How to apply for an Australian visa?

Brief introduction of visa application methods for ordinary students in Australia

From the way of visa application, Australian student visa application can be divided into two ways: ordinary application (i.e. paper application, abbreviated as PVA+VISA) and electronic application (i.e. online application, abbreviated as E-VISA). Before the trial of electronic student visa in China in August 2004, China students applied for Australian student visas outside Australia, which were all ordinary applications.

Since August 2004, although more and more student visas have been submitted through electronic application, it has not completely replaced the ordinary application method. The reasons are as follows: First, the e-student visa application method is only open to study agents authorized by the Australian Immigration Bureau. Therefore, students themselves or study agents not authorized by the Immigration Bureau can only submit student visas by ordinary application. Secondly, for some students who have refused visas before, due to the complicated reasons for refusing visas (especially because the Immigration Bureau suspects that the income of the fund guarantor does not match the funds), the electronic visa application method cannot show the whole picture of the application materials (because only some electronic materials are provided to the Immigration Bureau and other paper materials are kept in the study abroad agency), so all application materials can only be submitted to the Immigration Bureau by ordinary application method. Thirdly, the electronic visa application method requires applicants to meet all visa requirements when submitting visa applications. For those students who graduated that year and will start school in July, this is not the best visa application method; On the other hand, if you apply for a visa first, get a diploma and a degree certificate, and then pay the tuition fee, and then submit the admission registration confirmation (eCoE) to the Immigration Bureau, you are more likely to catch up with the start of school in July.

Just because the common application method still has a certain market, it is necessary for us to introduce the process and characteristics of this application method.

Under the ordinary application mode, the applicant needs to prepare all the materials according to the list of visa application materials provided by the Australian Immigration Bureau. Visa application materials generally include visa application form, identity materials, academic materials, ielts test report form, bank certificate of fund guarantee (bank deposit or bank loan), income certificate of fund guarantor, etc. The visa application fee needs to be paid in Australian dollars. Payment can be made by bank draft, or credit card information can be provided in the visa application form for immigration deduction.

After the materials are fully prepared, they need to be mailed to the Overseas Student Certification Center (OPC) of the Australian Immigration Bureau in Adelaide, South Australia. After receiving the materials, OPC will generally send a confirmation letter containing the application file number (file number) to the applicant or his agent by email (provided that the applicant provides the email address in the application form), and at the same time, two electronic medical examination forms will be attached, one is the routine medical examination form (Form 26) and the other is the chest X-ray form (Form 160).

After OPC receives the applicant's student visa application materials, the application enters the pre-visa evaluation stage (PVA). The normal PVA cycle announced by the Immigration Bureau is 16 weeks. Judging from the situation in recent years, the actual cycle is generally around 8 to 12 weeks, and letters from PVA can be received in several months or even four weeks.

After the visa pre-trial stage, OPC will send the pre-trial results to the applicant or his agent by email. If the pre-trial is passed, the next things that the applicant should do generally include: (1) paying tuition fees, applying for electronic registration confirmation (eCoE) from the school, and providing it to OPC(2) for physical examination after receiving the eCoE, and the physical examination results will be sent directly to the Australian Health Department in Sydney by the designated hospital; And (3) if you apply for a visa in the form of a loan for studying abroad, you need to apply for a formal loan from the bank and provide the loan documents to OPC.

OPC will send a visa approval letter to the applicant by mail after receiving all the documents required in the pre-trial approval letter and passing the examination. The applicant can mail the visa at the Australian Consulate in Shanghai with this letter and the original passport.

Finally, it should be emphasized that under the ordinary application mode, OPC will conduct spot checks on the working materials of the fund guarantor. Once selected, OPC will entrust the Australian Embassy in Beijing to conduct a telephone survey on the work unit of the fund guarantor. Telephone survey can be placed in the pre-trial stage of visa, or before the pre-trial is passed and the visa application is formally approved.