Changing from an Aged Parent 804 to 864 Contributory Visa

[Robyn Abrey]

Hello dear Forumites,
Please may I ask some advice. My Mum came to Australia in 2011 on an 804 visa as 3 of her 4 daughters are in Oz and one in New Zealand.  It appears she is still thousands of applicants down the list and I hear 13 years is the potential processing time for her permanent residency. I deeply regret us not doing the contributory Visa 864 route in the first place, but am wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to convert from an 804 to an 864 now. I seem to remember this was discussed as an option in 2011, but at that stage the wait time was so much shorter that we figured she would be better off with the additional money in her account.
I would be so grateful to hear from anyone else who has had a similar situation. Unfortunately I am away working in Brazil at present so cannot even go into the department of Immigration (Is there such a thing any more?) to speak to an actual person.
Thank you for any advice,

kind regards, Robyn

[Riekie]

As far as I know (remember) you could either withdraw your application and start a new one or apply for the new one parallel to the current one and whichever one is granted first is the one you have.  You do not get your application fees back for the one you withdraw/cancel.  I could be wrong (outdated) - maybe one of our kind contributing agents @SD_MOA or @TeeTMI could clarify?