If you have an onshore visa application in progress and you need to leave Australia, the Bridging visa B is the only visa that lets you come back. Not the BVA, not the BVC, not the BVE. The BVB, and only the BVB.
Get it wrong and the consequence is severe and permanent: leave on a bridging visa A while it is in effect and it ceases the moment you depart, taking your ability to return with it. Your application keeps being processed, but you are outside the country and cannot get back in on it.
This guide covers what the BVB does, who qualifies, what it costs, how long it takes, and the travel period rule that strands people overseas every year.
What a Bridging visa B actually does
A BVB does two things at once. It keeps you lawful in Australia while your substantive visa application is being decided, exactly as a BVA would, and it adds a travel facility: a defined period during which you can leave Australia and re-enter.
The travel facility is granted with either single or multiple entry, and it is valid until a specified date. That date is set by the Department when it grants the visa, based on why you say you need to travel and when it expects to decide your substantive application.
You can also hold a substantive visa and a BVB at the same time. If your current visa still permits travel but you think it may expire while you are overseas, applying for a BVB and waiting for the grant before you fly is the safer sequence. As long as you return inside the BVB travel period, you stay lawful on the BVB while the Department decides your application.
Who can apply for a Bridging visa B
The criteria are narrow. You must:
- Have held a substantive visa. A substantive visa is any visa other than a bridging, criminal justice or enforcement visa.
- Already hold a BVA or a BVB. This is the one that surprises people. You cannot go from a BVC or a BVE to a BVB. If you are on a BVC, travel is not available to you.
- Have applied for a substantive visa, or for judicial review. If you are applying on the basis of a review, you must have lodged that review within the prescribed timeframe.
- Have substantial reasons for wanting to travel, with documents to support them.
- Meet the character requirement.
You must also be in Australia when you lodge the application, and still in Australia when the decision is made. Applying and then flying out before the grant comes through does not work.
What "substantial reasons" for travel actually means
This is the part most applications get thin. The Department asks you to explain why you need to depart and return while your application is under consideration, and to attach supporting documents. A single sentence saying you want to visit family is not a reason with evidence behind it; it is an assertion.
What works is a specific reason with a specific document. A medical situation involving a parent, supported by a letter from the treating hospital. A wedding, supported by the invitation and the date. A business obligation, supported by correspondence showing what you are required to attend and when. A funeral or a serious family emergency, supported by whatever documentation exists.
Give your intended travel dates as well. The Department uses them, alongside its own expectation of when it will decide your substantive application, to set your travel period. Vague dates produce a vague travel period, and the travel period is the thing you cannot change later.
What a Bridging visa B costs
The BVB application charge is AUD 575, with concessions in limited circumstances.
From 1 July 2026 a lower application charge applies to eligible citizens of Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste: Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Eligibility is recognised from the passport used in the application, and the Department refunds the difference if the lower charge is not applied at lodgement.
Note that this charge is per BVB, not per trip. If your travel period ends while you are in Australia and you need to travel again, that is a fresh application and a fresh AUD 575.
How to apply
Since 1 August 2022 there is no paper or in-person option for a BVA, BVB or BVC. Everything goes through ImmiAccount or an online webform, and which one you use is not your choice:
- If you lodged your substantive visa application through ImmiAccount, lodge the BVB through ImmiAccount.
- If you lodged your substantive visa application by paper form, lodge the BVB by webform.
- If you have applied for review of a decision on your substantive visa application, lodge the BVB by webform, regardless of how the original application was made.
Before you apply, confirm in VEVO that you actually hold a BVA or BVB, and check that your passport is valid for the travel you are planning. Everyone included in the application must be in Australia at lodgement.
The Department notifies you of the outcome in writing. A grant notice gives you your visa grant number, the date the visa starts, and your conditions. Keep a copy with you.
Bridging visa B processing time
The honest answer is that there isn't a published one. Home Affairs states plainly that there are no processing times available for this visa, so any specific figure you see quoted elsewhere is someone's estimate, not a departmental commitment.
What the Department does publish is a timing window for when to apply: no more than three months, and no less than two weeks, before the date you want to travel. Treat that as the planning rule.
Two weeks is a floor, not a target. If your travel is driven by a fixed date such as a wedding or a court appearance, apply nearer the three-month end of the window. Applying too early carries its own risk, because a travel period granted months out may expire before your trip.
The travel period, and the mistake that strands people
The travel period is the whole point of the visa and the single most common source of trouble. Three rules matter.
It cannot be changed or extended after grant. Once the Department sets the period, that is the period. There is no variation process.
If you are outside Australia when it ends, the BVB ends. You cannot re-enter on it. You will have to apply for and be granted some other visa before you can come back, and you will be doing that from overseas with an onshore application pending. This is the situation to design your travel around.
If you are in Australia when it ends, you are fine. You simply apply for another BVB when you next need to travel.
Book your return with a margin. A cancelled flight or a delayed connection in the last week of a travel period is not an administrative inconvenience; it is the difference between coming home and not.
When your Bridging visa B ends
Your BVB ends when any of the following happens:
- you are granted the substantive visa it is associated with
- you are granted another bridging visa
- your BVB, or the substantive visa you held when it was granted, is cancelled
- you are outside Australia when the travel period ends
- you leave Australia after the travel period has ended
If your substantive application is refused or decided, the countdown rules are the same as for a BVA. A BVB granted on or after 19 November 2016 ceases 35 calendar days after a refusal decision, a tribunal decision, a finding that the application or review was invalid, or your withdrawal of either. It ceases 28 calendar days after a judicial review body upholds the refusal, or after you withdraw a judicial review application. VEVO shows your exact date once you have been notified, and that is the date to work to.
One wrinkle worth knowing: the Home Affairs pages still refer to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The AAT was replaced by the Administrative Review Tribunal on 14 October 2024. The timeframes are unchanged; only the tribunal's name is.
Questions we get asked most
Can I change my work conditions on a BVB? No. Conditions cannot be varied on a BVB. If your work rights need to change, that is a BVA application. And conditions cannot be changed at all on a bridging visa granted on the basis of a judicial review application.
I'm on a BVC. Can I get a BVB? No. You must already hold a BVA or a BVB.
Can I use a BVB while waiting on citizenship? No. A bridging visa cannot be used while a citizenship application is being decided.
What if my travel period expires while I'm still in Australia? Nothing happens to your status. You remain lawful. You just cannot travel again without a new BVB.
Does a BVB speed up or slow down my main application? Neither, though the Department does consider when it expects to decide your substantive application when setting your travel period, so a BVB request will not extend a decision timeline.
Which applications this comes up with most
A BVB request almost always sits behind a long-running onshore application. The ones we see it with most often:
- Partner visas. Onshore subclass 820 and 801 applications run for years, and applicants inevitably need to attend a wedding, a funeral or a family emergency overseas during that time.
- Skilled visas. Subclass 189 and 190 applicants lodged onshore, often while working, with family obligations offshore.
- Employer sponsored. Subclass 186 and 482 applicants whose employers need them to travel for work.
- Students and graduates. Subclass 500 and 485 holders who lodged a further application onshore and want to go home between study periods.
- Parent visas. Parent visa applicants, where the queue is measured in years rather than months.
In each case the question to answer before booking anything is the same: do you currently hold a BVA or BVB, and is your travel period going to cover the whole trip with room to spare?
Where to get this checked
Most BVB refusals and most stranded travellers come down to the same two things: reasons for travel that were not properly evidenced, and a travel period that did not match the actual trip. Both are fixable before you lodge, and neither is fixable afterwards.
Nanak Migration Group are MARA-registered migration agents. If you have an application pending and travel coming up, book your consultation and we will check your eligibility, your evidence and your timing before anything is lodged.
Further reading: bridging visas explained, including work rights and cease dates, our bridging visas guide, and visa refusal and appeal options.
This article is general information, not personal migration advice. It reflects Department of Home Affairs guidance as at 7 September 2026 and does not take your circumstances into account. Confirm your own visa conditions, travel period and cease dates through VEVO.