Bridging visas while you seek review

A bridging visa can keep you lawful while a visa application or review is pending, but whether you hold one is for Home Affairs to decide. This guide covers what the ART and Home Affairs say about how they end.

A bridging visa can keep a person lawful in Australia while an application is decided, and the ART has published when one ends after it makes a decision. Whether a person holds one, and on what conditions, is a matter for Home Affairs and its visa records. Home Affairs points people to VEVO to check their visa details and conditions.

Home Affairs bridging visa pages could not be read for this site, so this guide is limited to what the ART, the Migration Act and Home Affairs forms say.

The decision usually keeps operating during review

The ART says a decision will usually continue to operate during the review. In migration reviews the ART cannot stay the decision: its practice direction says so, and section 336P(2)(h) of the Act switches off the ART's general stay power for these reviews. So an ART review does not by itself keep the original decision from taking effect. Immigration status while you wait depends on the visa you hold.

What Home Affairs forms say

Home Affairs Form 1025i, an older information form, says that if you apply for a visa in Australia you will be granted a bridging visa to keep you lawful, including if the application is refused and you seek merits review. That form dates from 2019, so treat it as background.

Form 1008 (Bridging E) lists waiting for the outcome of judicial review among the reasons to apply. It says you will not be eligible for permission to work on a Bridging E visa because you are seeking judicial review or ministerial intervention, except in limited circumstances. Whether any bridging visa is granted in a given case is for Home Affairs.

When a bridging visa ends after an ART decision

The ART's information sheet on decisions (MR 25, October 2024) describes what happens, depending on the outcome:

If the ART remits the decision to the Department for reconsideration, the bridging visa remains in effect.
If the ART sets aside the decision and a visa is granted, the bridging visa ceases because the new visa replaces it.
If the ART affirms the decision, the bridging visa ceases 35 days after the ART's decision (for a bridging visa granted on or after 19 November 2016), or 28 days after notification for earlier ones.

The same sheet says anyone seeking judicial review should apply for another bridging visa before the current one ceases. It does not say what happens to a bridging visa while the ART review is only pending, and no current Home Affairs page confirming that was available to this site. Check the conditions on your own visa. See judicial review after an ART decision.

Reviews of bridging visa decisions themselves

Under section 338(4), refusing or cancelling a bridging visa is reviewable only where the person is in immigration detention because of the decision, plus certain subclass 070 decisions. The ART charges no fee for those reviews. In detention, the application time limit is 14 days after notification, not 28. See ART deadline in immigration detention.

Filing in court does not stop a decision

Section 481 of the Act says that applying to the court does not affect the operation of the decision or prevent action to implement it. The court's own brochure says it cannot decide whether you should receive a visa before your case is decided, and that bridging visa questions go to Home Affairs. See also what happens to your status after a cancellation.

Bridging visa rules are detailed and this page only summarises what its sources say. It is not legal advice or immigration assistance; a person's own visa conditions and decision letter show where they stand.