SmartGate, ETA and eVisitor: how Australia's automated border and visitor visas work

What SmartGate is

SmartGates are run by the Australian Border Force (ABF), part of the Department of Home Affairs. The ABF describes them as Australia's automated passport control system. They use facial recognition technology and the traveller's passport to check identity and process the person through passport control ³.

Arrival gates work in two steps. At a kiosk, the traveller inserts the passport photo page face down and answers questions on the screen. If this works, the kiosk prints a ticket. The traveller then walks to a gate, faces the camera and follows the instructions. If the face match succeeds, the gate opens to baggage claim ². If the kiosk step fails, the traveller goes to manual passport control. If the gate stays closed, the traveller goes to the SmartGate assistance desk ².

After collecting bags, the traveller hands the SmartGate ticket and the paper Incoming Passenger Card to an ABF or biosecurity officer at the exit ². Only one person can be in a gate at a time. The gate stops if it detects more than one person ².

Departure gates work in one step. The traveller inserts the passport, takes it back, steps into the gate and looks at the camera. The gate opens if the check succeeds ⁴. Departure screens are in English, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin. Arrival screens offer English and 22 other languages ^1,4.

Who can use the gates

Arrival gates are open to travellers on a valid passport who are at least 1.1 metres tall and at least seven years old. Children under 16 must travel with a parent or legal guardian ^1,3. Domestic travellers on an international flight and unaccompanied children under 16 cannot use them ¹. Travellers arriving from yellow fever risk countries can declare their vaccination at the kiosk if they were vaccinated more than ten days before travel and can show a valid certificate ¹.

Arrival gates used to require an ePassport, a chip passport marked with the ePassport symbol. As of 1 October 2026, the ABF says it is running a trial that lets anyone with a valid passport try the arrival gates. It says it is moving towards universal access for all travellers aged seven and over ¹.

Any traveller with a valid machine-readable passport can use departure gates. People travelling with someone who needs help, such as babies, small children or people who need assistance, cannot use them. Nor can passengers on a domestic leg of an international flight whose ticket carries an orange D sticker ⁴.

What data the gates collect

The ABF says that on entry, Home Affairs is required under the Migration Act 1958 to collect an image of the full face, a copy of the travel document and information on health, character, travel history and other personal identifiers. People who do not provide these may not be able to use automated processing ⁵.

Home Affairs is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988. The information may be passed to other government agencies allowed to receive it under Australian law, and to overseas recipients, in most cases officials of the traveller's own country ⁵. The SmartGate privacy page does not state how long gate images are kept.

Separate from SmartGate, non-citizens may have at least four fingerprints checked on arrival or departure. The ABF says those scans are checked against immigration records and may be checked against security or law enforcement records. It says the scans are deleted once the check is complete ⁶.

ETA (subclass 601)

The Electronic Travel Authority is a visa for tourism, visiting family or friends and some business visitor activities ⁷. As of 12 October 2026, Home Affairs lists these eligible passports: 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 (not official or diplomatic passports), the United Kingdom (British citizens and British Nationals Overseas), the United States and Vatican City ⁷.

Applicants use the Australian ETA app. They scan the passport chip with the phone, take a live photo and answer questions on criminal convictions, other names and contact details in Australia ⁷. There is no visa application charge. The app carries a service charge of AUD20 ⁷. Applicants must be outside Australia when they apply and when the visa is granted. Most results come at once ⁷.

The ETA is valid for 12 months or the life of the passport, whichever is shorter. It allows multiple entries with stays of up to three months each time. It is linked to the passport digitally, with no label. A new passport means a new ETA ⁷. Home Affairs tells anyone with a criminal conviction in any country to apply for a Visitor visa (subclass 600) instead ⁷.

eVisitor (subclass 651)

The eVisitor covers the same purposes as the ETA. It is free and is applied for online through ImmiAccount ^7,8. It is open to citizens of Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (British citizens only) and Vatican City ⁸.

The eVisitor is valid for 12 months from the grant date, with multiple entries and stays of up to three months each time ⁸. British National (Overseas) passports and non-citizen travel documents cannot be used ⁸. People with a criminal conviction are told to apply for a Visitor visa (subclass 600) and warned they might be refused entry if they arrive on an eVisitor ⁸.

Arrival cards: from the DPD to the Australia Travel Declaration

Most arriving passengers must fill in a paper Incoming Passenger Card under the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994. It asks for passport and flight details, an address in Australia, customs and quarantine declarations, and answers on health and criminal convictions ⁹.

During the pandemic, the government brought in the Digital Passenger Declaration (DPD). Regulations for it were registered on 13 December 2021 ¹². On 3 July 2022, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said travellers would no longer need to declare their vaccination status through the DPD from midnight on 6 July 2022. She said the DPD would in time replace the paper card but needed a lot more work to be user friendly ¹¹.

The current digital trial is the Australia Travel Declaration (ATD), run by the ABF with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Qantas ¹⁰. The pilot began in October 2024 at Brisbane and reached Sydney in August 2025 ¹⁰. On 26 May 2026 it expanded to selected Qantas flights into Melbourne. Invited passengers complete it in the Qantas app up to 72 hours before travel and receive a QR code pass. More than 380,000 passengers had used it by then ¹⁰. Anyone not invited keeps using the paper card ⁹.