Community Support Program Assurance of Support - Assurance of Support

What is the Community Support Program

The Community Support Program is voluntary and helps persons in humanitarian need to begin a new life in Australia with help from:

community organisations
business
families and individuals.

It allows you to give Assurance of Support for 12 months.

Through the program, you can:

support applicants in need
help with a job offer
give the skills needed to someone looking for work.

You must guarantee financial support, so assurees can support themselves in the first year.

You do not need to know someone to give support through the program. You can match with a person in need through an Approved Proposing Organisation (APO).

Read more about the program and find an APO on the Department of Home Affairs website.

The Department of Home Affairs manages the Community Support Program.

Who can participate in the program

To join in the program there are different rules if you are:

a person or family
a business or community organisation.

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.

As a person

You can apply as a person or give a joint Assurance of Support with up to 2 other people. This means that you and your family may be able to give Assurance of Support.

You, and any others, must:

be willing to be an assurer
be an Australian citizen or permanent resident
meet an income test.

As a person, you can give Assurance of Support for up to 4 adults plus any dependent children under 18 years of age.

If there are more than 4 adults in the visa application, another person will need to give a separate Assurance of Support.

You can also give Assurance of Support for 2 adults who aren’t part of the program. This means that you could support a total of 6 adult assurees at any one time.

Income test

The level of income you must have will depend 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.

As a business or community organisation

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

How to apply to participate in the program

To participate in the Community Support Program you must:

contact an APO and register with them.
apply to give an Assurance of Support.