The 836 visa is the permanent Carer visa you apply for while you are in Australia, and you must still be in Australia, and not in immigration clearance, when it is granted. To lodge it you hold a substantive visa other than a Transit (subclass 771) visa, or you lodge within 12 months after your last substantive visa ended, and a bridging visa then keeps you lawful while the application waits in the Other Family queue.
What is the subclass 836 Carer visa?
The subclass 836 Carer visa is the onshore half of the permanent Carer visa: a relative already in Australia applies to stay permanently to care for an Australian relative, or a member of their family unit, whose medical condition the Bupa assessment certifies. It belongs to the Other Family (Residence) class, and it shares one cap and one queue with the offshore subclass 116 and with the Remaining Relative and Aged Dependent Relative visas.
The 836 has two sides. The carer lodges Form 47OF on paper with the Child and Other Family Processing Centre in Perth and waits in Australia. The Australian relative sponsors the application on Form 40 and is assessed by Bupa Medical Visa Services, whose certificate must be given to the Department within 3 months of lodgement if it was not ready when the carer applied. The Department's subclass 836 page warns that without the certificate at decision time the visa is not granted.
Who can apply for an 836?
You can apply for an 836 if you meet all nine of the Department's criteria, starting with being a carer of an Australian relative and having an approved sponsor. The Department lists them in this order:
- Be a carer of an Australian relative, or of a member of their family unit, under regulation 1.15AA.
- Have a sponsor whose sponsorship is approved and still in force at decision.
- Hold, or have held, a substantive visa.
- Meet the health requirement.
- Meet the character requirement, with police certificates from age 16.
- Have paid back any debt to the Australian Government.
- Not have had a visa cancelled or a previous application refused.
- Sign the Australian values statement, if 18 or over.
- Meet the best-interests test for any child under 18.
"Settled" means lawfully resident for a reasonable period (regulation 1.03), which the Department's glossary puts at usually at least 2 years. The carer must be a "relative" under regulation 1.03: a spouse or partner, child, parent, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew, or a step-relative of those kinds. A cousin is not a relative for this visa. The Department's sponsor tab also mentions a "near relative", but Part 836 of the Regulations uses only "relative", and the Regulations govern.
Must you stay in Australia until the onshore Carer visa is decided?
Yes, you must stay in Australia until the onshore Carer visa is decided, because the law requires you to be in Australia, and not in immigration clearance, both when you apply (Schedule 1 item 1123B(3)(b)) and when the visa is granted (clause 836.411). The Department asks 836 applicants to tell it before they travel, for that reason.
Leaving is still possible for a short trip. A Bridging visa A does not let you come back, so you need a Bridging visa B granted before you leave, and you must be back in Australia by the time the Department makes its decision. If you are outside Australia on the day the 836 would be granted, it cannot be granted.
Can you apply for an 836 on a visitor visa?
You can apply for an 836 on a visitor visa only if that visitor visa does not carry condition 8503 "No further stay", because 8503 stops the grant of any substantive visa other than a protection visa while you remain in Australia (Schedule 8 of the Regulations). A visitor visa without 8503 is a substantive visa, so it meets clause 836.211(a).
Whether 8503 applies depends on the stream. The Department's page for the Sponsored Family stream says the visa "will have condition 8503", while a Tourist stream visa carries it only when the Department imposes it on that grant. The grant letter and VEVO show whether it is there, and the Department waives it only in limited circumstances.
What if your visa has already expired?
If your visa has already expired, you have 12 months from the last day you held a substantive visa to lodge an 836 (Schedule 3 criterion 3002); an 836 lodged after that fails clause 836.211. The "relevant day" in Schedule 3 clause 3001(2)(c) is the last day you held a substantive visa, and the 12-month window does not help anyone whose last visa was a Transit (subclass 771) visa.
Being unlawful also affects how you wait. The Department points people without a visa to the Status Resolution Service, which can grant a Bridging visa E while they prepare an application. Evidence that the Bupa assessment has been sought must still go in with the 836 (Schedule 1 item 1123B(3)(d)), however close the 12-month deadline is.
Can you apply for an 836 after a refusal in Australia?
You cannot apply for an 836 after a refusal in Australia if you now hold no substantive visa, because section 48 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) limits you to the visa classes listed in regulation 2.12, and the Carer visa's class, Other Family (Residence), is not on that list. The bar needs both conditions: no substantive visa today, and a visa refusal (other than of a bridging visa), or certain cancellations, since you last entered Australia.
A person who still holds a substantive visa is not caught, and the bar attaches to the current stay in Australia. What the refusal means, and how review works before any bar matters, is set out on the Carer visa refusal page.
Which bridging visa do you hold while the 836 is queued?
While the 836 is queued you hold the bridging visa granted with a valid application, usually a Bridging visa A, which starts when your current substantive visa ends and keeps you lawful until the 836 is decided. The Department's instruction is plain: do not cancel your current visa, because cancelling it leaves you unlawful and not eligible for a bridging visa.
The Bridging visa A copies the work conditions of the visa you held when you lodged (clause 010.611). If it limits work, a financial-hardship request goes on Form 1005 to the processing centre. An applicant who had no visa when lodging holds a Bridging visa E instead, on the Status Resolution Service's terms.
Can you switch to a partner or skilled visa while queued?
You can lodge a partner or skilled visa while the 836 is queued only if that visa's own criteria allow an application from a bridging visa, and for a Partner (subclass 820) visa that means meeting Schedule 3 criteria 3001, 3003 and 3004 unless there are compelling reasons. Criterion 3001 requires the application within 28 days after your last substantive visa ended, so a carer who has been on a Bridging visa A for years usually depends on the compelling-reasons exception in clause 820.211(2)(d)(ii).
Each skilled subclass sets its own rules for applying in Australia, so check the Schedule 1 item for the exact subclass before relying on a switch. Lodging another application does not withdraw the 836; it stays on foot unless you withdraw it on Form 1446.
How is an 836 different from a 116?
An 836 differs from a 116 in where you are when you apply and at grant, in what visa you must hold, and in how you wait, while the criteria, charges and queue are the same. The offshore half is explained in the guide to the subclass 116 Carer visa.
| Compared | Subclass 836 | Subclass 116 |
|---|---|---|
| Where you are at lodgement and at grant | In Australia, not in immigration clearance | Outside Australia |
| Visa you must hold to apply | A substantive visa (not subclass 771), or lodge within 12 months after it ended | None |
| Section 48 bar after a refusal in Australia | Applies | Does not apply |
| How you wait | In Australia on a bridging visa | Overseas |
| Health and police checks | Before the queue date (Ministerial Direction 103, "queue date") | After release, when asked |
| Settled sponsor | Required by law (cl 836.213) | Required by Department policy, and by law for included family members (cl 116.322) |
| Who seeks tribunal review | The applicant, in Australia (Migration Act s 347A(2)) | The sponsor |
| Permanent residence starts | At grant | At first entry |
| Conditions after grant | None (cl 836.6) | 8502 and 8515 possible |
| Charges | A$2,720 first instalment + A$2,065 second instalment | The same |
| Queue order | Both subclasses are released from the queue in queue-date order under Ministerial Direction 103; Direction 117's higher priority for onshore Family applications gives way to Direction 103 for capped visas. | The same queue |
Which guides cover waiting in Australia on an 836?
Five guides cover waiting in Australia on an 836, one for each rule that decides whether the wait goes smoothly.
- Work conditions, and how to ask for work rights on hardship grounds, are covered in the guide to Bridging visa A.
- Travel needs a Bridging visa B granted before you leave, for reasons the Department accepts as substantial; its charge is A$575 from 1 July 2026, and you must be back before the 836 is decided.
- You can enrol in Medicare with a permanent visa application (other than a parent visa) plus work rights, or plus a parent, spouse or child who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or New Zealand citizen living here, as the guide to Medicare while waiting for a Carer visa explains.
- A refusal in Australia without a substantive visa brings the section 48 bar, which closes the 836 until you leave or hold a substantive visa again.
- A visitor visa carrying condition 8503 stops an 836 unless the Department waives it.
What comes next with an 836?
What comes next with an 836 is three checks: the requirements in order, the queue in years, and the full cost before lodgement.
- The relative's condition, the Bupa rating and the lack of other care are tested in order against the Carer visa requirements.
- The Department estimates 12 years for a new Carer application, and as at 31 May 2026 it had released applications with a queue date up to 31 December 2023, as the guide to Carer visa processing time explains with the Department's queue page.
- The charge is A$2,720 for the first instalment from 1 July 2026 and A$2,065 per person for the second, before the Bupa, health and police costs.
Families deciding whether to prepare the paper application themselves can weigh when a migration agent for a Carer visa helps. Every other part of the application, for the carer and for the relative who needs care, starts from the Carer Visa Australia guide.
A registered professional makes a grant more likely
Whether an 836 is open to you at all turns on your visa status on the day you lodge: a condition 8503, a refusal since you last arrived or a lapsed substantive visa closes the onshore route, and an invalid application brings no bridging visa. A registered migration agent or an Australian legal practitioner checks that status before you pay, which makes a valid application and a later grant more likely, though never certain.
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Carer visa requirements: check the three links in orderCheck each Carer visa criterion in order, from the relative's condition to the sponsor.