Parent visa places for 2026–27 — down from 8,500 the year before. A cut of 1,440 places, about 17%, in a category where queues were already measured in decades.
The 2026–27 Migration Program has landed, and there’s a number every family sponsoring a parent needs to know. And it arrives in the same month that lodgement fees for every parent visa subclass rose by about 25%. Fewer places, higher prices. Here’s what’s actually changed, and what it means if your parents are in the queue — or about to join it.
What the Government announced
On 12 May 2026, the Government confirmed the permanent Migration Program for 2026–27 stays at 185,000 places overall, split roughly 70:30 between the Skilled and Family streams. Within the Family stream of 52,460 places:
| Category | 2025–26 | 2026–27 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partner | 40,500 | 41,500 | +1,000 |
| Child | 3,000 | 3,500 | +500 |
| Parent | 8,500 | 7,060 | −1,440 |
| Other Family | 500 | 400 | −100 |
Partner and Child places are demand-driven — the numbers are indicative and the Department processes what comes in. Parent places are different: they’re a hard cap. Once 7,060 grants are made in the program year, everyone else waits for the next one.
Why a smaller cap means longer queues — not fewer applicants
The parent visa queue works on simple arithmetic. Demand doesn’t fall just because the cap does — families keep lodging. So when the annual number of grants shrinks, the existing backlog clears more slowly, and every application behind it waits longer.
To put the queue in context: as at 28 February 2026, the Department was releasing contributory parent applications (143/864) lodged up to November 2018 for final processing, while non-contributory applications (103/804) were being released from lodgements up to July 2013. New contributory applicants were already facing well over a decade of waiting; non-contributory applicants, several decades.
Cut the annual grants by 17%, and those timeframes stretch further. Some commentators now put new non-contributory applications at waits that could approach a working lifetime. We won’t pretend to know the exact number — nobody does — but the direction is unmistakable: the queue just got slower.
The double hit: fewer places, higher fees
The quota cut landed alongside the 1 July 2026 fee increase. First-instalment charges rose about 25% across every parent subclass — the contributory 143 now costs $6,300 to lodge for the primary applicant, the non-contributory 103 costs $6,600, and the temporary 870 costs $1,515.
We’ve published the full before-and-after tables for every subclass and applicant type here: Parent visa fees have gone up — here’s what every stream now costs.
Notice something in those numbers? The non-contributory 103 is now more expensive to lodge than the contributory 143. Its saving sits entirely in the second instalment — around $2,065 per applicant instead of $43,600. You’re not paying less to join the queue; you’re paying less to leave it. That’s worth understanding before you choose a stream.
What should families do now?
There’s no one-size answer, but a smaller cap sharpens a few realities:
- If a permanent parent visa is the goal, lodging sooner beats lodging later. Queue position is set by lodgement date. Every program year that passes with a reduced cap pushes new applicants further back. A well-prepared application lodged this year holds a better place than a perfect one lodged in two years.
- The contributory streams remain the only realistic permanent pathway for most families. Most of the parent cap has historically gone to contributory visas (143/864). The 103 and 804 remain lawful options, but at current settings they function more as long-horizon or estate-planning choices than near-term reunion pathways.
- The Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa (870) matters more than ever. It sits outside the permanent cap, is typically decided in months, has no balance-of-family test, and allows stays of 3 or 5 years (up to 10 in total). Many families sensibly run both strategies — parents spend time in Australia on an 870 while a 143 sits in the queue.
- Onshore aged options are worth checking for pension-age parents. Parents already in Australia who have reached pension age may be able to lodge an 804, 864 or 884 onshore and remain here on a bridging visa while the application is queued — turning a decade-long wait offshore into a decade spent with family.
Parents’ health is assessed near the end of the queue, not at lodgement. With waits lengthening, a parent’s health years from now becomes part of today’s planning. If there are existing conditions, get advice before you lodge — the health requirement on contributory parent visas generally cannot be waived.
The right strategy matters more when places are scarce
A shrinking cap punishes mistakes. A refused or invalidly lodged application doesn’t just cost the fee — it costs your place in a queue that’s now moving slower. Our MARA-registered team will map every pathway open to your parents — permanent, temporary, or both in parallel — with the real costs and current queue data, before you spend a dollar on lodgement.
Grewal Migration — Right Advice. Real Results.
