Australia trials e-Visa for Indian tourists

Melbourne, Aug 25 (UNI) The Australian Immigration Department is conducting a trial of an electronic visa system to facilitate Indians, who intend to travel to the South Pacific country for tourism or for a short visit.

The e-visa, already available to the nationals of 46 countries, would fast track the visa approvals.

According to a statement released by the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Amanda Vanstone, the e-visa system would ''open the doors for Australian business to about 2 billion Australian dollars a year from Indian tourists''.

''India's phenomenal economic growth means we need to make Australia an attractive holiday option for India's increasing number of travellers,'' Senator Vanstone said in a statement.

''To ensure smooth introduction of this e-visa system and the integrity of the application process, our department will be using trained Preferred Aussie Specialist travel agents,'' she said.

The e-visa would be available to the Indian tourists through the Preferred Aussie Specialist travel agents, who will help travellers lodge the e-visas online to ''improve efficiency and also teach them about the system.'' ''At present, we have more than 100 Preferred Aussie Specialist travel agents in India, who are trained in Internet lodgement. The faster e-visa process will build on the success with paper-based visa applications, where there was a 98 per cent approval rate,'' Ms Vanstone said.

UNI XC AD DS1548