Retiring to Australia: the retirement visas are closed, and this is what remains

MARN 1576536

What closed and when

The Retirement visa, subclass 410, closed to new applicants in 2005. The Investor Retirement visa, subclass 405, which required a designated investment and self-funding, closed to new applicants in 2018. The Business Innovation and Investment Program, including the significant investor streams that some retirees used, closed to new applications in July 2024 with no replacement for investors. There is no visa for which being retired, or having money, is the qualification. Pages that still advertise a retirement visa for Australia are describing visas that cannot be applied for.

Existing retirement visa holders

A person who already holds a 405 or 410 can continue to apply for further visas in the same subclass, with the renewal criteria. Since 2018 long-term holders have also had a pathway to permanent residence through the parent visas with concessions on the balance of family test and some other criteria, which is the route for a holder who wants to stop renewing. That pathway is for existing holders only.

With a child in Australia: the 870

The Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa, subclass 870, lets a parent of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen live in Australia for three or five years at a time, up to a total of ten years, with no work rights, no Medicare and a requirement to hold health insurance. The child applies to be approved as a sponsor, with a household income above the threshold and an undertaking to meet the parent's costs; the parent then applies for the visa, pays the charge, which is substantial and higher for the five-year grant, and meets health and character. There is no balance of family test and no assurance of support. For a retiree who wants to live near grandchildren for a decade without waiting for a permanent queue, it is the visa that exists, and it can run alongside a permanent application. The 870 guide sets out the charges and conditions.

With a child in Australia: the permanent parent visas

• Contributory parent 143 (and the aged contributory 864 onshore): permanent residence, a large second instalment per parent, and a queue that currently runs many years. Medicare on grant. The 143 guide has the figures.
• Parent 103 (and the aged parent 804 onshore): permanent residence at a fraction of the cost, with a queue measured in decades. Applied for by families who can wait or who want a place in the queue while using other visas.
• Aged parent 804 and 864: for a parent old enough for the age pension, applied for in Australia, with a bridging visa that allows the parent to stay while the application waits, which for the 804 can be the rest of their life.

All six are compared on the parent visas page.

The tests

The permanent parent visas apply the balance of family test: at least half of the applicant's children must live permanently in Australia, or more of them must live in Australia than in any other single country. They apply the health requirement to the applicant and the partner, with a waiver available on the contributory visas in limited circumstances, and the significant cost threshold is where older applicants with chronic conditions are assessed. They require an assurance of support: a bond lodged by a sponsor, held for ten years on the contributory visas, against any welfare the parent claims. And they require a sponsor who is the child or another eligible relative. The 870 drops the balance of family test and the assurance, and substitutes the sponsor's income test and the insurance condition.

With a partner in Australia

A retiree whose spouse or de facto partner is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen applies for a partner visa, 820/801 onshore or 309/100 offshore, on the strength of the relationship. Age is irrelevant, there is no balance of family test and no assurance of support, the health requirement carries a waiver, and the visa is permanent after the second stage. Processing takes many months. For a retired couple where one is Australian, this is the route, and the partner visa guide sets it out.

With nobody in Australia

A retiree with no child and no partner in Australia has no permanent route under current law, whatever their means. What remains is the visitor visa: stays of up to 12 months can be granted to visitors with a purpose, including older visitors, subject to the condition that the holder spends no more than 12 months in Australia in any 18-month period and to the genuine-visit test, which a pattern of back-to-back long stays fails. It permits a life of long visits with months abroad between them, no Medicare except for citizens of reciprocal countries, no work, and the need for insurance throughout. It is not retirement in Australia; it is retirement partly in Australia, and the honest advice is to plan it as that. The visitor visa guide covers the stay rules.

Medicare, pensions and tax

Medicare comes with permanent residence, and for citizens of the reciprocal health care agreement countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, with any lawful stay for medically necessary treatment. The 870 and the visitor visa require private cover. Foreign pensions are generally payable in Australia and generally taxable here once the person is a tax resident, and permanent residents are assessed for the Australian age pension on residence and means rules that take years to satisfy. Those are questions for a tax adviser and for the pension authority of the home country, not for this page, and they are asked before the visa, not after.

Sequencing

Most retiring families end up running two visas: a long visitor visa or an 870 to be in Australia now, and a 143 or 103 lodged to hold a place in the queue for permanent residence later. The order matters. A visitor visa with a no-further-stay condition blocks an onshore application; an 870 cannot be held at the same time as certain other applications; the aged parent 804 is lodged onshore and brings a bridging visa, which changes the calculation for a parent already here. The consultation puts the family's facts against the sequence, with the balance of family test and the health position checked first, because they decide whether the permanent route exists at all.

Book a consultation — A$330 inc. GST, credited

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Subclasses 103, 143, 173, 804, 864 and 870 and the partner and visitor visas, Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994, as in force at the date above; charges and queue figures are the Department of Home Affairs’. Tax and pension matters are outside migration advice. 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.