Choosing a Visa OR Learn From My Stressful Experience | Tuesday Travels

There are many things in life that tend to stress me out - trivial pursuit with my Dad, my Nan critcising people's driving whilst in the wrong lane on a roundabout, my bank balance. But as of recently, I can now add 'choosing a visa and acquiring said visa' to the list of things that stress me out.  So being the helpful, considerate human being that I am here is my list of things to do to ensure that your visa acquiring experience is less stressful that mine, and even possibly enjoyable (but I'm not a miracle worker so don't hold me to that.)

1) Look Into Every Visa Thoroughly

The website to use for getting your Australian visa is the Australian Visa Bureau. It includes a lot of information about all the visa's that are on offer to you, and there are a fair few. You'll be able to rule out some straight away, for instance I could rule out a 'Skilled Migration Visa' because I am no planning on immigrating and I'm not skilled, therefore quite simply ruled out. However, I was stuck between the Working Holiday Visa and bog standard,  simple Tourist Visa. (For those who want to know I opted for the Working Holiday Visa). The website does give a lot of information about both visa's, however I still had a few questions so I emailed them. This is something you shouldn't be scared to do at any point of planning your trip, you don't want to agree to something then find out later that's it not really what you wanted. If you feel you need more information to make a fully informed choice than make sure you get it whether that be emailing or even phoning someone to find out that information.

2) Visa First, Flights Second

Don't book any flights until you've secured your visa. Mine only took a few days to come through so I didn't have to wait long to book my flights. That's not saying yours will be as quick, but either way still don't book flights. Flights to Australia are super expensive, I thought I was going to have to ask my parents to re-mortgage the house when I got my first quote, so you don't want to spend £800 (Oh how I wish mine had been that cheap) on flights then get your visa rejected and have to cancel flights or something silly.

3) Make Sure You Meet All the Requirements

It sounds ridiculous, but read over the visa requirements several times, make sure you could tick off every one of them. Again, you don't want your visa to be rejected because you haven't read the requirements for the visa thoroughly. Some of the requirements will come into play closer to when you leave for Australia, well at border control, such as making sure you have a return ticket or the funds to purchase one. The Australian government like to know your coming home, and if you can't prove you can leave the country at some point they quite simply won't let you in. Don't be stupid about it, if you're not 100% sure that you will have the funds to purchase a return ticket once in Australia don't risk it. It's not worth taking a twenty-four hour flight to be sent home before you've even left the airport.

4) Take Cost and Time into Consideration

As I said earlier I was stuck between the Working Holiday and the Tourist visa. For me it came down to how long I want to stay in Australia. The simple answer is - I don't know. For all I know I might get there and decided I want to be there three months, or I could decide I want to be there a year. With the Tourist visa I wouldn't have that option as it only lasts three months, so although the Working Holiday costs A LOT more money (you'll find expense is a recurring theme if you decide to travel to Australia) it was the better option for me.

5) Don't Leave it to the Last Minute

The main reason my visa experience became so stressful was because I left it so late to needing to book my tickets. This goes back to tip number two. I hadn't considered that I should probably make sure that the Australian's would actually have me in their country before booking tickets. When it came to booking my tickets I was asked if I had my visa, when I told them I hadn't the lovely young man on the end of the phone essentially told me to go away and come back when I'd got one. Of course I knew I'd potentially lose the cheap seats (cheap by the standards of the airline I had to book with due to my other halfs already booked flights, don't worry he got an earful), I'd secured on the phone and may not get a flight on the day I wanted because time is of the essence when travelling. Luckily my visa came back really quickly, however this isn't the case for everyone and if mine had taken a few days longer I'd have definitely lost the cheap seats and the date I wanted. So long story short, organise your visa way ahead of even thinking about a date of flying. Your visa doesn't activate until you enter Australia so don't worry about it expiring.

So those are my four tips for choosing an Australian visa. I hope someone finds them helpful, or at least finds that they make the experience less stressful, I'm sure either way your experience won't be as hectic as mine. So good luck, and enjoy the visa acquiring experience.