VISA Application: How to Apply for an Australian Visitor Visa for Filipinos

Last updated: 20 May 2022

Hi! It was our first time to apply for an Australian VISA, and this is how we do it.

First, we need to know what kind of visa are we going to apply for. For tourists, like us, we applied for the Visitor visa – subclass 600.

Visitor visa – subclass 600 will let us visit Australia for the following:

• as a visitor, to visit family or friends, or for business visitor purposes
• a temporary stay up to three, six or 12 months

When to apply?

• According to the website, processing time is 20 days to 33 days. This range is based on the Global processing times which are updated monthly. The estimate may change during the processing period.

  You can minimise the processing time for this application by supplying all supporting documents and responding to any requests for information promptly.

• Our visa took only 3 days. I suggest to apply 3 weeks to 1 month before your planned trip.

How to apply? 

Filipinos can now apply for a visa online via ImmiAccount. Below are the steps:

1. Create an ImmiAccount:

• ImmiAcount is an online system of the Australian Government’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). This is where you can create, submit, pay, manage and check the status of your VISA application.

2. Log into your ImmiAccount and start your application.

• You can add your family and friends under one Immiaccount if you are travelling as a group or wish to have your applications processed together.

3. Attach your supporting documents:

• You can only attach a maximum of 60 files, with a file size limit of 5 MB each.
• Accepted file extensions: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, pdf, bmp, dcm, rtf, jpg, png, txt, dot, gif.
• When naming your files to be attached to an online application only use numbers 0–9 and letters A–Z (upper and lower case), dashes ‘–’ and underscores ‘_’.
• Avoid using spaces ‘ ‘, periods ‘.’, ampersand ‘&’, hash ‘#’, star ‘*’, exclamation marks ‘!’, quotations ” “” and any other character that is not a letter, a number, a dash or an underscore.

4. Submit your application and pay the visa fee.

• Base fee of AUD$145 per applicant.
• Additional credit card surcharge depending on the card type: VISA and MASTERCARD (0.98%), AMERICAN EXPRESS and JCB (1.4%), DINERS (1.99%), ChinaUnion Pay (1.90%), and PayPal (1.0%)

What are the requirements? 
We submitted all clear scanned copies of the following. No need to be notarized/authenticated.

• Photograph -Passport: Provide a recent passport photograph (45mm x 35mm). This should be of the head and shoulders only, and should show the person facing the camera, against a plain background and must be less than six months old.
• Travel Document: Valid passport
• Previous Compliant Travel, Evidence of: passport pages that contain evidence of previous travel to countries other than Australia, such as entry / exit stamps or visa labels
• Change of name, Evidence of: Marriage Certificate
• Family Composition, Evidence of: Birth certificate
• Planned tourism activities, Evidence of: Itinerary letter (include flight details and hotel accommodation, if you already have)
• Financial Capacity – Personal, Evidence of: Certificate of employment, salary for those who are employed or Proof of Business ownership if self-employed
• Financial Capacity – payslip: 3 months payslip –
• Financial Capacity – bank account: 3 months Bank statement or latest Bank Certificate

For children below 18 years old and travelling alone or with only one parent, below are the additional requirements: 

• Completed 1229 form – Consent for travel of a child under the age of 18, Evidence – Form 1229  
• For a single parent like me, I added a cover letter explaining why the spouse cannot sign the 1229 form. – Consent for travel of a child under the age of 18, Evidence – Form 1229 
• For students, a letter from your school or university confirming your enrolment, course duration and leave of absence. – Study – Enrolment, Evidence of

How much money should be in my bank statement? 

There is no set rule on how much money must be in your bank statement. The key is to show the immigration officer that you have ‘sufficient funds’. This means you should have enough money to support your stay in Australia. Based on my experience, your Certificate of Employment which includes your salary should tally your payslip and bank statements. I applied mid-April, and the bank statements I provided are from January-March.

Do I need to book my flight and hotel accommodation before applying for an Australian visa? 

The Australian DIBP does NOT require your flight or hotel bookings before applying for a visa. For us, we booked our flights first because they were on promo. Also, we submitted our flight details and hotel booking as our evidence of temporary stay, including an itinerary cover letter to let the immigration officer know that we are only going for vacation purposes.

What’s next?  

Once you have attached all the requirements, all you have to do is wait. You can still attach additional supporting documents while your visa is still in ‘processing’ status. You will receive an email notification that your visa has been granted.

I hope this guide will help you get your Australian visa approved. Please feel free to leave a comment below. Good luck!

Note: This guide is based on our own application for tourist visas, and may not apply to other types of visas and non-Filipino residents of the Philippines.