Australia visa check with VEVO

What is VEVO, and how does an Australia visa check work?

VEVO stands for Visa Entitlement Verification Online, the Department of Home Affairs system that lets a visa holder look up their own visa details, or lets an employer, landlord or education provider verify someone else's visa conditions with that person's consent. It is not an application tool: it only reports visas that a decision has already been made on.

There are two entry points. VEVO for visa holders is what you use to check your own visa. VEVO for organisations is a separate, registered login employers and other organisations use, through their own ImmiAccount, to run checks on a worker or applicant. If someone has asked you to prove your visa status, sending your own VEVO result is usually simpler than asking them to register for the organisation service.

VEVO cannot confirm Australian citizenship, and it has no searchable record for some people who migrated before 1990 and have not travelled since. Both cases need a different Department of Home Affairs service, not a VEVO check.

Visa grant number vs transaction reference number (TRN)

A VEVO check for visa holders always asks for one of these two numbers, and mixing them up is the most common reason a search fails. This table shows where each one comes from.

Either number works once the visa is granted. If you cannot find one, the other usually still gets you into the result, so try both before contacting the Department of Home Affairs.

Check an Australia visa application status, not just a granted visa

VEVO and ImmiAccount answer different questions, and confusing them is the second most common search mistake. VEVO reports a visa after a decision is made. ImmiAccount, the account you applied through, shows the application while it is still moving through assessment.

If your application is still at received or under assessment, sign in to ImmiAccount, open My applications and select the application to see its current stage and any messages. Once the status changes to granted, come back to VEVO for the visa details themselves.

Checking an Australia visa from Saudi Arabia

For residents of Saudi Arabia, both VEVO and ImmiAccount work exactly the same as anywhere else, because they are online services with no location restriction. Your passport number, and your visa grant number or TRN, are all a VEVO check needs, whether you are in Riyadh, Jeddah or already back home.

The one part of the Australian visa process that is not fully online for applicants in Saudi Arabia is lodging certain applications and giving biometrics. The Department of Home Affairs works with VFS Global, which runs an Australian Visa Application Centre (AVAC) in Riyadh for that in-person step. Staff at the centre process paperwork and collect biometrics; they do not assess or decide applications, since that work stays with the Department of Home Affairs. Confirm current opening hours, required documents and which visa subclasses need an in-person visit directly with the Australian Embassy or the VFS Global centre before you travel there, since appointment rules change.

Once your visa is granted, come back here and run the VEVO check above. There is no separate "Saudi Arabia" version of VEVO: it is one system, and your result looks the same regardless of where you search from.

Using the myVEVO app instead of the website

myVEVO is the Department of Home Affairs' own mobile app, available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play. It shows the same visa type, work and study rights and expiry date as the website version of VEVO, and adds one convenience: you can email your visa details straight from the app to an employer, landlord or school, without typing your details into someone else's form.

The app asks for the same two things as the website: your passport details, and either your visa grant number or TRN as the reference type. If you already have those two numbers saved, the app is often faster to use while travelling than opening the full website on a phone.

If VEVO shows no record found

A "no record found" result almost never means the visa does not exist. Work through these checks in order before assuming something is wrong.

• Retype every digit of the passport number and the grant number or TRN. A single transposed digit is the most common cause.
• Try the other reference type. If the grant number does not work, try the TRN, and the other way round.
• Check which passport is on file. If you renewed your passport after the visa was granted, VEVO may still expect the old passport number until the record is updated.
• Confirm the visa was actually granted in ImmiAccount. If the application is still under assessment, VEVO has nothing to show yet.
• Wait a short time after grant. A newly granted visa can take a little while to appear in VEVO's system.

If none of these explain it, contact the Department of Home Affairs directly rather than guessing. This page explains the check; it cannot see or correct your record. For every other visa you might be tracking at the same time, start from the visa checkers by country list, which links the official portal for each one.