Bridging visa B cessation rules: does the 35-day or 28-day period apply to you in 2026?
How the 35-day and 28-day Bridging visa B cessation rules differ by grant date, and which set applies to your case in 2026.
The date your Bridging visa B (BVB) (Subclass 020) was granted decides which cessation rule applies, not the date your case was refused and not the date you applied. A BVB granted on or after 19 November 2016 runs on the "35 calendar days" rule for refusals, invalid applications and withdrawals; a BVB granted before that date runs on a single 28-day rule for almost every outcome. This follows the Australian Department of Home Affairs' official Bridging visa B (Subclass 020) page.
Because the split turns on a 2016 grant date, it still catches people in 2026 whose matters have run for years — old partner, protection or parent cases, matters that went to a tribunal and back, or a BVB that has stayed in place while a judicial review wound its way through the courts. This article is general information about how the published rules are framed; it is not advice about your own visa, and your actual cease date comes from your grant letter and VEVO rather than from anything written here.
How do I work out which side of 19 November 2016 I am on?
Check the grant date of the BVB you currently hold, not the date of your substantive visa application and not the date of the decision you are waiting on.
The practical complications are worth naming, because they are where long-running cases go wrong:
- You may have held more than one BVB. If your original BVB was granted in 2015 and you applied for and were granted a fresh one in 2024 because you needed to travel again, the later grant is the one that counts, and the post-2016 rules apply to it.
- A BVB granted for judicial review is a separate application. The Department's page notes that where you have applied for judicial review and wish to travel, a separate BVB application is needed, and if you have applied for judicial review you can only apply for a bridging visa by webform.
- Bridge in effect vs bridge in force. A BVB comes into effect when it is granted — if your substantive visa has ceased since you applied for the BVB, or where the BVB is more beneficial than your current bridging visa — or, otherwise, when your current substantive visa ceases. The grant date, not the date it came into effect, is what the rules turn on.
If you cannot find the grant date, VEVO is the place the Department points you to for both your visa details and the exact date you can remain in Australia.
What ends a BVB granted on or after 19 November 2016?
Your BVB ends 35 calendar days after:
- the Department's refusal decision, or a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), in relation to the associated substantive visa application
- a determination that the substantive visa application, or an application for review by the AAT, is invalid
- you withdraw the substantive visa application or the application for review by the AAT.
Your BVB ends 28 calendar days after:
- a judicial review body upholds the decision to refuse the substantive visa application
- you withdraw a related judicial review application.
What ends a BVB granted before 19 November 2016?
There is no 35-day period for these visas. Your BVB ends 28 days after the date one of the following happens:
- you are notified that the substantive visa application is not valid
- you are notified that the substantive visa application has been refused
- you withdraw the substantive visa application
- a merits review tribunal notifies you that it has upheld the refusal decision
- a merits review tribunal notifies you that it has no jurisdiction to consider the review application
- you withdraw an application for merits or judicial review from a tribunal or a judicial review body
- a judicial review body upholds the decision to refuse the substantive visa application.
Where the two sets of rules actually differ
| Outcome | BVB granted before 19 Nov 2016 | BVB granted on or after 19 Nov 2016 |
|---|---|---|
| Substantive visa application refused | 28 days from notification | 35 calendar days |
| Application determined to be invalid | 28 days from notification | 35 calendar days |
| You withdraw the substantive application or AAT review | 28 days | 35 calendar days |
| Tribunal upholds the refusal decision | 28 days from notification | 35 calendar days |
| Tribunal says it has no jurisdiction | 28 days from notification | Not given a separate figure in the published breakdown |
| You withdraw a judicial review application | 28 days | 28 calendar days |
| Judicial review body upholds the refusal | 28 days | 28 calendar days |
Two things fall out of that table. First, the real gap between the two regimes is the merits-stage outcomes: refusals, invalid applications, withdrawals and tribunal affirmations went from 28 days to 35 days. Second, judicial review outcomes were 28 days under both regimes, so a case that ends in court is treated the same way whenever the BVB was granted.
The no-jurisdiction row is the one to watch. The Department's page lists "a merits review tribunal tells you that it has no jurisdiction" among the events that end a BVB generally, but the post-2016 35-day and 28-day breakdown does not assign it a figure, while the pre-2016 list does. Where the published breakdown is silent, VEVO is the only reliable source of your actual date.
Does the clock start on the decision date or the notification date?
The two lists are worded differently, and that wording matters.
For BVBs granted before 19 November 2016, the Department's page ties the 28 days to notification — you are notified the application is invalid, notified it is refused, or the tribunal notifies you it has upheld the decision or has no jurisdiction. For BVBs granted on or after that date, the page ties the 35 days to the refusal decision or AAT decision, the determination of invalidity, or the act of withdrawal, without using notification language for the first two.
A worked-through hypothetical shows why this is more than drafting style. Assume a person holds a BVB granted in 2014 and is notified of a refusal on 1 March 2026: on the Department's wording, the 28 days run from 1 March 2026. Assume the same person instead holds a BVB granted in 2019: the 35 days are expressed to run from the refusal decision, which may be earlier than the date the notice reached them.
Either way, do not count the days yourself and rely on the result. The Department's page says that once you have been notified of an outcome you can see exactly how long you can stay in Australia in VEVO, and that is the record to work from.
Why does a 2016 rule still decide things in 2026?
Because a bridging visa granted under the older rule keeps the older rule for as long as that visa continues. The cessation period is attached to the visa you hold, so a person who has been on the same BVB since 2015 does not move onto the 35-day rule simply because the calendar has moved to 2026.
That cuts both ways. A pre-2016 BVB gives less time after a refusal — 28 days rather than 35 — which matters if you are preparing a review application, arranging to depart, or considering what other visa you might apply for. But the pre-2016 list also covers the "no jurisdiction" outcome explicitly, which the post-2016 breakdown does not.
The flip side is that applying for a new BVB does not preserve your old cessation rule. Where a fresh BVB is granted, it is granted under the rules that apply at the time of that grant, so the 35-day and 28-day structure applies to it.
What happens after the BVB ceases?
The BVB cannot be extended. The Department's page states that you cannot stay in Australia longer by extending this visa, and that you must apply for a new visa if you wish to stay longer.
There is also a travel trap that is separate from the cessation rules. If you are outside Australia when the specified travel period on your BVB ends, the visa ceases, and you cannot return to Australia on a ceased BVB. The Department's page also notes that where the travel facility has ended or does not have enough validity left for your proposed journey, you need to apply for and be granted a new BVB before leaving Australia.
Separately, a BVB also ceases when the substantive visa it is associated with is granted, or when the Department cancels the BVB or the substantive visa you held when the BVB was granted. Those events end the bridging visa without any of the 28-day or 35-day periods running.
Does anything else affect what I can do while the BVB is running?
Three points from the Department's page are worth keeping in view while you wait on an outcome:
- Conditions. You must comply with the conditions imposed on the visa, which are set out in your grant letter and visible in VEVO. If you hold a substantive visa when the BVB is granted, you keep complying with the substantive visa's conditions until it ceases; then the BVB conditions apply. You cannot apply to change conditions on a BVB — you would need to apply for a Bridging visa A (BVA) instead. If you hold a BVB that does not permit work and want the conditions changed, you must prove financial hardship as part of that BVA process.
- Work. You might be allowed to work if the substantive visa you had, or the visa you applied for, lets you work. If both carry work restrictions, you cannot work on a BVB.
- New bridging visa after an unfavourable tribunal decision. Where a merits review tribunal upholds the refusal and you apply for judicial review, you must apply for a new bridging visa to remain lawful during the judicial review proceedings.
Frequently Asked Questions
My BVB was granted in 2015, but I got a new one in 2024. Which rules apply?
The later grant is the one that counts, so the 35-day and 28-day structure applies to the 2024 visa. Cessation periods attach to the bridging visa you currently hold, not to the first one you were ever granted, and VEVO will show the visa that is actually in place.
Are the 35 days counted from the decision or from the letter reaching me?
For BVBs granted on or after 19 November 2016, the Department's page ties the 35 days to the refusal decision or AAT decision, the invalidity determination, or the withdrawal itself. It does not say to add time for delivery, so the safest approach is to read your exact cease date from VEVO as soon as an outcome is notified.
How long do I have if the tribunal says it has no jurisdiction?
For a BVB granted before 19 November 2016, the page gives 28 days from the date the tribunal notifies you. For a BVB granted on or after that date, no separate figure is given in the published 35-day and 28-day breakdown, so VEVO is the place to confirm the date.
Does withdrawing my application end my BVB immediately?
No. Withdrawal starts a period rather than ending the visa on the spot: 35 calendar days for a post-2016 BVB when you withdraw the substantive application or an AAT review application, and 28 calendar days for a pre-2016 BVB when you withdraw a substantive, merits review or judicial review application.
I am overseas and my BVB travel period is about to end. What happens?
If you are outside Australia when the specified travel period ends, the visa ceases, and you cannot return to Australia on a ceased BVB. If you need to travel again after the travel period has ended, you must apply for and be granted a new BVB before leaving Australia.
Can I ask for more time on my BVB after a refusal?
No. You cannot stay longer by extending a BVB; the Department's page says you must apply for a new visa if you wish to stay longer. The 28-day or 35-day period is fixed by the outcome event, not extendable on request.
Does it matter that the tribunal is now the Administrative Review Tribunal rather than the AAT?
The Department's BVB page still uses the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) when describing the cessation rules, while the Migration Regulations material refers to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). Either way the structure is the same: a merits review decision triggers the 35-day period for a post-2016 BVB and the 28-day period for a pre-2016 one.