Can my family follow me from Philippines to Australia?

A U.S. citizen can file a petition for the following relatives:

• Husband or wife;
• Children, married or unmarried.

A U.S. citizen who is at least 21 years or older may also petition for the following relatives:

• Parents;
• Brothers or sisters

Note what it says. “A US Citizen”.

Australia is not the US, and there is no inherent right for an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident to “petition” anybody into the country. An Australian visa is a grant and not a right, and that grant extends to the person who successfully applies for that visa, and to nobody else. And the power to decide who migrates to Australia and who doesn't rests with the Department alone.

So if you are under the impression that you may reach out and help your relatives into Australia like the Americans can do, then I’m sorry but in the eyes of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) they are no better or no worse than anybody else. They are not any “higher up the ladder” than any other visa applicant.

Why are some people given visas and others are not?

Australia has a detailed and complex visa system, with a large range of both temporary visas and permanent visas. Each one of these visas has a set of Regulations which are basically criteria which need to be met. If you meet that criteria, they will grant you a visa. If you do not, then you won’t. Simple as that.

If you are applying for an Australian partner visa, or if you are now a partner visa holder, it means that you have met the criteria for entering and remaining in Australia because you have a committed relationship with an Australian who is/was able to sponsor you for that visa. If you hadn’t fallen in love with an Aussie and the two of you hadn’t made that commitment, you would still be in the Philippines. The Australian Government decided that it would be fair to design visas for fiancees, spouses and de facto spouses of Australian Citizens and permanent residents to live in Australia, and therefore those visas came into place.

They’ve also decided to allow applicant's dependent children into Australia when they meet the criteria set out in the Migration Regulations. They also allow in skilled workers, genuine students, and multi-millionaires with money to invest, and various others who they feel will be of benefit to Australia and/or to Australian Citizens. They allow parents to apply when they meet certain criteria, ie. that they are widowed and have more of their kids living in Australia than outside of Australia. They make that one hard by charging a fee of $45,000.00+, and offering no Medicare benefits or Centrelink benefits for I think 10 years. I'm not up to date on them, because they're not very popular for our clients. Most Filipinos are too kuripot!

Visas for siblings? Aunts? Uncles? Nieces and nephews?

Sorry, but no such thing. No brother/sister visas. No uncle visas, etc. There is nothing at all you can apply for simply because they are your relatives.

Parents, yes as explained above. They do this if somebody has a widowed parent with most of their kids settled in Australia so your mum isn't sitting there all alone, but they charge a high fee and withhold Medicare benefits to ensure that no one is expecting to let their parents benefit from a country they’ve never contributed to through work and taxation. That’s why these visas are called “Contributory Parent Visas”, and this is why the fees are high. Even the Philippines does something similar with retirees who wish to settle here. Must invest a large chunk of money in the country, and must pay an annual fee.

But as for bringing in your brother or your sister, then they need to meet the criteria for one of Australia’s visas just like everybody else does. If they form a committed relationship with an Australian, then yes I’m sure we can help. If they are qualified to work in a highly-skilled profession or trade, can speak and understand English really well, and have an employer who wants to employ them to fill a gap that they can’t fill from the local workforce, then again it’s highly likely they could get visas. If not, then they won’t be moving to Australia. Sorry, but it’s not the US. The US is entitled to make its laws the way it wants, and Australia is entitled to make its laws too.