Visitor Visa Options and Requirements

Uslovi za dobijanje turističke vize za Australiju

If you would like to come to Australia to visit family, friends, to do some general business or employment enquiry or to travel

around Australia and see Australia’s beautiful tourist attractions, you need to choose a visa option that suits your needs and

passport you hold.

 

Visitor Visa Options

There are four visitor visa subclasses:

1. Electronic Travel Authority visa Subclass 601 – this subclass is for passport holders of countries listed in the following legal instrument.

2. eVisitor Subclass 651 – this subclass is for passport holders of countries listed in the following legal instrument.

3. Visitor Visa Subclass 600 is for many the only option. This visa may be issued for period of 3, 6 or 12 months. It may be issues also for shorter periods,

depending on the applicant’s circumstances. There will be more details concerning this type of visa.

4. Transit Visa subclass 771 – this subclass is for people passing through Australia in transit to another country or the purpose of getting the pass to a non-military

ship as a crew member.

 

Visitor Visa Subclass 600 – Family Sponsored Stream

 

Family Sponsored Stream is a stream restricted to applicants who have an Australian citizen or permanent resident family member who is eligible to sponsor them. The sponsor must be a relative to the applicant or his/her member of the family unit. A relative is defined as a de facto partner, spouse, child, parent, step-child, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew, or a step-grandparent, step-grandchild, step-aunt, step-uncle, step-niece or step-nephew.

When granted, the visa has condition 8503 (“No further stay”) and due to this condition, it may be easier for applicants to obtain this type of visa rather than a Tourist Stream visa which does not have this condition imposed.

 

Visitor Visa Subclass 600 – Tourist Stream

 

Tourist Stream is the most popular stream of the subclass 600 as it is often used by people who want to visit their family, friends or do the sightseeing, but do not meet requirements for Family Sponsored Stream or by choice decide to apply for it.

The advantage of this stream is that it allows holders to use visa within a 12 months period from the date of its issuance which gives them more time to find more affordable air tickets or better plan their trip, especially if they plan to make a big tour around Australia.

Holders of Tourist Stream Visitor Visa are generally allowed to extend their stay, apply for other visas if their circumstances change, which is much harder for holders of Family Sponsored visa due to the condition ‘No further stay’ that is difficult to waive.

 

Visitor Visa Subclass 600 – Business Visitor Stream

This Stream allows holders to do one of the following business activities:

1. making general business or employment enquiries, investigating, negotiating, signing or reviewing a business contract;
2. participating in conferences, trade fairs or seminars, as long as you are not being paid by the organisers for your participation.

This Stream is  not a working visa and does not allow holders to:

1. undertake work or provide goods or services to a business or a person;
2. sell goods or services directly to the general public while in Australia.

 

Visitor Visa Subclass 600 – Approved Destination Status Stream

The Approved Destination Status Stream is designed only for tour groups from the People’s Republic of China to Australia. This visa stream can only be arranged by Australian or Chinese agents who are approved to take part in this tourism arrangement established between the two countries. Holders of this stream are not able to work or study or extend the length of their visa while in Australia and they must stay with their tour group the whole time.

 

Visitor Visa Subclass 600 – Frequent Traveller Stream

The Frequent Traveller Stream is for people who travel frequently to Australia for a short visits to family, friends, for tourism or for business purposes.

This stream is currently available only to holders of passports from the People’s Republic of China, who are applying from within China.

Visitor Visa Options and Requirements 3

Common criteria for all subclass 600 applicants

It is general criteria that applicants genuinely intend to stay temporarily in Australia for the purpose for which they requested visa and for which is the visa granted. The temporary entrant requirement is assessed based on various circumstances including whether the applicant has intention to comply with the conditions to which application is subject to or has the applicant complied substantially with the conditions to which the last visa was held by the applicant, if any.

The applicant needs to have adequate means or to have genuine access to funds to support his/hers stay in Australia.

There are many other criteria which are taken into consideration such as: credibility of the applicant and whether the provided information are correct and whole, whether the applicant passed medical and character tests, if applicant has no debts to Australia, whether the applicant applied for permanent visa within the last 5 years, and many other circumstances.

 

“Ties to your home country”

The applicants need to show that they have strong ties to their home country and that they will return back home due to these ties.

The most common evidence of strong ties to a home country are:

1. having a permanent job;
2. having a student status;
3. having a family commitments and relationships: having a partner, children, close and extend family members, friends, etc. or needs to take care of children/parent/relatives;
4. ownership of real estate property, shares, investment, business;
5. any other.

You do not need to have all of the mentioned evidence, but these are given more as a guide.

 

Do I need an invitation and a guarantee to come to Australia?

Many people who contact us understand that they must have someone to invite them and be their guarantee, as well as fund their trip. This is only the case for Family Sponsored Visa. For Tourist Stream, for example, you do not have to have a friend or a relative in Australia to invite you, in order to be granted visa, but of course, it can help to show your intention of travelling if you have somebody to visit.

Still, if you are planning to come only as a tourist, you do not need to have a person to invite you, as long as you provide evidence of strong ties to your home country.

 

If you would like to apply for visitor visa and you need professional assistance please contact us on info@baxvel.com.

 

Vera Radisavljevic

Solicitor and Registered Migration Agent
MARN 1681254

Disclamer: Your use of the above text or the receipt of any information from this article or website www.baxvel.com is not intended to create nor does it create a solicitor (migration agent) – client relationship between you and the writer (Vera Radisavljevic and/or Baxvel Pty Ltd) and it is not a legal/immigration advice.

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