Melmike

Hi,

My wife and I are Australian citizens living in Melbourne. My wife's aunt (Indian passport holder) came to Australia last year on a FA/600 visa to help us after the birth of our baby.

Visa details:
Visa grant date 25 August 2016
Visa expiry date 25 August 2017
Location Offshore
Entries allowed Multiple entries to and from Australia during the validity of your visa
Must not arrive after 25 August 2017
Period of stay 03 months on each arrival
Visa condition(s)
8101 - No work: The visa holder cannot work in Australia.
8201 - Maximum 3 Months Study: While in Australia, the holder must not engage, for more than three months, in any studies or training.


The aunt arrived in Australia on 29-Aug-2016. In November 2016 we successfully applied for an extension of her visa as follows.

Visa details:
Visa grant date 14 November 2016
Visa expiry date 25 August 2017
Location Onshore
Entries allowed Multiple entries to and from Australia during the validity of your visa
Initial stay date 25 August 2017
Must not arrive after 25 August 2017
Period of stay Until 25 August 2017
Visa condition(s)
8101 - No work: The visa holder cannot work in Australia.
8201 - Maximum 3 Months Study: While in Australia, the holder must not engage, for more than three months, in any studies or training.

She left for India on February 19, 2017, but she's now planning to fly in again in mid-June to help us around. However her current visa allows her only to stay in Australia until August 25th, which is just for ~2 months.

What are our chances of getting another extension, say for another 6-12 months' stay?
Anyone had a similar experience?

Cheers,
Mike

Dorothy

No,.she cannot enter after August. She can enter on.24 August and stay for 3 months if she wants to. She just cannot enter after the 25th.

teza

So she's babysitting & housekeeping whilst here (your own words, she's not visiting, she's helping). This is actually working against the visa rules as plenty of housekeepers, nannies etc around and she's performing duties you'd normally get paid in Oz. That is, if she's visiting to help you.

spouse of scouse

Tez, I don't think a family member helping out around the house and doing a bit of babysitting would violate a tourist visa. If someone visited me for 3 months and didn't help in some way, I'd kick them out!

Pollyana

Depends if its a bit of help, or full-time to avoid childcare etc.
I worked with a Philippino woman a few years back and she had a succession of family members visiting for a year at a time, each one would mind the woman's 5 kids and run her home, whilst she and her husband were working. They got free bed and board in return, plus got paid a bit here and there which was sent back home. Apparently nieces back home were eagerly awaiting their turn, and openly referred to it as "working in Australia". She would have a kid every two years, then straight back to work leaving the kids with the relative. Very common with Asian-origin families, a definite abuse of the system, and there are a fair few visa refusals and appeals out there as a result.

I'm making no judgement on the OP's relative but she has been visiting for nearly a year and wants another year. Long holiday.

louie

Family members taking on childcare whilst on visas which do not have work rights appears to be encouraged, not disapproved of, judging by these comments about the new parent visa in the last few days -

"Those on the new visa will not be allowed to work, however, the government hopes they will take on family roles which would see “reduced pressure on childcare facilities.” “Grandparents will be available and able to, under this visa, care for their grandchildren while the parents work,” Mr Hawke said."

Pollyana

I freely admit that my info is largely based on reading appeal cases from a few years ago. Be interesting to know from an agent whether the rules have changed. Certainly a few years back it was frowned on to get repeated tourist visas and to use them to,live in Aus, while undertaking work that would otherwise be done by those allowed to do it. Maybe now they are going to ease up all round on the tourist visa restrictions -after all if the holders of the new parent tourist visa are allowed to do unpaid work, then the same ought really to apply to all other tourist visas...... interesting times?

BritInParis

That's because, unlike a visitor visa, they'll be paying DIBP large sums for the privilege.

Le_Main

That's actually not what the visa grant cut and paste the OP put in his post says. The original visa was:
Must not arrive after 25 August 2017
Period of stay 03 months on each arrival

The new one is:
Must not arrive after 25 August 2017
Period of stay Until 25 August 2017

I'd suggest checking with DIBP but seems clear that the stay is only until that date?

xizzles

Oh my goodness. The pH in the water just plunged with that post.

teza

Why? Because I pointed the thing border control will think? 20yrs in Australia I've seen plenty of people abusing the system, as Polly said, family member after family member "babysitting" to save on childcare cost, which is massive btw.
Most don't abuse the system but has been known to be used by certain families.