If you have decided to come to Australia for any reason, like a holiday, sightseeing, visiting relatives, a sports event or even business, then we believe the following information will be of extreme help to you.
Depending on your home country or the passport you hold, you will have to apply for a specific tourist visa.
The most common tourist visas are the ETA the eVisitor and the Visitor visa.
There are also tourist visas especially for New Zealand citizens.
Some information now on the ETA
Officially known as Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601)
With this visa you will be able to come to Australia as many times as you like for up to 1 year but you can only stay a maximum of three months at one time.
This visa costs only $20 and is applied online.
You can apply for this visa if you are from Brunei, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States of America.
To apply all you need is your passport, a credit card and an e-mail address.
So, you can see that this is a fairly simple application process.
In most cases the application is immediately process and you will get your decision by e-mail
Even though that this is the case in most circumstances we still recommend to apply for this visa way in advance.
We would recommend at least one or two weeks prior to your arranged travels to Australia.
You will not be able to apply for this visa if you are in Australia.
This visa allows you to visit Australia for tourism or business purposes and does not include work rights.
Some information now on the eVisitor visa
Officially known as eVisitor (subclass 651)
With this visa you will be able to come to Australia as many times as you like for up to 1 year but you can only stay three months at one time.
This visa is FREE and is applied online.
You can apply for this visa if you are from one of the following countries:
- Andorra
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Monaco
- The Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Republic of San Marino
- Slovak Republic
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom – British Citizen
- Vatican City.
In most cases, the application is immediately processed and you will get your decision by e-mail within a few hours.
In some cases your application may be referred to the local Australian embassy for a follow up.
If it is referred, then they will check the genuineness of the documents and might even contact you for a short interview.
We recommend you apply for this visa way in advance.
We would recommend at least 5 or 6 weeks prior to your arranged travels to Australia.
You will not be able to apply for this visa if you are in Australia.
This visa allows you to visit Australia for tourism or business purposes and does not include work rights.
Tourist visa
Officially known as Visitor visa (subclass 600)
If you are not lucky enough to hold a passport that is eligible to apply for an ETA or an eVisitor visa, then you have the option of applying for the tourist subclass 600 visa
This visa will allow you to visit Australia for the purpose of tourism or business
You can get this visa for 3, 6 or 12 months.
In some extreme cases, you maybe granted a shorter visa if the case officer decides that it is enough time for you to complete the mentioned tasks as per your request.
There are some provisions now for parents of Australian citizens where they can get a longer visa even up to 3 years but the Department of Immigration only grants this length of the visa only in certain cases
There are 4 streams that you can apply under and they are as follows:
- Tourist stream
- Business visitor stream
- Sponsored family stream
- Approved destination status stream
The most common are the tourist and the sponsored family stream.
You can apply for the tourist visa if you would like to come to Australia just for a holiday and/or visiting friends and family.
The Sponsored Family visa is for you, if you have a close relative that is willing to sponsor you for the duration of your stay here in Australia.
As a sponsor they will have some obligations.
There is also a chance that the case officer may request a bond which can be from $5000-$15,000 which is returned after you leave Australia.
These visas can be applied online or by mail to the local embassy or if you are in Australia to Department of Immigration.
It is very important that you provide evidence in your application that you intend to genuinely visit Australia only temporary.
This means that you have every intention to return to your home country and that you have obligations there.
Depending on the purpose of your stay and the passport you hold, this visa can be granted to you for only one entry or multiple entries.
This Visa will allow you to come to Australia for a holiday and visit your friends and family and also study up to 3 months while here in Australia.
Come and discover Australia!!!
