Who can be one

Be an assurer as a person

One person as an assurer

If you want to be an assurer for someone entering Australia, you must:

• pass the income test for the current and previous financial years
• be an Australian resident or citizen
• be 18 years of age or older
• be able to financially support the assuree
• give us proof of your identity
• get a bank guarantee if we ask for one.

We need to decide if you have enough income to be an assurer. To do this, we’ll look at the income you earn now and the income you earned in the last financial year. If your income in the last financial year was reduced due to a temporary change, we may be able to use your income from the year before.

We’ll need proof of your income for the current financial year. We can’t accept your tax return as proof of income.

We also need your notice of assessment from the Australian Taxation Office for the previous financial year.

If you don’t have a notice of assessment from the previous financial year, we can accept your notice of assessment from the year before.

If you are self-employed, you must give us either:

• a profit and loss statement
• a letter from your accountant for the current financial year, and your individual notice of assessment for the previous financial year.

More than one person as an assurer

If you don’t have enough income, you can be a joint assurer with up to 2 other people.

Each assurer must apply and all assurers must use the same submission method. For example, if one assurer applies online, all other assurers must also apply online.

Online applicants must use the same joint application reference number as the first applicant.

On paper-based forms, both of the following must apply:

• assurees names and details of your joint assurers must be complete
• all assurees names must match in a joint assurer application.

Processing will start once we receive all complete forms.

We will call each assurer for the mandatory interview. Interviews with joint assurers may be together or separate.

Be an assurer as an organisation

Find out how your organisation can give an Assurance of Support.

Check if you’re eligible

As a person

You need to pass an income test to be eligible.

The income you need to pass this test depends on all of the following:

• the number of children under 18 years of age who are dependent on you
• the number of adults you are seeking to assure
• if there are any other assurers
• the number of children under 18 years of age your joint assurer has
• the number of adults in your other AoS cases.

Use our Assurance of Support checker to find out if you’re eligible to be an assurer. This will also let you know if you meet the financial needs.

If you’re still not sure if you’re eligible either:

• call the Centrelink Employment Services Line
• ask at a service centre.