Most parent visa applications that fail do not fail on money, health or character. They fail on arithmetic, done wrong at the kitchen table months before anyone spoke to an agent.
The Balance of Family test asks one question: of all your parents’ children, do enough of them live permanently in Australia? Get the count right and everything else becomes a question of cost and patience. Get it wrong and the application is refused after the charges have been paid, and those charges are generally not recoverable.
The test trips people up because it is not about your parents at all. It is about their children, all of them, wherever in the world they are, including the ones nobody thinks to mention.
Not sure your family passes? It is the first thing we check, before anyone sends money to the Department. Have your count checked.
The two ways to pass
Your parents pass the Balance of Family test if either of these is true.
- The half rule. At least half of their children live permanently in Australia as Australian citizens, permanent residents, or eligible New Zealand citizens.
- The most-in-one-country rule. More of their eligible children live in Australia than in any other single country.
Either one is enough. You do not need both. The second rule is the one that saves families who assume they have already failed, because it does not care about the total, only about the comparison country by country.
One word in that second rule does a lot of work: more. It means strictly more, not the same number. Two children in Australia and two in India is a tie, and a tie fails. Families read “most” and assume equal-largest counts. It does not.
Worked examples
| Where the children live | Result | Why |
| 4 children, 2 settled in Australia | Pass | Exactly half are in Australia. |
| 3 children: 1 Australia, 1 India, 1 UK | Fail | 1 of 3 is not half, and 1 in Australia does not beat 1 in India. A tie is not “more”. |
| 3 children: 1 Australia, 2 Canada | Fail | Canada has more, and 1 of 3 is not half. |
| 5 children: 2 Australia, 1 India, 1 UK, 1 Canada | Pass | 2 of 5 is not half, but 2 in Australia beats every other single country’s 1. |
| 6 children: 2 Australia, 2 India, 2 UK | Fail | 2 of 6 is not half, and Australia ties rather than leads. |
| 5 children: 2 Australia, 2 Pakistan, 1 UAE | Fail | 2 of 5 is not half, and Australia only matches Pakistan rather than beating it. |
| 2 children: 1 Australia, 1 Philippines | Pass | Half are in Australia. |
Run your own family through it now, on paper, with every child named. The list is almost always longer than the one people give in a first phone call.
Which children count
Every child your parents have, anywhere in the world, goes into the count. That includes:
- You.
- Your brothers and sisters, wherever they live.
- Stepchildren. A child of a current or former partner of your parent counts.
- Adopted children.
- Children from earlier relationships, including ones your parents have lost contact with.
A small number of children are excluded. A child who has died is not counted. Nor is a child who was removed from your parents’ custody by law, or who is a resident of a country where they are subject to persecution or displacement and cannot be reunited elsewhere. These exceptions are narrow and evidence-based. Do not assume one applies because a relationship has broken down.
The Department sets out the full rule in its Balance of family test guidance. Read it against your own list rather than against a summary.
The trap: living in Australia is not the same as counting for Australia
This is where confident families come unstuck.
A child counts on the Australian side of the ledger only if they are an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen, and usually resident here. Physical presence is not enough.
So a brother in Melbourne on a student visa does not help your parents pass. Nor does a sister on a 482, or a sibling waiting on a partner visa decision. They live here, they may have lived here for years, and they still do not count as being in Australia for this test. They are counted where they are usually resident, which affects the other side of the comparison too.
The practical consequence is worth planning around: a family that fails today can pass in two years’ time, once a sibling’s own permanent residency is granted. The test is applied at the time of application and again at decision, so timing your lodgement around a pending grant is a real strategy, and one worth getting advice on rather than guessing at.
Which visas the test applies to
The Balance of Family test applies to every parent visa in the permanent and contributory family:
Expert Australian Migration Guidance
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Book Consultation- Parent visa, subclass 103
- Aged parent visa, subclass 804
- Contributory parent visa, subclass 143
- Contributory parent visa (temporary), subclass 173
- Contributory aged parent visa, subclass 864
- Contributory aged parent visa (temporary), subclass 884
There is one significant exception, and for families who fail the test it is often the only route left. The sponsored parent visitor visa, subclass 870, does not require the Balance of Family test. It is temporary, it grants no work rights and no residency, and it carries an income test on the sponsoring child instead. But it lets parents spend long, lawful periods in Australia when the permanent visas are closed to them.
What a failed count actually costs
Lodging in hope is expensive. On a contributory application the first instalment is around AUD 6,300, and it is paid at lodgement, before the queue assessment that checks the Balance of Family test takes place. That check happens roughly two and a half years later.
So a family that miscounts does not find out quickly. They find out after a long wait, with the charge already spent, and with two and a half years of queue position lost. Meanwhile their parents are two and a half years older, which matters for health examinations at the other end.
The test is also reassessed at decision. A sibling who moves permanently overseas during the queue can change a pass into a fail years after lodgement, which is one more reason to tell the Department when circumstances change, on Form 1022.
How The Migration helps
Confirming the Balance of Family count is the first thing we do for any parent visa family, before cost, before timelines, before anything goes to the Department.
- Listing every child of both parents, including stepchildren and children from earlier relationships, and asking the uncomfortable questions early rather than late.
- Establishing each child’s status and usual country of residence with evidence, not recollection.
- Testing both rules, the half rule and the most-in-one-country rule, because families often pass on the second after assuming they failed on the first.
- Advising on timing where a sibling’s own permanent residency is pending, and on the 870 route where the test cannot be met.
- Re-checking the count before the second instalment, so nothing has shifted during the queue.
Migration advice here is given only by MARA-registered agents (MARN 2619480). You can verify any agent’s registration on the MARA public register. No registered migration agent can guarantee a visa outcome, and no agent can waive this test.
Count first, pay second
The Balance of Family test is the cheapest thing to check and the most expensive thing to get wrong. It takes one honest hour with a piece of paper and every child named on it.
If the count is close, if a sibling is mid-application, or if there are children your parents have not spoken about in years, that is exactly the situation to bring to an agent before lodgement rather than after.
Have the count confirmed before anyone pays anything. In 30 minutes a MARA-registered agent will work through your family child by child and tell you where you stand. Book your parent visa strategy session.
