Does immigration know what country you're in when you apply for a visa?

I have an employee currently on holidays in Australia. They are there as a tourist, on a subclass-651 visa. I now require them to do some work for me very urgently (for their home company in England).

I have looked into Visa options and it seems there are two, a subclass 457 (which has a 60 day lead-time) and a subclass 400 (which has a 10 day lead-time).

I do not wish for them to break the law as we have very regular compliance checks and this would not work out at all - so he has now lodged a 457 visa application, and we are hoping this will be granted very soon.

However, hypothetically, I was wondering - how would they know if a Visa application was made from within the country? Would they? If he had applied for a subclass 400 visa within Australia, would there be any way to track this?

Best Answer

Yes, in terms of whether the person is in or out of Australia.

Australia's visa regulations contain numerous examples where a person's location (whether in or outside of Australia) affects whether the person is eligible for a visa. For example, a Temporary Work (Short Stay) (subclass 400) visa can only be applied for and granted while the person is outside Australia.

The Department can verify whether a person is inside or outside of Australia by matching the person's passport number against arrival and departure records. This is relatively straightforward as all visa and movement records are stored electronically.