Bridging visas

Bridging visas are a means of ensuring non-Australian permanent residents or citizens (or eligible New Zealand citizens) remain lawful in order to avoid detention and removal. A bridging visa can only be granted to an eligible non-citizen who satisfies the criteria for a bridging visa prescribed under ss 31(3) and 37 of the Act. They are for applicants whose visas have ceased and who are waiting for a decision on an application for a substantive visa, or non-citizens making arrangements to leave Australia, or non-citizens who do not have a visa but whom it is not necessary to keep in immigration detention. The basic principles applicable to bridging visas are discussed in the textbook, Migration and Refugee Law: Principles and Practice in Australia, at section 9.4.

A fundamental distinction in relation to bridging visas is the definition of ‘eligible non-citizen’ being a non-citizen who has been immigration-cleared, is in a prescribed class of persons, or is determined by the minister to be an eligible non-citizen. There is a distinction between an eligible non-citizen and a lawful non-citizen, defined as ‘a non-citizen in the migration zone who holds a visa that is in effect.’

The available types of bridging visa classes and sub-classes are:

Schedule 1 class

• Item 1301. Bridging A (Class WA)

• Item 1302. Bridging B (Class WB)

• Item 1303. Bridging C (Class WC)

• Item 1304. Bridging D (Class WD)

• 041 (Bridging (Non-applicant))

• Item 1305. Bridging E (Class WE)

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