Fancy a holiday or want to see an Australian family member? You might be eligible for one of Australia’s Tourist visas.

To apply for an ETA online you must be outside Australia and hold a valid passport from an eligible country.

The ETA will:

• allow you to enter as many times as you want, for up to 12 months from grant;
• allow you to stay up to three months for each visit;
• not allow you must to work in Australia on this visa.

The eligible passport holders consist of:

Broadly speaking, you may be eligible for an eVisitor if you:

• intend to visit Australia only temporarily and for tourism or business visitor purposes
• are outside Australia
• hold an eVisitor-eligible passport
• are free of tuberculosis when you enter Australia
• have not been convicted of an offence or offences for which the total sentence is more than 12 months (whether or not the sentence has been served).

E-Visitor-eligible passports are citizen passports issued by the following countries:

You are not eligible to apply for the eVisitor if your only passport is a British National Overseas, British Dependent Territories Citizen, British Overseas Citizen, British Protected Person or British Subject passport.

Any other nationalities not eligible apply for an ETA (subclass 601) or e-Visitor (subclass 651) may be eligible to apply for the Visitor (subclass 600) visa.

You might be able to get this visa if you are travelling to Australia:

• genuinely intend to stay temporarily in Australia;  and
• you fit under one of the streams (Tourist, Family Sponsored Stream, Business Visitor Stream, Approved Destination Status, Frequent Traveller Stream)

Usually these visas are valid for 12 months with a stay period of 3 months.

Note that Visitor visas do not permit you to work or provide services to any business / organisation in Australia, or sell goods or services to the public whilst in Australia (unpaid genuine volunteer work may be permitted in certain circumstances).

All Visitor visa streams require that the applicant ‘genuinely intend’ to stay temporarily in Australia for the purpose for which the visa is granted.

Officers must consider three matters:

• whether the applicant has complied substantially with the conditions to which the last substantive visa, or any subsequent bridging visa, held by the applicant was subject;
• whether the applicant intends to comply with the conditions;
• any other relevant matter.

For certain nationalities, this criteria can pose a significant barrier and a successful visa will require detailed submissions addressing the above point prior to grant of a Visitor visa. Speak to an experienced immigration provider to determine your prospects.