Australian tourist visa for longer than 3 months for Thai citizen

[orientalist]

What are the chances of a Thai getting a second tourist visa for Oz and requesting longer than 3 months? What would be acceptable as the "reason for going to Australia" on the application?

A female friend of mine spent 3 months in Oz last year, basically to be with her boyfriend. At that time she had a good job in Thailand. Now she has given up her job and is rather naively (IMO) about to request a tourist visa for 1 year. The boyfriend is sponsoring her, but it seems unlikely to me that they will authorize a 1 year stay for any reason at all, and I think they will likely reject the application.

Does anyone have any success in getting a long tourist visa to Oz?

[GrantSmith]

A bit more background info would be handy...

Is she under 30 and a university graduate?

EDIT - Further to this, it will be up to DIAC to determine the length of stay be a it a 1 year visa with 3,6 or 12 month stays. Don't think the applicant can request how long the length of stay is.

If she's given a 2nd 12month visa with stays of 3 months, she would simply need to exit the country and come back again, so if the boyfriend is sponsoring, take a weekend to NZ or New Caledonia and come back...

Edited September 18, 2013 by GrantSmith

[orientalist]

She's over 30 and a university graduate.

[Tomtomtom69]

Giving up her job and then requesting a tourist visa is never a good idea. It's unlikely the application will be approved without a substantial commitment to prove that she will return home prior to the visa expiration date. This will be difficult as the lack of a job means there's little incentive, in the eyes of Australian immigration - even less so when you consider how low Thai wages are compared to Australian wages.

Getting a job first, even if she has only been working for a short time provided she has a steady record of employment prior to that, i.e. she can prove a steady income from past jobs, would be enough to get her over the line in my opinion, but no job is risky but if her sponsor really shows he can support the applicant with proof of funds and she can convince immigration of a need to return to Thailand it may be worth a shot.

[krisb]

The acceptable reason is the same as her first visa. Tourist. If her bf is the sponsor then it's basically saying it's his shout, holiday on me. Her working doesn't mean that much. Lets face it how many of us that work can afford a year off to holiday? Or even have a job to come back to after that long. Even 3 month holiday is a long one. She can ask for a year and see what happens.

[Will27]

On the application she can request up to 3, 6 or 12 months.

In the majority of cases, 3 months or a 12 month multiple entry

is issued which means she will have to depart Oz after 3 months.

As she has already a proven immigration history of abiding by her visa,

getting the second one should not be a problem, whether she's working or not.

I don't like her chances of getting anything other than a 3 month or 12 month ME visa though.