Refugee Council of Australia has been making many representations to the Australian immigration Office and to Immigration Minister Alex Hawke to make it easy to bring parents to Australia. We have counted following benefits of having parents of young families to visit :
Parents of adult Australian citizens and permanent residents
From 1 November 2021, the definition of ‘immediate family member’ will include the parents of adult Australian citizens and permanent residents. This is for the purpose of assessing exemptions to Australia’s travel restrictions only.
The definition of parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents includes:
- biological parents
- legal (including adoptive) parents
- step-parents
- parents in-law.
Before you can travel, you will need to have your relationship with your adult Australian child confirmed by submitting a travel exemption request. You must submit your request through the Travel Exemption Portal. Select the category ‘I am an immediate family member’ and then ‘parent of adult Australian citizen or permanent resident’.
You will need to provide evidence of:
- your adult child’s Australian citizenship or permanent residency; and
- your parental relationship to the Australian citizen or permanent resident.
Entry to Australia remains controlled to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. You can only travel to Australia if you are exempt or you have been granted an individual exemption. You can also request an exemption as an immediate family member.
- When grandparents are at home, they can look after grandchildren. This saves burden on child care facilities and saves the government a lot of money in child care subsidies.
- Mother can continue working as grandparents are at home to look after children as well as cooking and chores. Mother does not have to take time off work and does not have to rush home to pick children from child care. Australia is not deprived of trained skilled workforce.
- Women who choose to have babies get an equal opportunity to participate in work. This step removes a barrier for women to participate in work fully like other Australians.
- Future Australians being looked after by grandparents get much better care.
- When parents get old, many Hindu sons return back to India to look after their old parents. This deprives Australia of experienced skilled workforce.
The new rules will help young families in Australia, they will help reduce child care costs, they will boost skilled work force and they will provide refugee and migrant women a level playing field for employment.
For more information and to apply for an exemption, please go to this page
Source
Image Source
