Children born before decision: 866 application inclusions in 2026

How a child born while a Subclass 866 application is pending is treated, and what that means for PR and citizenship.

Published: 9 October 2026

Yes. Under the Australian Department of Home Affairs' Protection visa (Subclass 866) official page (as at the August 2026 version), a child born after you submit your application and before the Department makes a decision on it will be taken to be included in that application. You still have to notify the Department as soon as possible, using Form 1022 Notification of change of circumstances together with a clear colour copy of the child's original birth certificate.

That single sentence carries most of the practical weight, because the inclusion is automatic in law but not automatic in practice: the Department has no way to act on a birth it has not been told about, and a decision can be made on the material already in front of it.

Does the child get permanent residence with me, or a separate visa?

The child is taken to be included in your pending application rather than needing their own 866 application. On the same official page, permanent residence is described as beginning on the day the visa is granted — "you become an Australian permanent resident on the day we grant the visa", and for Australian citizenship purposes permanent residence starts on that same day.

Read together, those two rules mean the child's outcome rides on your outcome, and the clock for the child's permanent residence starts on the grant day, not on the day of birth. A hypothetical applicant whose 866 is granted eight months after the birth would have a child whose permanent residence, for citizenship purposes, dates from the grant date rather than from the birth.

What happens if the baby is born in Australia while we hold bridging visas?

Two separate rules apply at once, and it helps to keep them apart.

First, the Department states that if a child is born in Australia, it automatically grants them the same visas their parents hold at the time of the child's birth. If both parents are holding bridging visas linked to the pending 866 application, the newborn is granted the equivalent bridging status.

Second, the inclusion rule still operates on the 866 application itself. So the child holds temporary status matched to the parents' status from birth, and is simultaneously part of the protection application that is yet to be decided.

When could the child be an Australian citizen by birth?

The 866 page puts this in conditional terms: if either parent is an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident at the time of the child's birth, the child might be an Australian citizen by birth.

The timing matters more than people expect. Because permanent residence only starts on the grant day, a parent whose 866 is still undecided at the moment of birth generally does not yet hold permanent residence on the page's own wording. The citizenship-by-birth possibility on that page therefore turns on the parent's status at the exact time of birth — not on the status the parent later acquires when the 866 is granted.

How do I notify the Department, step by step?

Get the child's original birth certificate.
Make a clear colour copy of it.
Complete Form 1022 Notification of change of circumstances.
Log in to ImmiAccount.
Attach the completed form and the birth certificate copy to your application.
Check that the attachment has uploaded before you log out.

If you send the documents by post instead, send them to the address where you sent your application, and send a certified copy of the child's birth certificate rather than an uncertified colour copy.

Do this promptly. The Department's page lists the birth of a child among the changes you must tell it about after applying, alongside changes to your name, contact details, passport, and marital or de facto status.

Form 1022 or Form 1436 — which one is mine?

These two forms are often confused, but they cover different situations and different people.

Situation	Form	Who it covers
A child is born after lodgement and before decision	Form 1022 Notification of change of circumstances	A newborn, who is taken to be included automatically
You want to add someone to the application after lodgement	Form 1436 Adding an additional applicant after lodgement	A spouse or de facto partner, or a dependent child, of someone who has already applied
You made a mistake in an answer already given	Form 1023 Notification of incorrect answers	Any applicant on the file

The Form 1436 route has its own gates: the person must be in Australia, must be eligible to apply for the visa, and the Department must not yet have decided your application. The newborn route does not use those gates, because the inclusion follows from the birth itself.

What else changes once a child is on the file?

A few follow-on obligations come with the inclusion.

The Department states that you and any family members in Australia who are included in the application will need to provide biometrics — a digital photograph of the face and a scan of fingerprints — and that it will contact you to say when. If biometrics are not provided, the application will be invalid and cannot be considered.

Once the visa is granted, the travel facility runs for five years from the date of grant. After those five years, a Resident Return visa (subclass 155 or 157) is needed to re-enter Australia, and that applies to the child as much as to you. There is also a travel condition specific to this visa: condition 8559 prevents you and members of your family unit from entering the country or countries from which protection was granted without written approval, and breaching it can lead to cancellation of the visas of family unit members as well as your own.

The published rules are general in nature and do not amount to personalised advice about your circumstances; where your own facts sit close to a threshold — such as whether a parent held permanent residence at the moment of birth — the official current guidance and a qualified professional's view should govern what you do next.

What if the child is born after the decision is made?

The inclusion rule on the Department's page is tied to a birth that occurs after submission and before decision. Once a decision has been made, that mechanism no longer describes your situation.

The separate "add family members" route is also closed at that point, because one of its conditions is that the Department has not yet decided the application. What remains after a decision is not covered by the 866 page's family provisions, so the position needs to be confirmed against the Department's latest published guidance for the visa you and the child then hold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my newborn need a separate Subclass 866 application?

No. The Department treats a child born after you submit and before it decides as included in your application. You must still notify it with Form 1022 and a clear colour copy of the original birth certificate.

My baby was born in Australia — is a visa granted automatically?

Yes, the Department automatically grants a child born in Australia the same visas their parents hold at the time of birth. If you were holding bridging visas, the child receives the equivalent bridging status.

Could my child be an Australian citizen by birth?

Possibly. The 866 page says a child might be an Australian citizen by birth if either parent is an Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident at the time of birth. Permanent residence itself starts on the grant day, so a still-pending parent is generally not yet a permanent resident at that moment.

Which documents do I attach, and does the original have to be posted?

Attach a clear colour copy of the child's original birth certificate with Form 1022 in ImmiAccount. If you post the documents instead, send a certified copy to the address where you sent your application.

Does the child have to do biometrics?

Yes. Family members in Australia who are included in the application must provide biometrics, and the Department will tell you when. Failure to provide them makes the application invalid.

What if the Department decides my application before I report the birth?

The inclusion rule only reaches births that happen before the decision. If a decision has already been made, the 866 page's family provisions do not describe a route for that child, and the position should be checked against the Department's current published guidance.

When does the child's five-year travel facility start?

Travel runs to and from Australia for five years from the date the visa is granted, and the grant date is a single date for the application. After five years, a Resident Return visa (subclass 155 or 157) is needed to re-enter.