Holding a subclass 820 neither helps nor hurts that application directly. What you can do from Australia is give them a clear, honest invitation and support letter, and make sure everyone understands what a visitor visa is and is not before anyone books a flight.
Who applies, and who decides
The parent is the applicant. The application is made in their name, assessed against the requirements the Department sets for the visitor visa they apply for, and decided by the Department. Nothing about that changes because their child in Australia holds a partner visa.
That has a practical consequence worth saying plainly: you cannot promise your parents a visa, and neither can anyone else. The Department publishes the requirements, the evidence expected and the current cost for each visitor visa on its own visa listing pages. Check them before applying, because requirements, charges and stay periods all change.
The invitation or support letter
An invitation letter is not a formal requirement, but it is commonly provided and it is the one part of the process you control. It exists to give the decision maker context: who the visitor is coming to see, why now, and what arrangements are in place.
A useful letter is short and factual, and generally covers:
- Who you are — your name, your address in Australia, and the visa you hold, with a VEVO check or your grant letter attached as evidence of status.
- Who is visiting and how they are related — with the documents that show the relationship, such as a birth certificate, translated if it is not in English.
- Why they are coming and roughly when — a wedding, the birth of a child, a first visit to meet a partner's family, a period of help at home.
- Where they will stay — your address, or the accommodation arranged.
- What costs you will meet — accommodation, food, travel within Australia, and whether you are covering health cover or fares, stated honestly.
- That they are expected to return — their circumstances at home, in their words rather than yours.
Two cautions. Do not overstate anything, because an invitation letter that conflicts with the applicant's own evidence damages the application it was meant to support. And keep it to what you know: your parents' employment, property and obligations at home are theirs to evidence.
Important
The letter supports their application. It does not create an entitlement, and no support letter obliges the Department to grant anything. Write it to inform the decision maker, not to persuade your parents that the visa is assured.
Conditions on a visitor visa
Every Australian visa carries conditions, and the Department decides which ones to impose. Because Australian visas are digital and there is no label in the passport, the conditions appear in VEVO, the Department's online checking service. Check there as soon as the visa is granted.
The condition to look for is a no further stay condition, such as condition 8503. The Department describes a no further stay condition as one that prevents visa holders from applying for many temporary and permanent visas while they are in Australia. A waiver can be requested in limited circumstances, through the Department's No Further Stay waiver request form or Form 1447, and the Department is clear that a waiver must be approved before an affected application can be made. Other conditions may also apply — including conditions about work, study and health insurance — and they are conditions on the visa, not suggestions. The parallel rules for partner visa applicants are explained on condition 8503 no further stay.
A visit is not a step towards residence
This is the misunderstanding that causes the most damage, usually months after the visit.
A visitor visa is for a temporary visit. It is not a foothold, a trial period or a partial application for anything else. Conditions on the visa may restrict what the holder can apply for while in Australia, the Department assesses every application on its own criteria, and a person who overstays or breaches a condition creates problems that outlast the trip. Any later plan is a fresh application, decided against fresh criteria, with conditions that may bar it from being made onshore at all.
The same warning applies in reverse to partner visa applicants who are themselves in Australia as visitors — that situation has its own page at applying from a visitor visa. As at 23 September 2026, a proposal to restrict visitor visa holders from applying for partner visas onshore had not become law; see proposed visitor visa changes and check the position again before relying on it.
What about permanent pathways for parents?
They exist, they are applied for in their own right, and they are outside the scope of this guide. The Department publishes the parent visa options, their requirements, their charges and their queue arrangements on its own visa listing pages, and the waiting times involved are long enough that planning around them is a separate exercise entirely.
One connection is worth knowing about now. The Department says that on the permanent subclass 801 you can sponsor eligible family members — something the temporary 820 does not allow. If a permanent pathway for a parent is part of your longer plan, the order of events matters, and the starting point is the permanent stage itself. See subclass 801 permanent visa and from the 801 to citizenship.
What a visit can do for your own application
The social context of the relationship is one of the four matters a decision maker must consider, and it is the matter most files are thinnest on. A visit from either partner's parents produces exactly the material that section wants: photographs with dates, messages arranging the trip, records of travel and shared activities, and evidence that each family knows and accepts the relationship.
Keep it in proportion. A visit is a supporting detail, not a substitute for the financial and household evidence, and no one should plan a family trip around a visa file. But if it happens, keep the photographs and the correspondence. See social context evidence.
An application prepared with an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed where a family visit and a partner visa intersect — a parent who wants to stay longer, a visa carrying a no further stay condition, or a plan that depends on making an application onshore — because the condition on the visa decides what is possible, and it has to be read before anyone acts on it, not after.
What to do next
Point your parents to the Department's own visitor visa pages for the requirements and the current cost, write the invitation letter honestly, and check the granted visa in VEVO for conditions on the day it comes through. If you are planning to travel to see them instead, read travelling on a granted 820 first. The rest of the practical list is on settling in Australia, and if you want to talk a specific situation through, see working with a migration lawyer.
Common questions
Can I sponsor my parents to visit while I hold an 820?
A visitor visa is applied for by the parent, in their own name, and is decided on its own merits by the Department of Home Affairs. You can support the application with an invitation letter and evidence of your circumstances in Australia, but the applicant is your parent and the decision is about them. A subclass 820 holder does not have a formal family sponsorship power; the permanent subclass 801 allows sponsoring eligible family members, and the Department sets out which relatives and which visas that covers.
What should an invitation letter say?
Who you are and what visa you hold, who is visiting and how they are related to you, why they are coming and for roughly how long, where they will stay, and what costs you will meet. Attach evidence of your own status, such as a VEVO check or your grant letter, and your address. Do not make claims you cannot back up, and do not guarantee any outcome, because the Department decides the application, not you.
Can my parents apply for a partner visa or residence once they are here?
A visitor visa is not a step towards permanent residence. Visitor visas can carry conditions that restrict what the holder may apply for while in Australia, including no further stay conditions such as condition 8503, and the Department must approve a waiver of such a condition before any onshore application can be made. Permanent pathways for parents exist separately and are applied for in their own right.
How do we check what conditions their visa carries?
Through VEVO, the Department's online checking service. Australian visas are digital and carry no label in the passport, so VEVO is where the visa's conditions appear. Check as soon as the visa is granted rather than near the end of the stay, because a condition that restricts further applications changes what options exist and when.
Do our parents' visits help our partner visa application?
They can contribute to the social context of the relationship, which is one of the four matters the decision maker must consider. Photographs, messages and travel records showing each partner's family treating you as a couple are the kind of evidence that section is short on. It is a supporting detail, not a substitute for the financial and household material.
Sources
Keep reading
Changing Your Name After Marriage (and on Your Visa)
Changing your name after marriage in Australia, how it is evidenced, and what the Department must be told — Form 1022, Form 929, and why the passport matters.
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Enrolling Children in School on a Partner Visa
Who runs school enrolment for children on a partner visa, what schools usually ask for, why fee arrangements differ by state, and the subclass 445 pathway.
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Tax File Number, Bank Accounts and Leases in Joint Names
How to sort a tax file number, bank accounts and a lease after an 820 grant, and why joint paperwork opened early is worth more at the 801 stage.
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