A bridging visa is exactly what it sounds like: a bridge that keeps you lawfully in Australia while something else is being sorted out. It is not a destination. This guide lets you find your bridge, watch how it behaves, and test what you know.
Pick what happens to your application and see how the bridge reacts. This is the pattern most bridging visas follow (the classic case is a Bridging A, subclass 010).
You are in Australia on a substantive visa and lodge a valid application for another one.
The bridging visa is granted straight away, yet it only switches on when your current visa ends.
Your current visa expires; the bridging visa now keeps you lawful while the Department decides.
The bridge ends the moment your new visa is granted. You simply step onto the new visa.
Four quick questions. The answer is educational, not a determination: the actual visa depends on your full circumstances and on the Department’s decision.
Schedule 1 sets out seven bridging visa classes; Schedule 2 gives the criteria for the nine subclasses within them.
You held a substantive visa and lodged a valid onshore application for another one. Sits dormant until your visa ends, then keeps you lawful.
For BVA or BVB holders who need to leave Australia and return while the application, a partner application or judicial review is pending.
You lodged a valid onshore application while holding no substantive visa, and have not held a Bridging E since your last substantive visa.
A five working day breathing space for someone who tried but could not lodge a valid application, or an unlawful person who cannot yet be interviewed for a BVE.
The widest-reaching class. For unlawful non-citizens and current BVE holders who need to regularise: an application, review, ministerial intervention or departure.
Granted on written police advice that a person is a suspected victim of human trafficking, slavery or slavery-like practices, or their immediate family.
For people in immigration detention whose removal from Australia is not reasonably practicable. Grant is by Ministerial invitation only.
Your bridging visa grant notice states the subclass and conditions. Use VEVO to check what is current, and ask us if anything is unclear.
Bring your grant letter or your ImmiAccount details to a consultation and we will tell you exactly which bridge you are on, what conditions apply and when it ends.
Regulation 2.21 ranks the classes from most to least beneficial. If you hold several bridging visas at once, the highest on this ladder is the one that operates. Tap a rung.
Make your call, then see the answer.
Only a Bridging B allows travel and re-entry, and you must show substantial reasons to travel. Leave Australia on a Bridging A, C, D or E and it ceases; you may not be able to return.
It depends on the bridge. A Bridging A or B usually inherits the work conditions of the visa you held when you applied. A Bridging C or E usually starts with condition 8101 (no work), and lifting it means applying for a further bridging visa on the ground of a compelling need to work.
Fact. Almost every bridging visa runs for 35 days after a refusal or an ART decision (28 days after judicial review ends). That tail is what lets you lodge a review, seek ministerial intervention or arrange to depart without becoming unlawful. The clock is short, so act on day one.
Most bridging visas are granted while your current visa is still valid and simply wait. They come into effect when that visa ceases, and end when the application is granted, or 35 days after a refusal, ART decision or withdrawal.
A Bridging A or B usually inherits the conditions of the visa you held at the time you applied. A Bridging C or E usually starts with no work. Compelling need to work, as defined in regulation 1.03, is the route to a further bridging visa without that condition (protection visa applicants excepted for the BVA).
Several provisions let the Minister grant a bridging visa without a formal application: a mandatory Bridging A in certain partner and parent situations, a BVA, BVC or BVE off particular application forms, an automatic Bridging E after some PIC 4003 refusals, and the Bridging R by invitation.
A person in immigration detention can only be considered for a Bridging E or F, decisions run to fixed time frames (as short as two working days), and if those periods lapse the visa is taken to be granted with fixed conditions.
Deadlines on bridging visas are short and unforgiving. Book a consultation and we will confirm which bridge you are on, what conditions apply, and what to do before it ends.
An Australian legal practice.
Deepika Khurana, Principal Lawyer
Ossama Kanjo, Migration Lawyer
470 St Kilda Road
Melbourne VIC 3004
03 8108 8748
info@skylinemigrationlawyers.com.au
The information on this website is general information only. It is not legal advice and it does not take your circumstances into account. Migration law changes frequently. Please obtain advice from Skyline Migration Lawyers before acting or applying. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
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