Refused to board (Chinese passport for Australian international transit)

So my misses holds a passport from the people's republic of China, and she was flying from Christchurch to Shanghai via Sydney. The Christchurch to Sydney was supposed to be on Qantas, and China Eastern to Shanghai. We were told that her luggage would be checked all the way through, which meant she didn't need to through Australia immigration.

Check-in staff were correct: passport holders from the PRC require a transit visa to transit Australia, even if not leaving the international transit area or 'entering' Australia.

Passport holders from many other countries are exempted from getting a transit visa, but the PRC is not one of them. See here for more details.

The website states "If you are transiting though Australia for less than eight hours and you do not need to leave the airport transit lounge (except to board your connecting flight), you may not need to apply for a Transit visa (subclass 771). If you belong to one of the categories and meet the criteria outlined below, you can transit through Australia without applying for a visa."

"The following categories of travellers are eligible to transit through Australia without applying for a visa if they also meet the criteria below:

• Citizens of the following countries:
  Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Monaco, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (including its colonies), United States of America, Uruguay, Vanuatu and Vatican.
• Residents of Hong Kong holding a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) passport or a British National Overseas (BNO) passport.
• Residents of Taiwan holding a passport issued by the authorities of Taiwan (other than passports purported to be official or diplomatic passports).
• Indian official passport holders.
• Diplomatic passport holders, excluding holders of:
  • Arab Non-National Passports; and
  • Diplomatic passports from the following countries:
    Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Comoros, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, ​Tunisia, Yemen and Zimbabwe."

(Note, no mention of China on that list - only way around it would be if the Chinese passport was a diplomatic passport.)

Originally Posted by hutch

Originally Posted by Snail

There is a big different between "Should" and "Is"

The reason why visa is required:

Given how much people travel these days, it is not uncommon for passengers' travel plans to go awry.

Planes arrive late, connections get missed.

If a passenger has to stay in Australia overnight when an airlines screws up, they are not allowed to be marooned in the airport Transit Area.

Australian immigration will issue overnight visas so that passengers with missed connections can enter Australia.

Unfortunately they cannot do so for citizens of countries that are not explicitly specified on the visa-exemption list.