On this page, you can read a step by step explanation on how to submit your Australia visa application online for your holiday, volunteer work trip, or business trip to Australia. The application procedure consists of four steps. First, you fill in the application form. Next, you make the payment for the visa cost. After that, you wait until the visa has been granted. Finally, you print it out and take it with you on your trip.
Australia visa application procedure
Preparation: what do you need for the application?
Before you begin filling in the application form for the Australia visa, it is important to get two things in order:
Make sure your trip meets the Australia visa requirements
Provided that the visa is granted, it is only valid if the requirements for the visa are met. It is therefore important to read up on these requirements beforehand, so that you are not confronted with any unwelcome surprises. The same applies to the validity period of the visa; here, too, the rules of the immigration service have to be kept in mind.
- Check here if your trip meets the Australia visa requirements
- Check here if your trip meets the validity period of the Australia visa
Gather the necessary documents
The Australia visa application procedure is relatively straightforward. During the application, you are only required to have your passport at hand, as well as the passports of any fellow travelers, in case you wish to apply for a visa for them as well. It is not necessary to have already booked a flight ticket or overnight lodgings in Australia; you will not be asked for this information in the application form. If you submit a group application you will save valuable time, as you will not be required to fill in the contact and travel information for each individual traveler. Submitting a group application works in exactly the same way as filing an individual application; you can use the same visa form for this.
Filling in the Australia visa application form
Do you have your passport, and if needed the passports of all fellow travelers at hand, or in another way possess the passport information of the individuals you wish to submit a visa application for? Then you can begin with the Australia visa application process.
Open the form 'Australia visa application'
Form part 1: Contact information
The first part of the Australia visa application form consists of filling in your contact information. Are you submitting a group application? Then you only need to fill in the contact information once. All correspondence regarding the visa will happen through this contact information.
Application form: step 1
Form part 2: Travel details
The second part of the Australia visa application form concerns filling in your expected date of arrival and travel purpose. You will also be asked if you wish to make use of the urgent application procedure.
Application form: step 2
Form part 3: Passport information
The third part of the visa form requires you to fill in the passport information of each traveler. Carefully write down the information; the smallest typing error can have grave consequences for your trip.
Application form: step 3
Form part 4: Other questions
After the passport information has been written down, the form will ask a few remaining questions. These regard any possible other (old) names of travelers, for example the last name a traveler had before their wedding. You will also be asked for any current dual nationalities. Finally, you will be asked for a possible Visa Grant Number and/or Visa Label Number, in case the traveler has been to Australia before.
Application form: step 4
The Visa Grant Number is 13 digits long and can be found in the confirmation for the granting of the previous visa. Did you apply for, and receive, an Australia visa multiple times? Then it doesn’t matter which Visa Grant Number you use.
Find Visa Grant Number
The Visa Label Number can be found in the passport with which you travelled to Australia the previous time. Only fill in the first 11 digits of the Visa Label Number. Were you granted a visa that didn’t enter into your passport as a physical label? Then you do not need to fill in the visa number.
Find the Visa Label Number
Have you been to Australia before but cannot track down your Visa Grant Number and Visa Label Number anymore? Leave these fields empty. This can, however, result in a slight delay in the processing of your visa application.
Form part 5: Background questions
In the final part of the Australia visa application form, several safety questions will be asked. These concern questions from which the Australian immigration service can discern whether you pose a possible threat to the safety, health, and law enforcement of the country.
Application form: step 5
Add travelers
You have now filled in the contact information and travel details of yourself, as well as the information of one additional traveler. Do you wish to submit an Australia visa application for multiple people? Click on the button ‘Add traveler’. With this, several extra fields will appear, with which you can fill in the third, fourth, and fifth part of the form for any additional travelers journeying with the initial applicant.
Checking your application and payment
If you have filled in all the questions in the form, the hardest step of the Australia visa application procedure has been completed. At the bottom of the page, click on the button ‘Apply for Visa’ to proceed to the control page. Here, all the filled in information will be summarized. It is prudent to double-check each field thoroughly for any possible mistakes. See something that isn’t right? Click on ‘edit’ to correct the relevant fields. When everything is in order, choose one of the payment methods at the bottom of the page and pay the required amount.
Wait for approval and print it out
After you have made the payment for the visa, it generally does not take longer than a few days before the Australia visa is granted. If you selected the option ‘urgent’, in most cases the visa will be granted within an hour. As soon as the immigration service has approved of your application, you will receive an email and an SMS message. In the email are instructions explaining how you can print your visa. Take your Australia visa with you on your trip, and carry it safely in your hand baggage.