More changes to a number of Australia visa application forms are set to be made by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), with the 9th of November given as the date that the new forms will be introduced.

There will be both essential and non-essential changes made to dozens of forms, with a PDF summarising all the forms that will be changed available from the DIAC website.  However, see below for some of the most commonly used forms that are going to have essential changed made to them:

• Form 40 - sponsorship for a parent to migrate (used when lodging an Australian contributory parent visa application)
• Form 47PA - application for a parent to migrate (also used for the Australian contributory parent visa)
• Form 80 - character assessment ( used for the Australian spouse visa, but DIAC have also be known to request that this form be submitted for Australian skilled visa applications) 
• Form 1276 - application for skilled migration (used for paper-based Australian skilled visa applications)

The medical forms 26 and 160 will also be updated, but these changes are non-essential so applicants may still use the ‘old’ versions for the time being (although we would advise very strongly that applicants use the most current Australian visa application form whenever possible). Look for the new versions of the forms to appear on DIAC's website on the 9th of November.

- Lauren Mennie is Casework Department Manager for the Australian Visa Bureau

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