Bridging Visa A While Your 820 Is Processed

A Bridging visa A is the visa that keeps most onshore Partner visa applicants lawfully in Australia while the subclass 820 is decided. It is a Subclass 010 visa, set out in Part 010 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, and it is granted to a person who applied for the 820 in Australia while they still held a substantive visa. This page explains who gets one, when it starts, what it allows, and how it ends.

Who gets a Bridging visa A

Clause 010.211 of Schedule 2 sets the criteria. The subclause that covers ordinary Partner visa applicants requires that:

• the applicant has made, in Australia, a valid application for a substantive visa of a kind that can be granted while the applicant is in Australia (the subclass 820 is such a visa);
• that application has not been finally determined;
• the applicant held a substantive visa at the time that application was made; and
• the applicant has applied for a bridging visa in respect of that application, or one can be granted without a separate application under regulation 2.21B.

Clause 010.411 adds that the applicant must be in Australia, but not in immigration clearance, when the visa is granted. Schedule 1 sets the base application charge for a Bridging A (Class WA) visa at nil, so in the ordinary case there is nothing extra to pay.

A "substantive visa" means any visa other than a bridging, criminal justice or enforcement visa — so a student, visitor, working holiday or skilled work visa all count.

When does it come into effect?

Clause 010.511 provides that a Bridging A visa comes into effect either on grant, or when the substantive visa (if any) held by the holder ceases. For most 820 applicants it is the second of these that matters.

That has a consequence people often miss. If your student visa runs for another eight months after you lodge the 820, you remain a student visa holder for those eight months, and the student visa's conditions — not the bridging visa's — govern what you may do. The bridging visa sits behind it and switches on the day the student visa ends.

How long does it last?

Clause 010.511 also sets the end point. The bridging visa permits the holder to remain in Australia until, in the ordinary cases:

• the grant of the substantive visa applied for;
• 35 days after a decision to refuse to grant the visa (with a narrow exception where certain public interest criteria are the reason for refusal, in which case the bridging visa ends at the time of the decision);
• 35 days after the Administrative Review Tribunal decides a review of that refusal;
• 35 days after the applicant withdraws the application; or
• the grant of another bridging visa in respect of the same application.

So the bridging visa does not expire on a date. It runs until the application it is attached to is resolved, then gives a short tail. If the 820 is refused, that 35-day tail is the window in which decisions about review have to be made. See why 820 visas are refused and appealing at the ART.

What does it allow you to do?

It allows you to stay in Australia lawfully while the application is decided. That is its core function, and it is what stops a long processing time turning an applicant into an unlawful non-citizen.

Everything else depends on the conditions attached to the particular bridging visa. Clause 010.611 provides that, in the ordinary case, a Bridging A visa carries whichever of a listed set of conditions — including condition 8101 (the holder must not engage in work in Australia) and condition 8104 (the holder must not engage in work for more than 40 hours a fortnight) — applied to the visa the holder held at the time of application.

So the bridging visa inherits. A visa with unrestricted work rights produces a bridging visa with unrestricted work rights; a visa with a work limit produces a bridging visa with the same limit.

There is one route out of an inherited restriction. Clause 010.211(4) allows a further Bridging A visa to be granted to a person whose current bridging visa carries one of those work conditions, where the Minister is satisfied the applicant has a compelling need to work; a bridging visa granted on that basis carries no conditions. "Compelling need to work" is a defined term in the Regulations, and the Department decides whether it is met.

Do not work your own position out from a general description. Check the conditions recorded against your visa in VEVO, the Department's online checking service, which shows the visa in effect and its conditions. More detail is at work rights.

It ends if you leave Australia

A Bridging visa A permits the holder to remain in Australia. It does not permit the holder to travel to and enter Australia — that permission appears in Part 020, for the Bridging visa B, and not in Part 010.

Section 82(8) of the Migration Act 1958 provides that a visa to remain in, but not re-enter, Australia that is granted to a non-citizen in Australia ceases to be in effect if the holder leaves Australia. A Bridging visa A holder who boards a flight out of the country therefore loses the bridging visa at departure, and has no visa to come back on.

To travel and return, you need a Bridging visa B granted before you go. Under clause 020.212 the applicant must want to leave and re-enter Australia during the processing of the substantive application, and the Minister must be satisfied that the reasons for wishing to do so are substantial; clause 020.213 adds that the return must not be contrary to the public interest. Clause 020.511 then gives the Bridging visa B the travel permission a Bridging visa A lacks. See Bridging visa B and travel.

What happens when the 820 is granted or refused

On grant, the bridging visa ends by operation of law. Section 82(3) of the Migration Act provides that a bridging visa ceases to be in effect when another visa comes into effect for the holder, so the subclass 820 simply takes over. From that point you hold a temporary Partner visa with its own entitlements, including travel — see what the 820 visa lets you do.

On refusal, the bridging visa runs for the 35-day period described above, unless the narrow public interest criteria exception applies. What happens after that depends on whether review is sought within time.

If you are not eligible for a Bridging visa A

Eligibility turns on one fact: whether you held a substantive visa when you lodged the 820. A person who applied while unlawful, or while holding only a bridging visa, does not meet clause 010.211 and will not be granted a Bridging visa A.

Those applicants fall into the Bridging visa C (Subclass 030) or Bridging visa E framework instead. Clause 030.212 covers a person who is not the holder of a substantive visa and has made a valid onshore application that has not been finally determined. The practical difference is severe: clause 030.614 provides that, in any case other than the specific ones listed, a Bridging visa C carries condition 8101 — no work at all. A further Bridging visa C with work rights can be sought under clause 030.212(3) where the Minister is satisfied there is a compelling need to work.

Clause 020.211 also requires an applicant for a Bridging visa B to hold a Bridging A or Bridging B visa, so a Bridging visa C or E holder cannot travel and return at all while the application is on foot.

Applicants in this position usually have two other problems at the same time: the Schedule 3 criteria and, if a visa has been refused or cancelled, the section 48 bar. See applying on a bridging visa, Schedule 3 criteria and the section 48 bar.

Bridging visa questions are where an application prepared by a migration lawyer is more likely to succeed, because the timing is unforgiving: a Bridging visa B has to exist before the plane leaves, a compelling-need-to-work request has to be evidenced rather than asserted, and the 35 days after a refusal run whether or not anyone is watching. Nobody can promise an outcome.

What to do next

Check your current visa and its conditions in VEVO, then read work rights if you need to work, or Bridging visa B and travel if you need to leave Australia. For how long the wait is likely to run, see 820 visa processing time.