Hey, so I booked a one-way flight and arranged a working holiday visa pre-COVID. This visa conditions state that I have to enter the country by the end of December, and it's looking more and more unlikely that'll we'll be able to travel by then. Is anyone else in the same boat, what can we do? Is there a way of cancelling the visa and then re-applying when the world opens back up? ☺️
I was supposed to fly to Australia from the US on March 17th 2020. Well, I found out about the 14 day quarantine just 2 days before I was supposed to leave, and my tour with Welcome to Travel was cancelled. My visa states I have to enter Australia by January 30 2021. After I cancelled my flights I called up the Australian immigration people (I found their number of the immigration website: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/contact-us/telephone/outside-australia). I told him my situation, and he did say if I am unable to get to Australia before my visa expires, I can simply apply for another. He did say I would have to pay the application fee again. You just have to reapply if it expires. If your visa expires in 6 month or less, you can apply for a cancellation. Here's the link: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/cancelling-a-visa
I'm not sure exactly how this works since my visa doesn't yet expire in six months, but I might give it a shot. Honestly in my experience your best bet is to call up the immigration people and let them know of your situation. I'd imagine if you can't cancel and you can't use your visa before it expires, you'll have to reapply and pay the fee again. Hope this helps!
Aw that is amazing, thank you so much for your help! Reassuring to know that I can just apply again, as I know you can only have one visa of this type in your lifetime. That is gutting that you only found out days before, I was meant to leave this month so I've had plenty of time to come to terms with not getting away hahah.
Yep, from what I remember, as long as the visa hasn't been activated, you can cancel it and reapply - you'll just need to pay the fee again!
Okay thank you! Bit of a pain that i’ll need to pay the fee again, but at least I can still go next year (hopefully)