Parents · Help with the grandchildren
A visa for grandparents to help with the grandchildren: the routes that exist, their limits, and which fits
Every migrant family with a new baby asks the same question, and the answer is that Australia has no visa for it. What it has is three routes that each do part of the job: a visitor visa that can be granted to the parents of Australians for several years with multiple entries, which is what most families use and most families misunderstand; a temporary sponsored parent visa for a long continuous stay, at a price; and the permanent parent visas, which are a queue measured in years or decades. The visitor route works for the early years if the family plans around its limit of twelve months in any eighteen and understands that a grandparent who is here almost all the time will be asked at the border what the visit is. This guide sets out each route, what the grandparent can and cannot do on it, the health cover, and the sequencing that gets the help when it is needed.
By Keshab Chapagain, registered migration agent (MARN 1576536) since 2015 · WIDEN, Sydney · Reviewed October 2026
Keshab Chapagain · MARN 1576536 · Registered since 2015 - A childcare visa
- Does not exist
- Visitor visa (600)
- Up to three years multiple entry for parents of Australians; 8558: twelve months in any eighteen
- Sponsored Parent (870)
- Three or five years continuous, to ten; no work; insurance; high charge
- Permanent parent visas
- Years to decades in the queue
- Unpaid care of grandchildren
- Not work
- Medicare
- None on temporary visas unless a reciprocal agreement
The migration agent that other migration agents learn from. WIDEN is an OMARA-approved CPD provider — our training is rated ★4.8 by 40+ registered migration agents.
About the CPD →MARN 1576536
Why there is no childcare visa
The family migration programme recognises partners, children, parents and a small number of other relatives, and the parent visas within it are built around permanent settlement or a defined long stay, not around a purpose. Researchers and migrant communities have argued for years for a grandparent visa tied to childcare, and the Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa was introduced partly in answer to that argument; it remains a parent visa with a price rather than a childcare visa. The consequence is that families assemble the help from the visas that exist, and the visitor visa, granted generously to parents of Australians, is the one that carries most of the weight. It was not designed for this, and its limits are where the problems arise.
The long-validity visitor visa
The Visitor visa (600) in the Tourist or Sponsored Family stream is granted to the parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents for longer periods than to other visitors: validity of up to three years with multiple entries is common for parents with a history of compliant visits, and longer in some cases, with each stay permitted for up to twelve months. The grant depends on the parent's immigration history, their ties at home, their health and their funds, and the first grant to a parent is often shorter, with the longer validity following a compliant first visit. The Sponsored Family stream, where the child sponsors and may be asked for a bond, is used where the parent's own circumstances are thin, and it carries condition 8503, no further stay, which prevents any onshore application including the 870. The 600 guide sets out the streams.
Condition 8558 and the border
Long-validity visitor visas carry condition 8558: the holder must not stay in Australia for more than twelve months in any eighteen-month period. The condition is about the total time in Australia, counted across all visits, and a grandparent who stays eleven months, leaves for a fortnight, and returns for another ten has breached it; the visa ceases on a continuous stay of more than twelve months, and a pattern that exceeds the limit is a breach found at the next entry. The practical pattern for a family is a long stay of up to twelve months, a period away of at least six months before the eighteen-month window permits another long stay, or a series of shorter stays that keep the running total under twelve in any eighteen, and the calculator on this site does the arithmetic for a planned pattern: the 8558 calculator. Separately, a border officer who sees a visitor who is in Australia for most of every year asks whether the person is in substance living here on a visitor visa, which the visa was not granted for, and a grandparent who answers that they live with the family and look after the children has described residence, not a visit. The answer that matches the visa is the truthful one: visiting family for a period, with a home and a life to return to, and the documents to show it.
Is caring for the grandchildren work?
A visitor visa prohibits work, and work is an activity that normally attracts remuneration in Australia. Caring for one's own grandchildren, unpaid, as a member of the family, is not an activity the Department treats as work; it is family life, and no grandparent has been found in breach for it. The line is crossed where the grandparent is paid, cares for children who are not family, or is engaged in substance as a nanny or a carer with a wage; those are work, and a visitor who does them is in breach. A family that pays the grandparent an allowance for expenses is not employing them; a family that pays a wage through payroll is. The line is kept by keeping the arrangement what it is, a grandparent helping.
The Sponsored Parent (Temporary) 870
The 870 allows a parent of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen to stay in Australia continuously for three or five years, with a second visa possible to a total of ten years, without the twelve-in-eighteen limit. The child applies first to be approved as a sponsor, meeting an income test on household income and undertaking to be responsible for the parent's health and other public debts, and the parent then applies, meeting health and character and holding private health insurance for the whole stay; the parent cannot work, cannot sponsor anyone, and must leave at the end unless another visa is granted. The application charge is substantial, with most of it paid at the second stage, and the family weighs it against the cost of insurance and the parent's visits under the visitor route. For a family that wants the grandparent here through five years of early childhood without the departures, and that passes the sponsor test, it is the visa; for a family that can live with the visitor pattern, it is an expensive alternative to it. The 870 guide sets out the sponsor test and the charges.
The permanent parent visas
The permanent parent visas, contributory and non-contributory, onshore for aged parents and offshore for others, give the grandparent permanent residence, Medicare and no limit on stay, and they are a queue: years for the contributory visas at their high charge, decades for the non-contributory. An onshore aged parent applicant holds a bridging visa through the wait, with work rights and, on the non-contributory 804, access to Medicare in some circumstances, which is why some families lodge the 804 for a parent already in Australia as a way of keeping them here lawfully for years; the application has to be made on a visa without a no-further-stay condition, which the Sponsored Family visitor stream carries. The permanent route is the long-term answer and not the answer to a baby due in March. The parent visa guide sets out the queue and the costs.
Health cover
A grandparent on a visitor visa or an 870 is not eligible for Medicare unless a citizen of a country with a reciprocal health care agreement, and an older person in Australia without cover is one fall or one cardiac admission from a bill in the tens of thousands, for which the sponsoring child is pursued under the 870's undertaking and in practice under the visitor route too. Overseas visitor health cover is available to older visitors, with age-based pricing, waiting periods for pre-existing conditions, and exclusions the family reads; the 870 requires it and the visitor visa should be treated as if it did. A grandparent with a chronic condition is also examined on the health requirement for any visa longer than a short visit, and the cost of the condition is assessed against the threshold. The Medicare guide lists the agreement countries.
Which route fits which family
- Help for the first year or two, grandparent with a home and a life to return to: the visitor visa, with the 8558 pattern planned and the health cover bought.
- Help through five years, continuous, family that passes the income test and can pay: the 870, with the insurance.
- A grandparent who will settle here permanently, and a family that can wait and pay: a contributory parent visa, with visitor visas or an 870 in the meantime.
- An aged parent already here on a visitor visa without 8503, and a family that wants them to stay through the queue: an onshore parent application and the bridging visa, with the trade-offs it carries.
- A grandparent who wants to be paid, or to care for other children: no route; it is work, and no parent or visitor visa permits it.
Sequencing the early years
- Apply for the visitor visa early, well before the birth, with the parent's history, ties and funds, and ask for the longer validity if the history supports it.
- Take out health cover from the first day.
- Plan the stays against 8558 with the calculator, and keep the grandparent's home, finances and life abroad visibly in place for the border.
- If the family wants a longer continuous stay, start the 870 sponsorship while the first visit runs, from a visitor visa without 8503.
- If the family wants the grandparent here permanently, lodge the permanent application as early as the balance of family test and the sponsor allow, and run the temporary visas alongside the queue.
Book a consultation — $330 inc. GST, credited
General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Subclasses 600 and 870 and the parent visa subclasses in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, conditions 8101, 8503 and 8558 in Schedule 8, and the definition of work in regulation 1.03, as in force at the date above; the 870 sponsor income test, charges and the visitor visa validity periods are the Department’s and change. 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.
Not sure which visa fits you?
Answer three questions. An automated guide points you to the route that usually applies. General information only.
Ask Keshab a question — it costs nothing
Tell Keshab your situation and your question. Keshab reads it personally and replies within a business day. Asking costs nothing. Advice on your own case is the paid consultation.
Ready now? Skip the form. Pick a time and talk to Keshab directly — your documents on the table, a straight answer, and a written summary afterwards. $330 inc. GST, credited toward your fee if you engage.
Pick a time — no enquiry needed →Questions we get asked first
Is there a visa for my mother to come and help with the baby?
Not as such. Australia has no visa for grandparents to provide childcare, and no visa condition that recognises it. What exists is a visitor visa that can be granted to parents of Australians for up to three years with multiple entries, which most families use; a temporary sponsored parent visa for a continuous stay of three or five years, which fewer use because of its cost; and the permanent parent visas, which are a queue. The visit is the realistic route for the first years, provided the family understands its limit, which is twelve months in any eighteen.
Can she stay the whole three years on the visitor visa?
No. A long-validity visitor visa carries condition 8558, which prohibits staying in Australia for more than twelve months in any eighteen-month period, and a stay of more than twelve months continuous ends the visa. The three years is the period in which she can come and go; the stay is limited to twelve months in any eighteen, so the pattern is a long stay, a period away, and a return. The Department also looks at whether a person is in substance living in Australia on a visitor visa, and a grandparent who is here eleven months in every twelve is asked at the border what the visit is.
Is looking after the grandchildren work?
Not where it is unpaid care of your own family. Work, for the visa, is an activity that normally attracts payment in Australia, and the Department does not treat a grandparent caring for their own grandchildren, unpaid, as working. A grandparent who is paid, who cares for other people's children, or who is engaged as a nanny with a wage, is working, and a visitor visa does not permit it. The line is between family life and employment.
What is the 870 and is it worth it?
The Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa allows a parent to stay continuously for three or five years, renewable once to a total of ten, sponsored by a child who meets an income test and who undertakes to cover the parent's health and other debts. It carries no work rights, requires private health insurance for the whole stay, and has an application charge that runs to thousands of dollars for three years and more for five. For a family that wants the grandparent here through the early years without the 12-in-18 pattern, and can meet the cost and the sponsor test, it fits; for most, the visitor visa does the job more cheaply.
What about Medicare and health insurance?
A visitor or 870 holder is not eligible for Medicare unless a citizen of a reciprocal health care agreement country, and an older person without cover is a serious financial risk; a hospital admission costs tens of thousands. The 870 requires insurance; the visitor visa does not require it but the family takes it out anyway, and the insurance market for older visitors is limited and priced on age. The permanent parent visas bring Medicare on grant, which for the contributory visas is years away.
What does the consultation cost?
A$330 inc. GST for 30 minutes by video with Keshab Chapagain (MARN 1576536), credited in full if you engage WIDEN. For a family planning a grandparent's help the session sets the routes against the family's years, cost and the grandparent's health, and sequences the visits and any permanent application so that the early years are covered.
Keep reading