Visas & Immigration is a popular topic at the Australian Frequent Flyer. When travelling overseas, you certainly need to have a good understanding of immigration procedures, including getting the required visas to the countries you are planning on visiting.
Since November 2021, Australians have been allowed to travel to Singapore under the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) arrangement. But there’s a lot more paperwork involved than in pre-COVID times, as I recently experienced when I travelled from Melbourne to Singapore in the first week of February 2022. This article explains the procedures I had to … Continued
Australia will finally reopen its international border to vaccinated tourists and anyone with an eligible visa to enter the country on 21 February 2022, almost two years since the border was closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement was made today by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews … Continued
Qantas has delayed the restart of its flights to Chile, with all Sydney-Santiago flights now removed from sale until 31 October 2022. Earlier this month, Qantas had been selling seats on its QF27/28 services between Sydney and Santiago from late March 2022. But all Qantas flights on this route have now been “zeroed out” until … Continued
Australia’s international border officially reopened in November 2021. But with COVID-19 still sweeping across the world, overseas travel is still risky. It’s also a lot more expensive than normal with fewer flights available, more cancellations and multiple COVID tests required to cross borders. And that was before Omicron. Even though many Australians are keen to … Continued
Qantas will remove the requirement for passengers with a previous COVID-19 infection who are still testing positive on their pre-departure PCR test to submit a medical clearance form 7 days before flying. This policy is expected to change as soon as next week, which will come as a huge relief to the many Australians who’ve … Continued
In October 2021, the Australian government started issuing International COVID-19 Vaccination Certificates. The government’s Smartraveller website describes these as a “free and secure way to prove your COVID-19 vaccination history when you travel across borders overseas”. There’s just one problem – many other countries don’t recognise it. Generally, most other countries will accept an Australian … Continued
Travelling overseas in early 2022 is nothing like it was just a few years ago. Australia’s international border has partially reopened, but there are unfortunately still some huge risks involved with jetting off abroad. Constantly changing testing requirements, border rules and flight cancellations are all parts of the problem. But perhaps the biggest risk is … Continued
Qantas has resumed regular passenger flights to South Africa after a hiatus of almost two years, with 3x weekly Boeing 787-9 services on the Sydney-Johannesburg route. Qantas flights QF63 from Sydney to Johannesburg, and the return QF64 back to Sydney, are now running on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays with the following schedule: QF63 Sydney 10:15 … Continued
NSW and Victoria are winding back the quarantine requirements for international arrivals introduced several weeks ago due to heightened concerns about the Omicron coronavirus variant. The Australian government has also repealed its ban on international travel from nine African countries and downgraded its “Do not travel warning” for these destinations. It comes as Virgin Australia … Continued
As the rest of Australia reopens to interstate and international travellers, the Western Australian government has just halved the weekly cap on the number of people allowed to arrive from overseas to only 265 people per week. Currently, WA is only accepting 530 people arriving from overseas each week, who must enter 14 days of … Continued
Norfolk Island has today reopened to vaccinated travellers from New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, marking a huge boost for the island’s tourism industry and welcome news for tourists. From today, fully vaccinated travellers from these states & territories will be allowed to travel to the island with a negative COVID-19 PCR … Continued
Australia has banned non-citizens who have been in nine African countries during the past 14 days from entering the country amid concerns over the new Omicron coronavirus variant, which the WHO has classified a “variant of concern”. NSW, Victoria and the ACT have also re-introduced self-isolation requirements for travellers arriving from all overseas countries. The … Continued
