The Visa Process – Leaving Australia

The Visa Process – Leaving Australia

There are perhaps two parts to outlining our visa process before we finally flew out November 2020 to Los Angeles; the visa application process with the US Embassy and; the travel exemption application due to covid-19 border lock-down.

Visa online application concept. Open passport with visa stamps
Applying for U.S. long-term visa

A standard travel visa to the US is a default 3-months which we knew was not going to be suitable for our travel plans so we did a little research and decided to apply for a B1/B2 Visa. The Esta centre describes the B1/B2 visa as follows;

B1 and B2 visas are generally referred to as “B visas”, and they are the most common types of visa issued for a wide range of uses in the United States. The B1 visa is issued mainly for short-term business trips, while the B2 visa is issued mainly traveling for tourism purposes.

We felt that this visa was the most suitable for our needs as it allowed us to stay in the US up to 6-months each time we entered the country for as long as the visa was valid. Put another way, we had a 5-year visa that allowed us to enter the states as many times as we wanted over the 5-year period with maximum stays of up to 6-months each time.

The first step was to complete the Nonimmigrant Visa Electronic Application (DS-160) form. This form did take some time to complete and required a lot of personal information so make sure you are prepared with copies of passports, additional passport photos, place of birth info etc etc

Once our form was completed/submitted and we paid our visa fees of $240 AUD per adult, we then requested online an appointment with the US Consulate at 553 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, 3004 which was about 6-weeks away from date of application. As this was in 2019, it was pre-covid so the world was still turning normally then. I am not sure how covid has potentially impacted this process and wait times since then.

The Interview

We really weren’t sure what to expect going in to the interview other than to arrive 15 minutes before scheduled appointment and to bring the following documents;

  • A passport valid for travel to the United States with a validity date at least six months beyond your intended period of stay in the United States
  • The “Unique Seq No” appearing on your visa payment receipt
  • Your DS-160 confirmation page
  • Your e-mail address

* https://www.ustraveldocs.com/au

As a last minute thought I grabbed some bank statements to demonstrate our ability to support ourselves during our intended stay and this proved to be a smart move. We had initially thought of asking for a 1-2 year visa and was instead granted a 5-year visa, a bit of a blessing given our trip was delayed by 6-months due to covid lock-downs.

The actual interview itself was pretty easy, friendly and over in a couple of minutes. We were mainly asked the purpose of our trip to which we explained we had purchased a 5th-wheeler (caravan) earlier in the year in Texas and had plans to travel across US/Mexico and Canada. We provided further proof of this by showing the purchase receipt and monthly storage fees we were paying on the 5th-wheeler in Houston. My husband explained that he also had a business he would continue to run in Australia which he would be able to manage remotely in order to maintain ongoing income.

After then showing our bank statements, she advised us we would be eligible for a 5-year visa and that we would receive our passports in about a week with the visa stamp in them. Done! We were elated ………and then 2020 arrived and with it…Covid-19……seems we still had hurdles to jump before we were on our way….

Make preparations to leave…living with lock-down..

January 2020 had us putting our plans for long-term travel in place beginning with handing in my notice at work (with final date at end-March). Initially our plan was to fly out May 1st so we had a month to pack our house, wrap up things like insurance, suspend accounts on phones etc, cancel utilities and decide what we would pack to bring with us. Our flights were booked on Qantas which, as both gold and silver members, gave us additional baggage allowance.

We also had to arrange for our dog Taco to travel and decided this was best arranged through an organisation that specialises in managing all the necessary paperwork, vaccinations etc. After a bit of research we decided on Jetpets who arranged for all Taco’s relevant vaccinations, travel crate and flight details from Australia to Los Angeles. Whilst it isn’t exactly cheap (cost us about $4.5K one way), it was well worth the money as there is so much to consider bringing a pet into another country. They also suggested he arrives on a different flight to us so that he doesn’t get anxious (or that we don’t for that matter). He was booked to fly out initially on May 1st but, due to border closures, we had to re-schedule for his later flight in November wish Jetpets managed brilliantly for us.

We also went about arranging tenants to rent our home, deciding on a 2-year lease to which they would move in some time in late April.

As the day drew closer to my finish date at work, I started packing all our belongings to go into storage then, one week to go and the whole world was turned upside down with covid-19. Within a few days, we were in full lock-down and the international borders slammed shut…our looming departure date of May 1st was fast becoming an unlikely reality. Within a couple of weeks, I had no job, nowhere to go and soon, nowhere to live….oh dear!

Life still goes on…and so we eventually were able to sort ourselves out. Our tenants delayed their move-in date by a couple of weeks and we were lucky enough to be able to move into our investment property when our long-term tenant gave notice. It was a lovely 1930’s inner-city townhouse that we had desperately wanted to renovate. Now, with all this extra time on my hands, I found myself spending the next 5 months painting a house from top to bottom and gardening whilst my ‘handy’ husband installed a new kitchen, bathroom, window furnishings (amongst other repairs). Guess we turned our lemons into lemonade!

Applying for a Travel Exemption

As the months rolled on, it became quite clear that the travel restrictions were going to remain in place for an unknown period of time (sometimes we would hear it would open in a couple of months then would hear reports that the borders may remain closed for a couple of years) so in late September 2020 we decided to apply for a travel exemption.

On the www.homeaffairs.gov.au website it states;

If you are an Australian citizen or a permanent resident you cannot leave Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions unless you have an exemption. You can apply online but you must meet at least one of the following:

  • your travel is as part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the provision of aid 
  • your travel is for your business/employer
  • you are travelling to receive urgent medical treatment that is not available in Australia
  • you are travelling outside Australia for a compelling reason for three months or longer
  • you are travelling on compelling or compassionate grounds 
  • your travel is in the national interest.

You must provide evidence to support your claims. Requests may be finalised without further consideration if insufficient evidence is provided. Evidence may include:

  • passport/s
  • marriage certificate/s
  • birth certificate/s
  • death certificate/s
  • proof of relationship (for example, shared tenancy agreement, joint bank account etc.)*
  • proof that you are moving to another country on a long term basis such as leases, job offers and evidence your goods are being transported
  • proof of your current valid visa, including in Australia and/or overseas
  • letter from a doctor or hospital about any medical treatment/condition with statements on why travel is necessary
  • letter from your employer, or other evidence that you are travelling for a business reason
  • statement or evidence to show when you wish to return to Australia
  • any other proof you may have to support your claims.

Based on the criteria outlined above, we decided to apply for a travel exemption on ‘compelling or compassionate grounds’ although we could also have applied on the basis of leaving Australia for 3-months or longer but I didn’t think tourist travel was a ‘compelling reason’ that would be received well in the current climate.

In submitting our application, I supplied documentation to support that our plans were in place before covid-19 lock-down. This included; copy of rental agreement, my resignation letter, our e-tickets, Taco’s vaccination shots and e-ticket, copy of our US visas, receipt of our 5th-wheeler and the monthly storage fees paid to keep it in Texas. I also included details of my brother-in-law’s residency in Placerville, California figuring it helped to have family in the US also.

Within 24-hours of submitting my application, I received an email confirming the following;

Finally we could start moving forward after 6-months of sitting in a holding pattern so we kicked our plans in to high gear. Admittedly we packed with a little trepidation as infection rates in the US were sky rocketing, that, combined with news of violent Black Lives Matter protests and a pending federal election that was hugely divided, we wondered at times if we were mad to leave but leave we did.

As Qantas had since grounded all international flights a few months earlier, we had slim pickings on available flights to Los Angeles and ended up booking with America Airlines. The downside to this is that we had a maximum 2 x suitcases of 23kg (50 lbs) each which was half of what we could have taken with Qantas. (ever tried to pack clothes, shoes, toiletries etc for a couple years’ travel? This princess really struggled, let me tell you……)

Looking into buying additional luggage allowance, prices were ridiculously high at about $150 aud for each additional bag. Given how cheap it is to buy clothing, shoes, toiletries etc in the US, we decided to just buy what we needed when we got there. I still had to go through 4-5 culls of my belongings before I was at the approved weight and continue to miss some of the items I had to leave behind.

The flight itself was out of Sydney as Melbourne was not accepting any international flights (although Taco’s Air New Zealand flight was directly out of Melbourne). Although we had a travel exemption, it was still a relief when NSW opened it’s border to VIC a couple of days before we left. Flying to Sydney the night before, we spent the night at an airport hotel to be fresh and ready for our 11.15AM flight the next morning.

Walking through Sydney’s International airport, it was a ghost town (note photo at beginning of this article) with practically no-one around and all retail and majority of airline check-in desks closed. Once we had boarded our flight, it was announced that there were only a total 26 passengers which meant we were able to secure entire rows to ourselves. Masks were mandatory throughout the flight except during meal times and you were asked to remain in your seats unless you needed to use the toilets.

Approximately 15 hours later at 6.00AM, we landed in LAX which was also relatively quiet but at least meant little queues so walked out of customs pretty soon after landing. Taco’s flight landed about 6-hours after us and wasn’t due for pick up until early afternoon (he had had a stopover in Auckland for about 3 hours). Part of the Jetpets service was to facilitate his process through customs in the US with an affiliate company. Due to covid, we were to collect him from an off-site location about 15-minutes from LAX. We had received a report from Jetpets the morning we flew out of Oz as Taco had been collected the night before and stayed overnight in the kennels near Tullamarine Airport.

They also sent us a photo of him settling in before his flight as well as a report card which was part of the exceptional service they provided.

When we finally given the call to collect Taco from a Hawthorne location of Pet-Express and, once we arrived, we saw our little buddy sitting quietly in his cage. Pete had put one of his tops in the cage to travel with him so that he found comfort in familiar smells. Once released from the cage, we noticed the bed was completely dry – the poor thing had not relieved himself once since leaving NZ (about 12-hours) so we watched him finally go once he had recovered his excitement from being reunited with us…the family was now all together in the US….time to do something we hadn’t properly been able to do for 6-months back home….retail shopping!