Australia Tourist Visa

powerfulone

Hi

Last time I went to Australia in 2005 I paid £20 for a visa ETA.

This time round I am doing this independently and found the eVisitor option

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/evisitor/

This is free, and I applied (confusing it with the ETA from last time!)

But it seems that this is perfectly acceptable for me.

Hopefull I just saved £20 - but I wanted to check if anyone else went for the eVisitor instead of the ETA and if it was OK

Martin.

melli_2

powerfulone wrote: »

Hi

Last time I went to Australia in 2005 I paid £20 for a visa ETA.

This time round I am doing this independently and found the eVisitor option

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/evisitor/

This is free, and I applied (confusing it with the ETA from last time!)

But it seems that this is perfectly acceptable for me.

Hopefull I just saved £20 - but I wanted to check if anyone else went for the eVisitor instead of the ETA and if it was OK

Martin.

From Wikipeadia
As of January 2009, an ETA application attracts a fee of AU$20, whereas the eVisitor (a subset of ETA for European nationals) is free.

murphymum

I'm off to Australia later this year too and at first I thought I'd need an ETA. I found there were loads of sites selling the ETA from as little as £6 odd. However, on reading more, I applied for an e-visitor via the Australian government site and it was free. The e-visitor arrived within a very short time by email.
I think you can apply for either if you are a UK citizen but from some countries you can only apply for the ETA.
If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will be able to correct me.
Have a great trip.

fredflintstonerules

powerfulone wrote: »

HI wanted to check if anyone else went for the eVisitor instead of the ETA and if it was OK

Impossible to say as we don't know what passport you use. As long as you meet the requirements of evisitor you can use it.

jamsandwiches

We have just been to Australia and used this free visa service. OH posted on another thread about it.
Last year we paid for the ETA then found the free one on the net this year.

Mikeyp_3

Thanks for this, hopefully just saved £20.

loobs40

Thanks for this thread, I too was expecting to pay a fee for our trip in October

spottydog

murphymum wrote: »

I'm off to Australia later this year too and at first I thought I'd need an ETA. I found there were loads of sites selling the ETA from as little as £6 odd. However, on reading more, I applied for an e-visitor via the Australian government site and it was free. The e-visitor arrived within a very short time by email.
I think you can apply for either if you are a UK citizen but from some countries you can only apply for the ETA.
If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will be able to correct me.
Have a great trip.

You're correct, the eVisitor visa was introduced a couple of years ago and as a /uK passport holer this is free compared to the $20+ charge for an ETA.

For full details of Aussie visa options the best place to go to is https://www.immi.gov.au

dzug1

murphymum wrote: »

I'm off to Australia later this year too and at first I thought I'd need an ETA. I found there were loads of sites selling the ETA from as little as £6 odd. However, on reading more, I applied for an e-visitor via the Australian government site and it was free. The e-visitor arrived within a very short time by email.
I think you can apply for either if you are a UK citizen but from some countries you can only apply for the ETA.
If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will be able to correct me.
Have a great trip.

If you are a UK/European citizen you have two choices - apply for a free e visitor as an individual

Or have a travel agent apply for an ETA on your behalf - also free (to the travel agent that is - he will doubtless charge you a processing fee )

From other eligible countries it's a paid ETA yourself or a 'free' one through a travel agent, subject to his fees. There are agencies (pseudo-travel agents) who will undercut the Aus government individual fee. Since they get it for nothing apart from their computer/wages costs, they are not losing out.