Australian visa label

[Northpoint]

I managed to get my third 3-month tourist visa for the TG yesterday. She picked it up at the TCC centre yesterday. Conditions 8101 (no work), 8201 (study limitations), 8503 (no further stay) apply. No problems with that, as I only want her to come for a holiday and to catch up with some friends and show her a bit more of Australia, like I did in 2011 and 2012.

One clause in the visa grant notice worries me a bit.It says:

No visa label required. The Australian Government does not require you to have a visa label placed in your passport for travel to Australia. Hoever, if you are transitting or exiting through another country, it is your responsibilty to check with the relevent government auyhorities regarding requirements to show a visa label in your passport. The Australian Government cannot advise on other countries' requirements.

The visa label costs AS 70 and I am quite happy to pay that. Can this be done in the Australian Embassy or at VFS?

We are travelling with Jetstar to Singapore, spend about 7 hours there and then catch another Jetstar plane to Darwin.

Any advice would be appreciated.

This affixed label rule started in November last year.

[metisdead]

I think this is in the wrong forum, moving to Visas and migration to other countries forum.

[krisb]

As you asked for any advice...

Ok, this was put on my wifes partner visa. It means as far as I know it will be on their(customs/immigration officers) computers. Its saying as I understand it, between Thailand and Australia, these 2 countries should be aware of her visa status and conditions listed on their computers. Outside these countries, theres no guarantee they will have her conditions listed. Therefore, you can get a written letter of conditions from diac at some extra expense. Up to you!

I repeat this is how I see it. Ive had no issue with my wife coming and going from both Australia and Thailand only with this same thing. Therefore, I take it your gf will only be here in Aus? save the cash and dont bother mate. Hope she enjoys our country again!

[Iamemjay]

The system works well - There will be no problem. Singapore will already have it on their computer. BTW this system has actually been in place for over 2 years, so it has had plenty of time to bed down. However I understand your nervousness the first time. First time we made sure we kept the little note from the Embassy - just in case! - but have never had reason to use it. I agree - Save your money.

[Northpoint]

The system works well - There will be no problem. Singapore will already have it on their computer. BTW this system has actually been in place for over 2 years, so it has had plenty of time to bed down. However I understand your nervousness the first time. First time we made sure we kept the little note from the Embassy - just in case! - but have never had reason to use it. I agree - Save your money.

Thanks for your input. It is not our first trip back home. In 2011 and 2012 we got this little note as well, which we stapled to her passport. I was just taken aback when this time she returned from the VFS office with no little notes, but with a letter pointing out, that she could encounter problems, when in transit on an airport in a third country. What puzzles me, after getting her visa approved, she was told by VFS to go to the Australian Embassy? She had no time to do so, as the Embassy would have been closed by then.

I will ring the consular section on Monday just to be sure there won't be any hassles.

When we arrive in Singapore we never leave the transit lounge until the other Jetstar plane takes us back to Darwin.

Cheers

Edited June 28, 2013 by Northpoint

[David48]

Also worth reading is this topic ... is-visa-evidence-label-required-for-thai-wife-flying-bkk-gold-coast/ where we discussed that same problem last month.

Your gf won't have problems ... but it's reassuring reading others experiences.

[David Mault]

Hi Northpoint. No problems. Australia now have what they call an electric visa in their passport.. No paper visa is put into the passport. Most immigration points when you enter a country now swipe you passport the same way you swipe your credit card and all the information required comes up on the immigration officers monitor. My Thai wife went to Thailand last Wednesday and I had to get her a new Re-entry visa and no paper visa was put into her passport as already explained. As you said you can buy a paper visa and have it stuck into the passport but they charge $70 to do this and it is not required. Everything will be alright. This saves the Australian Government lots of money each year. You will have no problem on entering Australia.

[Northpoint]

Hi Northpoint. No problems. Australia now have what they call an electric visa in their passport.. No paper visa is put into the passport. Most immigration points when you enter a country now swipe you passport the same way you swipe your credit card and all the information required comes up on the immigration officers monitor. My Thai wife went to Thailand last Wednesday and I had to get her a new Re-entry visa and no paper visa was put into her passport as already explained. As you said you can buy a paper visa and have it stuck into the passport but they charge $70 to do this and it is not required. Everything will be alright. This saves the Australian Government lots of money each year. You will have no problem on entering Australia.

Thanks for the info, David. All the well-meaning replies so far, talk about straight flights in and out of Australia, without a flight change to another carrier in a third country. Like I said before, we fly BKK - SIN - Darwin and hopefully back the same way after three months.

You talk about the computer chip in Australian passports. My woman has a Thai passport without the chip and therefore it cannot be swiped like a debit or credit card.

[David48]

Hi Northpoint. No problems. Australia now have what they call an electric visa in their passport.. No paper visa is put into the passport. Most immigration points when you enter a country now swipe you passport the same way you swipe your credit card and all the information required comes up on the immigration officers monitor. My Thai wife went to Thailand last Wednesday and I had to get her a new Re-entry visa and no paper visa was put into her passport as already explained. As you said you can buy a paper visa and have it stuck into the passport but they charge $70 to do this and it is not required. Everything will be alright. This saves the Australian Government lots of money each year. You will have no problem on entering Australia.

Thanks for the info, David. All the well-meaning replies so far, talk about straight flights in and out of Australia, without a flight change to another carrier in a third country. Like I said before, we fly BKK - SIN - Darwin and hopefully back the same way after three months.

You talk about the computer chip in Australian passports. My woman has a Thai passport without the chip and therefore it cannot be swiped like a debit or credit card.

He's confusing (understandably) the action the Australian Immigration (and maybe other countries) do with the Australian Passport with the identification of an electronic Visa Label.

Completely different things.

There is no, to my knowledge, electronic signature of the Australian Visa in the Foreign Passport ... how can there be, as the Passport actually belongs to the Government of the person to whom the Passport is issued.

The Immigration Officer, Airline Check-in Staff will simply match the Passport number and holders Identity against a computer database.

So, when the poster above states ... "Australia now have what they call an electric visa in their passport" ... that's actually incorrect. An understandable, but incorrect assumption.

Hope that helps ...

.

[Old Croc]

You won't have any problems, many thousands in the same situation have preceded you.

As others have said the details of all visas are in the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system.

All Australia bound international commercial airlines and cruise ships have access to VEVO as they are required to verify with Australian authorities that you have an Australian visa before you travel to Australia.

If you still think you will have problems show the letter you quoted from in the OP.

[Northpoint]

You won't have any problems, many thousands in the same situation have preceded you.

As others have said the details of all visas are in the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system.

All Australia bound international commercial airlines and cruise ships have access to VEVO as they are required to verify with Australian authorities that you have an Australian visa before you travel to Australia.

If you still think you will have problems show the letter you quoted from in the OP.

Mate, this is really good information. Actually, I found a site about VEVO, but it wasn't up and running. Thanks for explaining how VEVO works.

http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/vevo.htm

I will certainly take that Visa Grant Notice with me as well. With your handle of Old Croc you must have seen some salties in your travels. There are plenty of Johnston saltwater crocodiles in the Northern Territory, the most dangerous of them all. We saw plenty of them, when I took the missus on a tour on the Adelaide River, about an hours drive from our place in Darwin. I can post a couple of good fotos, once I have sussed out how to do that. Cheers

[Old Croc]

You won't have any problems, many thousands in the same situation have preceded you.

As others have said the details of all visas are in the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system.

All Australia bound international commercial airlines and cruise ships have access to VEVO as they are required to verify with Australian authorities that you have an Australian visa before you travel to Australia.

If you still think you will have problems show the letter you quoted from in the OP.

Mate, this is really good information. Actually, I found a site about VEVO, but it wasn't up and running. Thanks for explaining how VEVO works.

http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/vevo.htm

I will certainly take that Visa Grant Notice with me as well. With your handle of Old Croc you must have seen some salties in your travels. There are plenty of Johnston saltwater crocodiles in the Northern Territory, the most dangerous of them all. We saw plenty of them, when I took the missus on a tour on the Adelaide River, about an hours drive from our place in Darwin. I can post a couple of good fotos, once I have sussed out how to do that. Cheers

Northpoint

I've taken a few photos on the Adelaide River also. Here's one of them:

OC

[Northpoint]

You won't have any problems, many thousands in the same situation have preceded you.

As others have said the details of all visas are in the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system.

All Australia bound international commercial airlines and cruise ships have access to VEVO as they are required to verify with Australian authorities that you have an Australian visa before you travel to Australia.

If you still think you will have problems show the letter you quoted from in the OP.

Mate, this is really good information. Actually, I found a site about VEVO, but it wasn't up and running. Thanks for explaining how VEVO works.

http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/vevo.htm

I will certainly take that Visa Grant Notice with me as well. With your handle of Old Croc you must have seen some salties in your travels. There are plenty of Johnston saltwater crocodiles in the Northern Territory, the most dangerous of them all. We saw plenty of them, when I took the missus on a tour on the Adelaide River, about an hours drive from our place in Darwin. I can post a couple of good fotos, once I have sussed out how to do that. Cheers

Northpoint

I've taken a few photos on the Adelaide River also. Here's one of them:

227.jpg

OC

And here is one of his cousins.

[Thanet]

You won't have any problems, many thousands in the same situation have preceded you.

As others have said the details of all visas are in the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system.

All Australia bound international commercial airlines and cruise ships have access to VEVO as they are required to verify with Australian authorities that you have an Australian visa before you travel to Australia.

If you still think you will have problems show the letter you quoted from in the OP.

Mate, this is really good information. Actually, I found a site about VEVO, but it wasn't up and running. Thanks for explaining how VEVO works.

http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/vevo.htm

I will certainly take that Visa Grant Notice with me as well. With your handle of Old Croc you must have seen some salties in your travels. There are plenty of Johnston saltwater crocodiles in the Northern Territory, the most dangerous of them all. We saw plenty of them, when I took the missus on a tour on the Adelaide River, about an hours drive from our place in Darwin. I can post a couple of good fotos, once I have sussed out how to do that. Cheers

The details of your GFs visa are stored on Australia immigration computers, and are linked to her passport number. Airlines that fly into Australia have online access to this information, and can see that she has a visa simply by scanning her passport at check in.

My wife has transited Singapore several times with no visa label and has had no problems.

[OZEMADE]

For what it is worth, this is what I did and what I was told last Thursday.

I also put this info in the Alert new Australian Tourist Visas.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/629252-a-l-e-r-t-new-australian-tourist-visa/

If the Passport numbers have been changed, the onus is on you to notify DIAC about the new passport.

Went to the Thai Consulate in Sydney and picked up the wife's new Thai Passport. The new one has new passport numbers, the old one was returned and stamped cancelled over the first page above the photo.

I asked the Thai Consulate if the new Thai E-Passport recognized the Australian Permanent Residency (APR) status. They told me nothing would be in the new e-Passport re the (APR) and that I should go to Immigration at Central Railway and enquire there.

We spoke to the DIAC officer there re the (APR) status, he asked for the new and old passport, he informed us that all the information and new Passport numbers would be put on the (DIAC) computers and there would be no problem Australia's end re exit and entry. He did say however that there could be problems in other country's that don't have the electronic recognition and asked if we wanted a APR Label put in the new Thai Passport. We agreed and the new label cost AU$70.

They also stamped all old labels in the old Thai Passport LABEL INOPERATIVE Immigration Australia, making it Null and Void.

He said you could also use the Entitlement Verification Online Certificate as some country's would recognize this. You have to register on line to get this certificate.

He did say, that these new (APR) labels would not be available next year and did not know what was going to happen then. I presume you would have to get the on line certificate?

Hope this helps, any queries and I would be glad to answer.

OZEMADE

Edited July 1, 2013 by OZEMADE

[Northpoint]

You won't have any problems, many thousands in the same situation have preceded you.

As others have said the details of all visas are in the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system.

All Australia bound international commercial airlines and cruise ships have access to VEVO as they are required to verify with Australian authorities that you have an Australian visa before you travel to Australia.

If you still think you will have problems show the letter you quoted from in the OP.

After you explained how the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) systems works, I tried to convince the missus all was above board. She still had her doubts and when I went to get the Vios serviced at Toyota on Sukhumvit yesterday morning, she nevertheless decided to ring the consular section at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok.

The Thai lady there assured here all will be alright. She also told the missus to bring the new Visa Grant Notice written on A4 paper along with her passport when she checks in for the flight from Singapore to Darwin as you suggested.

[Old Croc]

For what it is worth, this is what I did and what I was told last Thursday.

I also put this info in the Alert new Australian Tourist Visas.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/629252-a-l-e-r-t-new-australian-tourist-visa/

If the Passport numbers have been changed, the onus is on you to notify DIAC about the new passport.

Went to the Thai Consulate in Sydney and picked up the wife's new Thai Passport. The new one has new passport numbers, the old one was returned and stamped cancelled over the first page above the photo.

I asked the Thai Consulate if the new Thai E-Passport recognized the Australian Permanent Residency (APR) status. They told me nothing would be in the new e-Passport re the (APR) and that I should go to Immigration at Central Railway and enquire there.

We spoke to the DIAC officer there re the (APR) status, he asked for the new and old passport, he informed us that all the information and new Passport numbers would be put on the (DIAC) computers and there would be no problem Australia's end re exit and entry. He did say however that there could be problems in other country's that don't have the electronic recognition and asked if we wanted a APR Label put in the new Thai Passport. We agreed and the new label cost AU$70.

They also stamped all old labels in the old Thai Passport LABEL INOPERATIVE Immigration Australia, making it Null and Void.

He said you could also use the Entitlement Verification Online Certificate as some country's would recognize this. You have to register on line to get this certificate.

He did say, that these new (APR) labels would not be available next year and did not know what was going to happen then. I presume you would have to get the on line certificate?

Hope this helps, any queries and I would be glad to answer.

OZEMADE

All Australian visas are now electronically created by computer.

The days of stamps and stickers in the passport are no more. A label, with the details of the visa, can be affixed to the document for the benefit of passengers, and others, who don't believe a visa exists without physical proof.

All carriers bringing passengers to Australia should be aware of, and have access to, the visa verification system.

If a pax obtains a new passport subsequent to a visa issue, the passport will still match up with the visa details in the Movements Data Base, even if the new PP number has not been imputted. Matching is done by name and dob as well as passport number.

Even if the match was not made, the situation would be solved by referral to the Secondary (Immigration) Officer at the airport.

However, it is still a good idea to advise Immi if you have a new passport number so the record can be amended..

Edited July 2, 2013 by Old Croc

[GrantSmith]

We are travelling with Jetstar to Singapore, spend about 7 hours there and then catch another Jetstar plane to Darwin.

Will you be leaving the airport at Changi or will you be staying "airside" for that 7 hours?

If planning on going "landside" I'd suggest carrying that piece of paper - for peace of mind. If you're planning on staying airside you won't really need to have it with you at all as you're technically not entering Singapore and you should be checked (bags et al) through to DRW.

Recently my mother-in-law and wife flew with me to ADL via KUL and we had an overnight in KUL on the way back. No issues at KUL having checked everything all the way through to BKK from ADL.

For ultimate peace of mind carry the piece of paper or fork out the $AUD70 for the stamp.

[Northpoint]

We are travelling with Jetstar to Singapore, spend about 7 hours there and then catch another Jetstar plane to Darwin.

Will you be leaving the airport at Changi or will you be staying "airside" for that 7 hours?

If planning on going "landside" I'd suggest carrying that piece of paper - for peace of mind. If you're planning on staying airside you won't really need to have it with you at all as you're technically not entering Singapore and you should be checked (bags et al) through to DRW.

Recently my mother-in-law and wife flew with me to ADL via KUL and we had an overnight in KUL on the way back. No issues at KUL having checked everything all the way through to BKK from ADL.

For ultimate peace of mind carry the piece of paper or fork out the $AUD70 for the stamp.

When we disembark at Changi we won't be leaving the transit lounge until it's time to go the Gate from where our next flight leaves.The luggage gets automatically transferred to the next Jetstar flight and there will be no need to go through immigration and customs. I have already stapled the Visa Grant Notice to the flight itinerary. Cheers