ETA Visa, advise needed

[Nano88]

Hi,

I really need help here as I don't know what to do,

After I got my PMV300, I am planning to move to Australia in May to get married and my brother was supposed to go with me for a week to attend the wedding, I bought the tickets and then applied for his visa thinking that he holds a USA passport and its not gonna be a problem, I applied for ETA but this was the results (You do NOT currently have an ETA to travel to Australia. When the application with this data was originally submitted, the system was not able to evaluate and approve it. Please contact the nearest Australia visa office. A list of these offices is available by clicking on the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page).

So my brother called them and the lady answered advised him that he should apply for E-visa 651 even though the USA is not listed as eligible country and so she took his information and said that she applied for him and he got no problem but she cannot grant him a visa he must get the answer from Australia, she did not give a reference number nor he got any email from their side, and in addition to that on the phone call she kept putting him on hold and we got a bill for $100 because the phone number was Australian while the visa is free!!

So now I'm lost, should we just keep waiting or apply again or call them and lose another $100 for nothing, please advise how the US citizens usually get their visas  

[MaggieMay24]

Never take advice from Australia immigration.  If he's not eligible for a 651 visa, she wouldn't be able to apply for one for him.  The ETA is the correct visa he should apply for, so if I was him I would try the ETA application again.  And I'd have him do the application - personally I don't like the idea of people applying for other people (with the exception of migration agents) because if you mess up, it's his immigration record that has the refusal on it, not yours.

[Raul Senise]

On 15/04/2019 at 23:34, Nano88 said:

Hi,

I really need help here as I don't know what to do,

After I got my PMV300, I am planning to move to Australia in May to get married and my brother was supposed to go with me for a week to attend the wedding, I bought the tickets and then applied for his visa thinking that he holds a USA passport and its not gonna be a problem, I applied for ETA but this was the results (You do NOT currently have an ETA to travel to Australia. When the application with this data was originally submitted, the system was not able to evaluate and approve it. Please contact the nearest Australia visa office. A list of these offices is available by clicking on the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page).

So my brother called them and the lady answered advised him that he should apply for E-visa 651 even though the USA is not listed as eligible country and so she took his information and said that she applied for him and he got no problem but she cannot grant him a visa he must get the answer from Australia, she did not give a reference number nor he got any email from their side, and in addition to that on the phone call she kept putting him on hold and we got a bill for $100 because the phone number was Australian while the visa is free!!

So now I'm lost, should we just keep waiting or apply again or call them and lose another $100 for nothing, please advise how the US citizens usually get their visas  

I agree with @MaggieMay24, the scenario you have detailed above makes absolutely no sense. You really need to investigate further.