Bridging Visas

The Department defines Bridging Visa as a category of visa which ‘enables you to remain in Australia while a decision is made regarding your visa’.

Here are all the things you need to know:
There are 7 types of Bridging Visa (A, B, C, D, E, F, R)
You will often see the name abbreviated to BV (BVA, BVB, etc)

A Bridging Visa is granted only when we apply for a visa from within Australia.

A Bridging Visa is never active until the visa that we had before has expired. Apart from a few exceptions, a Bridging Visa reflects the conditions that were applied to the previous visa.

Briefly, here are the differences between the various Bridging Visas:

BVA: is the most common, permitting us to wait for the result of a visa without having to leave upon expiry of the previous one. Note: it does not allow you to leave Australia.
BVB: the BVB can be requested when you wish to travel while you are on a Bridging Visa. It allows you to leave the country and re-enter. Conversion of the visa has a price.
BVC, BVD and BVE: these bridging visas are for correcting an anomalous immigration status such as lack of visa, invalid applications or overstays.
BVF and BVR: not very common visas. The former protects presumed victims of people trafficking while the latter allows release from detention while readying to leave Australia.