Border control at Australian airports: what happens to travellers and their data

Arriving: the steps at the border

All arriving and departing passengers need a valid passport or travel document. Non-citizens must hold a valid visa. Arriving passengers must complete an Incoming Passenger Card ¹.

Passport holders aged 7 or over and taller than 1.1 metres can use SmartGate on arrival. Any traveller with a valid machine-readable passport who can use the gates alone can use departure SmartGates ¹. Australian passports are no longer stamped as a matter of course, but travellers can ask an officer for a stamp ¹.

The Incoming Passenger Card is required under the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994. It records name, passport number, flight, address in Australia, customs and quarantine declarations, and answers on health and criminal convictions. Non-citizens who refuse to complete it may be penalised and refused immigration clearance ².

A digital alternative, the Australia Travel Declaration, is being piloted with Qantas. As of 19 October 2026 it covers Qantas flights into Brisbane and select flights into Sydney and Melbourne, completed through the Qantas app ².

Border Force officers can question travellers under section 195 of the Customs Act 1901 and examine goods under section 186. Officers may copy documents, which the ABF says includes information on phones, SIM cards and laptops. The traveller does not have to be present when a document is copied ¹.

Entry permission: visa or ETA

Anyone who is not an Australian citizen must have a visa to travel to and enter Australia. New Zealand citizens are granted an electronic visa on arrival under the Trans-Tasman arrangement, subject to health and character criteria ⁵.

The ETA (subclass 601) is for tourism, visiting family and friends, and some business visitor activities. As of a page update on 12 October 2026, it is open to passport holders of Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom (British citizens and British Nationals Overseas), the United States and Vatican City ³.

There is no visa application charge. The Australian ETA app carries a service charge of AUD20. Applicants must be outside Australia. Results usually come at once. The ETA is valid for 12 months or the life of the passport, whichever is shorter, with stays of up to 3 months per entry. People with a criminal conviction in any country are told to apply for a Visitor visa (subclass 600) instead ³.

Biometrics and SmartGate

Non-citizens may have their fingerprints checked on arrival or departure. At least four fingerprints are scanned. They are checked against the department's immigration data and may be checked against security or law enforcement records. The ABF says the scans are not retained and are deleted once the check is done ¹.

Home Affairs describes fingerprints and facial images as biometrics, which the Migration Act 1958 calls personal identifiers. It may collect them during a visa application ³.

From September 2026 the ABF is trialling biometric cameras at the manual passport line at Canberra International Airport. The cameras compare a traveller's face with the passport image and chip data. Officers still make all clearance decisions. The pilot is voluntary for travellers aged five and over, who can opt out at any time ¹.

Passenger data: API and PNR

Airlines give the department advance notice of passenger details, which it analyses for risk factors before an aircraft leaves for Australia. The department has access to airline reservation systems as well ¹.

Section 64AF of the Customs Act 1901 lets the department ask all international passenger airlines flying to and from Australia for passenger information. A PNR may include name, contact details, any API collected, ticketing and payment details, and itinerary ⁴.

The department uses PNR for risk assessment before arrival or departure, to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute terrorism and serious transnational crime. In exceptional cases it can use PNR to protect a person facing a risk of death, serious injury or a threat to health ⁴.

An agreement between the EU and Australia on PNR transfers came into force on 1 June 2012. It covers airlines that process PNR in the EU. Under it, PNR may go to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the Department of Infrastructure ⁴.

Watch lists and checks

Home Affairs runs the Movement Alert List (MAL), a database of identities and travel documents of immigration concern. The ABF says it holds over one and a half million identities of interest and over 880,000 documents of concern, such as lost, stolen or altered passports ⁵.

People on MAL may include those with serious criminal records, those whose presence might pose a risk to the community, and those under exclusion periods for health, debts to the government or other adverse immigration records ⁵.

MAL is checked automatically when an officer enters a visa application, and when someone applies for an ETA or eVisitor visa. A match leads the department to consult other agencies before deciding. The department says it does not apply a blanket policy of refusal or approval ⁵.

The ABF says all border movements are screened using intelligence, targeting and profiling techniques to select passengers for examination ¹.

Your data: the law, retention and how to ask for records

The Privacy Act 1988 and its Australian Privacy Principles govern how Home Affairs handles personal information. People can ask for their records under the Privacy Act or the Freedom of Information Act 1982, and ask for corrections. Home Affairs says it uses artificial intelligence for risk management, compliance, law enforcement and security work, and that this may involve personal information ⁷.

For PNR, travellers can file an FOI request or ask the Privacy Contact Officer to correct inaccurate data. Complaints go first to the department and then to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The Commissioner can investigate, audit and make determinations. The ABF says audit arrangements covering PNR handling are in place. Travellers can complain to the Commonwealth Ombudsman too ⁴.

Arrival and departure records since 1981 sit in the Movements Reconstruction database. Section 488 of the Migration Act 1958 limits access, and an unauthorised disclosure can lead to two years in prison. People can request their own movement records under section 488 and the FOI Act ⁶. The pages reviewed for this guide do not state how long PNR is kept.

Who runs the systems

The Department of Home Affairs is responsible for risk assessment and clearance of all passengers arriving in and leaving Australia ⁴. Australian Border Force officers carry out checks at the border ¹. The ABF and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry run the Australia Travel Declaration pilot with Qantas ². Government agencies with enforcement roles can request movement records and passenger cards ⁶.

Security screening on departure

Brisbane Airport says passengers on international flights can carry liquids, aerosols and gels only in containers of up to 100 ml or 100 g, stored in a resealable transparent bag of about 20 cm by 20 cm ⁸.

Inorganic powders such as salt, talc and sand are limited to 350 ml or 350 g per passenger. Organic powders such as food and baby formula have no limit but must be shown at screening. Duty-free goods in a sealed bag can be carried on, but may be screened again at stopovers ⁸. Brisbane Airport points travellers to the Department of Home Affairs for the full rules ⁸.