Tourist visas to Australia available on line

Using the eVisa facility means potential visitors do not need to queue at an Australian immigration office or mail your passport to an embassy as no labels are placed in your passport.

Formerly, it was only Kuwaiti and UAE citizens who were able to avail themselves of this eVisa facility. With the addition of the other countries, Australia now hopes to encourage more and more travellers to head Down Under.

The news has been very well received amongst the travel trade as Australia gears up for another record summer season. Last summer, visitor numbers from the Gulf were up 26 percent on the summer before, and this year looks likely to be even more robust.

Said Davinder Kaur, destination development manager, Emirates Holidays, "This is fantastic news for our customers in the neighbouring GCC countries."With Emirates' double daily flights from Dubai to Melbourne and Sydney, and daily flights to Brisbane and Perth providing a variety of routes to the Australian continent, this new eVisa facility will make it even easier to take a flight and spend a holiday of a lifetime in delightful Australia."

Said Lynne Hocking, Tourism Australia's manager, international markets liaison, based in Sydney and responsible for the GCC marketplace," The eVisa is exceptional news as we gear up here in Australia to welcome many Gulf visitors to Australia this year. Australia has become a much more prominent summer destination for holiday seekers from the GCC and this year we expect even more, especially with this new facility."

Sources from the Australian Immigration department have reported that, "Australia is a world leader in electronic visa technology; over 3.4 million electronic visas (mostly ETAs) were issued to travellers last year financial year. In those countries with eVisa, 22% of travellers now choose to apply online for their visa and over 3,390 tourist eVisas have been granted so far in 2004-05. We are confident this number will rise even further this year."

Potential travellers are able to log on to the DIMIA website at www.immi.gov.au, click on the "eVisa online services" button in the top, right-hand corner of the screen and follow the prompts to apply for an eVisa. They can later track the status of their application using the on line visa enquiry facility available on the website. eVisas to Australia normally take between seven to ten working days to process.