kathrin Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 hey guys, i need some advice please...we recently received our visa and once all the excitement cooled off a little, realized that it is paperless.being South African and German, having loads of (mostly negative) experience with immigration processes, we thought of applying for the visa sticker anyway in order to have some proof in our passports. the AUS High Commission in Pretoria is stongly discouraging the process though and the fees have gone up to 150$ per label. also, after reading up on this on the forum, i now wonder if this would make any sense?what are your experiences?have you been in situations where it would have been helpful to have a label in your passport?...or is carrying around that visa grant letter just as effective?has any of you actually experienced the system being offline, so that officials were not able to check details?would be very thankful if you could advise!thanx a mil,Kathrin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadEnoughofJuju Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 Hi kathrin, firstly congratulations on the visa grant and good luck with the move. I was one of those paranoid people who decided to put the labels in our passports and the only place it helped was converting our licenses as a category A document in the 100 point identification process. Other than that we haven't used it once. The school only wanted copies of either the label or the grant letter both of which we had. I would say the only thing you need to do for customs in RSA is to have a copy of the visa grant letter. They know that the visas are all electronic for Australia and you shouldn't have any issues with them at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathrin Posted July 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 thanx HadEnoughofJuju!thats helpful!had a gut feeling we were being paranoid just one more...what is: '...converting our licenses as a category a document in the 100 point identification process' ???. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadEnoughofJuju Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 RSA was added to the list of countries that are able to simply convert drivers licenses, last year March without going through the whole drivers test like it used to be. To convert you will need to prove 100 points of identification. Passports and visa labels are both category A docs and count 75 points each and bank cards, utility bills, medicare cards, birth certificates as well as a couple of other docs are all category B. ID (which is usually 1 category A and 2 category B documents) along with proof of address is required to convert your license. Just about everything you do in Australia will require some sort of identification, if you have a valid state driver's license, bank card and medicare card then you are sorted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathrin Posted July 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 wow, i just got lots smarter - thanx a mil!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel-B Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 I was totally overwhelmed by going through all the stress and NOT having a darn sticker! But after reading over comments on the forum I realised we don't need it. So going with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathrin Posted July 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 So true Mel B!I felt cheated, really!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel-B Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 Agreed. I printed the short little email we received and stuck it on the fridge. Getting my kicks from that now. Most important little unassuming piece of paper - EVER! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renny Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 We just arrived 4 days ago and had no problem with no visa in.our passports. Asked if we should present our visa letter but customs was not interested in that. Just scanned the visa and all was good. We already bought a car (got a brand new loan car for the weekend till we pick up our one on Tuesday) so we wanted to do our lisence immediately. We could have waited for our bank cards to arrive, but we then used our previous aus tourist visa that was still valid. They did not want to accept the grant letter as proof of ID but the visitors visa was good and that one was a sticker in our passport. As HAOJJ said, it helps with a form of ID but would say you can wait a few days for your bank card and put the $150 to better use!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathrin Posted July 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 Thanx for this Renny! helpful to have different opinions and experiences!all the best for your new start over there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliottdean Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 When we travelled to OZ in 2012 to validate our viza's we went through no problem with the paperless viza. Its the same as taking your ID with you when travelling locally, you dont take a paper ticket with your anymore 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeamRF Posted July 30, 2014 Report Share Posted July 30, 2014 Hi guysSo my experience with this having recently arrived with the 'paperless visa'...I would recommend using the VEVO website...(http://www.immi.gov.au/Services/Pages/vevo/vevo-overview.aspx) and you can plug in your details and get a very nice letter listing your visa details...it is very current and this is recommended to be sent to potential employers, banks etc...we used this when applying for everything when we arrived and it works great! CiaoTeamRF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathrin Posted July 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2014 Thanx TeamRF!does this letter differ from the Visa grant letter we received? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeamRF Posted July 30, 2014 Report Share Posted July 30, 2014 Hey KathrinYour visa grant letter is your communication letter from Immigration awarding the visa and is what I would keep in my passport for sure...however for example I was awarded my visa in 2011 and in that time I got married and got a new passport so I updated my details with Immigration...this means my original visa grant letter has my old details on. VEVO stands for Visa Entitlement Verification Online and is current, it will even show the date and time you do it right now...you could login everyday and request it not a problem. VEVO is for you to login and check your status and download it and send it to banks etc...Employers etc. can also login and verify using the details you give them. VEVO is also good to check that your details are correct on their system.Hope that helps.CiaoTeamRF 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathrin Posted July 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2014 get it, thanx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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