Effective 1 April 2018, changes were made to Assurance of Support which affects many sponsored visas, mostly commonly sponsored family visas such as Parent visas (all subclasses). Further changes are to come into effect on 1 April 2019, including a significant increase in security values. We covered these changes in our last article. In this article we will focus on income requirements.
Read: Sponsored Visas: Assurance of Support (AoS) Made More Difficult
First let us run through some key definitions.
Assessable income
The total of:
- The individual’s taxable income for the financial year
- The individual’s target foreign income for the income year
- The total amount of any tax free pension or benefit paid or payable to the individual for the financial year
- The individual’s adjusted fringe benefits total for the financial year
- Any tax free salary paid for services that occurred during the financial year while the individual was on overseas deployment as a member of the Australian Defence Force or Australian Federal Police
Current financial year
The financial year in which the assurance of support is given by the person
First financial year
The financial year ending immediately before the current financial year
Second financial year
The financial year ending immediately before the first financial year.
Income requirements for single individual assurer
Find: Department of Human Services Income Requirements Calculator
An individual seeking to be an assurer must meet the income requirement for the current financial year, first financial year and second financial year. A individual will meet the requirements for a financial year if their assessable income for the year is at least the Newstart income cut off (NIC) multiplied by the number of people that individual would be responsible for. This is the assurer themselves, a partner (if applicable), the number of adults who would be receiving assurance, the assurer’s children (if applicable) and the children who would be receiving assurance if applicable.
Minimum income = NIC x (Number of assurers + Number of adult assurees) + 10% NSA x (Number of assurer’s children + Number of assuree’s children)
The child of an individual is a person under 18 years of age who is a dependent child of the individual. Children of an assuree who are over 18 years of age are considered to be adults and are required to have a separate assurance of support.
The Newstart income cut off is updated every year on 20 March and 20 September so do check the Human Services website for the most updated amount.
Find: Great examples provided by the Department of Social Services (single assurer)
Income requirements for joint assurers
Find: Department of Human Services Income Requirements Calculator
Individual seeking to be assurers must meet the income requirement for the current financial year, first financial year and second financial year. A individual will meet the requirements for a financial year if the combined assessable income of joint assurers for the year is at least the Newstart income cut off (NIC) multiplied by the number of assurers and number of people receiving assurance. This is the assurers themselves, if the assurers are not partners, their partners (if applicable), the number of adults who would be receiving assurance, the assurer’s children (if applicable) and the children who would be receiving assurance if applicable.
Minimum income = NIC x (Number of assurers + Number of assurer’s partners (if partners are not the joint assurer) + Number of adult assurees) + 10% NSA x (Number of assurer’s children + Number of assuree’s children)
Find: Great examples provided by the Department of Social Services (joint assurers)
Income requirements for bodies
Bodies corporate are not required to meet the income requirements. For visas that carry a mandatory AoS requirement, they are required to provide a security in the form of a bank guarantee. AoS must be given by a person within the body who is authorised to give assurance. A body other than a State agency must show that they are financially capable of supporting the assurees.
Find: Department of Human Services Income Requirements Calculator
Evidence for current financial year
The individual must provide evidence on their assessable income for the financial year up to the date the assurance is given.
- Documents showing the individual’s gross income and period of service or employment, such as a payslip, group certificate, letter from the person’s employer, or contract for service or employment
- A financial statement or other business record showing the individual’s gross and net business income for a specified period
- Documents showing payments related to 2 to 5 under the definition of assessable income (above) that have been paid to the individual in the current financial year
Evidence for first and second financial year
- A notice of assessment issued in relation to the individual and the year
- Documents showing payments related to 2 to 5 under the definition of assessable income (above) that have been paid to the individual in that financial year
If your assessable income exceeds the income requirements, evidence only needs to be provided up to the point of haven’t met the income requirements.
