Contact Carer Visa Australia: the Carer visa enquiry form

The Carer visa enquiry form sends your question, in 7 short fields, to a registered migration practice that reads it and replies to the email address you give. This guide itself gives no personal advice, and the practice may offer paid services, which are agreed with you directly and in writing before any work starts.

The form asks who you are in the family (the relative who would give care, the relative who needs care, a sponsor, or someone else) and whether the person applying is in Australia now or outside it. Those two answers tell the practice which subclass is likely to apply: 836 in Australia, 116 outside.

What happens when you send a Carer visa enquiry?

When you send a Carer visa enquiry, it goes through four steps, from this site to a reply in your inbox.

1. The form checks your entries. Your name, email address, situation and consent are required; the phone number is optional.
2. The enquiry is passed on. It goes to a registered migration practice, and nowhere else.
3. The practice replies. A reply comes to the email address you gave, from the practice, not from this guide.
4. You decide what happens next. Any further help, free or paid, is agreed between you and the practice. Sending an enquiry does not commit you to anything, and a registered migration agent must give you a written statement of the services and estimated fees before starting paid work, as the Code of Conduct requires.

Who reads an enquiry about your Carer visa case?

An enquiry about your Carer visa case is read by a registered migration practice, which this guide does not name, rank or advertise.

Before agreeing to anything, you can check any migration agent's registration number (MARN) on the OMARA Register of Migration Agents. The Department of Home Affairs does not receive or see your enquiry.

What should your enquiry include?

Your enquiry is easier to answer if it covers five points, in a few sentences each.

1. Who needs care. The person who needs care and how they are related to the person who would give it.
2. The condition and the assessment. The condition in one line, and whether the carer assessment has been booked or completed.
3. Where the carer is. Whether the carer is in Australia or outside it, and what visa they hold now, if any.
4. Other help. Other relatives in Australia, and any services already tried, such as home care or respite.
5. Dates that matter. Any letter from the Department with a date on it: a refusal, a request for information, or a visa that is about to expire.

What not to include: passport numbers, medical records, identity documents or copies of certificates. Nobody needs them at the enquiry stage, and the practice will ask for anything else it needs if you decide to go ahead.

What can this guide not do for you?

This guide cannot assess your case, lodge an application, check your application's progress or speak to the Department for you.

It gives general information only. Under section 280 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), only registered migration agents, Australian legal practitioners and exempt persons, such as the sponsor or a close family member, may give immigration assistance, and this guide is none of them.

Questions about an application that is already lodged go to the Department through its Other Family Visa Processing Centre online form. The Department does not give pre-lodgement advice and does not reply if the answer is already on its website.

How is your information handled?

Your information is used to answer your enquiry: it goes to one registered migration practice so that it can reply, and to no one else.

The details you type into the form, and the page you came from, are sent to the practice and kept in the website's own storage for up to two years. You can ask to see, correct or delete them. The full privacy note explains where the details are stored, for how long, and how to ask for them.

How do you ask a registered practitioner to look at your case?

Ask a registered practitioner to look at your case in three steps: read up on the rules, write down the key facts, and send the form above.

1. Read the basics. The three-link check shows whether the condition, the assessment and the care fit the Carer visa before you write.
2. Decide whether you need help. Some families lodge alone, and the guide on whether you need an agent or lawyer explains who may lawfully help and how to check their registration.
3. Send the form. Use the five points above, and keep it short.

How this guide is run and funded is set out on About Carer Visa Australia, and the overview of both subclasses is on Carer Visa Australia.

Read next

Do you need a migration agent for a Carer visa?Families can lodge alone, but paid help must come from agents or lawyers. About Carer Visa Australia: who runs this guide and how it is checkedWho runs this guide, how it is funded, and how each page is checked. Carer visa requirements: check the three links in orderCheck each Carer visa criterion in order, from the relative's condition to the sponsor.