The numbers on your visa documents: TRN, grant number, evidence number, HAP ID, client ID and application ID, which one each person needs, and the passport the visa is linked to

MARN 1576536

Why there are so many numbers

The Department's systems identify three different things separately: the person, the application and the visa, and a fourth system identifies the health case. A person has one client record and many applications; each application has its own reference from the moment it is lodged; each visa granted has its own grant number; and each set of health examinations has its own identifier so that a clinic in another country can return results to the right file. The ImmiAccount, which is the applicant's window onto the application system, adds its own identifier for each application in the account, and the older practice of evidencing a visa with a label in the passport left a visa evidence number on some documents. None of the numbers is a secret, none replaces the passport as identity, and each is asked for by a different party: the Department asks for the TRN about an application and the grant number about a visa, the clinic asks for the HAP ID, VEVO accepts any of three numbers with the passport, and everyone else, employers, Medicare, universities, banks, landlords, real estate agents, wants the grant number because it is what VEVO shows them. The applicant who knows which number is which answers the question that was asked.

The Transaction Reference Number

The Transaction Reference Number, the TRN, is generated by the ImmiAccount when an application is submitted and the charge is paid, and it identifies that application in the Department's systems from then on. It is on the online lodgement summary the account produces, on the acknowledgement of a valid application, on every piece of correspondence about the application, and on the application's entry in the account; it is the number the applicant quotes when phoning the Department about the application, when arranging health examinations for a lodged application, when an agent or authorised recipient is appointed, and when a request for information is answered by post. It is specific to the application: a person with a 482 application and a later 186 application has two TRNs, and a bridging visa application that accompanies a substantive application has its own. A health declaration lodged before the visa application through My Health Declarations has a reference of its own, which is not the visa application's TRN and is not accepted in its place. After the grant the TRN continues to identify the application, and VEVO accepts it, with the passport details, as one of the three numbers that find the visa.

The Visa Grant Number

The Visa Grant Number is assigned when the visa is granted and identifies the visa itself; it is on the grant notice, in the ImmiAccount correspondence, with the subclass, the stream, the grant date, the visa period, the must-not-arrive-after date for an offshore grant and the conditions. It is a thirteen-character alphanumeric reference in the current format, and it is the number that every third party means by the visa number: an employer entering it in VEVO or a payroll system, Medicare enrolling a permanent resident or a reciprocal-agreement holder, a university or school confirming a student visa, a bank opening an account, a landlord or an agent checking a visa, a state transport authority issuing a licence, and the Department itself when the holder calls about the visa rather than about an application. Each visa has one; a person granted a bridging visa and then a substantive visa has a grant number for each, and the one that matters is the visa in effect. A grant notice that cannot be found is retrieved from the ImmiAccount correspondence, or by the Department's service line on identity, and a holder who has never had access to the account because an agent lodged the application obtains it from the agent, who must provide it, or through the account the holder can create and import the application into.

The Visa Evidence Number

For many years Australian visas were evidenced by a label placed in the passport, and the label carried a visa evidence number; labels were phased out, and visas have since been recorded electronically only, with the grant notice as the holder's document and VEVO as the record. Some older visas, some visas granted at posts, and some visa evidence documents issued on request still carry an evidence number, and VEVO accepts it as one of the three numbers that find a visa. A person granted a visa in recent years has no evidence number, and a form that asks for one is answered with the grant number or left blank as the form allows; a person with an old passport carrying a label for a visa still held, a permanent visa granted years ago for example, uses the number on the label to check the visa in VEVO and, if the passport has changed since, links the visa to the new passport as the passport section describes.

The HAP ID

The Health Assessment Portal identifier, the HAP ID, identifies a set of health examinations. It is generated when the Department asks an applicant to undertake examinations for a lodged application, through a referral letter in the correspondence, or when an applicant generates it in advance through My Health Declarations in the ImmiAccount before lodging, which most permanent visa applicants do to save months; it is quoted to the panel clinic, Bupa Medical Visa Services in Australia or the panel physician abroad, which uses it to see which examinations the visa requires, to record them and to return the results to the Department electronically. It is entered in a visa application lodged after the examinations so the Department can link the health case to the application, and it appears on the referral letter and in the account's health examination status line. It is not a visa number, it is not accepted by VEVO, and it is of no use to an employer; an applicant who enters a HAP ID in a field asking for a visa number gets an error, and one who gives the HAP ID to the clinic for examinations that were requested under a different HAP ID, for an earlier application, gets examinations recorded against the wrong case, which the health guides cover. Each set of examinations has its own HAP ID, and an applicant asked to repeat examinations after a clearance expires receives a new one.

The Client ID and the Application ID

The Client ID is the identifier the Department's systems assign to a person as a client of the Department, linking every application, visa, citizenship matter and record held about that person; it appears on some Department correspondence, is used by the Department internally and by a registered agent discussing the client's record with the Department under a Form 956, and is the number that lets the Department see one person across many applications and passports. It is not a visa number, is not accepted by VEVO, and is not something an employer, Medicare or a university asks for; a person who has it keeps it with the other numbers and otherwise does not use it. The Application ID is the ImmiAccount's own identifier for an application within the account, shown on the account's list of applications, and it exists for navigation in the account; it is not the TRN, is not quoted to the Department, and is not asked for outside the account. A person reading the account sees both an Application ID and a TRN for the same application and quotes the TRN.

Which number each person needs

The Department, about an application: the TRN, with the passport details. The Department, about a granted visa: the grant number, with the passport details. The panel clinic: the HAP ID and the passport. VEVO, run by the holder or by a third party with the holder's consent: the passport number, country of passport and date of birth, plus any one of the grant number, the TRN or the evidence number. An employer, for the work rights check the law requires it to make before employing a non-citizen, which the employer VEVO guide covers: the grant number and the passport details, or the holder's VEVO result emailed from the holder's own check. Medicare: the passport and the grant notice. A university, a school, a bank, a landlord, a transport authority: the grant number and the passport, or the VEVO result. A registered migration agent: all of them, which is why an agent's first request to a new client is for the grant notices and the lodgement summaries. A person asked for the visa number by anyone outside the Department gives the grant number and does not give the HAP ID, the Client ID or the Application ID, which answer no question the asker has.

VEVO: what it needs and why it says no visa found

VEVO, the Department's Visa Entitlement Verification Online service, shows the visa a person currently holds in effect, with its conditions and dates, to the holder and, with the holder's consent, to employers and other registered organisations; it finds the visa by the passport number, the country of passport and the date of birth, together with one reference number from the grant number, the TRN and the evidence number. The result no visa found, where the person holds a visa, means in almost every case that one of the four details does not match the record: the passport number entered is from a new passport the visa is not linked to, or has a transposed digit, or includes a letter the record has as a number; the country of passport is entered as the country of birth; the date of birth is in the wrong order; or the reference number is a HAP ID, an Application ID or a TRN from a different application. The grant notice shows the exact passport details the visa was granted against, and a check entered from the grant notice finds the visa. Where the check still fails with details that match the grant notice, the Department's VEVO enquiry form, with the grant notice attached, resolves it, and the visa exists whatever VEVO says if the grant notice is in the account's correspondence. A bridging visa shows in VEVO only once it is in effect, and a person holding a substantive visa with a bridging visa in the background sees the substantive visa, which is correct.

The passport the visa is linked to

The visa is recorded against the passport the holder used in the application or held at the grant, and the link is how the airline, the border and VEVO find it. A new passport, from renewal, loss, a name change or a second nationality, is not linked to the visa until the holder tells the Department, through the ImmiAccount's update details function or the Department's passport update form, and a holder who travels on a new passport without updating it finds the airline cannot see a visa and the border has to find it manually, and a holder who checks VEVO with the new passport sees no visa found. The update is made as soon as the new passport is issued, with the old and new passport details, and the new passport guide covers the process, the timing and the holder who has an application pending as well as a visa held. A name that differs between the passport and the visa, through marriage, transliteration or a correction, is a separate problem, which the name discrepancy guide covers, and it is fixed on the record rather than explained at the airport.

The numbers that are not a visa

A few numbers are mistaken for a visa. An Electronic Travel Authority or an eVisitor is a visa, with a grant number, but it is applied for outside the ImmiAccount and its reference number is on its own confirmation; a holder checks it in VEVO with the passport. An Australian Immigration Card or an incoming passenger card number is a travel document, not a visa. A SkillSelect expression of interest has an EOI number, which identifies the expression of interest and the invitation and is not a visa application until one is lodged, when a TRN is created. A nomination by an employer has its own TRN, which belongs to the employer's application, not the worker's visa. A skills assessment has a reference from the assessing authority. A tax file number, a Medicare number and a Centrelink reference are Australian government identifiers unrelated to the visa. And a visa reference quoted in an email from an address that is not the Department's, offering a visa for a fee, is not a number at all, which the genuine email guide covers.

Keeping the numbers

A holder keeps, in one place, the grant notice for every visa held and the lodgement summary for every application made, which between them carry the grant numbers and the TRNs, together with the HAP IDs from each health referral and the Client ID from any letter that shows it; a photograph of each on a phone and a copy in an email account is enough. The ImmiAccount holds the correspondence as long as the account exists, and a holder whose application was lodged by an agent creates their own account and imports the application into it with the TRN and the passport details, so that the grant notice is in a place the holder controls, which matters when the agent's engagement ends. An employer is given the grant number and the VEVO result, not the account login; a holder never gives the account password to anyone, including an agent, who has their own portal, and the change of agent guide covers what an agent must hand over on leaving.

The numbers checklist

1. Asked for your visa number by anyone outside the Department: give the Visa Grant Number from the grant notice, with your passport details.
2. Calling or writing to the Department about an application: quote the TRN from the lodgement summary.
3. Booking health examinations: quote the HAP ID from the referral letter or My Health Declarations.
4. Checking VEVO: passport number, country of passport, date of birth, and one of the grant number, TRN or evidence number, all copied from the grant notice.
5. VEVO says no visa found: re-enter from the grant notice; if the passport has changed, update it with the Department first.
6. New passport: update the visa link the day it arrives, before travelling.
7. Never give out the Client ID, the Application ID or the HAP ID as a visa number, and never give anyone the account password.
8. Keep every grant notice and lodgement summary in a place you control, and import an agent-lodged application into your own account.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The identifiers described are those used by the Department of Home Affairs’ ImmiAccount, Visa Entitlement Verification Online and health assessment systems as published by the Department, together with the evidence-of-visa provisions of the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994 and the employer work-rights checking provisions, all as in force at the date above; the Department’s formats and processes change and its current guidance governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.