- Most Australians qualify for the visa waiver program when coming to the United States.passport approval image by timur1970 from Fotolia.com
Most Australians traveling to the United States for less than 90 days and for purposes of tourism qualify for the Visa Waiver Program. The Visa Waiver Program allows residence of Australia to enter the United States under certain restriction, but without a visa. Australians traveling for other purposes such as to study, enter an exchange program, or intend on working will have to apply for a non-immigrant visa. - The visa applicant will be required to complete the Non-Immigrant DS-160 visa application form (see Resources). The visa application is an electronic application. It will ask several questions regarding the visa applicant's contact information, employment information, education, citizenship information and passport information. At the end of the application, there will be a conformation page. The conformation page must be printed out, signed and submitted at the interview.
- The in order to complete the visa application process the application requires that the visa applicant uploads a digital copy of a passport photo onto the e-visa application. The passport photo can be a digital photograph saved as a JPEG file or a scanned copy of a printed passport photo saved as a JPEG.
- An Australian traveler is required to have a national passport. It will have to be submitted with the conformation page of the application at the appointment time. The passport must have at least one blank page in it, and it must be valid for at least six months after the intended date of departure from the United States.
- The visa application fees must be paid prior to the interview. The as of April 2010 the visa application fees were $131. They can be paid at any Australian post outlet. In order to process the visa application, a receipt of fee payment must be submitted along with the application.
- At the time of the interview, the visa applicant will be required to submit all documents to the immigration officer. The interview is required. The immigration officer will ask several questions regarding the visa applicants itinerantly, and his additional plans while in the United States. At the time of the interview, the visa applicant will also be required to bring a self addressed pre-paid envelope so the passport can be returned to the visa applicant.
