Subclass 602 Support Person and Secondary Applicant Rules in 2026

On the Medical Treatment visa (subclass 602), a support person is almost never added to your application as a secondary applicant: each support person must lodge a separate application unless they are included in your passport, and the Department of Home Affairs must grant your visa before it can grant theirs. Secondary applicants are limited to a narrow group defined by clause 602.311 of the Migration Regulations 1994 — mainly members of the family unit of a person who meets the "unfit to depart" criterion in 602.212(6). This reflects the Department of Home Affairs' Medical Treatment visa (subclass 602) page and clauses 602.311 to 602.314 of the Migration Regulations 1994.

Who can be a support person on a subclass 602 application?

A support person can be a member of your family or another person such as a friend — the official page sets no relationship test beyond the support role itself. The role is defined by purpose: you are coming to support a patient or organ donor who holds this visa.

At the regulation level, clause 602.212(4) requires that the applicant provides emotional and other support to a person who satisfies the medical treatment criterion in 602.212(2) or the organ donor criterion in 602.212(3), that the person being supported holds the relevant visa, and that the support person meets public interest criterion 4005. Note the practical consequence of 4005: support persons are assessed against the full health criterion rather than the narrower active-tuberculosis screening that generally applies to treatment applicants.

Why does the support person need a separate application?

The Department's application steps state plainly that each applicant must submit a separate application unless they share a passport. The support-person section repeats this: each support person must make a separate application unless they are included in your passport.

Two qualifications make this less burdensome than it sounds. The Department says it can process your applications together, so separate lodgement does not mean sequential processing queues; and the only exception to separate lodgement is a shared passport, where the travelling companions are covered by one application.

When can family members actually be secondary applicants?

Secondary applicant criteria for subclass 602 are set out in clauses 602.311 to 602.314, and they are much narrower than the visitor-stream pattern many applicants assume. Under 602.311, a secondary applicant must be a member of the family unit of either:

a subclass 602 holder who satisfies 602.212(6) — in Australia, aged 50 or over, refused an Australian permanent visa on health grounds only, and unfit to depart Australia; or
a subclass 685 holder who satisfied 685.221(4).

The remaining clauses then apply on top: 602.312 requires public interest criteria 4020 and 4021 (and, for applicants under 18, criteria 4012, 4017 and 4018); 602.313 requires special return criterion 5010; and 602.314 adds a further set of requirements where the applicant already holds a subclass 602, 675 or 685 visa — financial hardship arising from a change in circumstances after entry, a risk that the applicant or an immediate family member may become a public charge, inability to depart, a compelling need to work, and public interest criterion 4005.

For a patient coming for treatment or to donate an organ, none of these gateways open. The family members who travel with that patient come as support persons in their own right, on their own applications.

Route	Who it covers	Separate application?
Support person (602.212(4))	Family member or friend supporting a patient or organ donor who holds the visa	Yes, unless included in the patient's passport
Secondary applicant (602.311)	Family unit member of a 602 holder who meets 602.212(6), or of a qualifying 685 holder	No — included in that person's application
Additional criteria (602.314)	Applicants already holding a 602, 675 or 685 visa seeking the financial-hardship pathway	Depends on which route they are in

In what order are the two visas granted?

The Department states that it must grant your visa first before granting a support person a visa. That ordering matters for planning: a support person's application can be assessed alongside yours, but it cannot be granted before yours, so a support person cannot be the one whose visa arrives first and then "carries" the patient in.

The grant-location rule is separate and equally strict. If you applied in Australia you must be in Australia at grant; if you applied outside Australia you must be outside Australia at grant. A support person who lodges offshore must therefore stay offshore until their own visa is granted, even if the patient has already travelled.

What does a support person have to show?

Because the support person is a principal applicant in their own right, they must satisfy the visa's general criteria rather than ride on the patient's evidence:

Purpose: a genuine intention to support a named patient or organ donor who holds this visa.
Funds: access to adequate means of support. The Department's funds criterion expressly includes the expenses of anyone who comes with you to Australia, including an organ donor's expenses — so a patient's financial evidence may have to cover the accompanying person, while the support person still needs to cover themselves.
Health and character: the health requirement and character requirement apply. Under 602.212(4)(c), support persons meet public interest criterion 4005.
Genuine temporary stay: an intention to stay only temporarily and to do only what the visa allows, unless the applicant falls in the unfit-to-depart group where that intention is not required.
Documentation: the Department asks for as much supporting information as possible, with English translations, and warns that it may decide an application without asking for more.

How long can a support person stay, and can the visa be extended?

Subclass 602 is a temporary visa, and the Department determines the length of stay case by case, taking the treatment plan into account. It is granted with single or multiple entry, and the visa itself shows which applies.

It cannot be extended to stay longer. If treatment runs past the visa period, the answer is a new application for another visa, not an extension — a point worth building into travel planning, because a single-entry visa granted offshore allows one entry only, and leaving Australia ends it.

Work is not permitted except in limited circumstances, and study is capped at three months unless an exemption applies. A support person travelling in a professional capacity is still subject to those conditions.

What should applicants take from this?

Treat the patient's application and each support person's application as linked but independent files. Suppose a patient plans to travel with a spouse and an adult child: on this visa, the spouse and child lodge their own subclass 602 applications as support persons (unless one of them is in the patient's passport), the Department may process all three together, and the patient's visa must be granted before either of theirs. Suppose instead an applicant is in Australia, aged 50 or over, and was refused a permanent visa on health grounds only — that is the situation in which clause 602.311 can bring family unit members in as secondary applicants on the same application.

Only a registered migration agent, a legal practitioner, or an exempt person may give immigration assistance for a fee or reward; anyone can be appointed merely to receive documents on your behalf. This article is general information about published rules, not advice on any individual case, and the outcome of any application depends on its own facts — check the current official pages and the current compilation of the regulations, and get advice from a properly registered practitioner before relying on it for a specific situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my spouse and children be included in my subclass 602 application as secondary applicants?

Usually not. Clause 602.311 limits secondary applicants to members of the family unit of a 602 holder who meets the unfit-to-depart criterion in 602.212(6), or of a qualifying subclass 685 holder. Patients travelling for treatment or organ donation fall outside that, so family members apply as support persons in their own right.

Does my support person have to lodge at the same time as me?

No, but lodging together is sensible because the Department says it can process the applications together. The binding rule is about grant order, not lodgement order: your visa must be granted before a support person's visa can be granted.

Can a friend, rather than a relative, be my support person?

Yes. The Department's page says a support person can be a member of your family or another person such as a friend. The test is the support role and the clause 602.212(4) criteria, not the relationship.

What if my support person is included in my passport?

The separate-application rule does not apply to people included in your passport. This is the one exception the official page and the application steps both carve out, so the travelling party can be covered by a single application.

Can a support person work in Australia on this visa?

Work is not allowed except in limited circumstances, and study is limited to three months unless an exemption applies. For a support person applying as a principal applicant, the work-related pathway is the financial-hardship criterion in clause 602.212(7), which likewise turns on a compelling need to work.

Is the visa free?

The Department states the visa is free if you apply outside Australia, and that a charge applies if you apply in Australia, with concessions in limited circumstances and no charge where you represent a foreign government. Health checks, police certificates and biometrics may cost extra, and the Visa Pricing Estimator gives the figure for a given case.

What happens if treatment takes longer than the visa allows?

The visa cannot be extended. The Department's position is that you would need to apply for another visa if more time is needed, so the stay period set at grant is the practical planning horizon.