description, a Bridging visa B lets you stay lawfully in Australia until your substantive visa application is finally determined, and leave and return to Australia within the defined travel period while that application is processed — with work rights where your BVB permits. It is the travel-enabled counterpart to the Bridging visa A most onshore applicants hold automatically.

The distinction matters because a BVA has no travel facility at all: it ceases when you leave Australia. Depart on a BVA and you are offshore with a pending onshore application and no visa to re-enter on — a situation that can force you into a visitor visa application (with its own risks while another application is pending) or worse.

Cost

The application charge is A$575, as read from the Department of Home Affairs pricing service on 20 August 2026. The Department notes limited circumstances in which the charge does not apply, and a cost concession for some applicants. Charges are reviewed at least each 1 July — verify at immi.homeaffairs.gov.au before applying. Each trip needs a valid travel period — if your BVB's window has passed and you need to travel again, that means a new BVB and a new charge.

When and how to apply

Apply online through ImmiAccount, from inside Australia, before you travel. The application asks for:

• Your reasons for travel — personal, family, business or employment reasons all feature routinely; document them (an invitation, an itinerary, a family circumstance)
• Your intended departure and return dates
• Details of your pending substantive application

Apply when dates are reasonably firm, and leave lead time before departure — booking non-refundable travel before the BVB is granted is gambling the fare on a grant you don't yet have.

The travel period

A BVB is granted with a specified travel period — a window, set case by case around the reasons and dates you gave, within which you may leave and re-enter. It is not an open-ended multiple-entry facility. Two consequences: ask for a window that honestly covers your plans (including slack for changed return flights), and diarise the end date — if you are still offshore when the travel period closes, the BVB will not get you back in, and recovering from offshore is slow and uncertain.

The two traps

• Leaving on the wrong bridging visa. The BVA/BVC ceases on departure. The time to discover this is before the airport, not after. If you hold any bridging visa and are considering travel, confirm which one you hold (VEVO check) before booking anything.
• Being offshore at decision time. Some onshore visas can only be granted while you are in Australia. If your application is late in its processing window — check the current figures on our processing times page — travelling is riskier, because a grant (or refusal) that lands mid-trip can have consequences that a BVB does not protect you from. When in doubt, get advice on timing before booking.

Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536. General information only, not migration advice. The Department charge shown is Home Affairs' published value as at the date shown and changes over time; confirm current figures before relying on them.