# attaching documents to an online application



## tigris330 (Nov 10, 2010)

I am posting this question here because, while I have tried to contact the Australian immigration website, I never got an answer.

For paper applications, you are asked to include 'certified copies'. Now, even if this question may sound silly, I'd rather double check. Since online scanned documents are necessarily copies, do you just scan them and send, or do you need to certify a copy, scan that copy and then send it?

Thanks for your help,

Denise


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

Hopefully someone who has actually done of it late may respond with what they did and had accepted.
Meanwhile I've seen reference to scans for electronic lodgement needing to be colour ones though not at all sure if thast is the case.
It does seem strange there are not explicit instructions somewhere in the process and apart from that, are links on Attaching Documents to an eVisa Application or https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/visas/app/uu?form=GSMA any help.


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## tigris330 (Nov 10, 2010)

Hi Wanderer,

I just got a reply from the immigration website which confirmed what you suggested. I was told that:

"The department accepts scanned copies of the original document (non-certified) provided they are in colour and in PDF, JPEG, TIFF or BMP file formats. If you scan documents in black and white, then they must be scanned copies of the certified copies."

I recommend applicants actually apply online, as it will save them quite a bit of money since they won't have to certify all their documents. In my case, since certifying documents is expensive here in Switzerland, it will save me a couple hundred dollars.

Cheers,

Denise


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

Did they say Denise whether the colour scans of original documents is OK if they are not in english for I can understand the colour scanning in the absence of certification but translation is another issue and I know from experience that the translations are not cheap either so you should do the bare minimum if you have to.

Which part of Switzerland are you from btw for I have wandered about a bit of it on a couple of occasions.


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## tigris330 (Nov 10, 2010)

Well I speficially asked them about general documents. I didn't really mention translations, but as far as I know in that case you have no choice but to pay a certified translator. We had to pay quite a lot for my partner's school/work certificates to be translated and certified. I'm just glad that at least I won't have to spend more money on unnecessary 'copies' certification!
Also, by researching a bit we were able to get many papers which were originally in German translated into English by the organisation which gave them out in the first place, thus reducing the number of documents we needed to translate.


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## tigris330 (Nov 10, 2010)

Wanderer said:


> Which part of Switzerland are you from btw for I have wandered about a bit of it on a couple of occasions.


Oh, btw. To answer your question, I live very close to Zurich. I'm originally from Malta though, and moved here to be with my Swiss partner.


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