sharkin

Does your passport have to be valid for a certain period of time before you can leave for Oz. I.e some countries require your passport to be valid for a minimum 6 months before yo can enter the country. Does having PR affect this?
Mine is due to run out in August but will be looking at going to Oz permanently in June. Is it necessary to upgrade my passport and therefore carry two?
Reason I don't want to do this is that I am in living in France and don't really want to take the risk of postal renewals either losing or forgetting to return my original.

cheers

JAJ

1. When stamping a permanent visa, DIMIA will want to make sure your passport is valid up to the first entry date at least.

2. If your visa has already been stamped, then there is no 6 month rule for Australia but some countries do have such a rule (eg Singapore and Malaysia) and it's not really a good idea to travel on a passport about to expire.

3. Why not renew your passport at the British Embassy in France?

4. DIMIA *might* be able to give you a new printed label, if they don't you can carry the old passport with the visa in it but that risks check-in hassle if the person on the airline counter doesn't realise that DIMIA are ok with this.

5. It's a lot simpler to get a new passport before having any visas stamped.

Jeremy

Athena

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for your info!

So, just to recap and see if I understood correctly, since my situation is similar to sharkin's:

I was granted my visa today and my passport expires in June 2005. Since I am planning to leave to Australia in September, I better renew my passport now and then get my label stamped on the new passport, and when I get to Australia the DIMIA will not have issues with the fact that my passport is new.

Is that correct?

JAJ

That's definitely the simplest way. It won't hurt to send a certified copy of the ID page of your new passport, and send it to your case officer in Adelaide, then send the new one to the relevant DIMIA office (Rome?) to get it stamped.

I suggest you renew your passport now before the summer rush starts. Check the other family members passports while you're at it. Of course, if you're an Italian rather than British citizen, you need to check the processing time for passports which might not be the same as in the UK.

Jeremy

Athena

Thanks Jeremy,

For the renewal of my passport, I just discovered that I can simply extend the old one for another 5 years, as the Italian law has recently changed on that matter. I'm planning to go tomorrow morning

As for sending copies to my CO, I will follow your advice.