Australia’s a pretty great country, and you want to move there. But how long does it take to get a visa? Well, if you’re wondering how long does it take for a provisional 489 or apprentice 457 visa to get approved, or how long does it take for an employer sponsored permanent residency visa (PR) application to get approved, this article will answer these questions. You see, Australia has some of the toughest rules on immigration and naturalization in the world.You‘ve been planning and saving for your trip to Australia. You want to find work there so you can fund your travels and adjust to the new culture. You’ve just found a great job and filed your visa application. How long will it take to get a response? This is a very common question asked by people wanting to relocate to Australia and apply for an Australian visa. When applying for the visa, applicants are required to wait anywhere from 2-6 months before gaining approval.

How Long Does It Take To Get A Visa For Australia

Passing the Australian citizenship test is just that–a test. The Government outlines all the information which should be known in order to be granted Australian citizenship. In addition, while passing the test will show that you have a working knowledge of basic facts pertinent to the country, if you are planning to move to another country after the Australia Visa application process is over, you may want to focus your attention on certain areas during your preparation because those things are important for living in other areas of the world as well.

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Application procedure Australia visa

On this page you can read how EU and UK citizens can easily apply online for a visa for your holiday, business trip or study trip to Australia. The application procedure consists of four steps. First, fill in the application form. Then, pay the application fee, and wait until the visa is approved. Once approved, print the visa or save it on your phone.

The online application procedure for the Australia visa

Preparation: what do you need for the application?

Before you start filling in the Australia visa application form, it is important to consider the visa requirements and validity period. Make sure you have the necessary documents at hand and decide whether to apply separately or as a group application for several visas at once.

Check whether you and your travel plans meet the requirements and validity period

A visa is only valid if it is used in accordance with the requirements. These include your travel purpose, your travel history, your health, any debts to the Australian government and a criminal record. What exactly you need to comply with is explained on the page with all the Australia visa requirements. In addition to the requirements, you should also consider the validity period of the Australia visa.
All requirements of the Australia visa
Everything about the validity of the Australia visa

Gather the necessary documents

The application procedure for the Australia visa is relatively simple. All you need to do is have your passport ready when you apply. And the passports of your fellow travellers (EU or UK citizens), if you want to apply for a visa for them as well. It is not necessary to have already arranged a flight ticket or accommodation in Australia, as the application form does not ask for these things.

Applying for several visas at once

Do you want to apply for several visas for Australia at once? This is possible with a single application form. To do this, first fill in the form for the first traveller. Once you have filled in the entire form, you can indicate at the bottom that you wish to add more travellers. For the overall visa cost, it does not matter whether you apply separately or as a group. However, submitting a group application will save you time and ensure that you do not all receive the same e-mails each time. You can also see the status of the application of each traveller on a single status page.

Step 1: Getting started with the application form

Do you have your passport and/or the passports of your fellow travellers at hand? Or do you at least have the relevant data on hand? Then you can start filling in the Australia visa application form.
Open the form ‘Australia visa application’

Fill in the contact information

The first part of the application form asks for your contact information. If so, you only need to fill this area in once, and there will be one point of contact for the entire group. All correspondence about the visa or visas will be conducted via this contact informationMake sure you can be reached at the telephone number and e-mail address you fill in here.

Fill in the travel details

In the next part of the application form, you fill in the purpose of your trip and the expected date of arrival. This can be a rough estimate. Do you need your visa at short notice? Indicate in the form that you want your application to be processed with urgency.

Are you travelling to Australia several times with the same visa? Then enter the date of your next arrival. You do not need to indicate the dates of your subsequent arrivals in Australia. However, each date of arrival must lie within the validity period of the visa. Are you travelling with a different travel purpose each time? Fill in the travel purpose of the next journey. You do not have to fill in the travel purpose for subsequent trips. However, the travel purpose must meet the visa requirements.

Entering passport data, names and nationalities

The third part of the form consists mainly of filling in the traveller’s passport data. Write down all the data carefully. If you make mistakes here, your visa may be invalid, and you may not be allowed to board your flight or cruise. Click on the entry field to fill in the requested data, but also to see a clear explanation on the right side of the screen on how to fill in that specific entry field. After filling in the passport data, you should also fill in other official names and other nationalities of the traveller, if there are any.

Answering questions about travel history

Are you applying for a visa for a traveller who has been to Australia before? Then that traveller probably received a Visa Grant Number and/or Visa Label Number at that time. If that visa was applied for online, the Visa Grant Number can be found in the confirmation of approval. It is 13 digits long. Does a traveller have several Visa Grant Numbers? Then it does not matter which one you fill in. Was the from a previous trip applied to the passport by an Australian immigration officer? If so, there is likely to be a Visa Label Number in the top right-hand corner of this visa. Enter only the first 11 digits.

Finding the Visa Grant Number

Finding the Visa Label Number

Have you been to Australia before but can no longer find your Visa Grant Number and Visa Label Number? You can leave these fields empty. This may result in a minor delay in the processing of your visa application.

Filling in the background questions

In the final part of the application form for Australia, some background questions are asked. These questions are meant to check whether you meet the main requirements of the Australia visa. You can only apply for an Australia visa if you can truthfully answer all the questions with ‘No’.

Adding travellers

Do you want to apply for more that one Australian visa at once? You can add extra travellers to the form. Click on the button ‘Add a traveller’. Extra fields will appear, allowing you to fill in the details of an extra traveller. You can fill in the details of up to ten travellers.

Step 2: Checking your application and paying the cost

Click on the button ‘Apply for visa’ at the bottom of the application form. You will see a control page. Here, all the information you have filled in will be displayed again. It is advised carefully checking all the information once again. Do you see something that is not correct? Click on ‘Edit’ to correct the fields you have filled in. Is everything in order? Choose one of the payment methods at the bottom of the page, so you can easily pay the cost of the visa.

Step 3: Waiting for your application to be approved

After you have paid for the visa, it usually takes no longer than 5 days for the visa to be approved. If you checked the option ‘urgent delivery’ in most cases the visa approval will not take longer than 60 minutes. Once the immigration service has approved your application, you will receive an e-mail and a text message.

Step 4: Print the visa or save it digitally

The e-mail contains instructions on how to print your visas. Print them and keep them in your hand luggage during your trip, or save them digitally as PDF files on a device that you take with you on your trip and show at passport control. You only need to show your visa if you are subject to a random check.