Australia
What Type of Visa in Australia you might need?
Whether you want to immigrate to Australia or come Down Under temporarily, you would need a valid visa. There are over 120 types of Australian visas and each is designed for different needs and has its own criteria.
In this article we will briefly discuss the common and major criteria for most common Australian visa types.
Student visa in Australia
We had covered most of the immigration visas above. Now let’s talk about temporary visas to Australia.
Although many people come to study in Australia with an aim to immigrate Down Under, there is no official stream called ‘immigration through education’. Once an applicant completes an Australia education, he/she would most likely go via the Skilled Migration path (see above). For this reason, your Australian education needs to be carefully planned. We see too many people that complete an Australia education and then are unable to remain in the country because of poor choices of their degree, state of education or other factors.
Eligibility criteria for Student visa in Australia
- To apply for an Australian student visa one would need a confirmation of enrolment from an Australian educational institution that is approved by the Australian government to provide education to international students. To be enrolled in an educational institution, you would need to satisfy the institution’s entry requirements which differ by institution and course.
- Most of the Australian universities require a minimum knowledge of English at an equivalent level of IELTS Academic 6666
- Medical health cover for the duration of the course
- Financial capacity of an applicant to pay for the tuition fees and living expenses
Australian Visitor Visas
There are few types of Australian visitor visas, the most common are
- Electronic Travel Authority – ETA 601
- eVisitor 654
- Visitor Visa 600
and
- Working Holiday (417)
- Work and Holiday (462)
The main criterion for the above visas is your country of passport.
Electronic and eVisitor visas are the simplest and can be applied online and get a visa almost instantaneous (please follow the links above to see what countries are eligible)
Visitor Visa 600 is for all passports that are not eligible for ETA601 or eVisitor visas, and require a package of documents submitted with an application that demonstrate that you have ‘tires to your home country” and are not likely to remain in Australia illegally.
Working holiday visas are available for people under 35 years of age from certain counties of passport. These visas allow young people to pay for their holiday in Australia while during various jobs.
Family types of visas in Australia
As there are different types of family members that can make up a family, there are various types of family visas that are available for immigration to Australia.
The most common are
- Partner visas – these are for those people that have found an Australian “love”
- Parent visas – established Australian residents can bring their parents across
- Child Visas – for the children of Australian residents
Eligibility criteria for Family types of visas:
The common criteria for all the above visas is the availability of a sponsor – an inviting person – who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen.
For the Partner visas, you need to prove that your relationship is genuine and ongoing. One of the main criteria is that you have met your partner in person – other considerations are very much individual and are determined on case by case basis as every relationship is unique.
For the Parent visas, the applicant must pass a so called “balance of family test”. This means that to be eligible for a parent visa, the parent needs to have at least 50% of their children living in Australia. For example, if a parent has three children, but only one of them resides in Australia, then the parent would not be eligible for the parent visa
The main criteria for the child visa is
- Child is to be younger that 18 years of age
- If the child if over 18 and under 25 then he/she would need to be a financially dependent full-time student
- Cannot be married, engaged or in a defector relationship
Work type of visas in Australia
There are several work visa types in Australia. These visas allow international workers to come and work in Australia temporary or permanently.
The most common Australia visa types that allow employment are:
- Temporary Skills Shortage. Subclass 482 (TSS)
- Employer Nomination Scheme (Permanent). Subclass 186.
- Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) Visa Subclass 494
Eligibility criteria for Work visas in Australia:
- The major criteria for all work type visas in Australia is the availability of an Australian employer who is willing and able to sponsor you for one of the work visas above
- With limited exceptions the job an employer brings an overseas worker to do must be on a Combined Skilled Occupations list
