Visa policy of Australia

The visa policy of Australia deals with the requirements which a foreign national wishing to enter Australia must meet to obtain a visa, which is a permit to travel,to enter and remain in the country. Visa rules are set out in the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations, which are administered by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

Australia maintains a universal visa regime, meaning that every non-citizen in Australia must have a visa, either as a result of an application, or one granted automatically by law. As of 2015 there is no intention to provide visa free access for any country, however Australia gives a visitor visa exemption to:

In addition to the citizens of 45 eVisitor and ETA eligible countries and the citizens of New Zealand who may need to apply for a Visitor visa, the citizens of all other countries may apply for the Visitor visa online, except citizens of 4 ineligible countries. Citizens of 34 countries are officially considered low risk.

Since 1 September 2015, Australia ceased to issue visa labels on visa holders' passports, and all visas are issued and recorded on a central database. Visa records can only be accessed through Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO), a service provided by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

There is a large range of visas that may be applied for, for a variety of purposes, including:

_{1 – must apply for this visa outside Australia.
2 – can apply for this visa in or outside Australia.}

eVisitor and Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) are authorisations for entry to Australia available to holders of certain passports. Established in 1996 to remove the need for some people to apply for full visas, they can be applied for online, or in certain ETA cases through travel agents, airlines, specialist service providers or Australian visa offices. Electronic tourist visas (class 600) are processed by Australian visa offices and consulates outside Australia but the citizens of certain countries can apply online and their applications, if a requested period of stay is three months or less, and no further information or checking is required, may be granted in a matter of minutes. In other cases, the application will be manually processed by a case officer.

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Wikipedia