The following are extracts from the Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website listing details regarding these bi-lateral visa agreements.
These agreements are separate to the Schengen Agreement which came in to being many years later.
- Netherlands – 90 days – http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1951/4.html
- Belgium – 60 days – http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1951/6.html
- Scandinavia – 90 days (Includes Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark & Iceland
- Germany – 90 days – http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1953/1.html
- Italy – 90 days – http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1951/5.html
- Luxembourg – 60 days- http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1951/7.html
- Austria – 90 days – http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1956/8.html
In correspondence received from DFAT they suggested that we contact the Embassies of the individual countries listed above to determine their currency and validity.
We contacted some of the Embassies in January 2017 and as an example please find below the reply form the Netherlands – there are some interesting paragraphs about half way down in red:-
Dear Mr & Mrs Henshaw,
With reference to your request for information about the requirements for a stay in the Netherlands, please be advised as follows.
In brief:
Australian passport holders do not need a visa to visit the Schengen countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland) if their stay does not exceed 90 days.
If you wish to stay longer than 90 days you will need an authorisation for temporary stay and you will have to register at the Civil Affairs department (Gemeentelijke Basis Administratie (GBA)) of the Municipality where you are going to stay.
All information regarding the authorisation for temporary stay can be found on the website of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) which makes all decisions on immigration and integration : www.ind.nl (English, Residence Wizard). You have to apply within 3-5 days after your arrival in the Netherlands.
You are also required by law to register at the Civil Affairs department (Gemeentelijke Basis Administratie (GBA)) of the Municipality where you are going to stay. To register at the GBA you will need a legalised birth certificate which is not older than 6 months and is legalised with an Apostille-stamp by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (www.dfat.gov.au).
If you are an Australian passport holder and between 18-30 years old, you can apply for a working holiday visa. More information can be found on our website: www.mfa.nl/can and on www.ind.nl (English, Residence Wizard).
Other passport holders may need to apply for a Schengen visa for a visit for maximum 90 days; more information can be found on www.ind.nl (English, Residence Wizard) and www.mfa.nl/can
Other nationalities who wish to stay longer than 90 days may need to apply for an authorisation for temporary stay (MVV). For all details regarding this MVV see www.ind.nl
In addition to this, the Australian and Dutch government have made an agreement in which it states that Australian passport holders can stay in the Netherlands for an extra 90 days without the need for a visa, AFTER visiting other Schengen states. However, these extra 90 days are only valid/applicable if the Netherlands is the last Schengen state to be visited.
This means that an Australian passport holder can stay in the Schengen zone for a time limit of between 1 and 90 days and after that can spend an additional 90 days in the Netherlands.
An example of what is possible/allowed:
– An Australian passport holder flies to London and continues to Germany. He travels through Schengen (outside of the Netherlands) for the first 90 days. After this trip he can stay another 90 days in the Netherlands and fly out of the Schengen zone using a Netherlands airport or by boat from a Netherlands marine port.
An example of what is not possible/not allowed:
-An Australian passport holder flies to the Netherlands, travels from there through Schengen and then returns to the Netherlands. This person cannot stay an additional 90 days in the Netherlands.
To summarise; it is not possible to have a (connecting) flight into the Netherlands, from there travel to any of the Schengen states and subsequently stay an extra 90 days in the Netherlands. The first entry point and the first 90 days of stay in the Schengen zone have to be outside of the Netherlands if you want to make use of this special agreement.
Other countries like Belgium, Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland), Germany, Italy, Austria and Yugoslavia have signed similar treaties with Australia. Please contact these countries for more information.
These bi-lateral agreements are not required by us now that Krys has been granted Polish Citizenship and a Polish Passport.