Visas and Immigration
Visa Label
Australia does not require a person holding a valid Australian visa to have a label in their passport to travel to, enter or remain in Australia. Australia’s electronic visa system enables visa status to be confirmed electronically.
As part of the Australian Government’s global program of label free travel to Australia, the Australian High Commission, Dhaka will implement visa label-free travel arrangements in Bangladesh from 1 October 2012.
From this date, anyone applying for any Australian visa through one of the VFS Global Australian Visa Application Centres in Bangladesh or lodging directly with the Australian High Commission in Dhaka, will no longer be required to submit their passport with their visa application.
Instead they will be required to submit a notarised copy of each used page of their passport at the time of application.
The notarised copy of the passport must include the following pages:
• Good quality notarised photocopy of the biodata page of the current passport;
• Good quality notarised photocopy of any endorsement page or change of name page in the current passport; and
• For current Indian passports - good quality notarised photocopy of the back page with information on parents' names and previous passports.
This request applies to all visa categories. Applicants who do not lodge the above documents with their visa application will experience delays in the processing of their visa application.
If a visa is then granted, the visa holder will be issued with a visa grant letter that will explain the conditions of the visa including period of validity and entry requirements.
The visa grant letter is not necessary to facilitate travel but we would advise all our clients to carry their visa grant letter with them when travelling as it will provide them with easy to understand information about the conditions of the visa, information which was not always easy to find on Australian visa labels.
We expect that this new process will not only provide our clients with better information about their visas but also reduce visa processing times and costs as clients will no longer have to wait for their passport to be returned to them via a courier or be required to travel to one of our Visa Application Centres to collect their passport.
Prior to flying to Australia, airlines are required to provide details of all passengers and crew to Australia’s immigration and customs authorities using the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) system. APP is a pre-arrival reporting system used by international airlines to provide Australia’s border agencies with advance notice of people travelling to Australia. APP also enables airlines to verify a traveller’s authority to travel to and enter Australia at the time of check-in and before issuance of a boarding pass.
Label-free travel also reduces instances of visa fraud. Unlike a label, which can be forged, electronic verification confirms the real-time status of a person’s visa. For example, labels may not show if a visa has been cancelled.
Whilst Australia does not require travellers to have a visa label in their passport, from 1 October 2012 clients will still have the option to request a visa label once a decision has been taken on their application, should it be necessary for transit and exit purposes. However, this process would involve lodging a further request for service at one of our Visa Application Centres or making an appointment with the Australian High Commission and the processing time for this additional service will be 15 working days.