COVID-19 and its impact on your entry to Australia
As of 1 April 2020
Summary of the current travel restrictions
Inbound
- Unless exempted, if you are not Australian citizens, residents, immediate family member and/or a New Zealand citizen usually resident in the country, you cannot travel to Australia.
- Immediate family members are:
- spouses;
- dependent children; and
- legal guardians.
- Immediate family members who are not on a Partner or Child visa should not travel to Australia until approval from the Department has been obtained.
- Prospective Marriage Visa holders cannot come to Australia.
- As of 23:50AEDT on 28 March 2020, all incoming travellers are subject to a mandatory quarantine period of 14 days at a designated facility. Travellers transiting New South Wales on their way to another State or Territory or another country are currently not required to be quarantined.
- Other exemptions to the travel restrictions may apply. For example: people with critical skills – medical specialists, engineers or pilot may travel to Australia after approvals have been given. Application for exemption must be made prior to arrival in Australia.
Outbound
- Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents cannot go overseas unless they are:
- ordinary residents of another country;
- Airline and maritime crew;
- New Zealand citizens holding a visa subclass 444;
- People who work in freight related jobs;
- People who need to travel for essential work in an offshore facilities; and
- People travelling on official government business;
- Applications must be made and granted prior to departures from Australia.
What are the consequences of travelling to Australia without satisfying one of the above exceptions?
Do not travel to Australia unless you are certain that the at least one of the above exceptions applies to you. Your visa will be cancelled if you arrive in Australia.
What to do if your visa has been cancelled?
Please contact us immediately if your visa has been cancelled due to breach of the current travel restrictions.
A revocation request of the cancellation must be lodged as soon as possible. Once the travel ban is lifted, your visa may be reinstated.
I am an international student and I am outside of Australia at the moment. Will I be able to come back?
No unless you are exempted from the above restrictions. You may need to either:
- ask your education provider to complete your course online for the time being; or
- defer your study
If you have commenced your course, you must ask your education provider to defer the course ending date to a future date for “compassionate or compelling reasons” and obtain a new Confirmation of Enrolment so that you would be able to apply for a new student visa to prevent your current student visa from expiring before completion of your study.
I am a temporary visa holder in Australia. Can I return to my home country?
Yes, the current outbound restrictions do not apply to temporary visa holders.
Will my visa get extended in Australia if I cannot go back to my home country?
No, you will need to apply for a new visa.
I am currently overseas and have a bridging visa B which allows re-entry to the country under normal circumstances; can I travel back to Australia?
No, you canno go back to Australia unless one of the above exemptions applies to you.
If your bridging visa B expires before you are able to come back to Australia, you will not be able to extend this visa offshore.
You will need to apply for a new visa to come back to Australia after the current travel restrictions are lifted.
More Information
If you would like to discuss your options further, we invite you to contact our dedicated migration agent, Minh Huynh from our Commercial Law Team at Matthews Folbigg Lawyers on 9635 7966.
