Electronic Visa for Austalia?
 

Could someone give me information (or direct me to information) on the electronic visa required for travel in Australia and the most economical way to secure one? I see them offered on different websites with different prices.

If you are traveling on a US Passport, there is no charge for a VISA to Australia. Your information should go into the computer automatically when booking your airline tickets.

I agree. It is automatic now, when you book your ticket. I have several Australia visas in my passport from trips in the 80's, mid-90's, but the last trip ('99) was automatically done and didn't require separate application and TIME to come in the mail.

Hi Kathy,
Do you hold a UK or US Passport?
I think you can use this site for any application, but I understand US applicants can get it for free through their travel agents, why us in UK have to pay is a mystery.
We are UK passport holders and I recently arranged our visas for Australia on line at. www.eta.immi.gov. It cost A$20 for each application, which is half the cost Travelbag wanted to charge us. It seemed to be quite easy to do on line and I was able to print out the reference page for it.
Have fun
Muck

oops! sorry left off the 'au'.
www.eta.immi.gov.au

muck

ETAs are not necessarily done when you book your tickets, but can be done online, either by the travel agent, the airline or at the Oz Dept of Immigration web site mentioned earlier in this thread. ETAs are free for those countries that are eligible, ie USA, UK, most of Europe and plenty of others. However, agents can charge what they like to cover their time and effort in keying in your details. Most travel agents will cahrge about A$20 but most airlines will do it for free. Contact your airline first.

I got my visa free through the airline when I booked my ticket (United Airlines). Please have your passport handy when you request the visa because the agent will need information from it. You will not be given any written confirmation, but I made a note of the visa number. I also called the airline back a few days later to double check that the visa information was in the computer, and it was.

Kathy
Im a registered migration Agent. Lots of Western countries are eligible for ETA's or Electronic Visas. However, you are still subject to the usual visa requirements, only thing is you dont see the visa label. The important thing to remember is that the visa is linked to your passport, so if you renew that after obtaining the visa, it wont be there... theyll organise one for you at the airport in australia most likely, but it will cause a glitch in the usually smooth process of entering Australia. Check the Immigration website to ensure you are eligible (health and character and eta countries) on www.immi.gov.au
enjoy your stay...

We booked our trip thru expedia.com and they would NOT do the ETA. I called the airline and they told me the travel agent had to do it. So I called expedia and they said they were not a travel agent (well what are they then?). So in the end I had to do it thru a website, one that the immigration website recommended. All went smoothly when we got to Australia. I did take the receipts from the website, but they were not needed. We had US passports.
Bill

The electronic visa doesn't always work for US passport holders. I have a U.S. passport but wasn't born in the states, so my airline couldn't do an electronic visa for me. I had to search for a AU consulate on the web, and the instructions told me to fax a copy of my passport and travel info to the Immigration office in Canberra! Luckily the approval was quick. I got a confirmation by fax the next day.

Not all U.S. passports are created equal.

I was able to have British Airways (the airline we're traveling on) book the electonic visa. However, when I called the first response was that I should contact an Australian consulate. Luckily, I was armed with info from the BA Website that I was able to direct the representative to. After a consultation with a supervisor, he did it - he said he hadn't known that they issue them. Knowing my daughter would be calling back to have hers issued, I asked him if I should have her ask for him. His response was that she couldn't do that but since probably only about 50% of the people there knew about the electronic visa that she should ask for a supervisor if she was told that BA didn't issue them. That was exactly what happened.... So, my advice is that if someone tells you that they don't do them -- be persistent! Once the BA personnel figured out that they could process the electonic visa, they were very helpful, There was no charge.

I have had two ETAs for my US passport. The first was done through STA Travel when I booked my airline ticket with them back in 1999. I don't remember whether or not I was charged a fee for the service, but it certainly was easy to get the ETA at the same time as the ticket.

Two weeks ago I got another ETA through the website mentioned by Mucky and PerthGirl. Again, it was very easy, and took less time than I have spent reading and replying to this thread. Just have your passport and credit card numbers handy when you go online. The website will walk you through the application procedure, and you should receive confirmation of your ETA within a few minutes, along with a reference number to save for future inquiries.

Hi Kathy,
Isn't that just typical of BA !!
I didn't ring them, but I took their website apart trying to discover if visas were possible !
Where did you find it ??
Well done....I have already arranged mine; so next time I will be ringing the BA idiots. No wonder they have the most number of disgruntled passengers in western Europe if not the world.

Muck