Help, need travel advice for a visit to Australia

Hi there, my name is Lesley and my husband is Keith. We are currently organising a visit to see our daughter and family in Australia, our last visit was cancelled due to the arrival of COVID. Has anyone got any tips or advise on what documentation we need - we have trawled through pages and pages of info, getting more and more confused!! We aim to go January/February,

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Welcome @Thompson and Happy New Year. So sorry to hear your last visit to Australia was cancelled but let’s hope your next set of plans proceed unhindered by the pandemic :slight_smile: Our member @Julie may be just the person to help you with this as she and hubby have just arrived in New South Wales to meet their grandchild after a year or so of waiting to travel. She may be busy loving on their new family addition, but I’m sure when she see this she might be able to point you in the right direction for entry to visit family. All the best and wishing you happy times ahead!

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First question is…What Aus state are you trying to enter?

If it’s Western Australia, you’ll have to wait until Mr McGowan (A.K.A Premier Marky Mark) opens the borders to the rest of Aus.

May you get to see your family :heart:

Thanks for your reply. We hope to visit our daughter in Newcastle, New South Wales. Any further advice will be greatly received.

Try these two for a start & are the ones i’d venture to for the up to date requirements.

Hi Lesley and Keith,
Oh we so feel for you, we know exactly what you are going through trying to get to your family in Australia. We made it here just 2 weeks ago but spent the last year agonisingly trying to find a way to get here. When the Australia entry rules changed 01/11 allowing parents of Permanent Residents entry we immediately applied for a Travel Exemption and it was granted. We are so happy to try to help you with the below information and do ask us any further questions, we will do our very best to help. Keep in touch, we have everything crossed for you.

So There are 5 documents you’ll need to have to enter Australia (Exemption, E-visa, Australian Travel Declaration, Negative PCR Test and NHS Covid Pass)

1.) Do you have an exemption to enter Australia - you will need this (if you are visiting family all the details you need are here) - https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/immediate-family-australian-citizens-or-permanent-residents-or-new-zealand-citizens-usually-resident-australia

2.) At the same time as applying for exemption, apply for your tourist e-visa, here is the link - https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/evisitor-651

3.) Before travelling to Australia, all travellers are required to complete an Australian Travel Declaration AT LEAST 72 hours before departure for Australia (wait until you have your exemption and e-visa before doing this) - Here is the link for this - https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/australia-travel-declaration

4.) You’ll need a negative PCR test taken less than 72 hours before departure - we used Randox and had them delivered, took the test and dropped it at one of Randox pickup points (had our result within 36 hours ish - they come via email and you either print them off or download them to your phone) it was one of the cheapest options and really straight forward - Here is the link for Randox - Pre-departure - Covid Randox

There are other options for getting the PCR test done either a home test or booking to have one taken by someone (this is a handy link for them) - Find the cheapest lateral flow and PCR tests for travelling overseas - MSE

5.) Finally you’ll need a copy of your vaccination status (its the NHS covid pass) - NHS COVID Pass - NHS

We downloaded all of the 5 to our phones and they asked to look at all of them at the airport. Lots of people had printed them off and had a copy to show (that may be easier).

If you have your exemption, the rest is quite easy really, the only concerning thing for us was keeping our fingers crossed our 72 hour PCR test came back negative.

Depending on which part of Australia you’re arriving in, you’ll need to follow the testing/isolation on arrival. The following link tells you about most of the above and at the bottom of the page are links to each state and requirements on arrival : https://www.health.gov.au/health-alerts/covid-19/international-travel/inbound

Very best wishes
Julie and Jonathan @theglobalpetsitters

Thanks you @Vanessa_A for tagging me, somehow we missed seeing the post

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Thank you for your help @Julie I’m sure Lesley & Keith @Thompson will be really happy to know that getting to see family is possible, with a little hoop jumping.

We are so happy for you, Jonathan and the family, seeing your happy Christmas family photos brought a smile to the many faces who have followed your quest to get “Down Under”

Happy New Year :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :clinking_glasses: from the team at THS

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Awww thank you so much @Angela_L we wish you and all the THS Team the same :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Hi Julie and Jonathan,
Again many thanks for your email and advice - which we followed, and proved invaluable. We printed out all our documents and that was a great help.

So, we have been here in Newcastle, NSW for a week already, fully immersed in family life and nicely exhausted!! We have 2 beautiful little granddaughters, one of which we hadn’t met in person. I hope you are enjoying your family visit and have many more weeks with them. We are here for 12 weeks and have got plenty of activities planned for us.
Best wishes
Lesley and Keith

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Hi Lesley and Keith and thank you so much for your update letting us know you are now over here and with your family at last. That’s fabulous news and we’re truly so happy for you. 12 weeks too, that’s brilliant, enjoy all your plans and getting to know your new little family member just as we have been doing .
We’re super glad if any of our info helped.
Very best wishes
Julie and Jonathan

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