The Amendment

On 26 March 2018, the Minister for Social Service Dan Tehan introduced a legislative instrument to amend the financial criteria for Assurance of Support in which all Australian citizens and permanent residents who wish to sponsor their overseas parents to come to Australia under 143 Contributory Parent visa program have to meet.

Under current new requirement, the taxable income for sponsor will almost double compared with the previous requirement, and the years required to meet the requirement has increased from 2 years to 3 years. Such as 1 adult assurer to provide assurance for 1 parent has to be at least $58,860.94 annually(previous required amount only a little bit over $30000). And if an assurer is married or has a de facto partner, the income requirement will be significantly increased to $88,291.41 annually regardless of whether or not this partner or spouse is willing to be jointly included into the assurance of support.

The level of taxable income required, will increase depending upon the number of individuals giving the AOS and the number of people included in the AOS.

Who will be affected by this amendment?

All Australian citizens and permanent residents who have parents overseas are or will be affected in following ways:

You will be required for higher taxable income, different from assessable income, which means you cannot exercise your legitimate rights to claim a tax deduction to legally minimise your taxation burden

You will face much more higher taxable income requirements if you have a spouse or de facto partner, especially when you have at least one child and your spouse or partner is resigned and taking care of your child at home

You will be affected if you have already lodged a 143 visa application for your parents and you may not satisfy the new income requirements as it almost doubled up the previous requirement.

It is also noted that after 1 April 2019 the AOS bond for Contributory Parent visas (CPVs) will also be increased from $10000 to $15000 and for non CPV from $4000 to $6000.

Administrator’s note

This is a draconian measure introduced with little consultation and is retrospective, thereby affecting applicants who have had applications on the pipe-line for some time, before the introduction of this unfair impost.

This will significantly impact the ability of Australian citizens and permanent residents to be re-united with parents.

We suggest all interested parties urgently petition your local Federal member because the Greens and Labor are intending to seek to have the amendment disallowed in the Senate. Disallowance is the only way this amendment -which is law currently- will not apply!