Australia Visitor Visa: AUD 250 Application Guide

Which Visitor Pathway Applies to You

Australia has three visitor routes, and picking the right one is the single biggest time and money saver. Which one you use depends entirely on your passport:

• eVisitor (subclass 651) — free, for EU and UK passport holders. Fully online, usually processed in minutes, and allows stays of up to 3 months per visit.
• Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601) — AUD 20, for other eligible passports including the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong SAR, and Taiwan. You apply through the Australian ETA app (it reads your passport chip via NFC), approval is typically instant to 12 hours, and the ETA allows stays of up to 3 months per visit with multiple entries over 12 months.
• Visitor visa (subclass 600) — AUD 250 (for applications lodged on or after 1 July 2026; previously AUD 200), for everyone else, including India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Brazil. This is a full application with supporting documents, and the rest of this guide focuses on it.

Within subclass 600 there are several streams: Tourist (tourism and visiting friends or family), Business Visitor (meetings, conferences, negotiations), Sponsored Family (a relative in Australia formally sponsors your visit), and Approved Destination Status for Chinese citizens on organised tours. Stays are granted for 3, 6, or 12 months depending on the stream and your circumstances — most tourist applicants receive 3 or 6 months. You cannot work on any visitor pathway, study is limited to 3 months, and in most cases you cannot extend a visitor visa from inside Australia.

What It Costs and How Long It Takes

The subclass 600 fee is AUD 250 for the Tourist, Business Visitor, and Sponsored Family streams (up from AUD 200 for applications lodged before 1 July 2026), and it is non-refundable. Biometrics, if requested, carry no extra charge. Processing for the tourist stream is typically 20-40 days; the Sponsored Family stream takes longer, roughly 40-60 days. Apply at least 4-6 weeks before your travel date, and do not book non-refundable travel until the visa is granted.

Applying Through ImmiAccount

1. 1Create an ImmiAccount at immi.homeaffairs.gov.au. Online lodgement is the recommended route — paper applications through VFS attract the same fee plus a service charge and tend to take longer.
2. 2Select the Visitor visa (subclass 600) and the stream that matches your purpose.
3. 3Complete the application form in full. Every field matters — the Department is not obliged to ask for missing information and can refuse an incomplete application outright. Write "N/A" where a question does not apply rather than leaving it blank.
4. 4Upload your documents. Go through the Department's own checklist on the portal line by line before submitting.
5. 5Pay the AUD 250 fee by card.
6. 6Attend a biometrics appointment at an Australian Visa Application Centre if requested.
7. 7Track the application in ImmiAccount — the grant notification arrives by email.

Behind the scenes, applications are risk-tiered by nationality, travel history, and visa history. Lower-risk applications may pass with minimal manual review; higher-risk ones go to a case officer for detailed assessment — which is why complete, consistent documentation matters so much.

The Documents That Matter

• Passport valid at least 6 months beyond your planned stay, plus a copy of the bio-data page and a recent photo.
• Bank statements (3-6 months). For a 2-week tourist visit, a consistent balance of roughly AUD 5,000-10,000 is generally considered adequate; for longer stays the Department informally benchmarks around AUD 1,000-1,500 per week. Consistency matters more than the closing figure — a lump sum deposited the week before you apply raises suspicion rather than helping.
• Employment letter on company letterhead stating your position, tenure, salary, and approved leave dates, backed by payslips. Self-employed applicants should include tax returns for 2-3 years and business bank statements.
• Travel itinerary and accommodation — refundable bookings are fine, but they should match your stated dates and budget.
• Sponsored Family stream: your Australian relative completes the sponsorship form (Form 1149), and hosts supporting your stay may provide Form 1257 plus evidence of their status and finances. A sponsor who is on a temporary visa themselves, or whose income is modest, weakens the application.
• Health insurance — strongly recommended for everyone and mandatory for applicants over 75. A health examination is generally only requested if you will stay 6 months or more and are from a country considered higher-risk for tuberculosis, or in special circumstances such as planning to enter healthcare or childcare settings.

The Genuine Visitor Requirement

The core legal test for subclass 600 is the genuine temporary stay criterion (clause 600.211): the case officer must be satisfied you genuinely intend a temporary visit. There is no fixed checklist — it is a holistic judgement on the balance of probabilities, which is a lower bar than many applicants expect. The officer does not need to be certain you would overstay, only to consider it more likely than not that something is a concern.

Evidence that helps: ongoing employment with approved leave, property or business ownership, dependent family remaining at home, and previous compliant travel to countries such as the UK, US, Canada, or the Schengen area. Evidence that hurts: recently started or casual work, no assets, previous refusals, and requesting a 12-month visa for what you describe as a 2-week holiday — apply for the stay your purpose actually requires. A cover letter (a "statement of purpose") that addresses any obvious weak points directly, such as limited travel history, is worth writing.

Common Refusal Reasons

The Visitor 600 refusal rate fluctuates between roughly 10% and 20% depending on nationality and stream. The recurring causes:

1. 1Insufficient or inconsistent financial evidence
2. 2Weak ties to your home country
3. 3Incomplete applications — the most avoidable one
4. 4Poor or empty travel history
5. 5Vague purpose of visit ("I want to see Australia" is not enough)
6. 6Character concerns under Section 501 of the Migration Act
7. 7Health requirements not met
8. 8Sponsor problems in the family stream
9. 9Fraudulent or misleading documents — under PIC 4020 this can trigger a 3-year ban, or 10 years in some cases, from most Australian visas

If You Are Refused

Your decision record cites the exact clauses you failed — usually 600.211 (genuine temporary stay) or 600.213 (adequate means of support). Read it line by line. If you applied from outside Australia, you generally have no tribunal review rights for a Visitor 600 refusal; your route is a stronger fresh application. Applicants who were in Australia when the decision was made may be able to seek merits review at the Administrative Review Tribunal, typically within 28 days and with a filing fee of AUD 3,727 for applications lodged on or after 1 July 2026 (50% of the fee is refunded if you win).

There is no mandatory waiting period before reapplying, but resubmitting an identical application wastes another AUD 250. Wait until circumstances have genuinely changed, address every point in the refusal record, and disclose the refusal on all future applications — Australian forms ask, and so do the UK, Canada, the US, and Schengen states. Concealing a refusal is treated as misrepresentation and does far more damage than the refusal itself.