News reaches us that the Parent Visa Centre has exhausted the allocation of Contributory Parent visas for the year ended the 30th of June, 2016.

This means it is unlikely that there will be further visa grants under subclasses 143, 173, 864, and 884 until the start of the new program year in July 2016.

Our experience is that subclass 143 and 173 offshore visa applications lodged in mid-May 2014 are those that have been assessed and are awaiting a decision as to visas being granted.

By contrast, applications for subclass 864 and 884 onshore visas (the Contributory Aged Parent visas) lodged in August 2015 are being assessed now with a view to grant in the 2016/17 program year.

Processing timeline expectations for the offshore subclass 143 and 173 visas are therefore now over 2 years, while the timeline for onshore applications under subclasses 864 and 884 is about 10 months.