One Way Ticket

Hello,

I am a Kiwi (NZ passport) and my wife is a British passport holder, we are due to travel to New Zealand for 2 months in February. After our two month trip in New Zealand we are moving to Australia to live (my wife is getting the 461 visa which she is applying for once we get to NZ).

We are both travelling on one way tickets to New Zealand (no problem for me obviously) and will be buying our tickets to Australia once we arrive and know the exact date of our travel.

I just wanted to find out whether this would be a problem or should we purchase the onwards ticket to Australia before leaving so I can prove that I have made onwards travel arrangements (this would be a bit of a pain as we don't know the exact day of travel to Australia). Also my wife won't have the visa until we arrive in NZ so we won't be able to show that as proof, I guess this wouldn't matter though as British don't need visas to vist Austalia.

Thanks in advance for any help, a bit confused here.

You might want to double check what you said about British not needing visas to enter Australia because I'm pretty certain it is a legal requirement for all nationalities other than New Zealanders to have a visa to enter Australia. Going by an online visa site it states UK passport holder require a visa to visit Australia, except for Those holding an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) for tourist or business travel, obtained prior to departure for Australia. Even New Zealanders are meant to apply if they have any criminal record going by what I have seen on border security.

It is a legal requirement for entry in to most countries around the world to have proof of onward travel when entering as a tourist and I have noticed an increase of checkin staff asking for that proof before letting you check in for the first flight.

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I think you are right as I have done a bit of research and coem to the same conclusion unfortunately. I wish I had know this before booking the tickets. I guess I will now have to but another one way back to the UK for the wife and cancel at a later date. A bit of a pain.

Quoting aharrold45

Going by an online visa site it states UK passport holder require a visa to visit Australia, except for Those holding an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) for tourist or business travel, obtained prior to departure for Australia.

This is slightly out of date information, in that a UK passport holder needs an eVisitor not an ETA. Pretty much the only difference between the two is that eVisitors can be obtained from the Australian immigration website free of charge (ETAs have a $20 service charge).

It's also worth noting that it's possible for your wife to apply for a 461 inside Australia as well as outside. Using this approach would mean that she wouldn't be able to work until the 461 is granted as she would still be a tourist. People have also used this method on the normal spouse visa route.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Because of this information I may in fact look into getting a visitor visa for australia for my wife prior to leaving and also buy onwards tickets to Australia.

Thanks also for the information on the 461 visa. We did look into possibly applying from within Australia but since we will be in NZ for 3 months travelling around we thought we may as well utilise this time and send off for the 461 prior to leaving.

May I offer my point of view on this matter?

First of all, you're a Kiwi, so one-way ticket for you to NZ is not an issue. So we're good on that.

As for your wife, let's pretend that you are not intending to go to Oz and will settle down in NZ. As a spouse, you could sponsor her for residency, and subsequent application for citizenship by naturalisation. By this logic, particularly as you're travelling together, she may be in position to not be viewed strictly as a tourist (and therefore an onward ticket required). I don't think it's that big of an issue for her to get a one-way ticket either, but of course, she will need a residency permit of some sort to be able to settle down in NZ.

This is solely my opinion. Why don't you contact the nearest NZ embassy and clarify the situation with them? Surely they are in better position to give you an accurate answer.

Good luck!

Hi - Thanks for the reply.

Yes there is a possibility of applying for NZ residency for her but we don't have time for that application before we leave unfortunately. We may however look into this in the future.