In a bid to enhance tourism and raise revenue, the Australia Government is introducing trial fast track visitor visa arrangements in key markets.
This includes a user‑pays visa fast‑track service for nationals from India and the United Arab Emirates, and a three year multiple entry visa for low immigration risk nationals from India, Thailand, Vietnam and Chile.
New laws have brought in a trial to ‘fast-track’ Visitor Visas for an additional fee of $1000. The trial is targeting Chinese nationals who want to travel to Australia on short notice, as tourists or business visitors and as a result are willing to pay the additional fee. ‘Priority service’ is already available for Parent Visas which are processed notoriously slowly.
As part of a trial to speed-up visa-processing for those who need to travel to Australia on short-notice and can afford to pay for the priority-processing, the department of immigration has announced that it will start fast-tracking such applications but did not commit to a minimum processing timeframe.
The department of immigration says there is no regulatory requirement that the application be decided by a particular timeframe despite the promise of priority processing and accepting the payment of $1000.
“While the Department will endeavour to make a decision within a shortened timeframe, there is no guarantee of a faster outcome, as issues such as character and health matters may delay processing” noted the department’s explanatory statement for the Legislative Instrument – F2016L00295
If an application fails, the DIBP states that “No refund will be available unless the visa application charge is being refunded. Invalid requests for this priority service, for example applicants holding passports not specified under the Regulation, would receive full repayment of the AUD1,000 fee.”
The department said that processing times for Visitor visas, more generally, will not be affected by this service.