Travelling Overseas While Waiting: Bridging Visa B

It is a Subclass 020 visa, set out in Part 020 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, and it has to be granted before you go. It is the travel add-on to the Bridging visa A that most 820 applicants already hold.

Who can apply

Clause 020.211 sets the first hurdle, and it is narrow. The applicant must be the holder of a Bridging A (Class WA) visa or a Bridging B (Class WB) visa. That is the whole of the clause.

So a Bridging visa C or Bridging visa E holder — the usual position for someone who lodged the 820 without a substantive visa — cannot be granted a Bridging visa B at all, and has no way to leave and return while the application is on foot. See applying on a bridging visa.

Clause 020.212(2) then sets the substance. The applicant must have:

• made, in Australia, a valid application for a substantive visa of a kind that can be granted while the applicant is in Australia (the 820 is such a visa);
• an application that has not been finally determined;
• a wish to leave and re-enter Australia during the processing of that application; and
• reasons for wishing to do so that the Minister is satisfied are substantial.

Clause 020.213 adds that the return to Australia must not be contrary to the public interest, clause 020.223 requires public interest criterion 4021 (a valid passport, unless it would be unreasonable to require one), and clause 020.221 requires the applicant to still satisfy clauses 020.211 and 020.212 when the decision is made. Schedule 1 requires the applicant to be in Australia but not in immigration clearance when the application is made; clause 020.411 requires the same at grant.

What clause 020.511(1)(c) actually adds

This is the provision that does the work. Clause 010.511, for a Bridging visa A, permits the holder to remain in Australia and says nothing about entering it. Clause 020.511(1)(c) permits the holder to travel to and enter Australia until the time set by paragraph (b) — the same end point as the stay permission — unless the Minister has specified an earlier time for the purpose.

That closing exception is where the travel period comes from. Where an earlier time is specified, travel permission ends then, even though permission to remain runs on until the 820 application is resolved.

What "substantial reasons" tends to mean

The Regulations do not define "substantial", and no general page can tell you whether your own reason will satisfy the Minister. It is a real test, decided on the material the applicant puts in.

The reasons people give are the ordinary events of a life lived across two countries: a parent or sibling who is seriously ill, a funeral, a wedding, the birth of a family member's child, or work travel an employer requires. Describing the reason and attaching something that corroborates it — a letter from a hospital, a death notice, an invitation, a letter from an employer — is the difference between a reason that has been evidenced and one that has only been asserted.

When to apply, and how long it takes

Apply well before you travel, and do not book anything you cannot afford to lose until the visa is granted.

No processing time is stated here as current fact. The Department of Home Affairs publishes indicative times on its visa processing times page, and describes them as a guide only and not specific to any particular application. Check that page, and allow a margin: nothing speeds a bridging visa up because a flight is already paid for.

The travel period, and returning late

Check the travel-until time recorded against your own visa in VEVO, the Department's online checking service, rather than assuming it matches your itinerary.

If it ends while you are still overseas, the position is serious. Section 82(5) of the Migration Act provides that a visa to travel to and enter Australia until a particular date ceases at the end of that date unless the holder entered Australia during that period and is in Australia at the end of it. A holder still abroad meets neither limb.

Nor can you repair it from overseas, because a further Bridging visa B requires the applicant to be in Australia. Getting back then depends on being granted some other visa from outside Australia.

If you need to travel more than once, you can apply again — clause 020.211 expressly contemplates an applicant who already holds a Bridging visa B — but each is its own application, with its own decision and its own charge.

What happens to your 820 while you are away

The application keeps being processed, and it can be decided. Clause 820.411 provides that the applicant may be in or outside Australia when the visa is granted, but not in immigration clearance. If the 820 is granted while you are overseas, the bridging visa ends under section 82(3), and clause 820.511 gives the 820 its own travel facility — see travelling on a granted 820.

The Department also keeps corresponding with you, and requests for more information run to their own deadlines wherever you are. Keep ImmiAccount accessible from overseas.

The risk of travelling with a decision imminent

A refusal while you are outside Australia is the case to think about before you book. Under clause 020.511(1)(b)(ii) a refusal ends the bridging visa 35 days after the decision, and under paragraph (c) the travel permission ends at the same point unless an earlier time was specified. Section 347(2) of the Migration Act then provides that, for the kind of decision an 820 refusal is, an application for review may only be made by a non-citizen who is physically present in the migration zone when the review application is made.

So if the 820 is refused while you are overseas, you have to be back in Australia to lodge at the Administrative Review Tribunal, and inside a travel permission that is itself expiring. See why 820 visas are refused and appealing at the ART.

The charge

Unlike a Bridging visa A, which carries a nil base application charge, Schedule 1 sets a base application charge for a Bridging B (Class WB) visa. No amount is quoted here, because charges change. The current figure is published by the Department on its current visa pricing page. See also 820 visa cost.

Long absences and the permanent stage

One trip, properly documented, is an ordinary part of a long wait. Long or repeated absences are a different thing, because the permanent stage is decided on the relationship as it stands then.

Clause 801.221(2) requires that the applicant is the spouse or de facto partner of the sponsoring partner at the time of decision, and the definitions in sections 5F and 5CB of the Migration Act include that the couple do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis. Months on different continents do not defeat that, but they do have to be explained. Keep the evidence covering the time apart and the reason for it — see relationship evidence and evidence when you live apart.

Travel during a Partner visa application is where an application prepared by an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed, because the failures here are failures of timing rather than of merit: the visa that had to exist before departure, the travel date that lapsed while the holder was abroad, the 35 days after a refusal that run while the applicant is in another hemisphere. Nobody can promise an outcome.

What to do next

Confirm what you hold and what it permits, then apply before you book. If the wait is the problem, see 820 visa processing time; if the permanent stage is what you are preparing for, see when the 801 is assessed.