NELBHOY

Travelling out a week on Monday from the UK for a validation trip. Just realised my son has less than 6 months left on passport. Managed to organise a new passport for him to pick up next week. Does anybody know who we contact to let them know about the passport change? My visa grant letter states that you can contact a local Immigration office or one in OZ. Would that be Australia House in London then?

louise

Hi

Hubby travelled out 2 weeks ago on a new passport, just take the old one with you aswel to show the visa sticker, he didn't have any problems at all

NELBHOY

Thanks Louise. Haven't got sticker, just using my visa grant letter.
I'm sure you are right, but would like to speak to somebody for peace of mind really. Can I ask why you're not travelling?

BAY

I think you'll need the actual visa sticker in the passport. Grant letter won't count .... will it ? Have you been told it will ?

Pollyana

Depends what visa it is - 457 for instance doesn't require a sticker,and often says you can get one once you arrive.

For the OP - Contact Aus House in London as soon as you have the new passport and give them the details

chequer

You don't need your visa letter to enter Australia as the visa is attached to your passport number.

We entered without a visa sticker in our passports but ended up getting one when we arrived as everyone needs to see it, from Medicare to banks to employers. We carried our visa grant letter but no-one asked to see it.

Indeed, we stopped over in Thailand, and at check-in when leaving Thailand, they found that our youngest didn't have a visa to enter Australia (it had been missed off during processing somehow) and we had a nervous wait while they faxed Sydney with the details so they could enter the visa electronically against my son's passport number. It took about 20mins and was easily sorted.

I would contact immigration immediately about the change in passport as you will undoubtedly have a problem trying to enter on a passport that has a different number to the one on the visa, letter or no letter.

JAJ

Was the visa never granted to your son, or just the system not updated? In the former case, you have more work to do in order to avoid problems later on.

What does your visa grant letter say?

chequer

It was simply an admin error. Three of the four visas were correctly logged to our passports. They just overlooked him. It took 20mins for it to be corrected at the airport.

I was interested that the Thai airport staff had to check the visa status before completing check-in for us. I hadn't expected that at all.

Just a warning to anyone expecting confetti and fanfares when you reach immigration when you land in Australia - we were very disappointed when we got a 'Good Morning' and a stamp and then moved along! They just don't appreciate how hard it was to apply and how long some of us were waiting!

An additional interest point, we were headed for Melbourne but landed in Sydney first to then change flight. We were expecting immigration in Melbourne but it was done in Sydney the moment we arrived.

canadaeh

Most check-ins around the world will check your Visa Status for Australia before they check you in because if you arrive without a Visa the Australian Government fines the Airline that brought you.

What more did you expect? They process thousands of people a day; they can’t throw a party for everyone. As for how long the process took to get a visa in the first place, I doubt they care. At least you got a “good morning”, most don’t.

You clear immigration at the first point of entry to a country, regardless of your final destination.

bcworld

You were lucky! I think I got a hand held out for the passport and not a single word.

NELBHOY

The visa we have is a 175. It actually states on the grant letter that the letter itself is enough for entry, although it recommends getting a sticker. We couldn't be arsed after all the hastle of getting the visa

NELBHOY

Thanks Polly and everybody who replied

ozhappy981

As Chequer said above: When you are in Oz, do take yourself to the local DIAC office and get the stickers put into the passport. There are lots of places that want to see the sticker, e.g. banks and Medicare. These places often have employees who work from a script and can't think for themselves. You telling them that the grant letter is enough will not budge them if their script says "look for visa sticker in passport".