No Further Stay Condition in Your Visitor Visa

“What does the no further stay condition attached to my Thai partner’s Visitor visa exactly mean?”

The No Further Stay Label
The most general no further stay case is Condition 8503. For several Australian visas, this condition is either mandatory or applied in most cases, and it must be attached to that visa granted. For other visas, the decision maker has discretion whether or not to attach it.

Tourist visa
If your Thai partner has been issued a Tourist visa then it is highly likely that she will have the ‘no further stay’ label 8503 attached to it.

Where a decision-maker has the discretion to attach the no further stay status, it is generally done so where the decision maker has some residual concerns that the applicant may not be intending to visit Australia as a genuine visitor only, yet there is no compelling evidence to suggest that she does not have a genuine intention.

When your girlfriend was issued her Tourist Visa Australia the letter also included the conditions which were attached to it. Some of the these may also include that she must not work whilst in Australia, or engage in any study for more than three months.

Visa labels
Australia has started to not place visa labels in passports, and as such all of the information pertaining to your girlfriend’s visas is now stored electronically on the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) / Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) mainframe. It is however recommended to always carry the letter with you when traveling.

The significance of the no further stay condition, when attached to a visa, is that your girlfriend, partner, spouse, or fiance is prevented from applying for any other visa whilst she remains in Australia. She, therefore, must depart Australia if she intends to then apply for a further Australian visa.

Waiver of the No Further Stay Condition
In exceptional circumstances, the no further stay status may be waived. The circumstances in which DIBP might waive a ‘No Further Stay’ condition are:

‘Since the person was granted the visa that was subject to the condition, compelling and compassionate circumstances have developed:

* over which the person had no control, (and)
* that resulted in a major change to the person’s circumstances
* if the minister has previously refused to waive the condition, the minister is satisfied that the circumstances mentioned in paragraph (a) are substantially different from those considered previously
* if the person asks the minister to waive the condition, the request is in writing.’

However, the statistics indicate that waivers are very rarely granted. So if you have a no further stay label attached, you will almost certainly have to depart Australia before you can apply for another one.

Your application can be successful! It can relatively stress-free! Find out how here at Australian Visa Advice(AVA).