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Useful information on different types of Visas for Australia

VISITING AUSTRALIA

eVISITOR: E-Visitor is designed for people who are outside Australian and want to visit for tourism  (holidays, recreation and seeing family and friends) or business purposes (including attending conferences, negotiation or exploratory business trips).

The eVisitor application are free and allows travellers to stay in Australia for up to three months on each visit within a 12 month period from the date of grant.

An eVisitor is an electronically stored authority for travel to Australia, which can be applied for online. You will not receive a stamp or label in your passport, however you will receive a confirmation email from DIAC (Department of Immigration and Citizenship)

Please see below the list of eVisitor eligible passports:

Andorra, Estonia, Ireland, Austria, Finland, Italy, Belgium, France, Latvia, Bulgaria, Germany, Liechtenstein,
Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Denmark, Iceland, Malta, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Republic of San Marino, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vatican City.

British National Overseas passport holders are not eligible to apply for an eVisitor, however they should refer to ETA (visitor) subclass 976 and ETA (business) subclass 977.

 


WORKING IN AUSTRALIA:

WORKING HOLIDAY VISA (SUBCLASS 417)

If you are aged between 18 and 30 and hold a passport for one of the countries listed below you may be eligible to apply to work and travel in Australia for a period of 12 months. You are permitted to work for a period of 6 months with each employer and undertake up to 4 months of study or training. It may also be possible to apply for a second 12 months working holiday visa if you have completed three months of specified work in regional Australia whilst on your first working holiday visa.

Working holiday eligible Countries - The United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Ireland, South Korea, Malta, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Finland, the Republic of Cyprus, Italy, France and Estonia.

Please note if you are from Chile, Thailand, Turkey or USA you may be eligible to apply for a Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa.

 


WORK VISA APPLICATIONS

Skilled-Independent Visa

This visa is designed to provide work visas to individuals with qualifications or skills to fill Australia's skill shortage and contribute to the Australian economy.

The Sub-Class 175 Skilled-Independent Visa is a permanent residence visa and all applicants must:

• Be under 45 years of age at the time of the visa application;
• Have a positive skills assessment by an authorised agency;
• Where the applicant's skilled occupation is a trade, the applicant (unless they hold a UK, USA, Canadian, New Zealand or Irish passport) must have vocational English - this is an IELTS's score of at least 5 on each of the 4 test components, or otherwise a score of at least 6 on each of the 4 test components; and
• Score at least at the qualifying pass mark in the General Points test set by DIAC - the current qualifying score is 120 points, however this pass mark is subject to change.

The partner and dependant children of the successful VISA applicant are entitled to live and work in Australia. They are also required to satisfy certain health and character requirements.



Employer Sponsored (Temporary Residence) Visa

This visa is also linked to Australia's skill shortage and for workers who will contribute to the Australian economy.

The Subclass 457 Visa is available to applicants who are sponsored by an Australian employer to perform certain skilled occupations. This Visa may be granted for a period of 1 to 4 years.

There are three mandatory requirements to obtaining this visa:

1. Sponsorship - the employer must be approved by DIAC for a specified number of temporary skilled overseas workers. In order for a sponsoring employer to be approved as a Sponsor they need to satisfy a number of DIAC's requirements including the financial capacity to meet the sponsorship undertakings.


2. Nomination - the employer needs to nominate the positions they want to fill with a temporary resident and they must relate to an occupation, which meets a minimum skills threshold including managerial, professional, associate professional and tradesman. The applicant must also be paid a minimum salary in accordance with the most recent average salary for Australian employees calculated by the Australian Bureau of statistics.

3. Visa Application - The Applicant needs to demonstrate that they have the skills to match the nominated vacancy and satisfy certain health and character requirements. From July 2007 certain subclass 457 visa applicants will need to meet the English language requirements (U.K.USA, Canadian and Irish passport holders are excepted).

The partner and dependent children of the successful visa applicant are entitled to live and work in Australia. They are also required to satisfy certain health and character requirements.

 


Employer Nomination Scheme

The employer nomination permanent residence visa allows employers to fill "highly skilled" positions in Australia with non-Australian applicants.

The ENS aims to satisfy genuine shortages in the Australian labour market and enhance opportunities for Australians to acquire new skills and knowledge and enhance Australia's ability to compete globally.

For further information on how to apply for this visa please contact our office.

The partner and dependent children of the successful visa applicant are entitled to live and work in Australia. They are also required to satisfy certain health and character requirements

Also included under this heading are:

SKILLED REGIONAL SPONSORED VISAS

BUSINESS SKILLS VISA

Business skills migration involves 2 stages. At the first stage business migrants can apply for a provisional visa and if the provisional visa is granted, business migrants have 4 years to satisfy all the requirements of the business skills permanent residence visa.

To be able to apply for this visa please refer to the categories below:

Business owners: owners or part owners of a business.
Senior Executives: senior executive employees of major business;
Investors: investors/business people willing to invest in Australia;
Business Employees/Managers: senior managers with at least 4 years continuous employment.
Business Talent Visa - (please note high calibre business persons under this category do not require a provisional visa).

Applicants applying for the Business skills visa can also apply for State/Territory sponsorship and if the sponsorship is granted the requirements are significantly lower than the unsponsored categories.


SPOUSE AND FAMILY VISAS

Applications for spouse visas require that the applicants must be married or in a de facto relationship (they must have resided together for at least a period of 12 months prior to the date of lodgement of their visa application).

This visa requires that the applicants are able to prove they are in a genuine and ongoing relationship to the exclusion of all others and that you live together on a permanent basis.

Other visa categories under this heading include:
Interdependent Visa
Prospective Marriage Visa
Parent Visa
Aged Parent Visa
Remaining Parent Visa


STUDENT VISAS

Overseas students are able to come to Australia to participate in study at various levels, including secondary, tertiary, post-graduate vocational and non-award courses. To apply for a student visa your enrolment must be in a registered course on a full-time basis.
 

Visa Information

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