Your bridging visa has ceased while your application is still pending: why, what you hold now, how to get a replacement, and the twenty-eight days that decide the rest

MARN 1576536

The application and the bridging visa are different things

A valid application for a substantive visa made in Australia by a person who holds a visa produces, in the ordinary case, a bridging visa, granted at lodgement to come into effect when the current visa ends and to continue until the application is finally decided and for a period after; applicants come to think of the bridging visa as part of the application, and it is not. The application is a request the Department holds and decides on its merits, unaffected by what visa the applicant holds while waiting, as long as the applicant stays in Australia where the visa requires it; the bridging visa is a visa in its own right, with its own conditions and its own cessation rules, and it can end while the application continues, leaving an applicant with a live application and no lawful status, which is the situation this guide addresses. The Bridging Visa A guide covers how the usual one starts and what it allows; what follows is what happens when it stops.

The departure that ends a Bridging Visa A

A Bridging Visa A permits the holder to remain in Australia and nothing else; it has no travel facility, and it ceases the moment the holder departs Australia, whether for a week or a year, whether for a funeral or a holiday, and whether or not the holder knew. The holder who leaves on a Bridging Visa A and arrives back at the airport has no visa to enter on, and is refused entry unless they hold another, which is why the Department grants a Bridging Visa B for travel, applied for before departure, with a travel period, which keeps the Bridging Visa A alive through the trip; the Bridging Visa B guide covers it. The commonest ceased bridging visa is the one that ended at the departure gate of a holder who did not apply for a B, and the commonest discovery is at check-in for the return flight, when the airline will not board a passenger without a visa, or at the Australian border, when the holder is found to have entered on a visitor visa obtained in a hurry and is now on that.

The return on a visitor visa and the gap after it

A holder who left on a Bridging Visa A and came back on a visitor visa, electronic or otherwise, holds the visitor visa and nothing behind it: the Bridging Visa A ceased on departure and does not revive on return, and no new bridging visa is granted automatically because the application was lodged before the visitor visa, not after it. The visitor visa runs for its period, three months in the ordinary case, with no work rights and often with a no further stay condition, and when it expires the holder is unlawful unless a new bridging visa has been applied for and granted first; the holder works out the visitor visa's end date on VEVO the day they land, applies for a replacement bridging visa under the heading below while the visitor visa is still in effect, and does not work until VEVO shows a visa that permits it. A holder who has already let the visitor visa expire is under the Bridging Visa E heading.

The bridging visa that was cancelled

A bridging visa can be cancelled like any visa, on notice with a chance to respond where the rules require it, for a breach of its conditions, most often working when the bridging visa did not permit it, for a character matter, for false information in the application that produced it, or because the substantive visa application was found to be invalid; the cancellation ends the holder's lawful status on the day it takes effect and does not end the substantive application, which the Department continues to assess, with the reason for the cancellation now on the file. The holder responds to the notice of intention to cancel within its period with the explanation and the evidence, which the cancellation guide covers, seeks review where the decision carries it, and, if the cancellation stands, applies for a Bridging Visa E to be lawful while the substantive application is decided, with the cancellation read against them in that application and in any later one.

The bridging visa tied to a review that finished

A bridging visa granted on an application continues after a refusal for the period in which review can be sought, and where review is sought in time it continues until the review is finally determined and for a period after; a holder whose review has ended, by decision, by withdrawal or by dismissal for non-attendance, holds a bridging visa that is about to cease, in the ordinary case thirty-five days after the Tribunal's decision, and a holder who then seeks judicial review in the court may be granted a further bridging visa for that proceeding on application, not automatically. A holder with a second, separate application pending, lodged while the first was under review, holds the bridging visa associated with that second application, which continues on its own terms; a holder with nothing else pending becomes unlawful when the review bridging visa ceases and must leave or apply for a Bridging Visa E for a short period to arrange departure. The dates are read from the Tribunal's decision letter, and the holder does not assume the bridging visa continues because an appeal is being considered.

The bridging visa that was never granted

Some holders discover that no bridging visa was ever granted. An application that was invalid, because the wrong form was used, the charge was not paid, a no further stay condition barred it or the section 48 bar applied, produces no bridging visa, because a bridging visa is granted only with a valid application; the holder who believed they were protected was on their original visa the whole time and is unlawful from its expiry. An application lodged from outside Australia produces no bridging visa, and a holder who entered on a visitor visa to wait has only the visitor visa. An application lodged by a person who was already unlawful may produce a Bridging Visa C or E, with their limits, rather than an A. The invalid application guide covers the first case, and the holder checks VEVO rather than ImmiAccount for what they hold, because ImmiAccount shows the application and VEVO shows the visa.

The replacement: Bridging Visa A or C while you are lawful

A holder who is still lawful today, on a visitor visa or any other, with a valid substantive application pending, applies for a replacement bridging visa on the Department's online form for bridging visas A, B and C, selecting the bridging visa associated with the pending application and providing the application's reference and the current visa's details; the Department grants a Bridging Visa A where the holder meets its criteria, which in the ordinary case requires the holder to have held a substantive visa when the original application was made and to hold one now, and a Bridging Visa C where the holder does not, each granted to take effect when the current visa ends. The regulations have also, since late 2024, provided for the Department to grant a replacement bridging visa automatically on the cessation of a bridging visa in defined circumstances, so a holder checks VEVO before applying and applies if nothing is there; the holder does not rely on an automatic grant they cannot see. The application is made as soon as the holder knows the bridging visa has ceased and well before the current visa ends, because a decision after the current visa expires leaves a gap in which the holder was unlawful.

The Bridging Visa E when you are already unlawful

A holder whose last visa has ended with no bridging visa behind it is an unlawful non-citizen, with a pending application that the Department will still decide, and applies for a Bridging Visa E, which is the bridging visa for a person who is unlawful and is granted to make them lawful while they make arrangements to leave, to resolve their status or, where a substantive application is pending, to await its decision; the Bridging Visa E carries no work rights in the ordinary case, no travel facility, and conditions the Department sets, including reporting. The application is made online where the Department's form allows or in person at an office as it directs, with the evidence of the pending application and of the circumstances, and it is made at once, because every day unlawful is a day counted under the twenty-eight-day heading and a day of exposure to detention, which the Department can use for an unlawful non-citizen whatever application is pending. The Bridging Visa E guide covers the visa, and the unlawful guide the position it resolves.

Work rights, and asking for them back

The work rights a holder had on the first bridging visa do not carry over to the replacement. A replacement Bridging Visa A is granted with the conditions the rules attach to it in the holder's circumstances, which may be the conditions of the holder's last substantive visa rather than the unrestricted rights the first bridging visa carried; a Bridging Visa C or E is granted with a condition prohibiting work in the ordinary case. The holder applies for the condition to be lifted on a showing of compelling need to work, usually financial hardship evidenced by bank statements, expenses and the absence of other support, and the Department grants or refuses it on the evidence; the work rights guide covers the application. A holder who continues working after the first bridging visa ceased, or on a replacement that does not permit it, is working in breach, which is a ground to cancel the replacement and a matter the Department reads in the substantive application; the holder stops when the visa stops and resumes when VEVO shows a visa that permits it.

Travel, and the Bridging Visa B

No replacement bridging visa lets the holder leave and return. A holder on a replacement Bridging Visa A who must travel applies for a Bridging Visa B before departure, with the reason and the dates, and returns within the travel period granted, which keeps the A alive; a holder on a Bridging Visa C or E who leaves Australia has no way back on that application, and the application itself may require the holder to be in Australia at the time of decision, so that leaving can end it as well. The departure that ended the first bridging visa was taken without a B, and the holder who has learned that lesson once does not need to learn it twice. A holder whose application does not require them to be in Australia at decision, and who cannot get a B, can leave and wait abroad, with the consequences of the next heading if they were unlawful when they went.

The twenty-eight days

Public interest criterion 4014 imposes a three-year exclusion from most temporary visas on a person who, having been unlawful, was granted a Bridging Visa C, D or E more than twenty-eight days after their last substantive visa ceased, or who left Australia as an unlawful non-citizen after that period, with the exclusion applying when they next apply from outside Australia and waivable only on compelling or compassionate grounds for the particular application; a person who was granted the bridging visa inside twenty-eight days of becoming unlawful, or who left inside that period, is not subject to it. The pending substantive application, decided while the holder is in Australia, is not itself refused for the exclusion; but a holder whose application is refused and who then leaves, or who leaves to wait offshore, carries it to every later application, and so does a holder who had a bridging visa cancelled and did not regularise in time. The twenty-eight days therefore run from the day the last visa ceased, which for a holder who returned on a visitor visa is the visitor visa's expiry and for a holder whose bridging visa was cancelled is the cancellation date, and the holder acts inside them. The unlawful guide covers the exclusion and the waiver.

The ceased bridging visa checklist

1. Check VEVO today, not ImmiAccount: what visa do you hold, with what conditions, until when.
2. If you hold a visa, apply online now for the replacement Bridging Visa A or C on your pending application, before that visa ends.
3. If you hold no visa, apply for a Bridging Visa E immediately, and count the days since the last visa ceased.
4. Stop working until VEVO shows a visa that permits it; apply for work rights on compelling need if you have none.
5. Do not leave Australia without a Bridging Visa B, and not at all on a C or E if the application needs you here.
6. If the bridging visa was cancelled, respond to the notice within its period and seek review where it is available.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The bridging visa provisions in Schedule 1 and the subclass 010, 020, 030 and 050 criteria in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, including the circumstances in which a bridging visa ceases and the provisions for the grant of a replacement bridging visa, sections 116 and 189 of the Migration Act 1958, public interest criterion 4014 and the Department’s online bridging visa form and practice, all as in force at the date above. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.