Visitor visas
There are various visa options available for people who wish to visit Australia temporarily. Depending on the kind of visa you apply for, you will be able to stay in Australia from 3 to 24 months.
The visitor visas are for people who want to holiday in Australia and/or visit family or friends.
There are also visitor visa options for people who wish to stay a short time in Australia for business related matters (for example: to attend conferences, to negotiate or to network).
Temporary Work (Short Stay Activity) visa (subclass 400)
This is a temporary visa which allows you to enter Australia to do short-term work. The work must be highly specialised and not on-going. Usually, the allowed period of stay in Australia is 6 weeks.
Temporary Activity Visa (Subclass 408)
This visa allows you to come to Australia on a temporary basis for various reasons (work in the entertainment industry, participate or observe in an Australian research project, participate in high-level sports competitions or sports training programs, to be employed as a superyacht crew member, etc.).
The duration of the visa will depend on what activity has been approved. It can vary between 3 months, 2 years and 4 years.
Visitor visa (subclass 600)
This visa has 4 streams: tourist strea, business visitor stream, sponsored family stream and approved destingation status stream.
With this visa, you can have a holiday or visit family and friends in Australia, you can study in Australia for up to 3 months and you can engage in business activities while in Australia (such as attending conferences for example). But you can not work with this visa (if you need to do short-term work, you may have to apply for another visa, for example subclass 400 if you are eligible).
Working Holiday visa (subclass 417)
This visa is for people aged 18-30 years who hold a passport from an eligible country.
You cannot have any dependent children accompanying you.
This visa allows you to stay in Australia up to 12 months and work short-term to supplement your holidays (up to 6 months with each employer).
Investor Retirement visa (subclass 405)
This is a temporary visa for retirees over 55 years with no dependents other than a spouse. You must be sponsored by an appropriate regional authority and make a significant investment in Australia.
This visa is valid for 4 years. After 4 years, you can re-apply for an Ivestor Retirement visa provided you meet all the requirements.
This visa does not offer a pathway to permanent residency and you will not be able to apply for citizenship.
Other visitor visas
There are lots of other visas designed for specific reasons: medical treatment visa, entertainment visa, Visitor visa (subclass 600), ETA (subclass 651) eVisitor visa (subclass 651), training (subclass 407), etc.