One of my favorite Netflix shows is Border Security; USA, Canada, and the Australian one. Among the smuggling and blatant disregard for the declaration process, other major issues that arise tend to revolve around visas. Either it's fake, or they are not a "genuine tourist/student", or the holder did not realize that their visa has expired. Really, there is no excuse to skip this VERY important step, if this is a step you need to take, when you are about to travel. As I mentioned in "The Worst Common Travel Mistakes", a visa can truly make or break a vacation.
I'm an American with a passport, so I can easily travel pass the Canadian border. Planning for Australia was my chance to determine the difficulty of the Australia Visa Application.
Which One?
The Australian government website has plenty of visa options available - and they know it! A first timer, like myself, can get a little overwhelmed with looking through all the types of visa, especially when some are very similar. You have to consider the requirements of each visa, as well as the short-term or long-term time spans, and prices. Which one is THE ONE?
The Australian visa site takes the guess work out of this whole process with a few simple question determined to direct you to the one you need.
As a short-term American visitor, my results were:
⇨Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601)
⇨Work & Holiday Visa (subclass 462)
⇨Visitor Visa (subclass 600)
I picked the electronic option since it would be a faster process than the others offered. This option was also less than $20 USD.
Filling Out The Application
The electronic visa allowed me to easily fill in my information right away. The form took about two minutes, tops. All you need is your passport.
Confirmation
The electronic application I was confirmed by email within the hour and the whole process was complete. The process will be different and take more time with other visa applications, like the one that requires you mail in documents and they have to put the visa in your passport. That was something I also wanted to avoid mainly because of the time it would take. I was very happy with the online application process.
In the end, the whole procedure was very easy. The carefully planned website was easy to navigate and utilize. The intuitive questions helped me to get the task done correctly and quickly, instead of spending the day second guessing myself and worrying if I overpaid for the wrong thing.
Be sure to do your research before you leave. There's more than visas on this government site. If Australia is your next stop, take full advantage of the abundant resources the site has to offer!
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