In-country Special Humanitarian visa (subclass 201)

This is a permanent residence visa. It allows you to:

• stay in Australia indefinitely
• work and study in Australia
• enrol in Medicare, Australia’s scheme for health-related care and expenses
• access certain social security payments
• apply for Australian citizenship (after you have lived in Australia for four years)
• propose family members for permanent residence
• attend English language classes.

If you want to travel outside Australia, you will need to get a travel document. After five years, you will need a Resident Return Visa to re-enter Australia.

You must meet certain health requirements. The results are usually valid for 12 months. Do not arrange a health examination until we ask you to.

This applies to you and any dependent family members included in your application.

A waiver of the need to meet the health requirement is available if compassionate and compelling circumstances exist. You can find information at Health waivers.

You must meet certain character requirements. You must provide a police certificate from each country you have lived in for 12 months or more during the past 10 years after you turned 16 years of age.

You must have no outstanding debts to the Australian Government or have arranged to repay any outstanding debts to the Australian Government before this visa can be granted.

You might be asked to provide biometrics (a scientific form of identification) as part of the application. Countries and visa subclasses included in the biometrics program has more information.

You can include the following people in your visa application at the time of lodgement:

• your partner (married or de facto)
• your or your partner’s dependent children
• other dependent relatives.

These family members must meet the requirements for including family members in your application, see Form 1497i Including family members in your refugee, humanitarian or protection visa application (110KB PDF). They could be asked to provide evidence of their relationship to you. This could include marriage certificates, birth certificates, joint bank accounts and other relevant documents.​​

Your family members must be able to show that they meet health and character requirements.​

You need to provide documents to prove the claims you make in the application. The documents are listed in the Document checklist.

Some documents could take some time to obtain. You should have them ready when you lodge the application to reduce any delays in processing.

Please refer to preparing your application, for information on:

• certifying and translating documents into English
• communicating with us
• using a migration agent
• authorising another person to receive information from us
• receiving assistance with your application.​​​​

We have visa processing times for each visa.

Your application could take longer if you need character or health checks (including chest x-rays), if you need to provide more information, or if your application is incomplete.

The decision process could take many months. We will contact you at key stages of processing and when a decision is made. Your proposer (if applicable) might be contacted to:

• clarify details in the proposal
• assess the level of help the proposer can give you.

You can provide more information to us, at any time until a decision is made on the application. If you want to correct information you provided, use:

• Form 1023 - Notification of incorrect answer(s) (99KB PDF)

We could also ask you for more information. You will have to respond by a set date. After that date, we can make a decision about your application using the information that we have.

If another person gives us information that could result in you being refused a visa, we will usually give you the opportunity to comment on the information.

You might also be interviewed. If you are asked to attend an interview in person, bring your passport or other identification and any requested documents to the interview.

At the interview, you will be asked about:

• your circumstances, including the reasons why you are seeking a refugee visa
• your family composition
• the information you have provided in your application
• other matters relating to your application.

You must tell us if your circumstances change. This includes a new residential address, a new passport, or a pregnancy, birth, divorce, separation, marriage, de facto relationship or death in your family.

Please report changes in your circumstances via ImmiAccount. If you are not able to use ImmiAccount, you can use the following forms:

• Form 929 - Change of address and/or passport details (86KB PDF) — if you move to a new address or change your passport
• Form 1022 - Notification of changes in circumstances (77KB PDF) — if there are other changes in your circumstances.

If you do not provide us with the details of any new passport issued to you, you could experience significant delays at the airport and may be denied permission to board your plane.​​

​You can withdraw the application at any time before we make a decision about it. To do this, send us a letter or email to ask for the withdrawal. Your request must include your full name and date of birth. You should also include your file reference number, client ID, or a Transaction Reference Number.

​​​All applicants 18 years of age or older, wishing to withdraw, must sign the request for withdrawal.​​​​​​

If the visa is refused, we will send you a letter or email stating why it was refused.

You need to provide documents to support your application for this visa. We can make a decision using the information you provide when you lodge your application. It is in your interest to provide as much information as possible with your application.

Provide certified copies of original documents. Do not include original documents unless we specifically ask for them. Police certificates should be original documents. Documents not in English must be accompanied by accredited English translations.

Use this checklist to make sure your application is complete.

​Visa application requirements differ from country to country. If you are applying outside Australia, your nearest immigrati​on office outside Australia will tell you exactly how to lodge your application and what documents to provide.

• If someone gives you advice or lodges your application for you:
  • Form 956 Advice by a migration agent/exempt person of providing immigration assistance (133KB PDF) (the agent or exempt person completes the form and you must sign it).
• If you would like someone else to receive correspondence from us on your behalf:
  • Form 956a Appointment or withdrawal of an authorised recipient (116KB PDF) (the recipient completes the form and you must sign it).

• Certified copies of the biographical pages of the current passports or travel documents of all people included in the application (these are the pages with the holder's photo and personal details and the issue/expiry dates).

• Eight recent passport-sized photographs (45 mm x 35 mm) of each person included in the application.
• These photographs should be of the head and shoulders only against a plain background.
• Print the name of the person on the back of each photograph.

• If your name has changed or the name of anyone included in your application has changed: a certified copy of evidence of the name change.

• Certified copies of marriage certificates or relationship registrations for you and anyone else included in your application, even if they are not joining you in Australia.

• If you are living in a de facto relationship: independent evidence that your relationship is genuine and continuing (for example, joint bank account statements, billing accounts in joint names or joint ownership of major assets).

• If you or anyone included in the application has been widowed, divorced or permanently separated: a certified copy of the death certificate, divorce documents, or statutory declaration separation documents.

• Evidence of financial dependency for all your members of the family unit aged 18 or older:
  • a certified copy of their birth certificate and proof of their relationship to you
  • proof that they live in your household
  • proof that they have been financially dependent on you for at least the 12 months immediately before you lodge your application.

• Certified copies of birth certificates or the family book showing the names of both parents of all your dependent children.

• If any dependent child included in the application is adopted: certified copies of the adoption papers.

• If you want to bring a child younger than 18 years of age with you to Australia, and that child’s other parent is not included in the application: documentary evidence that you have the legal right to bring that child to Australia, such as:
  • certified copies of official legal documents, such as a court-issued parental responsibility (custody), access or guardianship order
  • Statutory declaration (88KB PDF) giving their permission
  • Form 1229 — Consent to grant an Australian visa to a child under the age of 18 years (243KB PDF).

  If you use Form 1229 or a statutory declaration, you will have to attach a certified copy of the other parent’s government-issued identification document (such as a passport or driver's licence) with their photograph and signature.

You can use Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) for free to check your visa details and entitlements.

This is a permanent residence visa. It allows you to:

• stay in Australia indefinitely
• work and study in Australia
• enrol in Medicare, Australia’s scheme for health-related care and expenses
• access certain social security payments
• apply for Australian citizenship (after you have lived in Australia for four years)
• propose family members for permanent residence
• attend English language classes.

If you want to travel outside Australia, you will need to get a travel document. After five years, you will need a Resident Return Visa to re-enter Australia.

You and your family must:

• come to Australia initially by the date specified on your visa
• comply with all visa conditions and Australian laws.

Document for travel to Australia

When your visa is granted, we will issue you with a document for travel to Australia. This document is valid one time only for travel and entry to Australia.

Departure health check

You need to have a departure health check from an approved immigration panel physician no more than 72 hours before your confirmed departure for Australia. This is to reduce your post-arrival health issues and make resettlement easier.

You must:

• be healthy enough to travel to Australia
• have vaccinations and treatment for parasites before resettlement
• follow up any pre-existing health conditions after you arrive in Australia.

The departure health check includes:

• a physical examination
• a pregnancy test
• tests for communicable diseases
• administration of prescribed vaccinations, including measles, mumps and rubella
• treatment of parasites and infestations.

You must tell us if your circumstances change.  This includes a new residential address, a new passport, or a pregnancy, birth, divorce, separation, marriage, de facto relationship or death in your family.

Please report changes in your circumstances via ImmiAccount.  If you are not able to use ImmiAccount, you can use the following forms:

• Form 929 Change of address and/or passport details (86KB PDF) — if you move to a new address or change your passport
• Form 1022 Notification of changes in circumstances (77KB PDF) — if there are other changes in your circumstances.

​You can use Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO for Organisations) to check the visa status and entitlements of people you have proposed.

​​You can propose a person for this visa if you meet all of the following:

• you are:
  • an Australian citizen
  • an Australian permanent resident
  • an eligible New Zealand citizen
  • an Australian organisation
• you did not come to Australia as an illegal maritime arrival on or after 13 August 2012.

You can also Propose an imm​ediate family member ('split family') for this visa if:

• you have declared the person you are proposing as an immediate family member to us before your own visa was granted
• you hold, or have held this visa, and it was granted within the past five years
• the person you are proposing is still a member of your immediate family.

​​To propose someone for this visa, complete and lodge the following forms:

• Form 842 Application for an offshore humanitarian visa (586 kB pdf)
• Form 681 Refugee and special humanitarian proposal (241 kB pdf).

You must provide all relevant documents when you lodge the application.

Send ​ Form 842 (586 kB pdf) to the person you are proposing for this visa. That person should sign the form and return it to you before you lodge the application.

Lodge the application at the:

• Melbourne office in Victoria - attention Melbourne Offshore Humanitarian Processing Centre - if you are proposing someone who lives in the Middle East, Afghanistan or Pakistan
  
  Email enquiry form: Melbourne Offshore Humanitarian Processing Centre Enquiry Form

• Sydney office in New South Wales - attention NSW Offshore Humanitarian Processing Centre - if you are proposing someone who lives in any other country
  
  Email enquiry form: NSW Offshore Humanitarian Processing Centre Enquiry Form

You can find further information at Lodging certain humanitarian applications in Australia.

If your immediate family members are granted this visa, you should be prepared to:

• meet them at the airport
• provide their accommodation on arrival
• help them to find permanent accommodation
• familiarise them with services and service providers such as:
• Centrelink
• banks
• public transport
• translating and interpreting services
• health care
• permanent housing
• education
• employment services
• childcare.

You can apply for proposer support to better help you to:

• respond to the applicant’s needs
• fulfil your obligations to directly support the applicant.

A Humanitarian Settlement Services provider in your state or territory will contact you if the visa application is approved. The service provider will give you initial information and tell you what support could be available.

Tell us if your circumstances change, for example:

• you change your address
• you can no longer provide support.