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Immigration Forum / Australia and NZ / February 2007ETA VISA QUERY??
Hi..Can anyone please tell me if i obtain an Australian ETA visa valid for 12 months but which only allows a max stay in Australia of 12 weeks(3months)in any one trip...can i fly to say New Zealand for example for a few days and come back to Australia for a new 3 month period..and do this until i have used up my 12 months on my ETA visa? Any advice would be most welcome...thanks..Mal. > Hi..Can anyone please tell me if i obtain an Australian ETA visa valid for > 12 months but which only allows a max stay in Australia of 12 > weeks(3months)in any one trip...can i fly to say New Zealand for example for > a few days and come back to Australia for a new 3 month period..and do this > until i have used up my 12 months on my ETA visa? Any advice would be most > welcome...thanks..Mal. Hi Mal Why would you want to do this? Are you aware that you could obtain a long-stay tourist visa instead? If not, please see here: http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/676/index.htm It is possible to go to Oz on a three month ETA and extend the visa for a further 6 months without having to leave Oz in order to do it. However, they take deliberate steps to discourage this, in two ways: 1. It is very much more expensive to obtain an ETA and then do an onshore conversion to a 676 visa than it is to obtain a longer 676 to begin with, before even travelling to Oz; and 2. If an onshore conversion is done, Condition 8503 MUST be imposed. The effect of C8503 is that no second on-shore extension is possible, nor is it possible to apply for any other type of visa from onshore other than a very limited range of emergency visas (eg in the event of a medical emergency.) The gist is that if you want to visit Oz for longer than 3 months then the Department expects you to apply for a more suitable visa than a 3 month ETA from the outset. Does this help? Cheers Gill Your becoming a real expert on this stuff Gill! The dept does not like people hanging around on visitor visas for too long. A year is about the limit. If you stay any longer than that your really living in Oz and you need a residence visa. the other option of course is a working holiday visa. this allows a year with an option of another year. you need to be under 30 tho. tony www.jklawyers.com.au > Your becoming a real expert on this stuff Gill! The dept does not like > people hanging around on visitor visas for too long. A year is about the [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > www.jklawyers.com.au Hi Tony I played cat & mouse with the Department for 12 years on my mother's behalf with tourist visas. (The problem was that with one daughter in Oz, one in the UK and a UK-based step-daughter as well. Mum wasn't eligible for Parent-migration in the immediate aftermath of Dad's death in the early 1990s. She didn't become eligible until 1999 when a new definition of "step-child" was put into S1.03 of the Regs. Even then, it took a Tribunal case in 2003 to convince the Department that the new definition of "step-child" overrides the concept of the step- child as described in the Balance of Family test. They thought that S1.05 must prevail and so did I, to be honest. The Definitions are very limp-wristed about whether they apply or not, whereas S1.05 appears to be very robustly-worded.) Fortunately for us, all that has now been scrapped via a Contributory Parent visa for Mother instead. However, there has been a definite shift in Policy in the last three years. They used to have scruffy, half-dressed young Australian backpackers (by the look of them) temping in Australia House, doing the visa-granting over the counter at the AHC in London. These 19 year olds used to grin happily when I turned up with Mum's passport, saying, "Ahhhh. She must like Australia. No worries. Here's another visa." They got rid of the counter and imported Spooks In Suits from Canberra in about 2004. The Spooks are much more tight-fisted with visas. So - you roll with the punch and learn to play the game in a different way...... Tony - if you read this, I have a different query, please. Cyber- chums of mine are moaning about completing Form 80, MONTHS after the original application form was completed and despatched and we all thought that was the end of the form-filling...... You said once that Form 80 was not technically necessary for Mum. However as the Spook (a very sweet girl, actually) had sent it, you said, "Might as well fill it in and send it back," so we did. I now have people asking me, "Why is it not technically necessary?" I'm saying, "Dunno. I'm just repeating what a clued up Australian solicitor called Tony Kidd told me. The website says, 'You *may* be required...' It does not say, 'You WILL be required....' So there is definitely a doubt about the legal necessity for this blasted form but I don't know why or how." Do you feel inclined to elaborate about when they can require Form 80 and when they can be told where to put it, please? Cheers Gill hi gill the forms that you have to submit as part of an application are prescribed in schedule 1. If you don't submit the appropriate form for a particular visa class, your application is not valid. Section 65 says that the Minister can't consider an invalid application. Form 80 is not listed anywhere in schedule 1. therefore it is never mandatory to submit this form. it is a tool the department uses to get the information in the form-mostly relating to character. In the past the form was only requested if there was insufficient information in the application. Usually the info in this form is somewhere else in the application-eg on the application form. However, it seems that lately the department is requiring this form more often. You don't have to tell the department the information in the form of course. however if you submit the form you have to provide correct answers. the other problem is that if you refuse to complete the form the department might refuse to make a decision until you do, or make an adverse decision. ie they might say you didn't complete the form so they're not satisfied of your character. As an alternative to completing this form you could supply the information in a different way. however, most of the time it is just easier to complete the form. In your Mum's case I don't know why they required it. She has been to Oz numberous times and has many visas. I would have thought that the dept would have had ample info on her. I hope this answers your question about form 80-it really is an annoying hoop you have to jump through a lot of the time. If they are going to require the info as a matter of course they should really build the questions into the application form. tony www.jklawyers.com.au > hi gill > [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] > > www.jklawyers.com.au Hi Tony Thanks for this explanation. What irritated me with Form 80 was that so much of it was simply a repetition of information supplied in the application form. Mum was 85 at the time of her application and she was one of 10 siblings, all except 3 of whom are now dead. At least Mum did seem to know all their full names but she was not sure of the dates of birth and deaths of any of the siblings or her parents. When I completed the application form I spent ages on the phone to one of my surviving aunts, who sounded more confident about the dates than Mum and her other sister. But by the time my sister sat down with Mum and form 80 several months later, Mum was insisting that some of the information supplied by my aunt was inaccurate. They are all in their eighties so some of it probably is wrong but I was not prepared to get bogged down over a load of unnecessary information about a bunch of stiffs, bluntly! I was saying, "Elaine - don't take any notice of Mum wittering about this. Never mind about whether the dates are accurate or not. Just make sure they are the same on both forms!" Cheers Gill |
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