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As the others have said, better tell your friend that he reports about his overstaying. There are some reasons why a person overstayed in Australia:

Who are overstayers?

By applying for a visa to enter Australia temporarily, people give an undertaking to comply with the conditions of their visas and to leave Australia before their visas expire.

Provisions exist for people to apply to extend their time in Australia for legitimate reasons, but a small number each year become overstayers.

People who become overstayers arrived in Australia with valid temporary visas, mainly as tourists, but also as working holiday makers, students and temporary residents.

Many people who are recorded as overstayers are simply extending a short stay in Australia by a few days or weeks, and leave of their own accord within a short period. Others overstay for a longer term out of a desire to live and work in Australia.

Those long-term overstayers become neighbours, friends, colleagues, employees and even relatives of lawful Australian residents, some of whom might be unwittingly implicated in immigration fraud.

The Australian migration program ensures that prospective migrants must meet criteria generally based on skills and/or family relationships. These criteria include stringent checks of health and character.

Overstayers who try the illegal “back door” method of staying in Australia do not undergo these checks. Many would not meet migration criteria, and could become a considerable cost to the Australian community.

The estimated 47 800 overstayers in the community at 30 June 2005 comprised around 40 630 visitors, 2860 students, 2220 temporary residents and 2090 in other categories.

The Australian government can even locate those people who are overstaying. So better tell your friend to report it or the government will hunt him and that would lead to a worse scenario.

Locating overstayers and people in breach of their working conditions

The department uses a wide range of sources to locate overstayers and people breaching visa conditions. These include referrals from employers, educational institutions, departmental investigations, community information, police and other government agencies.

Three Government departments – Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Centrelink, and the Australian Taxation Office work together in areas of the cash economy to locate overstayers who are employed illegally, or claiming welfare payments and benefits to which they are not entitled.

Here's what will gonna happen to your friend if ever he is caught for overstaying.

Consequences of overstaying and people in breach of their visa conditions

The law requires that people who have overstayed their visa or had their visa cancelled because they have breached their visa conditions be detained and removed as soon as practicable.

Exclusion from Australia

Persons who overstay their visa by more than 28 days become subject to an exclusion period that prevents them from being granted a temporary visa to travel to Australia for three years. This exclusion period applies whether they leave voluntarily or not.

Even after the exclusion period has finished, the person cannot be granted a visa unless they repay any debt they owe to the Commonwealth, including for costs of removal and detention, or they make satisfactory arrangements to repay their debt.

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