Australian Visa Application Centre celebrates year of service excellence

The Australian Government was continuing to improve its visa service provision for Indonesian students, tourists and business visitors to Australia, Embassy Immigration First Secretary Dr Leanne Blackley said today.

Ms Blackley said the high quality of visa services available for Indonesian visitors had been bolstered by the strong performance of the Australian Visa Application Centre (AVAC) over the past year.

The AVAC, managed by VFS (Indonesia), will celebrate its first anniversary of managing the Australian Embassy’s immigration clients on 21 November. The AVAC provides a range of services including:

• lodgement of clients’ visa application documents;
• collection of visa application charges;
• return of passports to applicants;
• answering general telephone and email enquiries; and
• a tracking service, so clients can track the progress of their application via the AVAC website ( www.vfs-au-id.com).

The handling fee for this service has remained at IDR 150,000 since the service began.

“AVAC provides a very modern and friendly service to our clients in a convenient location,” Dr Blackley said. “Recent visitors to the AVAC offices in Jakarta and Denpasar have spoken very positively about the level of support provided by staff and the ease of applying for visas to Australia.”

“We processed nearly 60,000 visitor visas for Indonesians planning a holiday or short stay in Australia over the past year, a 12 per cent increase on the previous 12 months,” she said. “The vast majority (96 per cent) of visa applications lodged in Indonesia over the past year were approved.”

Dr Blackley said the Embassy and AVAC worked in partnership to continually improve the services AVAC offered to visa clients. In September, for example, a courier service was launched so that clients from locations outside Jakarta and Bali can arrange for a courier pick up of their visa applications.

“A client survey conducted in July showed our clients were overwhelmingly positive and satisfied about the service levels provided by AVAC,” Dr Blackley said. “Another survey has just commenced and will continue until late next month.”

The Australian Government had also recently made the entry requirements easier for Indonesians wanting to study in Australia, as student numbers continue to increase and visa compliance strengthens, she said.

The AVAC in Jakarta is located at Level 22, Plaza Asia (formerly Plaza Abda), Jl Sudirman Kav 59, Jakarta (opposite Sudirman Place Shopping Mall). Opening hours are 8.30am to 4pm.

More information on the AVAC services is available at www.vfs-au-id.com or www.indonesia.embassy.gov.au.