Visitor Visa (Subclass 600)

The streams

• Tourist stream — the standard application for holidays and family visits, lodged by the visitor (offshore, or onshore in more limited circumstances).
• Sponsored Family stream — an eligible Australian relative formally sponsors the visit, and the Department may request a security bond. Useful where the visitor's own profile raises genuine-visitor doubts, but it binds the sponsor to the outcome and generally rules out onshore applications during the stay.
• Business Visitor stream — meetings, conferences and negotiations. Strictly visitor activities: no work, no providing services to an Australian business.

Stay periods and validity — two different things

A 600 grant sets both a stay period (how long each visit can last — 3, 6 or 12 months) and a validity period (how long you can keep entering — often longer, with multiple entries). The Department chooses both based on your purpose and history; you request, they decide. Longer stays attract proportionally more scrutiny of funds, ties and purpose — a 12-month request needs a 12-month-shaped explanation.

The genuine visitor test — where the decision is made

The operative question for every 600: is the officer satisfied you genuinely intend a temporary visit and will comply with your conditions and leave? The assessment weighs:

• Home-country ties — employment or business to return to, property, family members remaining, study
• Funds — enough for the visit without working, evidenced, with the source of funds credible
• Immigration history — previous compliant visits help; overstays or refusals anywhere require honest, documented explanation
• The pattern of the application — purpose, duration and timing that make sense together. A visit story that reads like a settlement plan is the classic refusal.

Visitor visas for parents of Australians

Parents visiting adult children are the 600's biggest family use-case, and the settings acknowledge it: parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents can be granted longer-validity visitor visas — in some cases up to five years' validity with 12-month stays — particularly where a permanent parent visa sits in the queue. Conditions typically cap the total time spent in Australia within a rolling period, so the long-validity 600 is a visiting pattern, not residence. Families wanting continuous long stays should compare it honestly with the Subclass 870, which trades higher cost and sponsor requirements for 3–5 year continuous stays.

Conditions worth reading before you plan around them

• No work — visitor visas do not permit work; business visitor activities are narrowly defined.
• 8503 "no further stay" — attached to some grants (commonly Sponsored Family stream); it blocks most onshore applications unless waived for compelling, unforeseen circumstances. If your longer-term plans might involve an onshore application — partner, student — know whether 8503 is on the grant before travelling.
• Study limits — short courses only (generally up to 3 months).
• Rolling-period caps on longer-validity grants — track cumulative time onshore, because compliance is assessed at each entry.

If a visitor visa is refused

Most offshore visitor refusals carry no merits review right — the practical response is a stronger fresh application that squarely addresses the stated refusal reasons: better ties evidence, clearer funds, an honest account of history. Sponsored Family stream refusals can carry ART review rights for the sponsor. Repeated near-identical applications after refusal tend to entrench the record rather than fix it — change the evidence, not just the attempt.