The APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) is a special aspect to Australia’s immigration system. It is a card, now virtual, that facilitates streamlined travel to participating Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies. The APEC Secretariat in Singapore.

ABTCs are designed for individuals who hold a passport of an APEC economy and who regularly undertake business travel through the Asia-Pacific region and have no criminal convictions. Who can obtain one of these cards is at the discretion of each member economy.

Australians wanting to obtain one must be ready to show they are a top executive of a business and if that business is not large enough to be on the current Forbes Global 2000 business list, then the business must have significant evidence of exporting overseas.

Once an economy approves an ABTC, they provide the holder’s information to other economies that can pre-clear the holder for travel. They are valid for five years.

Presumably once Australia is given the information of a new ABTC holder, foreign nationals who hold a passport from a listed APEC economy, are taken to have made a subclass 600 Visitor visa application under the Business Visitor stream. A new legislative instrument lists all economies and replaces a sunsetting instrument and makes no changes to the list of countries.

There are, however, a few interesting things about these applications according to Immigration’s policy. For starters, New Zealand is not an approved country as they have available to them the subclass 444 – Special Category Visa.

Other aspects include:

• Visa grant durations are for 6 years to cover the entire five-year validity of the ABTC.

• ABTC holders are allowed to stay for 3 months on each entry.

• Checks are conducted against risk profiles and movement alerts.

• While criteria for the visa to be granted must be assessed, unless there is information known to Immigration that is to the contrary, such as failing the character test, they are considered to have been met.

• No grant notice is ever given to ABTC holders. All cardholders can confirm pre-clearance through the ABTC System.

• Usual cancellation provisions exist for ABTC holders.

What makes the ABTC so special and given the above, is that the holder does not readily know they applied and is not directly notified they are granted or refused an Australian visitor visa.