Visa & Passport

For your travel to Australia and the enter the country one needs a current passport valid for the duration of your stay and a valid Australia visa issued in your own country and entered into the passport before the travel date. Though the New Zealand visitors are exempt from these requirements and are granted an entry permit on arrival.
For Australia Visa, applications are made to the Australian Embassy, Consulate or High Commission, as applicable, in your home country, although is now possible for Australian visa applications to be made online. Make sure you apply for the correct visa type. Tourist visas are generally valid for a stay of 3 or 6 months. At the time of making your visa application you will have to sign an undertaking that you have an outward bound ticket and sufficient funds for the duration of your stay.
Travellers travelling to Australia need a valid passport or similar certificate of identification.  Everyone, except travellers with Australian or New Zealand passports, requires a visa. Passports should be valid for a period of three months after leaving Australia. The information provided below, is an effort to one understand the Australian visa system and its working.


Types of Visa
There are many types of visas for Australia travel visa, each designed to suit a specific purpose, the length of the proposed stay in Australia and the type of activities people want to do when they get here. Visas can be divided into two broad groups - permanent (migrant) visas, which allow permanent residence in Australia; and temporary visas, which have a time limit on the period of stay in Australia.

• Visitor/Tourist Visas: This type of visa are for people wishing to sightsee, travel, visit relatives or friends or be involved in other (non-working) activities over a short period. Visitor/Tourist visas allow one (or in some cases, multiple visits) of up to three months within the period of one year from when the visa is granted. Some visitor/tourist may be valid for longer than one year.
• Visitor/Business Visas: This type of Visa is for people wishing to undertake business in Australia for short periods. The Business (Short Stay) visa allows the bona fide business person to make a short visit of up to three months to Australia. A single entry or multiple entry visas may be issued.
• Student Visas: This type of visa is issued for people wishing to undertake full-time study in registered courses in Australia. Overseas students' visas have a number of conditions. Some conditions are imposed by law on all student visas and some conditions are put on the visa at the discretion of the visa decision-maker. Two conditions relate to employment in Australia:
• One does not allow employment - no initial student visas, whether granted overseas or in Australia, allow employment.
• The other allows the holder to work up to 20 hours per week while the course is in session and full time during course vacations. Student visas with this condition can only be applied for in Australia and after the students have commenced their course of study.
  
  
• Temporary Residence Visas are made for people who intend to come to Australia temporarily for more than three months for reasons other than tourism or business. There are a number of Temporary Residence visas as follows:
• Working Holiday Visa: For young people aged between 18 and 30 years from the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, Malta, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China who want to travel to Australia. The scheme offers the opportunity to work to supplement funds and aims to promote international understanding through helping young people experience the culture of another country.
• Temporary Resident Business/Employment Visas Are for employers to recruit skilled specialists or business executives overseas to overcome temporary labour shortages or, for those people wishing to set up or buy into and manage a business in Australia.
• Social/cultural/sport/media Visas are for people engaged in a wide range of social, cultural and sporting activities such as entertainers, athletes, journalist and reporters.