This visa stream lets you visit Australia as a tourist, to go on a cruise or to see family and friends.
With this visa you can
- visit family or friends
- be here as a tourist, for a cruise or for any purpose except business or medical treatment
You can study or train for up to 3 months in total on this visa. But if your main reason for travelling to Australia is study, a student visa might be more appropriate.
You can’t work.
Cruise
You will need a visa if you enter Australia during a cruise.
If your cruise is a round trip cruise, the time you spend on the cruise counts as time spent in Australia – that is, we do not consider you have left Australia. A round trip cruise will not reset your stay period on your visa.
Ask your cruise operator or travel agent if we consider your cruise to be a round trip cruise.
How long you can stay
This is a temporary visa.
You can stay for the period or dates specified on the visa grant letter. We determine the length of your visa on a case by case basis. Things we might consider when determining your stay period include:
- how long you want to stay
- why you want to stay in Australia
You might not be granted the length of stay you want.
We can grant this visa with one entry or multiple entries. If we grant you a visa with multiple entry, you can leave and re-enter Australia on the visa while it is valid. Generally we grant a stay period of 3 months, but we might grant a stay of up to 12 months in certain circumstances.
It is a condition of this visa that you don’t stay in Australia for a total of more than 12 months in an 18-month period. If you currently hold a Visitor visa, a Working Holiday visa, a Work and Holiday visa or a bridging visa, and grant of this visa would mean you stay in Australia for more than 12 consecutive months, you will need to show there are exceptional circumstances.
Consider the Visitor visa (subclass 600) Frequent Traveler stream if:
- you hold a passport from the People’s Republic of China and
- you travel to Australia frequently
Parents of Australian citizens or permanent residents
If you are the parent or step-parent of an Australian citizen or permanent resident and you meet all the visa criteria, we might consider granting you a visa for longer than 12 months.
We might grant a visa that lasts up to:
- 18 months if you have not previously travelled to Australia and either:
- have not applied for a Parent visa
- have applied for a Parent (Migrant) visa (subclass 103) but are not yet in the queue
- 3 years if you are outside Australia, have previously held an Australian visa and complied with the visa conditions, and either:
- have not applied for a Parent visa
- have applied for a Parent (Migrant) visa (subclass 103) but are not yet in the queue
- 5 years if you are outside Australia and in the Parent (Migrant) visa (subclass 103) queue
We consider these applications on a case-by-case basis.
If we grant you a visa that is valid for more than 12 months you might be able to enter Australia multiple times while the visa is valid.
If you are granted a visa that is valid for 18 months, 3 years or 5 years, your visa might have these extra conditions:
- you can’t stay in Australia for more than 12 months in total in total in any 18-month period
- you must have adequate arrangements for health insurance while you are in Australia
- you can’t apply for another visa within Australia, except for a protection visa
Cost
The visa costs from AUD145 for each applicant.
To work out what your visa will cost use the Visa Pricing Estimator. You might also have to pay other costs for health checks, police certificates and biometrics. The estimator does not take into account the other costs.
You might be able to request we fast-track your visa application if you hold a passport from:
- the People’s Republic of China (but not Hong Kong or Macau)
- India
- the United Arab Emirates
Fast-tracking your application costs AUD1,000 in addition to the visa application charge.
Processing times
- 75% of applications in 16 days
- 90% of applications in 27 days
Your application might take longer to process if:
- you do not fill it in correctly
- you do not include all the documents we need or we need more information from you
- it takes us time to verify your information
Eligibility
- You must meet our health requirement.
- You must meet our character requirement.
- Have enough money: You must have, or have access to, enough money to support yourself while you are in Australia.
- Be a genuine visitor: You must intend to:
- stay only temporarily in Australia
- do only the things the visa allows you to do
- Be a genuine visitor
- Have a health insurance
What you can do on your visa
This visa lets you:
- cruise or have a holiday
- visit family or friends
- study or train for up to 3 months
Volunteer work tourism schemes
You can’t work in Australia on a Visitor visa, but you might be able to do volunteer work.
Travel on your visa
We grant the visa with either:
- single entry – if you leave Australia, you cannot re-enter Australia on the visa, or
- multiple entry – you can leave and re-enter Australia as many times as you want while the visa is valid