Q regarding Australian Transit Visa

[tashla]

Hi All!

Just wondering if anyone has experience with stopovers in Australia and requiring a transit visa for their travels to NZ...
My OH and I will be travelling from Istanbul to Auckland via Singapore soon most likely with Emirates and it appears that all of their flights transit through Australia. My OH, being Turkish, will require a transit visa no matter how long the transit period is, so I was wondering if it's possible to use this for a little (less than 72 hours) stopover so I can organise some stuff while I'm home.

The immigration website states: "If you intend to stopover in Australia longer than 72 hours you will not be eligible for a transit visa, and should obtain another type of visa." So to me, this means as long as the stopover is less than 72 hours you should be eligible for the transit visa. But has anyone actually done this, or tried to do this and hit problems with immigration for not taking the first flight out?

We will of course have all visas for NZ ready and confirmed onward booking before making the application (as requested on the website). Although does anyone think that it's a little silly as you need a confirmed booking before being granted the visa? What happens if your application is denied?

If anyone has any experience with this I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks in advance,
tashla

[JandM]

To be certain about this, in your shoes I would contact the Australian visa authorities rather than trust to being the same as anyone else's experience.

[tashla]

Thanks, I have tried contacting Australian immi and I just get the same generic response that's written on the website. The one thing I've found with Australian immi is that you will almost never get more information from them than what's already written and if somehow you do manage to get an answer and then ask again later to confirm you won't get the same answer again.

[IanW99]

My reading of the information says that as long as you are planning to leave within 72 hours then you won't have a problem.

If you actually look at the form it asks for address where you will be staying and your arrival and departure dates, so if this type of visa isn't suitable then it will be declined i.e. if it is granted then you can take it as it will be ok.

Ian

[tashla]

My reading of the information says that as long as you are planning to leave within 72 hours then you won't have a problem.

If you actually look at the form it asks for address where you will be staying and your arrival and departure dates, so if this type of visa isn't suitable then it will be declined i.e. if it is granted then you can take it as it will be ok.

Ian

Yeah, my concern is that the application will be denied. We will be travelling very soon after we received a NZ temp. work visa and obviously we need this before we can apply for the transit visa as evidence of our onwards travel. However, since tickets need to be booked and confirmed and the short time from us receiving the NZ visa to travel, a denial will greatly upset our travel plans. On the other hand, while applying for a tourist visa would overcome this problem, last time we applied immigration took over a month to process the application and didn't receive a response from them regarding approval/refusal until a week after the date our initial travel plans and flights. Again, I would want to wait for the NZ visa before applying as evidence to immigration that there won't be an overstay, but this means I don't really have time before travelling to wait for the tourist visa to be processed. Ah... dilemmas!