Obtaining Australian Visa For Indonesian Maid / Cara Mendapatkan Visa Australia Untuk Pembantu Rumah Indonesia

Ada kawan2 tanya tentang
Cara nak dapatkan visa untuk maid Indon yang nak ikut holiday di Australia
Macam mana nak dapatkan visa Australia untuk orang Malaysia

Nasib baik saya dah blog pasal ni dulu, cuma update dan share je.

Cara Termurah Untuk Dapatkan Visa Untuk Melawat Australia bagi rakyat Malaysia:

Hantar emel kepada eta@australia@yahoo.com

Sediakan:
Screenshot passport page 2-3
Details tiket penerbangan

Khidmat ini direkomen oleh seorang bekas pelajar saya yang dia dapat dari group backpackers. Orang travel agent ni pun orang Malaysia. Dia akan balas email pantas, selalunya dalam 24-48jam.
Lepas dah dapat emel visa, (elektronik link dgn passport, tak yah bawa pun nanti) dia akan bagi akaun number Maybank untuk bank-in RM20/visa.

Mudah dan murah berbanding website ETA.

Untuk maid Indon pula, tak boleh buat online. Kena pegi pusat VSF di Jalan Ampang.

The Australian Visa Application Centre (AVAC):
Suite 19.06
19th Floor
Wisma MCA,
163 Jalan Ampang
50450 Kuala Lumpur

http://www.vfsglobal.com/australia/malaysia/

Pegi waktu pagi, tak payah buat appointment pun.

Masa kita orang pegi cuti tahun baru Cina, memang takde orang, tak payah beratur.

Bawa semua dokumen penting (ini je yang kita orang bawa):

Passport pembantu rumah Indon
Passport semua ahli keluarga yang akan cuti sekali
Pembantu rumah Indon
Kredit kad untuk buat bayaran
Gambar passport 2 keping
Tiket penerbangan termasuk tiket semua ahli keluarga yang akan jalan sekali
Hotel booking confirmation
Visa keluarga kita (yang emel diatas tu, print dan bawa sekali)


   




Ambik number, pegi kaunter. Explain dan bagi semua dokumen, dia suruh isi borang yang panjang lebar (adalah kot dalam 30-40 muka surat, banyak masa spend nak isi borang ni je).

Lepas dah isi borang, pembantu kena ikut pegawai untuk ambik info biometriks (cap ibu jari) dalam bilik dengan dia orang je. Sekejap je pun.

Lepas tu boleh balik.

Seluruh proses ni dalam 1 jam 5 minit.

Kami tak bawa gambar maid jadi kena ambik gambar kat situ, agak mahal sikit la RM20 untuk 4 keping gambar. Kalau kat PJ leh dapat RM15 je.

Orang kaunter tu kata dia akan emel bila dah siap visa tu dalam 4 minggu, tapi dapat lagi awal, 3 minggu je. Alhamdulillah.

Gambar maid Indon dengan baby masa di Perth

English Version:

So you have finally made plans to visit Australia, booked flight tickets, hotel room and read up on places of interest. Or maybe just look at pictures. Then suddenly you discover that Malaysian's have to apply for visa prior to the visit.

Great. So this is different from travelling to England, Ireland and Europe. So you write a post on facebook and your friends tell you that:

1) Your travel agent would have sorted the visa for you.

But then, you just bought your tickets online from Malindo because there was this offer...not to worry, another friend then gives you the website for the Australian embassy. Apparently the application for the visa can be done online. But it costs about AUSD20-30 per person. 

I did look at the website, and I'm not sure about other people, but I don't find this the most use-friendly website, but then again, I have never traveled anywhere that required a visa (except for Hajj) beforehand and had to sort it out myself. (Hajj visa was sorted by our travel agent, again, a topic for another, separate blog post).

2) Then your friends tell you that any travel agent could do it for you, but they will usually charge a small fee since you did not buy the tickets from them. Apparently, the travel agents have a machine that can do the visa application for 'free' (I'm sure they have paid some license of some sort to get that machine). 

I was given this email: eta.australia@yahoo.com by a student, which is a travel agent recommended by backpackers and is supposedly cheap and efficient, and so it is. 

You just have to email screenshots of passport page 2-3, flight ticket information and a few other things. Reply is prompt within 1-2 days. After they obtain the visa, it is emailed back to you, then you can pay RM20 per person to the maybank account number given. Excellent.

But wait, the above only applies to Malaysians. 

For Indonesian maids, its different. There is no online visa application, unfortunately. You have to take your Indonesian maid with you to the Visa Application Center in Jalan Ampang KL, doesn't matter if you currently reside in Kelantan.

http://www.vfsglobal.com/australia/malaysia/

Luckily for us, we had arranged a trip back to good old PJ, my kampung, during the recent CNY week off. So on Wednesday, when the PJ/KL 'apocalypse' was still pretty much ongoing, we left home early (aimed to arrive 8-8.30am), according to the website they opened around that time, they advised setting appointment, but when we went there, there wasn't much of a queue through out the whole 1 hour 5 minute experience.

We did try calling the place beforehand to find out more details but its not easy to get through. The machine answers, after several selections, finally there is an option to speak to a person, and then the line gets cut off. This happened more than once.

So we got there bright and early, parking was not a problem, neither was traffic. 

What we didn't expect was not being allowed to bring anything inside with us other than the passport and documents. Even the baby's drink was not allowed, we were told there was drinking water provided inside (which was true). So we had to put our phones and other baby stuff in a locker (we needed two lockers). Then we had to be scanned like they do at the airports and parliament. That was also not expected. The security personnel handled the situation with reasonable tact (I'm sure they get our surprised reaction all the time) with "We are just following instructions, we know this is weird".

Inside the counters were manned by Malaysians (the company is outsourced by the embassy). The counters on the left are for UK Visa application, and on the right Australian visa application. Our number was called. We explained our situation. The lady asked whether it was a tourist visa or work visa. 

Since she is our maid and going there to care for the kids, especially baby, we opted for the work visa which was slightly more expensive. It costs AUSD200 more or less. The thing is, the application may be approved or declined, either way, the payment is non-refundable. Most of the times, as long as everything is in order, there is no problem getting the visa.

So we brought the maid, her passport, payment, copy of all our flights details, all our family members passports, and that was it. The form was rather longish, but otherwise user-friendly with clear instructions, I did once or twice had to ask the lady at the counter for clarification. Our maid also had to have her picture taken (that could have been done beforehand but I did not read such requirements and no one forewarned us, so we had it done there which cost RM20), and biometrics information collected. 

That was the 10th of February. 

They said it took 3-4 weeks for the visa application to be processed. And rightly so, today, we received an email containing our maids visa.

Alhamdulillah, thank you God.

Looking forward to our next family holiday.