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Tourist visa/s question

sid waddell · 2014-06-10 17:09:10

I have return flights booked to Australia for a five week trip, going out next Monday, the 16th of June - I got a good deal on price and went ahead and booked. Now I know you're supposed to apply for an E-Visitor (651) visa at least two weeks before you are due to travel but unfortunately I only applied for mine yesterday…

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10-06-2014 6:09pm

#1

sid waddell

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I have return flights booked to Australia for a five week trip, going out next Monday, the 16th of June - I got a good deal on price and went ahead and booked. Now I know you're supposed to apply for an E-Visitor (651) visa at least two weeks before you are due to travel but unfortunately I only applied for mine yesterday morning (Monday), 7 days in advance.

My understanding is that most applicants for the E-Visitor from a "low-risk" country such as Ireland are approved within minutes or hours, however mine has not yet been approved as of this Tuesday evening, so I'm beginning to get a bit worried.

My question is, if my E-Visitor visa is not approved by, say, Friday, is it possible to also apply for an ETA (601) visa through a travel agent while the processing of my E-Visitor application is still going on? My understanding is that the ETA visa is pretty much immediately confirmed once the application is submitted, and that this class of visa is open to Irish people, although the Australian Department of Immigration website is quite confusing on that matter.

I don't want to have to apply for the ETA on top of my existing E-Visitor application (if that is even allowed) unless absolutely necessary, and I don't want to have to submit applications for different visas (as I'm not sure if there could be negative implications from that). However I'm worried that without doing so I'll be absolutely sweating on my E-Visitor application being approved before my flight, and possibly scupper my whole trip.

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