# List of High-Risk and Low-Risk Countries



## BlackBelt (Jan 18, 2011)

I've seen people asking a lot this question: what countries DIAC considers "high risk" and which it considers "low risk". So I dediced to compile this thread.

From their website:

"Definition – low/high risk
The terms 'Low risk' and 'High risk' show whether passport holders are eligible to apply for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA). Low risk applies to nationals from countries which issue ETA eligible passports. A list of these can be found on the department's website. High risk countries are those which are not ETA eligible.
See: ETA Eligible Passports"

Therefore, this is the list of low-risk countries:


Andorra
Austria
Belgium
Brunei
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong (SAR)
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Malta
Monaco
The Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Republic of San Marino
Singapore
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom - British Citizen
United Kingdom - British National (Overseas)
United States of America
Vatican City.

This is the list of high-risk countries:

ALL COUNTRIES NOT LISTED ABOVE.

However, I found a very interesting statistic called "Modified Non-Return Rate," which may indicate which countries are riskier than others. This statistic evaluates the number of people living illegally in Australia by country, so countries with a high index may be prone for a more in-depth inspection by the immigration department, in my opinion:

https://www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/quarterly-report.htm

N.B. This is my opinion, not a fact.

I hope this helps everybody here.


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## getmeoutplz (Oct 2, 2013)

Looks like 80% of applicants are high risk


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## AncientGlory (Aug 23, 2012)

Very interesting information.


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## espresso (Nov 2, 2012)

Hi, 

"low risk" just means that an applicant holds an _Electronic Travel Authority_ (ETA) eligible passport. The countries on that list exchange passport data with DIBP electronically and quickly, so certain visas (visitor visas, short term work visas etc.) can be granted within a day. All other countries are in the "high risk" group but processing times within that group vary a lot - depending on how *promptly* your home country shares data with DIBP, if transmission is considered *secure* and how much visa/document *fraud* was recorded in the past. 

The _Modified Non-Return Rate_ - which calculates the number of the people who arrive on a Visitor visa, but do not depart before their visa expires per country - is definitely a factor when an application is evaluated. As written on the page _BlackBelt_ linked: 



> The Modified Non-Return Rate is used as an *indicator of Visitor visa compliance*, and may be *considered by decision-makers* when assessing visa applications.


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## 2013 (Sep 16, 2013)

India is also high risk country. ...???

Sent from my GT-I9082 using Expat Forum


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## espresso (Nov 2, 2012)

Hi 2013, 

yeah, India is also "high risk" - processing is still much faster than for other "high risk" countries because the Indian authorities are fairly cooperative and more and more departments use electronic signatures (eStamp paper etc.). 

Cheers, 
Monika


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## Sunlight11 (Apr 27, 2013)

espresso said:


> Hi 2013,
> 
> yeah, India is also "high risk" - processing is still much faster than for other "high risk" countries because the Indian authorities are fairly cooperative and more and more departments use electronic signatures (eStamp paper etc.).
> 
> ...


I believe processing is much faster for Indian applicants MOSTLY because almost majority of them are not put through Long and Extended Security checks by the departments which is actually a default for some other countries ... 

Verification of certs and papers wouldn't take much long anyway for any country whether they use digital mean or not, may be something that can be done in India within few days. may take a month or two in True HR countries ...but the actual delay in processing occurs when the case is thrown into External Security Checks from which Indian applicants are seeming to have been exempted.


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## Timur (Aug 16, 2013)

getmeoutplz said:


> Looks like 80% of applicants are high risk


If I lived in a "low risk country" why would I think going somewhere else, like Australia, to look for better life if my life is already nice and sweet?  I gues 99% of applicants are from high rish countries trying to escape from their high risks )))

PS I am one of "lucky applicants" going through external check meaning paid hard earned 5000$ and in return received nothing but stress and indefinite waiting


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2013)

Sunlight11 said:


> I believe processing is much faster for Indian applicants MOSTLY because almost majority of them are not put through Long and Extended Security checks by the departments which is actually a default for some other countries ...
> 
> Verification of certs and papers wouldn't take much long anyway for any country whether they use digital mean or not, may be something that can be done in India within few days. may take a month or two in True HR countries ...but the actual delay in processing occurs when the case is thrown into External Security Checks from which Indian applicants are seeming to have been exempted.


 This is not true. Everyone goes through security checks. The speed at which they are carried out is a reflection of your own government. How quickly they respond to requests for information in relation to those checks, how trustworthy the information is and if it is kept and sent securely. 

The UK can and does respond electronically in a couple of days, hours for some information. Where Iran and Pakistan often dont have the data kept securely to share, if they do it takes them a long time to cooperate in sharing. Extra checks come about when governments do not share and Australia must verify information using 3rd countries and organizations.


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## Sunlight11 (Apr 27, 2013)

_shel said:


> This is not true. Everyone goes through security checks. The speed at which they are carried out is a reflection of your own government. How quickly they respond to requests for information in relation to those checks, how trustworthy the information is and if it is kept and sent securely.
> 
> The UK can and does respond electronically in a couple of days, hours for some information. Where Iran and Pakistan often dont have the data kept securely to share, if they do it takes them a long time to cooperate in sharing. Extra checks come about when governments do not share and Australia must verify information using 3rd countries and organizations.


Hi, you are mixing up Internal and External checks, Internal checks are done by the high-commission officers and may take at most a month or two, these verifications include education, skill assessment, IELTS, sometimes employment, passport and that's about it, majority of these can be done within few days through just phone calls weather it is UK or HR countries. If electronic medium is available, then within hours some of the checks can be finished, else may be a month for phone\email verifications... and I believe for majority of the applicants (HR&LR) these are carried out more or less.

My post was about External checks, which is probably done by ASIO, and their main intention is to assess risk to Australia, and they find out if this person is really the person he is claiming to be ... if he ever involved in any objectionable action or not ... or any of his record matches to any internationally recognized terrorist organization or not ... They are not checking about points or anything, rather applicant's global presence, image and travel records.

These checks take considerably long time because ASIO is involved in all sorts of other MORE IMPORTANT activities rather than checking out DIAC's request for prospective immigrants whom they know 99% will come out clean ... So ONCE and IF the case is handed over to them, they'll take their own time according to their priority to return any result, which means CO and applicant have to wait no matter what....

As you said all applicants go through these checks, its not the case, please refer to the following booklet (Paragraph 'Visa Assessment', second page) which clearly says not all applications are given to them, it is only the selected ones ...

www.asio.gov.au/img/files/Security-Assessment-Function.pdf‎

Also, the following page lists out the possible circumstances or links to these which could bring ASIO into the scene: 

ASIO » ASIO and National Security - Threat Environment

Without External Security involvement, a case is good to be finalized within 2-3 months max ... else it'll take anywhere between 10 month to 24 months as with the case of applicants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and some other countries ...


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2013)

_shel said:


> This is not true. Everyone goes through security checks. The speed at which they are carried out is a reflection of your own government. How quickly they respond to requests for information in relation to those checks, how trustworthy the information is and if it is kept and sent securely.
> 
> The UK can and does respond electronically in a couple of days, hours for some information. Where Iran and Pakistan often dont have the data kept securely to share, if they do it takes them a long time to cooperate in sharing. *Extra checks come about when governments do not share and Australia must verify information using 3rd countries and organizations*.





Sunlight11 said:


> Hi, you are mixing up Internal and External checks, Internal checks are done by the high-commission officers and may take at most a month or two, these verifications include education, skill assessment, IELTS, sometimes employment, passport and that's about it, majority of these can be done within few days through just phone calls weather it is UK or HR countries. If electronic medium is available, then within hours some of the checks can be finished, else may be a month for phone\email verifications... and I believe for majority of the applicants (HR&LR) these are carried out more or less.
> 
> My post was about External checks, which is probably done by ASIO, and their main intention is to assess risk to Australia, and they find out if this person is really the person he is claiming to be ... if he ever involved in any objectionable action or not ... or any of his record matches to any internationally recognized terrorist organization or not ... They are not checking about points or anything, rather applicant's global presence, image and travel records.
> 
> ...


 Yawn, I'm not mixing up anything. Read again what said about *extra* checks. 

All applications go through security checks. Seected countries including for the reasons I stated need extended checks using 3rd parties ie asio and similar organisations of other governments.


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## Sunlight11 (Apr 27, 2013)

_shel said:


> Yawn, I'm not mixing up anything. Read again what said about *extra* checks.
> 
> All applications go through security checks. Seected countries including for the reasons I stated need extended checks using 3rd parties ie asio and similar organisations of other governments.


ASIO is not ONLY involved with all HR local governments because local governments can not help them much anyway ... and local governments also can not assess how much risk the applicant possess to Australia, so DIAC may only deal with local governments for INTERNAL Checks ..

for External checks they've to resort to ASIO and as per the Documents I've given, it is clearly written not ALL cases are given to ASIO, so not ALL applicants go through Similar Degree of External Checks... 

Thousands of Indian citizens are migrating each year to different countries around the world, do you think Indian Government are doing the work of ASIO\Homeland Security\MI5 for each of them ?

My point is, not every applicant goes through similar levels of External Security Checks... for India it is extremely minimum (Non-Existent most times in terms of time taken) and they are seldom referred to ASIO.


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## Sunlight11 (Apr 27, 2013)

According to IGIS, only some cases are referred to ASIO, in the first para:

Tips and Advice – Immigration matters: Inspector General of Intelligence and Security


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## Sunlight11 (Apr 27, 2013)

Here is a great Audit report on ASIO, and nature of External Checks ... on page 41, it is clearly seen from the graph only 5K PR applications were referred to ASIO last year ... as applicants from certain countries are stuck with long & extended ASIO checks, it is easy to guess which nationals are being kept to wait or fell within the 5K bracket ...

http://www.anao.gov.au/~/media/Uplo...Audit Report 49/201112 Audit Report No 49.pdf

Plus from other reports, it seems ASIO has a framework which DIAC has to use for referral, the framework is mostly dependent on the analysis of how much risk the national might possess to Australia from several factors rather than how technologically lacking the nation is.

The above report also mentions how applicants may suffer due to the incomplete communication and information transfer between DIAC & ASIO.


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## BlackBelt (Jan 18, 2011)

SUnlight11, thanks for sharing this PDF.


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## Timur (Aug 16, 2013)

Sunlight11 said:


> ASIO is not ONLY involved with all HR local governments because local governments can not help them much anyway ... and local governments also can not assess how much risk the applicant possess to Australia, so DIAC may only deal with local governments for INTERNAL Checks ..
> 
> for External checks they've to resort to ASIO and as per the Documents I've given, it is clearly written not ALL cases are given to ASIO, so not ALL applicants go through Similar Degree of External Checks...
> 
> ...


Hi Sunlight11,

you seem to possess good knowledge about "internal/external check" thing. 

Can you please advise me if my case was sent to external check? This what I received from my CO on 28 Nov: _Thank you for your email. I have assessed you application and it is required to undergo further checks, which may not be finalised until early 2014. At this time no further documents are required and once the checks have been finalised I will contact you._

I am scared to ask CO if it is external check or something else as I was told that it can annoy her...

And maybe some one else can advise - if one's case has been thrown to external check, does CO sends notification cleary mentioning the phrase EXTERNAL CHECK or you may just wait for years now knowing what's happening?


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## AncientGlory (Aug 23, 2012)

One other thing that might take time for some countries would be the possibility of discrepancies in documents and fraudulent documents. 

I don't know about other countries, but since my mate from Pakistan has been waiting for quite some time now, I did a bit of research on my own to see why the delay is.

It seems that apart from the obvious security checks, Pakistan is also famous for making fraudulent documents. Thus, DIBP in some cases goes to extreme lengths to verify the legitimacy of the documents. CO asked for the details about my mate's school education also. 

Additionally, I analyzed the case myself and found a small discrepancy in his case. Further research revealed that sometimes in Pakistan births are not registered until few years from your birth, thus the birth date in your birth certificate might not be your actual birth date.

Clearly, DIPB must be aware of such cases and therefore, would be doing additional checks apart from security checks on selected (Probably random) candidates. This could be the case for some other countries as well.


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## Sunlight11 (Apr 27, 2013)

Timur said:


> Hi Sunlight11,
> 
> you seem to possess good knowledge about "internal/external check" thing.
> 
> ...



Hi Timur, Well I guess none of the applicants including me have sufficient knowledge about these external checks... Some of the criterion for sending these cases to ASIO aren't revealed to public... 

But since your case officer says "Early 2014", then it is either an extended Internal check getting delayed for Christmas breaks... or an External ASIO check which will be very limited in nature ..

From the reports it can be found that for straightforward cases, ASIO simply does a rather cursory investigation and that's just about it..

Whether it is Internal or External... the key point is that your CO was kind enough to let you know the time frame.... and 2-3 months from now on isn't that long ... I wasn't so lucky .... My CO informed me "Routine Process" will take "Considerable Time" in my case, even though my case is extremely simple ... I am bracing for a probable year-long waiting just like other 189 cases from my country ...


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## MusaBilal (Aug 7, 2013)

But is it not the right of applicant to be informed of expected time period of such checks?


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## espresso (Nov 2, 2012)

Hi MusaBilal, 

you are resurrecting an old thread , but anyway: You can prod your CO every couple of month about the status of security checks but s/he cannot really speed it up either. If the checks have _not been completed 12 months after you have applied for your visa_, you can lodge a complaint with the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security. To quote: 



> As from 1 July 2011, we will not inquire into individual complaints about lack of timeliness in any case where an application for a permanent visa is less than 12 months old. IGIS will consider complaints about timeliness where a visa application is more than 12 months old, on a case by case basis.
> 
> Before making a complaint to IGIS, we recommend that you contact your DIAC case officer to check that you have provided all the information requested to complete the assessment process.


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## MusaBilal (Aug 7, 2013)

espresso said:


> Hi MusaBilal,
> 
> you are resurrecting an old thread , but anyway: You can prod your CO every couple of month about the status of security checks but s/he cannot really speed it up either. If the checks have _not been completed 12 months after you have applied for your visa_, you can lodge a complaint with the Inspector General of Inetelligence and Security. To quote:


Thanks espresso for a kind response. It's really a task to find info from long threads spread across the forum.

May be u could help me with two other questions:
Given the current status of my app; "No CO allocated, no update yet" will I be informed if/when my app is put on security checks?

And should I approach DIBP to check for CO or wait until July, as everybody's hoping to get the grant in new quota?

Cheers


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## espresso (Nov 2, 2012)

Hi MusaBilal, 

since you have already applied I'd just recommend to wait until the CO contacts you and asks for additional documents (if any). Since you seem to have submitted everything up-front, the CO should be able to check your application fairly quickly. Prodding the CO every 3 months or so is definitely appropriate, I'd say . But be polite and ask if they need anything else from you etc. 

Fingers crossed for a speedy grant, 
Monika


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## MusaBilal (Aug 7, 2013)

Thanks Monika. Appreciate your help 

I am struggling to find contact email of DIBP to check for CO


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## espresso (Nov 2, 2012)

You should get an email from the processing centre once you have a CO.


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