At least half your children live in Australia, or more live here than in any other single country. Pass either one, and you pass the balance of family test.
The rule is short. The counting is what catches people out.
Most parents we meet at our Harris Park office have already done the sums at home, and a good number have counted wrong. The usual slip is leaving out a child who’s in Australia on a student visa.
That child still counts. They just count on the overseas side, and dropping them out can turn a clear pass into a fail.
Below is the count the way Home Affairs does it, with worked examples you can check your own family against. Not sure where you land? Our MARA-registered agents will count it with you.
What is the balance of family test?
The balance of family test measures how much of your family is already in Australia. You pass if at least half your children are “eligible children”. You also pass if more of them live here than in any other single country.
The rule sits in regulation 1.05 of the Migration Regulations 1994. It applies to every parent visa but one.
The word “balance” is doing real work here. This isn’t a test of how close you are to your children, how often you speak, or who supports you. It’s a headcount, weighted by where they live.
So the first question is which children land on the Australian side.
Which of your children count as eligible children?
An eligible child is settled here for the long term. Home Affairs counts three groups.
A child is an eligible child if they are:
- An Australian citizen
- A permanent resident who usually lives in Australia
- An eligible New Zealand citizen who usually lives in Australia
Every other child of yours is an ineligible child. An ineligible child is treated as living overseas.
Two details trip people up. “Usually lives in Australia” is the test for a permanent resident, so a child who holds the visa but has moved their life offshore may not count for you.
The New Zealand rule is narrow too. It’s tied to 26 February 2001, and broadly means someone already here on a special category visa around then. A passport alone is not enough.
Children on temporary visas are the other trap. They deserve their own point.
Which children are left out of the count completely?
Only four things remove a child from the count. Holding a temporary visa is not one of them.
A child is not counted at all if they:
- Have died
- Have been removed from your legal custody by adoption, court order, or operation of law
- Are registered with the UNHCR as refugees and live in a UNHCR camp
- Live in a country where they face persecution or abuse, and can’t be reunited with you elsewhere
That’s the whole list. A child studying here on a subclass 500 visa is still one of your children. They’re simply an ineligible child, counted as living overseas. If you don’t know where a child is, they count in the last country you knew them to live in.
Stepchildren follow their own rule. Your current partner’s children are counted, whatever their age. A former partner’s child counts only if they’re under 18 and you hold guardianship, custody, or a parenting order under the Family Law Act 1975. Stepchildren from polygamous or concurrent relationships aren’t counted.
With the total settled, the sums are simple.
How do you work out whether you pass the family balance test?
Count every child once. Split them by country. Then run two checks. Are half or more in Australia? And does Australia beat every other country on its own?
The second check is the one people misread. You compare Australia with each country on its own, rather than adding up everyone overseas. So three children here and four spread across three countries is a pass, because no single country has more than three.
Take the three-child row with one here and one each in two countries. That fails, because Australia only ties for the lead, and a tie isn’t “more than”.
Once you know where you stand, the next question is which visa this applies to.
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Book ConsultationWhich parent visas need the balance of family test?
Six parent visas need it. The subclass 870 does not.
You need to pass the test for:
- Parent visa (subclass 103)
- Contributory Parent visa (subclass 143)
- Contributory Parent (Temporary) visa (subclass 173)
- Aged Parent visa (subclass 804)
- Contributory Aged Parent visa (subclass 864)
- Contributory Aged Parent (Temporary) visa (subclass 884)
The three aged parent visas add an age rule on top. For the 804, 864 and 884, you need to be old enough to draw the Australian age pension. The 103, 143 and 173 set no age limit at all.
If you don’t pass, there’s still the Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa (subclass 870). It’s the one parent visa that skips the test, and it lets you stay up to five years at a time, ten years in all. It’s a long-stay visitor visa, though. It doesn’t lead to permanent residence, and you can’t move onto a permanent parent visa while you hold one.
What proof do you need for the balance of family test?
You’re proving two things about each child. That they exist, and where they live. Form 47PA sets out your family details, and your evidence has to back up every line of it.
Expect to provide:
- Birth certificates for all your children, including those overseas and any who have died
- Citizenship certificates, passports, or visa grant notices for each eligible child
- Proof that permanent resident children really live here, such as leases, payslips, or tax records
- Marriage, divorce, or custody papers where stepchildren are involved
- Death certificates, adoption orders, or UNHCR papers for any child left out of the count
You must declare every child, including any you’re no longer in touch with. Case officers check your family details against every form in your file and against your sponsor’s records. An omission looks deliberate even when it isn’t.
Where balance of family test applications come unstuck
Three things cause most of the trouble. All of them are fixable before you lodge.
The recurring problems:
- Dropping temporary-visa children from the count. They belong in the total as ineligible children. Leaving them out inflates your result.
- Comparing Australia with everyone overseas added up. The check runs country by country. That’s usually kinder than people expect.
- Counting a permanent resident child who lives abroad. The wording is “usually lives in Australia”. A child who has been offshore for years may not meet it.
One more point is worth knowing early. Home Affairs says plainly that it will not waive this test, even in compelling or exceptional cases. There’s no discretion to appeal to and no hardship argument that sets it aside.
That sounds blunt, but it’s useful: the answer is knowable up front. You can work out exactly where you stand before you commit to anything.
Is your count close to the line, or do stepchildren and custody orders make it messy? Send us a list of your children, the country each one lives in, and the visa they hold. Our MARA-registered agents (MARN 2619480) will run the test with you and tell you plainly whether the numbers work.
How The Migration helps with parent visa applications
We’ve spent more than seven years working with parent visa families, and the balance of family test is where we start every one of those talks. There’s no point planning around a visa that can’t be granted.
What that looks like in practice:
- A proper count of your family before anything is lodged, including the stepchild and custody questions that get glossed over
- An evidence list built around your own children and the countries they live in
- Straight advice when the numbers don’t work, including whether the 870 fits better
The Migration is an Australian migration agency based in Harris Park, Sydney. Our advice comes from MARA-registered agents under MARN 2619480, and you can check that listing on the MARA public register before you engage anyone.
Final thoughts
The balance of family test rewards getting your sums right the first time. Count every child once, place each one where they usually live, and remember that a temporary visa keeps a child in the count rather than removing them.
If the numbers fall your way, you’ve cleared the first real hurdle on a parent visa. If they don’t, you’ve found out early, and the 870 may still be open to you.
Either way, it’s worth being sure before you lodge. Book a consultation with our MARA-registered team (MARN 2619480) and you’ll come away knowing three things: whether your family passes, which parent visa suits you, and what evidence to start collecting. You can also contact our Harris Park office with a question first.
