visa for australia

[jjduck]

We applied for the visa and at the end of the process, found out there is a $20.00AUD fee.

 

From what I have read on these boards (including the Australian/New Zealand board), the visa should be free?  Please advise with any current information.

 

Our cruise is on Solstice, from Hawaii to Australia, on Oct. 1, 2023.

 

Help, please!

[omeinv]

The Australian ETA has always been $20.00 AUD.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[markeb]

Agree. The Australian ETA has a processing fee of AUD 20. There theoretically is no fee for the ETA, but you pay a processing fee. A difference without a difference.

 

You have plenty of time. In most cases you'll be approved immediately. 30-60 days out should be fine.

[jjduck]

Thanks, Harris and markeb.  Very much appreciate your quick replies.  Still learning every day!

 

Aloha, 

Noreen

[BklynBorn47]

For what it's worth, this is our experience.  
We applied yesterday for our cruises Feb 28th to April 24 
The $20 was the easy part.
For Australia we needed an NFC capable phone and discovered only 1 of our 3 phones worked to download the REQUIRED app.  OK one is enough.  Many tries to get the required acceptable photo, but finally done.
Credit card accepted.  Yea!

I got my ETA by email about an hour later.  My husband did not.
We applied for NZ also.  Joe got his ETA a few hours later.  I did not.

We applied one after the other in both cases.  Wondering if this is common.
 

[jjduck]

Thanks for sharing, bklyborn47.  My husband has a recent passport and had no problem scanning that code thing.  Mine took many tries, but we finally "found" it.  Then there was the photo episode...too close, too far, too right side, etc.  What a relief to get that done.  The emails surprisingly arrived in a few minutes.

 

Hopefully your posting and this one will be helpful to others!

[CU64]

On 1/4/2023 at 3:24 AM, BklynBorn47 said:

For what it's worth, this is our experience.  
We applied yesterday for our cruises Feb 28th to April 24 
The $20 was the easy part.
For Australia we needed an NFC capable phone and discovered only 1 of our 3 phones worked to download the REQUIRED app.  OK one is enough.  Many tries to get the required acceptable photo, but finally done.
Credit card accepted.  Yea!

I got my ETA by email about an hour later.  My husband did not.
We applied for NZ also.  Joe got his ETA a few hours later.  I did not.

We applied one after the other in both cases.  Wondering if this is common.
 

I spent one hour today. It was maddening. Would not scan passport; kept rejecting photo, …then got a tourism app which charged me $149. I had to call CC & immediately dispute. Who said this would be easy?

Tomorrow is another day.

 

[Mother Mary]

You need to get your Visa before your cruise. We did this before the pandemic and those that didn’t do it Celebrity charged them $125. Per person. I felt sorry for the 4 older ladies who missed this requirement!

[Jim_Iain]

9 hours ago, CU64 said:

I spent one hour today. It was maddening. Would not scan passport; kept rejecting photo, …then got a tourism app which charged me $149. I had to call CC & immediately dispute. Who said this would be easy?

Tomorrow is another day.

 

 

You brought up a really good point.   There are a lot of "Scam" sites out there that pop up on searches for most Visa Processing.   Easiest way to avoid is when you do a search -  Avoid all sites that have - AD next to their name on the results page.  

 

From the government site: https://usa.embassy.gov.au/visas

 

 

At this time, ETA lodgement is only available through the Australian ETA app. To apply you must lodge the application via the ETA app which you can download for free from the Apple Store (Apple) or Google Play store (Android).

 

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/electronic-travel-authority-601#HowTo

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Jim_Iain

[Ken the cruiser]

We also just finished applying and subsequently being approved for eVISAs by both Australia and NZ for our upcoming April cruise on the Eclipse. The funny thing was my DW downloaded both apps. The Australia one worked like a champ. However, the NZ one kept having network connection issues, so we just used the online interface link provided on the Celebrity website to fill out the information to get New Zealand's NZeTA. And as others have mentioned, getting our photos for the NZeTA to successfully upload after cropping them a few times was quite stressful to say the least. But on the bright side, it only took a few minutes to get the approval emails back from both countries. 

 

 

1. The government of New Zealand requires all guests (excluding Australia and New Zealand citizens) with a port call, embark or debark in New Zealand to submit a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) form prior to boarding the sailing Acess Here

 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

12 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We also just finished applying and subsequently being approved for eVISAs by both Australia and NZ for our upcoming April cruise on the Eclipse. The funny thing was my DW downloaded both apps. The Australia one worked like a champ. However, the NZ one kept having network connection issues, so we just used the online interface link provided on the Celebrity website to fill out the information to get New Zealand's NZeTA. And as others have mentioned, getting our photos for the NZeTA to successfully upload after cropping them a few times was quite stressful to say the least. But on the bright side, it only took a few minutes to get the approval emails back from both countries. 

 

 

1. The government of New Zealand requires all guests (excluding Australia and New Zealand citizens) with a port call, embark or debark in New Zealand to submit a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) form prior to boarding the sailing Acess Here

 

 

 

 

Thanks -  I will keep in mind.  We have quite a bit of time to apply for ours for November so just starting the process.

 

Quick question.   Can you apply for both on the same app or better to load app on separate phones.

Edited January 7, 2023 by Jim_Iain

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Thanks -  I will keep in mind.  We have quite a bit of time to apply for ours for November so just starting the process.

FWIW the Australia ETA is good for 1 year from approval. The NZeTA is good for 2 years.

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

FWIW the Australia ETA is good for 1 year from approval. The NZeTA is good for 2 years.

 

 

 

I may hold off then .     Hadn't thought about that.    We are doing both a cruise in November 2023 as well as an April 2025.  

[Oceansaway17]

On 1/4/2023 at 6:24 AM, BklynBorn47 said:

For what it's worth, this is our experience.  
We applied yesterday for our cruises Feb 28th to April 24 
The $20 was the easy part.
For Australia we needed an NFC capable phone and discovered only 1 of our 3 phones worked to download the REQUIRED app.  OK one is enough.  Many tries to get the required acceptable photo, but finally done.
 

wondering what you mean by NFC capable phone.  Don't know this acronym

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

wondering what you mean by NFC capable phone.  Don't know this acronym

Just as a side note, my DW had no issues downloading the Australia app using her our iPhone SE, which is older than the new iPhones. 

[markeb]

10 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

wondering what you mean by NFC capable phone.  Don't know this acronym

Near Field Communication. The protocol phones use for contactless payments, event tickets, etc.  

[Jim_Iain]

30 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

wondering what you mean by NFC capable phone.  Don't know this acronym

 

NFC (near field communication) is the technology that allows two devices — like your phone and a payments terminal — to talk to each other when they're close together. NFC is the technology that enables contactless payments.

[Ken the cruiser]

53 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just as a side note, my DW had no issues downloading the Australia app using her our iPhone SE, which is older than the new iPhones. 

I just did a search and here are the iPhones that are NFC-enabled.

 

If you need details just to be sure, here’s the whole list of iPhones that are NFC-enabled:

• iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd Gen)
• iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus

[Jim_Iain]

That would cover all Apple phones released since 2015.  

 

I know I've been using Apple Pay for a long time but didn't realize 7 years has flown by.

Edited January 7, 2023 by Jim_Iain

[CU64]

10 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

wondering what you mean by NFC capable phone.  Don't know this acronym

 

10 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

NFC (near field communication) is the technology that allows two devices — like your phone and a payments terminal — to talk to each other when they're close together. NFC is the technology that enables contactless payments.

Yes, I just learned this today after quite a bit of reading. My iPhone is 11 but when watching a video provided by one of the govt websites about how to get your phone to scan Passport, it says to check the NFC tag.

needless to say, I had to find out what that was and my iPhone 11 shows nothing of the sort in Control, et al. 

[Jim_Iain]

8 hours ago, CU64 said:

 

Yes, I just learned this today after quite a bit of reading. My iPhone is 11 but when watching a video provided by one of the govt websites about how to get your phone to scan Passport, it says to check the NFC tag.

needless to say, I had to find out what that was and my iPhone 11 shows nothing of the sort in Control, et al. 

 

Interesting they use the NFC to read passport information.     I was thinking they would use it to tap to clear immigration on arrival.

[Ken the cruiser]

11 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Interesting they use the NFC to read passport information.     I was thinking they would use it to tap to clear immigration on arrival.

I remember when we were filling out the Australia form, we opened our passport to page 2, the Picture page, scanned the barcode, and then laid the iPhone down on the open passport (per their instructions) so it could then scan the chip, that was actually on the outside from cover of the passport.

[Oceansaway17]

On 1/7/2023 at 4:37 PM, markeb said:

Near Field Communication. The protocol phones use for contactless payments, event tickets, etc.  

aw thanks for the explaination

[Oceansaway17]

On 1/7/2023 at 4:57 PM, Jim_Iain said:

 

NFC (near field communication) is the technology that allows two devices — like your phone and a payments terminal — to talk to each other when they're close together. NFC is the technology that enables contactless payments.

thanks  I have not gotten into that arena yet. I still use cc or cash