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Visa & entryBy Clever Tourists · Published
If you hold an ETA-eligible passport, such as a US, Canadian, Japanese, South Korean or Singaporean one, you apply for Australia's Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601) only through the free official Australian ETA app, and the only charge is an A$20 service fee. There is no website version: Australian embassies warn that if you paid more than A$20, or applied on a website, you used a third party or a scam. The ETA lets you visit for tourism or business for up to 3 months at a time, with multiple entries over 12 months. Most British and EU travellers use the free eVisitor instead. We were in Australia from 21 January to 19 February 2023, flying in to Melbourne and out of Sydney, so this page also covers what happens at the other end: the paper incoming passenger card and the digital Australia Travel Declaration that is replacing it.
Australia has two light-touch visitor visas, and which one you use depends only on your passport:
• ETA (subclass 601): for passport holders from a list of countries and territories that includes the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Hong Kong. App-only, A$20.
• eVisitor (subclass 651): for citizens of European Union countries and British citizen passport holders, among others. It is free and applied for online through the Department of Home Affairs' ImmiAccount, not the ETA app.
Other British passport types (such as British National Overseas) are not eVisitor-eligible. The eligible-country lists change occasionally, so check your passport against the Department of Home Affairs list before you apply. If you are on neither list, you need a Visitor visa (subclass 600), which is a fuller application. Our Australia visa guide covers all three.
• Cost: there is no visa application charge, only an A$20 service fee paid in the app by credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
• Validity: multiple entries for 12 months, or until your passport expires if that is sooner.
• Stay: up to 3 months per visit. You can't work on an ETA, and repeated long stays can draw questions.
• Passport-linked: the ETA is attached to your passport number. Renew the passport and you need a new ETA.
• Processing: many people get a grant quickly, and Australian missions say to expect an outcome email within 72 hours (check your junk folder). The Australian High Commission in Malaysia advises applying at least 4 weeks before travel because some applicants are asked for more information, and says not to finalise travel plans until the ETA is granted. Expedited processing is only for compelling reasons, and a booked holiday is not one.
The app does identity checks that a website can't, which is why there is no web form:
• A phone with a camera for the passport photo page and your face photo.
• NFC switched on, so the app can read the chip in your passport. Most recent iPhones and Android phones have it.
• Location services on.
• A working email address and a payment method.
Passport chip scans fail mostly because of position: take the phone case off, lay the open passport flat, and move the top of the phone (iPhone) or the middle of the back (Android) slowly over the chip, which is usually in the back cover or the photo page. Hold still once it starts reading. Fluorescent lighting glare causes most face-photo retries; use daylight and a plain wall.
• Download the AustralianETA app from the App Store or Google Play. It is free and published by the Department of Home Affairs.
• Scan the passport photo page with the camera, then scan the chip with NFC. This pre-fills your details.
• Take a photo of your face in the app.
• Answer the questions: criminal convictions, other names you have used, and contact details including where you will stay in Australia. Your first hotel's address is fine.
• Pay the A$20 service fee.
• Wait for the outcome email. You can check status in the app.
Each person needs a separate application, including infants and children. One phone can be used for a whole family, but everyone must be physically present, because each person's face photo is taken live during the application. Approved travel agents can also lodge it, but the same presence rule applies. The ETA is electronic: nothing to print, and you check in and clear immigration with the passport you applied with.
Searches for "Australia ETA" return sites charging far more than A$20, often with a web form. Australian embassy pages are blunt about it: ETAs can only be applied for through the app, not a website, and if you pay more than A$20 to lodge it, you are being scammed.
If you already paid a site, check whether a real ETA exists using the Department of Home Affairs' Check an ETA service or the app itself before you fly.
Australia has long required every arriving passenger to fill in a paper incoming passenger card on the plane, covering immigration, customs and biosecurity. That is being replaced by a digital form called the Australia Travel Declaration (ATD). Some sites call it a "digital passenger declaration", but that was the name of a separate COVID-era app that was dropped in 2022.
Where things stand in October 2026, per the Australian Border Force and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry:
• The ATD began as a pilot on selected Qantas international flights, completed in the Qantas app up to 72 hours before travel. It has since covered Qantas arrivals into Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, with Perth and Adelaide next.
• In July 2026 the Australian Border Force announced the ATD will be rolled out as a webform at all international airports and seaports, phasing out the paper card, with the government saying this should be complete before the end of 2027.
• Until it reaches your flight, you fill in the paper card handed out on board. Using the ATD where offered is optional.
Whichever version you use, the biosecurity questions are the ones that matter. Declare all food, plant material, wooden items and animal products, plus any recent farm visit and used hiking or camping gear. Our Australia visa guide explains the on-the-spot fines for not declaring.
• Applying on a website. There is no official ETA website form.
• Applying for someone who isn't with you. Their face photo must be taken live.
• Booking non-refundable travel before the grant. Rare, but some applications need more information.
• Assuming the ETA covers New Zealand. It doesn't: New Zealand needs its own NZeTA plus the IVL.
For timing your trip, see best time to visit Australia and, if you land in summer, Melbourne in January. Our Melbourne guide and Australia tipping guide cover the first days on the ground.
There is no visa application charge, only an A$20 service fee paid in the official Australian ETA app. Paying more than A$20 means you used a third party.
No. The ETA is only available through the official Australian ETA app, which needs NFC to read your passport chip and takes a live face photo.
Australian missions say to expect an outcome email within 72 hours, but advise applying at least 4 weeks before travel because some applicants are asked for more information.
Most use the free eVisitor (subclass 651) instead, applied for through ImmiAccount. British citizen passports and EU passports are eVisitor-eligible; other British passport types are not.
It is rolling out. The Australia Travel Declaration started as a pilot on selected Qantas flights and the Australian Border Force plans to offer it at all international airports and seaports before the end of 2027. Until then, most passengers fill in the paper incoming passenger card.
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