What to do if the Australian Visa expires?

As described extensively on our site, to enter the Australian territory it is mandatory to obtain an entry visa. But..

What happens if, during your stay in Australia, the visa is about to expire or has already expired?

 Which Australian visas allow you to extend your stay?

Depending on the visa held, it will be possible to choose to leave or extend the stay.

Is it possible to extend my stay in Australia?

When you're in Australia and your visa is about to expire, you should leave Australia no later than the expiry day. If you have the desire or you need to stay in Australia, you can apply for another type of visa according to the Australian visa required at that time.

If the visa does not include the possibility of extending the validity, it will not be possible to apply for a new visa, so you will have to leave the country immediately.

What if my visa has expired?

If you wish to spend more time in Australia but your visa has expired, you must immediately request a temporary visa called Bridging E (BVE) to avoid legal consequences. A BVE is a short-term Australian temporary visa that allows you to stay legally in Australia while you do the practices to extend your stay or to leave the territory. The BVE visa is free. If you are staying in Australia with an expired visa and you have not applied for a BVE temporary visa, you will be considered as a clandestine immigrant and you will be expelled from the territory with the costs charged to the clandestine. Once expelled, it will not be possible to apply for a visa to enter Australia for a period of three years from the date of departure from the territory. Detention is expected in severe cases. There are two subclasses of Bridging Visa E (BVE), ) subclass 050 (BVE 050) and ) subclass 051 (BVE 051). The difference between subclasses 050 and 051, is that 051 is only issued to protection visa applicants. The most requested sub-class is the 050 linked to the most common Australian visas. The Australian E-BVE visa will be canceled as soon as you leave Australia.

We now list types of visas for Australia for which the possibility exists or not to have a E-BVE.

Australia Visa eVisitor :

The eVisitor for Australia is a tourist visa dedicated to European citizens. The request to obtain this type of visa must be submitted exclusively online, when you are outside Australia. Is valid for 12 months from the date of assignment. The eVisitor allows you to stay in Australia for up to 90 days per visit. The eVisitor visa can’t be extended, so if it has expired and you’re still in Australian territory you must leave the country immediately or if you aren’t able to leave, apply for the Australia E-BVE visa.

ETA Australia Visa - Electronic Travel Authority :

Tourist Visa (or business) for citizens of United States, Canada, Japan, Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea.

The application for Australian ETA must be submitted online. The ETA Visa is valid for one year from its issuance or it may be linked to the expiry date of the passport. The ETA VISA allows you to stay in Australia for three consecutive months. Must be requested before leaving for Australia. If at the natural expiry, you wish to extend your stay you can request, if you are already on Australian territory, a Visitor Visa (subclass 600). In the meantime, you need to apply for a temporary E-BVE visa for Australia, in order to avoid having any illegal immigration sanctions.

Visitor Visa 600

It is a tourist visa. Those who don’t qualify for eVisitor and ETA can apply for a Visitor Visa 600. With the Visitor visa you can enter Australia both for tourism and for work, for a consecutive period that can go from three months to 12 months. This period is the responsibility of the authorities and the reason for the request. The application of the tourist visa for Australia can be forwarded from outside the Australian territory or if you are already in Australia. This type of visa allows you to extend your stay for tourism purposes, so if you want to continue staying in Australian territory, you can simply submit the application online on the government website. Everyone can request the extension of this particular visa for Australia. If the visitor's visa has expired, you can request to extend your stay, but at the same time you must apply for a provisional visa for Australia E-BVE, while you wait for the extension request to be approved.

Visa Australia for students

Students who go to Australia for study purposes have the possibility to apply for a student visa. This type of visa for Australia can be renewed several times. Renewal will always be for the purpose of study. The student visa application is quite expensive, with prices ranging from $ 500 for the first request up to $ 700 for the second visa. The stay can be extended depending on the duration of the course of study. In case of visa expiry you will have to leave Australia or submit a new visa application, in this case if the course of study is finished and you still want to stay in Australia, you can request another type of Australian visa, tourist or business. It must be remembered that if the visa has expired, you must apply for a temporary E-BVE visa. If your Australian visa has expired more than 28 days, you can not return to Australia for the next three years.

You can request and get only one visa at a time. A new visa (other than a E-BVE temporary visa) will generally replace any other residence visa you own and will be valid as soon as it is granted.

If you have any doubts about the type of visa, before sending an Australia visa application you can contact us; if you have questions about how a new visa could affect the existing one.