The solutions available following an eTA visa refusal

You will receive an email response a few minutes or hours after submitting your eTA travel application for Australia informing you if this has been successful or not. Unfortunately the message you receive will not give any explanation for reasons relating to a refusal and nothing on the possible solutions available for visiting Australia without this eTA. Here you can learn about the possibilities available to you in this situation with our detailed explanations and advice.

The different reasons for refusing an Australian visa

Once you have completed and submitted your online eTA application questionnaire then the Australian authorities responsible for immigration will examine the information given and decide whether to accept or refuse this travel authorisation. In the situation whereby your application is refused there may be several explanations such as:

• A non authorised length of visit: It should be remembered that an online eTA visa only concerns visits to Australia of less than 90 days. If you have requested an authorisation for a longer period then it will obviously not be granted. In fact, in this case you will need to apply for a traditional visa. This is equally the case for students.
• If you are the carrier of certain illnesses such as tuberculosis or other contagious viruses then you cannot obtain an eTA either.
• People who have been convicted of a criminal offense with a period of imprisonment of more than 12 months, completed or not, are not admitted entry onto Australian territory.
• Finally if you plan to work in Australia during your visit then your eTA application will not be accepted. In fact, this electronic visa does not allow you to work in Australian territory. It is however valid for business visits organised by your company subject to prior justification.

What to do when an eTA visa is refused?

All the reasons cited above will result in the refusal of eTA visa, even if you reapply several times. However, under certain circumstances such as visits for longer than 90 days or to work in the country you can still travel to Australia but will need to apply for a traditional visa. To do so you should contact the Australian Embassy in your home country to complete the application and provide certain justification documents. This procedure takes longer than an eTA application and should be completed well in advance of your visit.

If you have simply made a mistake in your ETA application then you may not modify your file but you do have the possibility of applying again after a period of 10 days, you will be required to make a fresh application and pay the same fees again. 

How to proceed with a new eTA visa application if the first has been refused?

As we examined earlier, it is possible to reapply for an eTA visa online after your first application has been refused. However to do so you will need to wait at least 10 days after receiving your refusal notification and you must be sure that the refusal is due to a mistake or error.

In fact, if you have replied correctly and honestly to the questionnaire during your initial application then it is pointless to reapply in the case of a refusal as the response from the authorities will be the same so you will have completed the procedure for a second time for nothing.

In the same way, it is pointless and even highly risky to try and modify certain responses in order to try and obtain an acceptance to this new application. Each eTA application is sent to specialised services in Australia where the agents are responsible for the verification of details supplied. Therefore, and particularly when the new application follows a refusal, agents may verify any information given in your application form. If it is discovered that you have lied on your application form then it may be impossible for you to visit Australia at any time in the future and you will be ineligible for both an eTA and a visa.

Of course, if your refusal is the result of a simple error you will just have to complete the entire online procedure again from the beginning, replying clearly and honestly to all questions asked.

Does an eTA refusal cause an automatic refusal to other types of travel authorisations for Australia?

Some people wonder if the fact they have received a negative response to their eTA or evisitor travel application automatically causes a refusal with other types of travel authorisation requests. This is however not necessarily the case.

In fact, if your eTA application has been refused to an incompatibility between your application and the authorisation conditions such as your country of residence not being a member of the system, a visit that is too long, or a non-eligible reason for your visit such as work or studies then it is highly possible that you will be able to obtain a standard visa. 

However, if this refusal is due to another of the answers in the questionnaire such as a country that you recently visited, or if you have committed a serious crime or suffer from a serious mental or contagious illness then it is very likely that your visa application will be refused for the same reason.

Unfortunately you will not be able to discover which part of the application form has resulted in a refusal from the Australian authorities and it will be up to you to try and discern the reason to see if you will be able to apply for another type of authorisation.