🇦🇺 Tourism & short stay

From 29 September 2026, the ADS stream operates with a newly substituted list of approved travel agents. Applicants using this stream must continue to meet the underlying requirement to travel to Australia as part of a tour organised by a travel agent specified by the Minister. The relevant agents are now those appearing in the replacement Schedule 1 table introduced by LIN 26/060. The new table contains 31 travel agents and provides each agent's code and province or municipality. The listed locations include Beijing, Guangdong, Liaoning, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Hebei, Hunan, Shandong, Sichuan and Jiangsu. The Department has therefore refreshed not only the names of participating agencies but also the identifying information used to specify them for the purposes of the visa requirement. The change removes agents that were not verified during the annual audit. It also adds agents that were verified through the recruitment exercise and retains agents that successfully passed the audit. Where participating businesses have changed their names, the new table reflects their current business names. The amendment does not alter the Subclass 600 visa itself, create a new visa stream, change the ADS stream's fundamental group-tour requirement or introduce a new nationality requirement. It changes the set of travel agents through which the existing ADS requirement can be satisfied.

Australia remains at: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions The State Department issued the updated advisory on 18 August 2026. There is therefore no increase or decrease in the advisory level. The travel information has been updated while the country remains at Level 1.