New app helping Australian visa holders

A new app is allowing visa holders in Australia to check their visa information anywhere, anytime.

The new free myVEVO smart phone app offers a range of benefits such as the ability for visa holders to access important visa information, including their visa start and expiry dates, visa status and visa conditions.

“Given the widespread use of smartphones in today’s age, the myVEVO app is an appropriate tool for quick and easy verification of a visa holder’s work rights,” explained Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Michaelia Cash. “Students can use the app to check their study rights and email visa details directly to their education provider while work and holiday visa holders can confirm with an employer their ability to work with ease,” she added.

And Minister Cash says it’s not only visa holders who are feeling the benefit from downloading the app.

“The myVEVO app is incredibly helpful for not only the visa holders themselves, but also for employers who seek to verify work right entitlements quickly and easily,”

One feature that will greatly assist employers is a function where an email is automatically generated to a third party from the Department. “This provides legitimate evidence of someone’s visa conditions and it will confirm how many hours they are permitted work,” Minister Cash added.

The app has had an incredibly strong uptake since its release in May this year, with more than 25,700 downloads globally on Android and Apple devices.

The app is another way visa holders can protect themselves from unscrupulous operators, including labour hire companies who have misrepresented clients in the past by providing false information about visa entitlements and charging inappropriate fees.

myVEVO complements the existing Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) service that can be accessed on the Department’s website. The app also stores a user’s visa and passport credentials after the first login, making it simpler and faster to use.

This is part of the Government’s Digital Transformation agenda, to develop digital services that are simpler, faster and easier to use.