Australian Visa problem

cazziej

Hi,

My husband and 11 year old son are due to fly to Melbourne on 22.10.07 for 2 weeks, staying for 1 week with his brother and 1 week with his sister.

The tickets have arrived no problem and we were just waiting on the Visa's.

Husband has just had a phone call to say that my sons Visa has been approved, BUT the Australian Embassy want my husband to ring them a.s.a.p. :eek: (the Visa desk is now closed until 10 am tomorrow).

Husband is now going frantic, wondering what the problem could be. His travel agent said she has known this to happen only twice before and that was because there wasn't enough time left before the passport expired.

Anybody ever known anything like this before or know what it could be?

Thanks in advance.

Best wishes

Carol

john0612

hmmmm duno, there's still 12days to go i wouldn't, panic just yet.

i did our ETA online and they came through the next working day

http://www.evisastoaustralia.com

how long has he left on his passport?

this is from the website, does he have one of these passports ??


Countries
You are only eligible to apply for an ETA while you are outside of Australia. To apply through this site, you MUST have a valid passport from one of the following countries (if you do not meet these criteria, you should contact your nearest Australian visa office for further advice):

• Andorra
• Austria
• Belgium
• Brunei
• Canada
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hong Kong (SAR)

• Iceland
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Malaysia
• Malta
• Monaco
• Netherlands
• Norway

• Portugal
• San Marino
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Vatican City

Holders of UK British National (Overseas) (GBN) passports are not eligible to apply for ETA's through this site.

Sam_Bee

I've known it to happen where the persons name 'matched' that of someone who had been barred from entrance. Hopefully will be no problem at all.

cazziej

Hi John and Sam, thanks for replying.

He has 7 years left on his passport, and he was born in the UK of British parents.

His surname is Jones, (very common!) so perhaps you could be right, and his name matches an undesirable!! But would they not also check the date of birth?

Thanks, Carol

Sam_Bee

I'm presuming it was an ETA done by an agent?

I would guess 1 in 20 is referred to the embassy (from experience!), it's not a perfect system, so I wouldn't worry too much.

In fact, I still have no idea why Australia insists on them - they are such an anomoly.

cazziej

Hi Sam - yes the ETA was done via an agent.

Could they just refuse a Visa? Obviously, an 11 year old cannot travel to Australia on his own!!

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Best wishes

Carol

vivatifosi

My OH had a problem on entry to Australia. Common names, but a crim had gone out there with exactly the same first, middle and surnames. Different d.o.b. but same age, and also a British passport holder.

They've got to check I suppose, and with 60m of us there must be a fair chance of someone with the same name. It delayed our entry by about an hour while they did all the checks, but they let us in!

Hopefully yours will be something equally straightforward.