22 August 2006

Faster visa for Czechs visiting Australia

Tourists wanting to visit Australia from the Czech Republic will now get a visa within minutes, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Amanda Vanstone announced today.

“From today, the auto-grant facility of Australia 's electronic tourist visa service has been extended to Czech citizens,” Senator Vanstone said.

“This facility allows for the grant of a tourist visa electronically within minutes to eligible Czech citizens.”

The electronic tourist visa service is an Internet-based system, allowing people to apply for their visa anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Internet-based system for electronic tourist visa is available to people from 48 countries and regions around the world, however, people from the Czech Republic now join citizens from 35 countries who have access to the auto-grant facility of the electronic tourist visa service.

In 2005-06, more than 3000 Czech tourists visited Australia .

“Extension of the auto-grant facility to Czech citizens will greatly boost the people-to-people links between Australia and the Czech Republic and provide a strong basis to further grow this important bilateral relationship,” Senator Vanstone said.