COVID19 Updates from Department of Home Affairs

Our phones and emails have been inundated over the last few weeks especially relating to minister updates for travel bans to and from Australia. The latest notice will be enforced tonight from 9pm.

The closure of Australian Borders is affecting many non-residents who are on route to Australia or planning to be en-route in the next few days.

UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE:

• All non-residents will be banned from arriving in Australia from 9:00pm AEDT today.
• This ban replaces all previous travel bans on specific to China, Iran, South Korea and Italy
• All persons who are allowed into Australia including Australian citizens MUST undergo mandatory isolation for 14 days.
• Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced the enhanced border measures in response to the Covid-19 outbreak which applies to all people who are non-citizens and non-residents such as temporary visa holders and visitor visa holders

All temporary Visa holders who are currently Offshore (not in immigration clearance in Australia) and will be offshore before 9pm the following applies:

• If you were granted a temporary residency visa and DO NOT HOLD A PERMANENT VISA, you will not be allowed to travel to Australia after 9pm AEDT 20 March 2020 unless you have specific permission to travel
• For both temporary visa holders and permanent visa holders who are unsure about your rights to travel to Australia, YOU MUST first get clearance from the Department of Home Affairs to travel to Australia. To verify your travel status, please visit this link and submit the online form to the Department of Home Affairs – The response time is currently 5 days so you may need to postpone any immediate flights
• You also MUST request and receive travel clearance from your Airline before attempting to travel to Australia
• If your temporary visa expires whilst you are not in Australia, please keep in contact with us as you will need to apply for a new visa once the travel restrictions are lifted

TEMPORARY RESIDENTS AND NON-RESIDENTS

For employees (and/or their family members) who hold sponsored work visas such as 482, 457, 400, 417 (working holiday) and business visas (ETA’s) who are unable to arrive in Australia by 9pm AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) this evening  – we have been advised that they will not be cleared in their home country (country of departure) for travel to Australia. In this instance we suggest that you advise them to delay their travel with the airlines until further clearance updates allow them to enter Australia

NEW OR PENDING VISA APPLICATIONS

The Department of Home Affairs have not ceased processing visa applications. There will be some visas that will not be issued that require immediate entry into Australia. These short-term visa processing changes are only applicable to fit in with the IMMEDIATE TRAVEL BAN that takes effect tonight. Any visas that will expire during the BAN period, will be able to re-apply for their visas once the ban is lifted. These are only emergency temporary measures that the Australian Government and majority of overseas governments are taking to contain the spread of the COVID19 virus.

If you are onshore and hold a temporary visa that will expire soon, please contact us to request extensions or waivers for 8503 – ‘no further stay’ conditions well in advance.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email us at [email protected] or call 0432152097