What is a visa status check?

Last updated: 21 June 2019

You can check your visa status online by using the free service provided by the Department.

It's called the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) - not to be confused with the other VEVO that has popular videos from famous artists.

Since Australia did away with visa label evidencing and has gone visa label free, you no longer get a label in your passport telling you what visa you have and when it will expire.

The only thing you have demonstrating your visa status in Australia is the notification of grant letter that is either emailed to you or snail mailed to you. Pieces of paper and/or email.

As you can imagine, you can easily lose or forget about these, particularly when you're all caught up in the excitement of finally getting to come to Australia to live, work and stay.

Why would you need to do a visa status check?

Checking if your details are correct: You will want to check if they have the correct details on file. Your visa is linked to your passport so if you have changed your passport details at any time, you need to notify the Department, otherwise you'll have problems.

Check your entitlements, restrictions and conditions:  You can check your entitlements, restrictions and conditions as well as checking  your dependants. You will want to know the exact conditions placed on your visa so that you do not breach them. Breaching conditions of visa may result in cancellation and deportation.

Check whether you're legal:  You will want to know exactly when your visa was granted and when it will expire so that you are not caught out. For particularly long visa durations, such as 4 year 457 visa, people often forget the precise date that they were granted the visa and therefore may not know their expiry date. It's always good to check in every so often.

Check when you can apply for another visa: For 457 visa holders that means time to apply for permanent residency!

For Permanent Residents, it means time to apply for citizenship!

For student visa holders, it means time to renew your visas or graduate to the next visa: graduate visas! (OK sorry bad pun).

Double checking if you're legally working in Australia: sometimes people make mistakes and might tell you the wrong thing. For example, your employer did all your visa paperwork and they've said it's OK and you can start work Monday. But actually the application was lodged, and the visa grant date wasn't until 4 weeks after the date that your boss said you could work. So don't take the employer's word for it because at the end of the day you're the one that's going to be kicked out of the country at a moment's notice.

Evidence for rental applications, job applications etc - if they request it you can print it out and use it as evidence that you'll be staying long enough for the rental period or that you have the correct visa with work rights.

 

How to check your visa status online

 

You will need to enter a reference type which can be one of the following:

1. Transaction Reference Number (TRN) – the TRN if you applied for your visa online
2. Visa Grant Number - you can find this on your visa grant notification letter
3. Visa Evidence Number - you can find this on your existing visa label, if you have one
4. Password - if you are in Australia contact 131 881 for a password to be created.

Then you need to provide the following information:

1. your date of birth
2. your passport number
3. country of passport.

Once you're in, this is what you'll see:

What everything means:

Current date and time: Date and time of the visa status check

Visa description: Description of the visa eg Bridging

Passport/ImmiCard number: Your passport number

Visa class/subclass: the visa class/subclass eg WA/010

Visa applicant: Can be Primary, secondary or dependant

Visa grant date: Date that the visa was granted

Location: Where you are at the moment. Can be 'onshore' or 'offshore'

Visa status: Whether the visa is still valid or not

Visa grant number:  Visa grant number

Entries allowed: Whether you can travel in and out of Australia and how many times

Period of stay: Length of time you are allowed to stay in Australia

Visa type: Type of visa eg. Bridging visa

Visa condition(s): Any and all visa conditions with links for further information

View as PDF: Can save as PDF for your reference

What next?

Well there you have it folks, many reasons why you should check your visa status online now. It's not hard and you'll have a simple peace of mind.

If anything looks suspicious in your visa status check results or you'd like things explained, leave a comment or send us a message.

 

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