AustralianETA

Department of Home Affairs

About this app

Apply for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) to travel to Australia.

An Australian Government mobile app that you can use to lodge an Australian ETA application. The ETA allows eligible passport holders to travel to Australia for short-term stays for tourism or business visitor purposes.

It is recommended that you apply well ahead of when you want to travel. It is suggested that you do not make travel arrangements until your ETA has been granted. See the ETA website to find out more and check your eligibility to apply:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/electronic-travel-authority-601

Please note, Australian citizens are ineligible to apply for an ETA. For more information, see: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/entering-australia/crossing-the-border/travel-documents-for-australian-citizens-and-permanent-residents

Support videos to assist with using the Australian ETA App are available as follows:

Scanning your passport: https://bordertv.au.vbrickrev.com/embed?id=ba6716a7-6c16-42dc-bf75-53caa8c36a61

Reading the ePassport chip (front page): https://bordertv.au.vbrickrev.com/embed?id=20860fc6-30ea-43bd-802f-ca35ee17c873

Reading the ePassport chip (back page): https://bordertv.au.vbrickrev.com/embed?id=bfe3c5c3-b7bd-487b-a0f1-8be80ae704ea

Reading the ePassport chip (data page): https://bordertv.au.vbrickrev.com/embed?id=c36923d1-e910-4891-b33a-73382b4d70ba

Taking a live photo of yourself: https://bordertv.au.vbrickrev.com/embed?id=f3a9ec56-d973-4df6-82a5-3d63ed792239

Please note that use of the Australian ETA App incurs a non-refundable service fee of $AUD20.

Ratings and reviews

Have traveled to hundreds countries and this has to be the absolute worst visa experience I've ever had. App will not recognise photo, even after every possible change to lighting, background, location, shaving, etc etc. Hours wasted. Finally tried my significant others phone after they got theirs to work and suddenly same scenario photo is fine. Then comes payment and it won't recognize my credit card. Idk who programmed this trash but it needs a redo. No clue how this is currently rated 4.8.

The app is exceedingly finicky to use, but if you follow the instructions it seems that it will, indeed, work eventually. It took me a long while to successfully scan my passport page, but it turns out I simply wasn't in a place that was bright enough and hadn't successfully warded off the glare. The previous ETA process, where you simply filled out a form with your passport information online, was far more user friendly and I wish Australian immigration would return to that.

The picture-taking process is maddening. Though initially green-lighting the photo(s) the app would, shortly thereafter, reject the photo then start the entire application process over again. Attempted on 2 different phones (one less than a year old and another about 2 years old) with both front and back cameras, many, many times each to no avail. I researched the issue and realized it's fairly persistent among many users. Maybe it's time to fix it?

What's new

This latest version contains a number of improvements and bug fixes.