Subclass 600, 651, 400 and 408.

The eVisitor is limited to holders of an eVisitor eligible passport, and it can only be granted while you are outside Australia. The subclass 600 is open more widely and has streams for tourism, business, medical treatment and sponsored family.

An eVisitor lets you travel to Australia as many times as you like in the 12 months after grant, and stay three months on each entry. A subclass 600 is granted for the period the Minister specifies.

cl 651.211, 651.411, 651.511

No. Condition 8101 prohibits work and it is mandatory on the Tourist and Sponsored Family streams.

An eVisitor is slightly different. Condition 8115 lets you work only where it amounts to a business visitor activity, which is a defined term covering things like negotiations and conferences. It is not permission to take a job.

There is one narrow exception on the visitor visa. Where you are in financial hardship because your circumstances changed after you arrived, you cannot leave for reasons beyond your control, and you have compelling personal reasons to work, the Regulations allow the visa to be granted without condition 8101.

cl 600.611(3)–(4), 651.611 · conditions 8101, 8115

Up to three months. Condition 8201 caps study or training at that, and it is imposed on visitor and eVisitor visas.

If you hold a student visa, or have held one since you last entered, a visitor visa cannot be granted for the purpose of starting, continuing or finishing a registered course you are enrolled in.

condition 8201; cl 600.222

Not indefinitely. A visitor visa cannot be granted if the grant would let you stay in Australia for more than 12 consecutive months on a combination of visitor visas, Working Holiday or Work and Holiday visas and bridging visas, unless exceptional circumstances exist.

Two conditions also bear on this. Condition 8531 requires you to leave by the end of the period the visa allows, and condition 8558 caps you at 12 months in any 18.

cl 600.215; conditions 8531, 8558

Applying onshore is much harder in that position. Without a substantive visa you have to satisfy Schedule 3 criteria 3001, 3003, 3004 and 3005, and the visitor clause does not carry the compelling-reasons waiver that the partner visa clause has.

Time matters more than anything else here. Get advice the same week.

cl 600.223(2)

Short, highly specialised, non-ongoing work. Two clauses carry the weight: the work must be highly specialised, and your engagement in it must not be ongoing.

You also have to show a need for you to be in Australia to do it, and that your attributes or employment background fit the work.

There is a second stream. Where there are compelling circumstances affecting Australia's interests that require your entry and stay, and the work relates directly to those circumstances, the Australia's Interest stream applies instead.

cl 400.211, 400.221, 400.222, 400.241

Six months after first entry is the ceiling, not an entitlement. The clause grants the period the Minister specifies, up to that maximum, so a longer request has to be justified by the work.

You have six months from grant to travel, and the visa is single entry unless the Minister says otherwise.

cl 400.511

Only the work the visa was granted for. Condition 8107 is mandatory: you must not stop working for that employer, work in a position inconsistent with the one the visa was granted for, or work for anyone else.

Condition 8303 is also imposed, and condition 8503 may be. If 8503 is on your visa, you cannot apply for another substantive visa onshore.

cl 400.611; conditions 8107, 8303, 8503

No. The Highly Specialised Work stream excludes performing as an entertainer under a contract or for non-profit purposes, supporting entertainers, and taking part in film, television, radio, theatre, concert or recording work meant to be shown or performed in Australia.

Entertainment work is the subclass 408 instead.

cl 400.223

A list of specified activities rather than a single purpose. You have to fall within one of the clauses in the alternative criteria, and each has its own requirements about who invites, sponsors or supports you.

Invited participation in an event is one of them, and it is limited to a stay of three months or less. Australian Government endorsed events is another.

cl 408.22, 408.221, 408.229

It depends which clause you come in under. Three months if you stated on the form that your stay would be three months or less. Four years for workplace justice or an Australian Government endorsed event. Two years for anyone else.

cl 408.511

There is a workplace justice clause in the 408, and a visa granted on that basis can run for up to four years.

It exists so that someone pursuing a workplace exploitation claim is not forced to leave before the claim is dealt with. Whether it fits your situation depends on the stage your claim has reached and what evidence supports it, so this is one to get advice on rather than lodge blind.

cl 408.228A, 408.511

Adequate health insurance for your stay, adequate means to support yourself, and that you do not already hold a permanent visa or a temporary visa the Minister has specified.

You also must not have engaged in payment-for-visas conduct in the previous three years, and your activities must not have adverse consequences for the employment or training of Australians.

cl 408.211, 408.212, 408.214, 408.215, 408.218

Condition 8503 means that once you have entered Australia you are not entitled to be granted another substantive visa while you remain here. A protection visa is the only carve-out in the condition itself.

So it does not stop you leaving and applying from outside Australia. What it stops is changing to another visa without leaving.

It can be waived, but the grounds are narrow and turn on circumstances that developed after the visa was granted and were outside your control. Assume it will not be waived and plan accordingly.

Schedule 8, condition 8503

It matters later. Two of these visas are decided partly on whether you complied substantially with the conditions on your last visa, so a breach follows you into the next application even if nothing happened at the time.

A breach also exposes the visa to cancellation. There is more on that in our cancellation guide.

cl 600.211(a), 400.213(a), 408.213(a)

Read the decision letter, because visitor refusals are the area where review rights most often do not exist. Whether a refusal is reviewable turns on where you were when you applied and, for some offshore refusals, on whether you were sponsored by someone with standing to seek review.

The letter will tell you. If it says there is a review right, the time limit is set by law, counted in days, and generally cannot be extended.