Travelling while your visa application is pending: the bridging visa, and where the grant has to happen

MARN 1576536

The two rules

The first rule is about staying lawful and getting back in. A person in Australia whose substantive visa has ended and who has an application pending holds a bridging visa, and bridging visas A, C and E all cease on departure; only a Bridging Visa B is granted with a travel facility. The second rule is about where the visa can be granted. Each subclass's criteria state whether the applicant must be in Australia, outside Australia, or either, at the time of grant, and a decision-maker who is ready to grant and finds the applicant on the wrong side cannot grant. The two rules are independent: a Bridging Visa B satisfies the first and does nothing for the second.

The bridging visa

A Bridging Visa A is granted with a valid onshore application made while holding a substantive visa, and it keeps the applicant lawful after the substantive visa ends. It has no travel facility; leaving Australia on it ends it, and the person is then outside Australia holding no visa, with an application pending that may be one that can only be granted onshore. A Bridging Visa C is the same for a person who applied without a substantive visa. A Bridging Visa E ends on departure and has no travel version at all. The Bridging Visa B is applied for by a BVA or BVB holder who needs to travel, and it allows departure and return within a stated travel period while the application remains pending. On return the applicant is back on the BVB until it ends, and then on the BVA it replaced.

Applying for a Bridging Visa B

• Apply in ImmiAccount while in Australia, holding a BVA or BVB, with a substantive application pending. A BVC or BVE holder cannot apply.
• State the travel dates and the reason: work, family, a funeral, study. Substantial reasons are granted readily; a holiday is usually granted too, but with a shorter facility.
• Pay the charge, listed on the visa fees page, and allow days to weeks for the grant before booking non-refundable travel.
• Travel within the period on the grant, and return before it ends. A BVB that ends while you are overseas cannot be used to re-enter, and a new one cannot be applied for from outside Australia.
• Apply again for each later trip. A BVB covers the travel period on its grant, not the life of the application.

The Bridging Visa B guide covers the detail.

Visas that must be granted onshore

The onshore partner visa 820 and the permanent 801 that follows it; the onshore child visa 802; the Temporary Graduate 485; the onshore carer 836, remaining relative and aged dependent relative visas; a Student visa applied for in Australia; the onshore parent visas 804 and 864; and a number of others whose criteria require the applicant to be in Australia at the time of decision. For these, a Bridging Visa B lets you go and return, but if the decision is made while you are away the visa cannot be granted. For a partner visa with a processing time of many months the risk is small on a two-week trip and real on a two-month one, and the Department does not time its decisions around travel. The safe practice is short trips, a BVB in hand, and the agent's contact details on the file so that a request for information or a decision reaches someone who can respond.

Visas that must be granted offshore

The offshore partner visa 309 and its permanent stage 100; the offshore child 101; the contributory parent 143 and 173 and the parent 103; the offshore carer 116 and the other offshore family visas; the Prospective Marriage 300; and the offshore versions of most temporary visas. These are applied for from outside Australia and must be granted while the applicant is outside Australia. An applicant who visits on a visitor visa while the application is pending is lawful and welcome, but if the decision becomes ready during the visit the Department contacts the applicant and asks them to leave so the visa can be granted, and an applicant who cannot be reached, or who stays, has an application that cannot be finalised. The Department's practice is to ask; it is not obliged to wait. A visitor with a 309 pending keeps the visit short, tells the Department the dates, and leaves when asked.

Visas that can be granted either way

The permanent employer-sponsored 186, the points-tested 189, 190 and 491, most 482 applications, the 494, the resident return visa and others can be granted whether the applicant is in or outside Australia, as long as the applicant is not in immigration clearance. For an applicant on a bridging visa, the travel question is the Bridging Visa B alone. For an applicant who still holds a substantive visa with a travel facility, such as a 482 holder with a 186 pending, travel is on the current visa and nothing else is needed, provided the current visa is still in effect on return.

Immigration clearance

No visa can be granted to a person who is in immigration clearance, meaning the period between presenting at the border on arrival and being cleared, or between being refused clearance and leaving. It is a narrow window in time and a real one: a decision ready on the day of arrival waits, and a person refused clearance at the airport cannot be granted anything there. It matters mostly for people whose status is being decided as they arrive, and it is one more reason to hold a visa that is clearly in effect before boarding.

Planning the trip

1. Identify which rule your visa is under: onshore grant, offshore grant, or either. The subclass criteria say, and the consultation confirms.
2. If you hold a BVA, apply for the BVB before booking, with the dates and reason.
3. If your visa must be granted onshore, keep the trip short and tell the Department the dates in a notification against the application.
4. If your visa must be granted offshore and you are visiting Australia, keep the visit short, tell the Department, and be ready to leave when asked.
5. Keep your contact details current, and your agent's, so that a decision or a request is received while you are away.
6. Return before the BVB ends, with the BVB grant notice and the passport it was granted against.

If you are already overseas

A person who left on a BVA, or whose BVB has expired while away, is outside Australia without a visa. Their onshore application remains pending but, if it is an onshore-grant visa, cannot be granted unless they return, and they cannot return without a visa. The usual repair is a visitor visa to re-enter, where one is granted, which restores presence in Australia for the grant; a visitor visa refused on the genuine-visit test leaves the application stranded, and a refusal of the pending application follows in time. A person in this position needs advice the week it happens, because the longer the absence, the more the pending application looks abandoned and the harder the visitor visa becomes.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Bridging visa provisions and the time-of-grant criteria of each subclass in Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994, and section 173 of the Migration Act 1958 on immigration clearance, 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.