Australian immigration department has announced faster processing of visas for GCC nationals from 14 days to 2 days. This is applicable to only nationals and not expats in GCC countries. The visas are for tourism purposes and will be valid for 2 years with 3 month stay at a stretch and will be multiple entry. The processing times are upto 2 days if you apply online for e-visas. If you still prefer to send your visas applications over the counter then it may take upto 5 days.

Well the reason behind this is obvious, tourism promotion for Middle East customers, who till now have preffered European /US markets. But Australia barring from long travel is a much economical and better option for travellers. It offers great options for toursits from environement, weather, shopping, culture and dversity. Although the rising spat of racist attacks on Asians in particular Indian diaspora has now put Australia under the ‘be careful’ scanner for tourists. Why you may ask? Well to put it straight racism sees two shades light and dark, and for most of Arabs/GCC population the tone shifts towards dark side [as per lighter population] and it becomes hard for racist populace to stop ask your nationality and purpose in Australia and then attack [no I am not joking].

Anyways what has happenned in Australia and especially in tourist hot-spots like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane is motivated and discriminatory attacks on students. This has led to vast protests across Australia and India. So much so that Indian industry is now refusing to conduct business with the Australian markets as a token of protest. The attacks have jumped multi-fold over last few months. So if you are travelling to Australia try to be careful. Register with your embassy and get all your details sorted out. And do take your medical insurance. You never know when [god forbid] you might need it in Australia…

Australia Immigration Department [LINK]