All About Visas for Australian Migration

Australia: No visa = No entry.

Yes, unless you are an Australian citizen, to come to Australia you will need a visa. Visas can be easy to get, or hard to get, depending who you are and which visa you are going for.

And there are more than 130 different visas to choose from.

It’s a very complicated area and, without doubt, the vast majority of questions I’m asked on this website are about visas. As a result, I’ve got quite a few pages about visas and I thought I’d list them here.

visaVisa Assessments

If you really don’t want to have to read a single word about visas, but you just want to know which would be the best visa option for you, assuming you qualify, and you don’t mind paying a small fee, this is for you.

Visit my Visa Assessment Service page.

Latest Visa News Updates

The Australian Government changes the qualification criteria for visas on a regular basis, you can catch up with these changes from the regular updates provided by my MARA migration agent.

Visit Latest Visa News for the updates.

Getting a Visa

If you want to do a bit of research into getting a visa for yourself, this page will show you how to do that and you will also be able to watch a video that shows you how you can explore your options.

Visit my Getting a Visa page.

Points Calculator

Some of Australia’s visas available under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program are points-based, you need to have enough points to apply. How many points would you get?

Visit my Points Calculator page

Choosing a MARA Agent

I am often asked about choosing a MARA agent and if I can recommend a one; the answer is yes, I can.

Visit my Choosing a MARA Registered Migration Agent page.

Expression of Interest

One rather fine way of moving to Australia is to find a job sponsorship. On 1st July 2012 the then Department of Immigration & Border Control (now the Department of Home Affairs) came out with the new system to help with this; Expression of Interest and Skills Select. Their introduction though has seemed to only lead to more confusion. So I’ve written a page about that as well.

Visit my Expression of Interest page.

Student Visas

Student visas are big business here in Australia, thousands upon thousands of foreign students come here every year to study. Sometimes it can lead to a more permanent residency status. Want to know more?

Visit my Student Visas page.

Working Holiday Visa (WHV)

If you are young enough, currently that’s aged 18 to 30, and you are from a qualifying country, you could come here and try out Australia for a year. Under some circumstances, even longer.

Check out my page about the Working Holiday Visa.

The International English Language Testing System – IELTS

To qualify for some of these visas you may need extra points, and you can sometimes do that by improving your English language score. There are other English language test though, you can find out about them and IELTS on the following page.

Visit How to Pass IELTS.

Need help getting a visa?

Navigating your way through the paperwork and the processes involved in getting a visa for Australia is not easy, that’s why many people choose to use a MARA registered migration agent. On every one of the above-mentioned pages you will find links to my Visa Assessment Service and if at any time you do become overwhelmed, I highly recommend this service to you.

It is not free, but it is worth every cent of the small fee you will be asked to pay. You will need to provide a great deal of information about yourself and your family; in return my MARA agent will spend something like a couple of hours working out your options before presenting them to you in a written report.

If, for any reason, anybody is unhappy with the service and nobody has been yet, I will personally refund your money, I guarantee it.

Would I Qualify?

This is the most common question I am asked on this website, “Would I qualify?” It’s a question that I, personally, cannot answer. Only MARA registered migration agents have the skills and knowledge to answer this kind of question, and under Australian law, they are the only ones allowed to answer it.

That’s all that I explain on the following page, so it’s really NOT WORTH READING and it’s definitely not worth asking me the question in the comments as hundreds of people have already.

Visit Would I Qualify? if you want, but see a MARA migration agent if you really want an answer.

Questions About Visas

Even when you know which kind of visa you want and how to get it, all sorts of complicated questions crop up along the way. These are usually questions I can’t answer either as explained for “Would I qualify?” above, but to find out more if you need to…

Visit my Questions About Visas page.

Important: Please read before commenting…
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Visa Assessment Service
{ 132 comments… add one }
  • Goldie July 17, 2021, 11:05 pm |

    What have u got too do with the visa status for entering aus, what can the defence system do can they get you visas too enter another country, hmm snakes are illegal.

    • BobinOz July 21, 2021, 3:36 pm |

      Not sure I understand fully what you’re saying Goldie, but I can tell you that snakes are a protected species here in Australia, what is a legal is to kill them.

  • ROGERIO R SAGGIN August 11, 2019, 7:00 am |

    Hi,
    Could you help me on this subject?

    Since I, as an italian citizen, and getting an eVISA (651), whitch allows me a stay of up to 3 months at each entry into a period of one year, Is there any problem in entering Australia with a flight ticket of 4 months interval between arrival and departure considering I also have a flight ticket from Australia to New Zeland with departure and return within this period breaking the total period of the Italy-Australia ticket in two parts under 3 months?

    Thanks

    • BobinOz July 21, 2021, 3:35 pm |

      Sorry, I have only just seen your question, for some reason I didn’t get a notification of it. If it’s any consolation, I did not know the answer to your question, but I do hope it worked out for you way back then when the world was allowing free travel between countries 🙂

  • Sukhjinder Pal Singh July 29, 2019, 12:21 am |

    Hi I am an Australian Citizen.I am getting married to an Indian girl.She is having 14 years old daughter currently studying in 9th standard in a School in India.I wish to bring both of them here after marriage and planning to adopt her daughter.So what are the prerequisites before the migration process.The mother is having 100% custody of the child .Father never tried to meet her daughter since after 8 years of divorce.Now my question is that child under 18 still needs consent from her Biological father before migration to Australia even though mother is having 100% right after divorce.

  • maninder March 24, 2019, 12:00 am |

    hi sir / madam
    i applied my permanent residency in 10 feb 2016 through employer nomination scheme ,but im still waiting for result from immigration .i had court issue on my name which comes up in my police clearance certificate.i had good behaviour bond of 2 years which is already finish more than year now. i just need to know how long these type of cases take to finalise the application .its already been 3 years now & im still waiting for the response from immi.
    thanks

  • Aishwariya January 23, 2019, 9:31 pm |

    Hello,
    I want to visit Australia for a vacation for 2 weeks so I have applied for a tourist visa. I’m also waiting for university in Australia to give me an admission letter. Is it fine for me to go for a vacation and come back and apply for a student visa ?

  • Ivet April 15, 2018, 4:03 pm |

    Hello Bob,

    The website is great! Very helpful! Just want to ask you something that it’s a bit unclear to me. I fit for 190 visa. I did my research for Victoria state. As far as I understood, I can send an application for nomination to Victoria state directly and can be selected and nominated for visa, without sending and EOI, is that correct?
    And another wondering is that, on this application I can proceed ( send it) without having the skill assessment! Can there be a nomination without skill assessment for Victoria state? I want to do the right thing and not blow my chances in the very beginning 🙂
    Thank you,
    Your input will be deeply appreciated!

  • Rebecca Thompson March 23, 2018, 9:20 pm |

    Hi .. do you if there is a possibility of me applying for a partner visa once in Australia? ( hubby and kids all have Aussie passports) Therefore a Visa that allows me to travel first then apply?
    Many thanks

  • Anshu February 20, 2018, 5:02 pm |

    Hi Bob,

    When i was applying for my visa, your site was a saviour and helped me alot before i could finalise my migration. Today i am applying for my Husband’s 457 dependent visa n i again want to fall under trusted hands. I have applied for 457 subclass on 19th Jan 2018 and the processing time shown is 5 to 11mths. I recently got married in India and need to be back in Australia 1st week of April. Can i apply a vistor visa for my husband in the interim period till his 457 is finalised? Please advise what is the best option for us to travel together.

    Regards
    Anshu

  • Hollie September 11, 2017, 6:32 pm |

    Hi Bob, I wondered if you knew much about the regional sponsored migration scheme (subclass 187)
    My husband and I feel this is our only option in regards to moving permenantly to Australia, we’re interest in tackling with a Mara agent and using your visa assessment but hoping tthat get a clearer view of this visa first (If that’s possible)
    My husband is the bread winner he has owned his own gardening company for 12 years (31yo) getting various city and guild qualifications along the way.
    Landscape gardener is currently only on the short term shortage list but we’re confused as to whether this is even relevant with this visa?
    Any help appreciated!

    • BobinOz September 12, 2017, 9:13 pm |

      No, I don’t really know anything about it, I leave all that kind of thing to my MARA agent. What I know though is if you Google ‘regional sponsored migration scheme subclass 187’ then very likely the government’s immigration webpage will come top of the search results and clicking on the link will tell you all about this kind of visa.

      The government’s website is quite comprehensive about who the visa replies to, how to get it, what it allows you to do and who can come with you, all that sort of thing.

      Whether or not it is suitable for your husband in his circumstances, I really don’t know, but that’s precisely what my MARA agent will be able to tell you. Good luck with your plans, Bob

      • Hollie-Jay Saunders September 12, 2017, 9:51 pm |

        Thank you:)

  • Anjan May 30, 2017, 1:01 pm |

    Hi i recently completed masters of public health from uow. Unfortunately the course i studied is not in australian skilled occupational list. As my visa expires on august. What should i do for my next step?

  • Chandan Gautam April 3, 2017, 2:14 pm |

    Hi. I am applying for 190 visa. My occupation code is 149914. Financial Institutuion Branch Manager. I got a positive assessment from vetassess. As I calculated, I am scoring 75 points. To apply for state nomination, I need 85 points under special conditions. I will get 5 from state under 190 and 10 under 489. Please suggest shall I wait till July or apply 489 visa now.

  • S Smith January 6, 2017, 10:08 pm |

    Hi, im travelling to Australia at the end of the year with my 3 children. I, myself have a New Zealand passport but my children have British. I wanted to know if i would have any problems entering Australia on one way tickets as we are planning on stay for a few months with the thought of possibly staying. I know if we decide to stay i can apply for a New Zealand citizen family relationship visa but that wont happen until we are already there. So as i said will there be any problems with board control on this matter?
    Any advice would be appreciated…thanks

    • BobinOz January 7, 2017, 12:30 am |

      Well, the short answer is that I just don’t know. What I do know though is that border control, or customs as I would call it, do have the authority to refuse you entry if they want to, so technically they could turn your children back if they didn’t like the one-way ticket thing.

      So I think you really do need to get an accurate answer from somebody who does know, so I would suggest you do talk to a MARA registered migration agent about your plans to see how best to proceed with this.

      On a separate matter, you may be interested in this article as someone coming from NZ…

      https://www.bobinoz.com/blog/13793/new-zealanders-in-australia-whats-the-problem/

      Good luck, Bob

  • Ali December 3, 2016, 6:00 pm |

    Hi
    I want to know is it true the MCSE Certification has 5 points for immigration. My degrees are not related to my job and ACS assess me as (The following employment after October 2008 is considered to equate to work at an appropriately skilled level and relevant to 263111 (Computer Network and Systems Engineer) of the ANZSCO Code).

  • Nita November 28, 2016, 1:18 pm |

    Hi i am just wondering if EOI will still be active when you leave australia?

    I have submitted EOI on last march, but my current visa is expiring soon, is it possible to wait a result in my home country?

    Thanks,

    Nita

  • Emma November 10, 2016, 3:05 pm |

    Hello
    My partner and I recently applied for a visitor visa for Australia. Mine was granted but we are still waiting on Andrea’s visitor visa. He has been in Australia on a working holiday visa 1 and 2, and a student visa. So in total he has been in Australia for about 36 months. I phoned immigration and they said about compelling and compassionate circumstances to stay. Would this apply to him? Do you believe there is any chance he will receive it? I’m pretty worried right now. I appreciate any advice given.
    Kind Regards

    Emma

    • BobinOz November 10, 2016, 7:09 pm |

      It’s impossible for me to predict any decisions made by immigration, I’m afraid all you can do is wait for them to get back to you. Good luck, Bob

  • Nello October 10, 2016, 4:18 am |

    Hi guys, I’m after a small bit of advice. I’m applying for my 189 visa (carpenter from U.K.) and have had my EOI accepted and now I’m just waiting to lodge my official application ( $5600!!!) Do I need a medical and crb check before I submit this finally or will they look at my application and then ask for it if they require it further on? Any help would be great

    • BobinOz October 10, 2016, 6:06 pm |

      You should wait until your case officer asks you to provide your medical and police check. This usually happens later in the process after they have looked at your application.

  • murphy August 17, 2016, 1:33 am |

    Guide me about getting working permit visa to Australia pls,i am from Nigeria and I love to move to the country so hw would I go abt it.what did I need to,thanks.

  • Ruchita August 12, 2016, 11:48 pm |

    Hi Bob,
    You are absolutely right on the visa bit. I guess every person wanting to migrate, visa becomes the first question.
    I have a query… hopefully you could help. Though I have been working for last 6yrs. In the last 6 months, I have been freelancing as Qualitative research specialist. Could you help me understanding what are the things that I will require in order to qualify for visa.

    Many thanks in advance! Look forward to hear from you.

    Regards,
    Ruchita

  • Soonita Ramphal July 30, 2016, 2:50 pm |

    Dear Bob,
    I’m a registered nurse in Mauritius with over 12 years experience working in public hospital.
    I would like to settle in Australia with my family which consist of my husband and twin of 13 months.I’m fluent in English with IELTS band score 6.5. What are my possibilities to get a PR?

  • mudassir altaf July 4, 2016, 3:35 am |

    Hi Bob,
    I having a two years experience in aircraft cabin cleaning.now i am looking a sponsor visa or work permit cabin cleaning or cleaning related job.i want to know how can i get.

  • Hema June 14, 2016, 2:33 am |

    Need a visa for my parent. I got a work permit. They say parents were considered to be dependent

  • Julie Clark June 11, 2016, 3:57 am |

    Does anyone know if a UK citizen still has to get private medical insurance in order to apply for a sponsored 457 visa if they are already in Australia and have Medicare cover?

    • BobinOz June 12, 2016, 9:02 pm |

      I don’t know the answer for sure, but I’m almost certain that you will need insurance on that kind of visa. I would check with someone who can give you a definitive answer, because you would not want to get landed with an unexpected bill if the worst were to happen.

      You should check with either a MARA registered migration agent, your case officer or a reputable health cover insurance company.

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