Recently, and this could be COVID related, we have been notified by a lot of clients that they have either had a baby or are expecting to have a baby.

This article outlines what you should do from an immigration perspective in order to add your child to your visa (if you hold a temporary visa). Please note, if one of the parents are a permanent resident or citizen, they may be eligible for Australian citizenship. This video is specifically done for someone who is on a temporary visa (student, working holiday etc..). Fortunately, if you hold a valid Temporary visa, you should be able to add the child to your visa easily.

Once you have a baby, you will be given a birth card from the hospital and a few weeks later you will usually receive the birth certificate in the mail from the state deaths and births registry.

Once you have received the birth certificate you should do two things:

 

Notify Immigration:

Firstly, you should notify immigration that you have had a child. There are a few ways you can do this. You may be able to do this through your immi account, but the way that we do is notifying immigration via post. We would provide a change of circumstance form (1022). Notifying immigration that when you first lodged your visa you had no children. However, you have now had a child.

I would include the birth certificate, a copy of the passports of the parents and proof of insurance.

You would post this to your closest immi office.

Around a week later, immigration will email you the visa grant notice. The child will also show up in your immi account under dependents.

This is just one way of notifying immigration and there are numerous other ways to do this.

You can find more information through this link – https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/change-in-situation/had-a-baby

 

Request a Passport:

The next thing that you should do is contact your closest Embassy or Consulate and request a passport for your child. Your child will usually be a citizen of your country of passport.

Now each country has a different process of applying for a passport, so follow the procedure of your Embassy. Often you may need to go to the embassy to apply directly.

Passports can take several months to return, so I would recommend organising this as quickly as possible.