HELP V V Stressed! Advice needed for visa to Oz with criminal record

[melrose]

Hi, I am hoping someone out there may have some advice or experience of this.

We are travelling to Australia on 24th Feb for 6 weeks to visit my step brother and attend his wedding. Flights are all booked and getting very excited but have encountered a problem and I am getting myself ridiculously stressed about it much to DH's annoyance

DH has a criminal record. He was done for possession of 2 class A and 1 classs C drug at Glastonbury 5.5 yrs ago (before mec and DS were on the scene!). He received £900 fine. Not that into drugs and definitely isn't now, was just unlucky.

Problem is you cannot apply for an ETA with a criminal record so has to apply by post for a tourist visa. Says you can send supporting evidence if needed. We have friends who are teachers/ solicitors etc who would write a reference.Have tried phoning the embassya nd they were very unhelpfula nd said just send in the application and cannot offer any guidance on how long it will atke to process!

So any advice or experience and does anyone know if there is a real risk of him being refused a visa?? (Obviously what I am getting stressed about!)

anyone??

call your travel agent
or try a company called Travelbag or Travelmood in London, they must deal with this kind of question all the time, pretend you haven't bought your flights already of course.

No advice myself but you might find the gumtree.com website useful - it's generally a well-thought-of site, and you could pose the question on their discussion boards - loads of Aussies use it.

I got a working holiday visa for the Australia despite having a criminal record - got caught shop lifting when i was 18. I wrote a supporting letter i think, which i will cat you if you want. it may be different with a drugs related offence though.

I may have to show this thread to my pre-teen ds as a Dire Warning.

Hope you get it sorted out

Lyra, that might be really useful, thanks. Have a friend who works for the CPS and is going to write a reference (has known DH for 10 yrs) and another deputy head friend is happy to do the same and we can obviously write our own supporting letter but don't know if that is all too OTT.

Good idea Fauve!! we have always been aware that it would be a problem visiting the states (Keep making excusesto family there for notcoming) but never ocured to me it could be a problem for Oz too.

bump for eve MNetters

Apply asap to get in the system. The accompanying documentation to the form is usually quite helpful in terms of what should be sent. Have done both US and Oz with criminal dh (should add that it was a speeding offence but too fast for just a ticket so had to do the whole court thing and get lots of points/large fine). US was more stressful because it was so close to the travel time and involved an interview at the US embassy in London (long way from home) but Oz (which was a working visa) just required their being notified - didn't need to send anything and didn't delay the online process. Fingers crossed for you.

SEnt off end of last week and getting very stressed in case it is yurned down. Wrote a supporting letter ourselves and got a friend who is a prosecuting solicitor to write a reference, fingers crossed!! We leave on 24th Feb, but not feeling v inclined to plan the trip in more detail yet in case oit all goes wrong