Who Is Eligible for Australia's Subclass 116 Carer Visa in 2026?

Plain-language guide · general information, not immigration advice

You are likely eligible for Australia's Subclass 116 Carer visa only if you clear four separate gates at once: you must be outside Australia when you apply and when the decision is made, you must be a relative of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who needs care, someone eligible must sponsor you, and your relative's condition must meet the legal definition of needing a carer who cannot reasonably be replaced by care available in Australia. This article reflects the Department of Home Affairs' official Carer visa (subclass 116) page as at July 2026, read together with the Subclass 116 criteria in the Migration Regulations 1994 and departmental policy guidance. It is general information about published criteria, not a personalised assessment of your situation — confirm your own case against the current official text or with a registered professional before you lodge anything.

What are the four gates I have to pass?

The subclass 116 is a permanent visa in the family stream, so the department is testing a relationship and a care need rather than your skills, points or job offer. Reduced to what you can self-check, the tests are:

Location — you are outside Australia at the time of application and at the time of decision.
Relationship — the person needing care is your Australian relative, or a member of their family who needs care and lives with them.
Sponsorship — your Australian relative (or their spouse or de facto partner) sponsors you, and that sponsorship is approved.
Care need — your relative has a long-term or permanent medical condition, cannot reasonably access care in Australia, and you are willing and able to provide substantial, continuing, direct care.

Failing any one of them ends the assessment, so it is worth reading them in the order below rather than starting with cost or processing time.

Do I have to be outside Australia?

Yes, at both ends. The department's page states that you must be outside Australia when you apply and when it decides your application, so a person who is onshore — even lawfully, on a visitor or student visa — cannot convert that stay into a subclass 116 application. There is no onshore equivalent step described on the visa page; the subclass 116 is the offshore carer pathway.

This also means planning your own travel: if you lodge while onshore, the application does not become valid simply because you later leave.

Which relatives count as my "Australian relative"?

The person you are coming to care for has to be an "Australian relative" — an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen — and has to be related to you in a way the regulations recognise: parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew, among others.

There is one important widening of this. The department's page says the person needing care may be either your Australian relative, or a member of your relative's family who needs care and lives with your relative. So the care recipient does not have to be your blood relative in every case; a relative's family member who shares the household can qualify, provided the chain back to your Australian relative is documented.

Who can sponsor me, and for how long?

Sponsorship runs alongside the relationship test. Under clause 116.212, the sponsor is either:

the Australian relative themselves, if they are at least 18; or
that relative's spouse or de facto partner, if the partner lives with the relative, is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, and is at least 18.

The sponsorship must be approved by the minister and still in force when the visa is decided (clause 116.222), and the visa page describes the sponsorship as covering your first two years in Australia. The practical consequence is that a relative who is under 18 cannot sponsor you directly — the sponsoring role moves to their spouse or partner, if there is one who qualifies.

Does my relative's condition clear the carer test?

This is the part most applications turn on, and it is stricter than "my relative needs help". Clause 116.221 requires you to meet the definition of a carer in regulation 1.15AA, which has three moving parts:

A long-term or permanent condition. The relative has a medical condition arising from disease, disability or ageing.
A functional threshold. The condition means the relative cannot manage at least four of the everyday activities used in the test, such as bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, moving around, or communicating.
Willingness and ability on your side. You must be willing and able to provide substantial, continuing and direct care yourself — not to arrange it from a distance or to move the relative into residential care soon after arrival.

What does "no reasonable access to care in Australia" mean?

It is not enough that care in Australia is inconvenient. The regulation asks whether the care the relative needs is reasonably available to them here; care that does not exist locally, costs more than the family can meet, or carries a wait long enough to leave the relative unsupported can all count as not reasonably accessible, depending on the evidence.

This limb is why the medical and care-availability evidence tends to carry the case. A specialist report that only says "needs daily help" is weaker than one that sets out which daily activities the relative cannot perform and why Australian options do not fill the gap.

Can I care for someone through a rota or shared arrangement?

The published criteria centre on your own willingness and ability to provide substantial and continuing direct care. If the care you would provide is occasional, or if the relative's needs can be met by a service already available to them, the carer definition is unlikely to be satisfied.

Can my family come with me?

Yes, members of your family unit can be included in the application when you apply, and the sponsorship must cover them as well (clause 116.312). Each family member who applies has to meet the health and character requirements themselves, and additional charges apply for each of them.

Secondary applicants are assessed against public interest criteria equivalent to your own, covering character, health, biometrics and the integrity of the information provided.

What else can stop an otherwise eligible application?

Even with the relationship, sponsorship and care evidence in place, an application can fail on the standard criteria:

Health and character. You and your accompanying family members must satisfy the health requirement (public interest criterion 4005) and the character criteria.
Document integrity. Public interest criteria 4020 and 4021 deal with false or misleading information and documents. A bogus document does not just sink the application; it can bring a bar on future applications.
Unpaid Australian medical debt. Applicants aged 18 or over at the time of application must not have an outstanding debt to the Australian government for health care (criterion 4019).
First entry date. If granted, you must enter Australia before the date in your grant letter, and the department's page notes this is generally set at 12 months from the date of grant.
Capping and queueing. The page states that demand for Other Family visas exceeds the places available each year, that processing times can be lengthy, and that subclass 116 applications are subject to capping and queueing. No specific waiting period is published as a guarantee.

What does it cost, and how is it paid?

The visa page does not state a single flat amount; it says the charge is paid in two instalments, the first when you apply and the second when the department asks for it, and it directs applicants to the Visa Pricing Estimator for an indication. Additional costs such as health checks, police certificates and biometrics are separate and apply per applicant.

The department may consider waiving the second instalment if paying it would cause you or the person you care for severe financial hardship, but it states it will not waive the second instalment for family members applying with you. From 1 July 2026, a lower visa application charge applies to eligible Pacific Island and Timor-Leste citizens who lodge a valid application and hold a valid passport from a listed country, with family members covered on the basis of the primary applicant's passport.

What do I actually get if I am eligible?

The subclass 116 is a permanent visa: you can stay in Australia indefinitely, work and study, enrol in Medicare, and sponsor relatives of your own, subject to the usual rules. Travel to and from Australia is available for five years from the date of grant; after that you need a Resident Return visa (subclass 155 or 157) to re-enter as a permanent resident, or Australian citizenship, if you qualify. Permanent residence for citizenship purposes starts on the day you first enter Australia on the visa.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I apply while I am visiting Australia?

No. The department requires you to be outside Australia both when you apply and when it decides the application, so lodging onshore does not work even if you intend to leave before the decision.

Does the person I care for have to be my own relative?

They must be your Australian relative, or a member of that relative's family who needs care and lives with your relative. Care recipients outside that link do not meet the relationship test for this visa.

How severe does my relative's condition need to be?

The regulation looks at whether the condition means they cannot carry out at least four of the specified daily living activities, such as bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, moving about or communicating, on a long-term or permanent basis.

Do I need nursing qualifications to be a carer?

The criteria focus on whether you are willing and able to provide substantial, continuing and direct care, not on holding a particular job title or licence. Professional experience can still help demonstrate ability, but it is not what the test turns on.

Is there a cap on how many of these visas are granted?

Yes. The department's page states that demand for Other Family visas exceeds the places available each year, that processing can be lengthy, and that subclass 116 applications are subject to capping and queueing.

Can the second instalment be waived?

The department may consider waiving it if paying it would cause severe financial hardship to you or the person you care for, on a written request. It states it will not waive the second instalment for anyone applying with you.