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Every visitor needs a visa before boarding, and two of the free ones are decided by a list of passports

Australia has no visa waiver. Section 42(1) of the Migration Act 1958 forbids a non-citizen to travel to Australia at all without a visa already in effect, and the only general exception in that subsection is for a New Zealand citizen producing a New Zealand passport. What looks like visa-free travel for a British, Japanese, Korean, American or Canadian passport is an Electronic Travel Authority or an eVisitor - real visas, granted electronically before departure, each lasting twelve months and allowing three months in the country after each entry. Which passports qualify is not in the Regulations: regulations 1.11B and 1.11C delegate the lists to instruments made by the Minister, and those instruments name thirty-three kinds of passport for the Electronic Travel Authority and thirty-six for the eVisitor. The two lists are not the same list, and the clearest place they part company is the United Kingdom.

Verified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-11

At a glance

Stay allowed on an Electronic Travel Authority
3 months after each entry, with travel allowed for 12 months from grant or for the life of the passport, whichever is shorter

Clause 601.511 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994.

Stay allowed on an eVisitor
3 months after each entry, with travel allowed for 12 months from grant

Clause 651.511 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994. The eVisitor is not tied to the life of the passport, which the Electronic Travel Authority is.

Passports the Electronic Travel Authority accepts
33 kinds, listed in Schedule 1 to IMMI 18/084

Counted from the numbered table in Schedule 1 to the Migration (IMMI 18/084: Specification of ETA-Eligible Passports) Instrument 2018, items 1 to 33, as compiled on 20 February 2022.

Passports the eVisitor accepts
36 kinds, listed in Schedule 1 to LIN 23/064

Counted from the numbered table in Schedule 1 to the Migration (Specification of eVisitor eligible passport) Instrument (LIN 23/064) 2023, items 1 to 36.

Visa-free entry for anyone other than a New Zealand citizen
None: section 42(1) of the Migration Act 1958 forbids travelling to Australia without a visa in effect, and section 42(2A) exempts only a New Zealand citizen producing a New Zealand passport, an inhabitant of the Protected Zone, and people brought to Australia by the Commonwealth's own operations

Read from section 42 of the Migration Act 1958, compilation 171.

Requirements

  • A visa in effect before travel begins, not on arrival - section 42(1) of the Migration Act 1958 is a prohibition on travelling, not on entering
  • For an Electronic Travel Authority (Subclass 601), a passport of one of the thirty-three kinds listed in Schedule 1 to IMMI 18/084, satisfying the condition stated beside it
  • For an eVisitor (Subclass 651), a passport of one of the thirty-six kinds listed in Schedule 1 to LIN 23/064, and an intention to visit as a tourist or for a business visitor activity
  • For anyone whose passport is on neither list, a Visitor visa (Subclass 600), whose travel and stay periods are set by the Minister case by case rather than by the Regulations
  • A New Zealand citizen needs no visa before boarding and is granted a Special Category visa on arrival

In detail

Two free lists that are not the same list

Both the Electronic Travel Authority and the eVisitor are granted electronically before departure and both give three months after each entry within a twelve-month window. What decides which one a traveller uses is the passport, and the two lists were written for different groups. The Electronic Travel Authority list reaches outside Europe - Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the United States and Brunei are on it and are not on the eVisitor list. The eVisitor list is European and covers the European Union states the Electronic Travel Authority leaves out - Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia among them. Fourteen countries appear on both.

Where the two lists disagree: a British National (Overseas)

The United Kingdom is on both lists with different conditions, and they point in opposite directions. The Electronic Travel Authority instrument accepts a United Kingdom passport whose holder is a British Citizen or a British National (Overseas). The eVisitor instrument accepts one whose holder is a national of Britain and excludes, in terms, a British National (Overseas), a British Dependent Territories Citizen, a British Overseas Citizen, a British Protected Person and a British Subject. A British National (Overseas) can therefore hold an Electronic Travel Authority and cannot hold an eVisitor, and nothing on either instrument's face tells a reader to compare them.

Nobody else arrives without a visa

Section 42(2A) of the Migration Act 1958 has several paragraphs, and only one of them is about ordinary travel: a New Zealand citizen holding and producing a New Zealand passport in force. The rest concern an allowed inhabitant of the Torres Strait Protected Zone and people the Commonwealth itself has brought to Australia under its maritime powers or after a removal that did not complete. For everyone else the question is which visa, not whether one.

Exceptions by origin

New Zealand citizens: no visa before boarding, and one granted at the gate

Section 42(1) of the Migration Act 1958 forbids a non-citizen to travel to Australia without a visa in effect, and section 42(2A)(a) takes a New Zealand citizen holding and producing a New Zealand passport in force out of that prohibition entirely. There is nothing to apply for before departure and no Electronic Travel Authority to obtain. On arrival the Special Category visa is granted under section 32 of the Act, either by an officer or by an authorised system under regulation 5.15A(4), and it permits the holder to remain in Australia while the holder is a New Zealand citizen. The only grounds on which it is withheld are the two character and health tests in section 32(2)(a)(ii).

  • A New Zealand passport that is in force, produced on travel and presented to an officer or an authorised system
  • Neither a behaviour concern non-citizen nor a health concern non-citizen within section 5(1) of the Migration Act 1958
Verified with official sourceStable2026-10-11

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration Act 1958 · Section 42(1) · consolidated to 2026-06-04
«42Visa essential for travel (1)Subject to subsections(2), (2A) and (3), a non‑citizen must not travel to Australia without a visa that is in effect.»

The duty bites before departure, which is why Australia has no visa-on-arrival for anyone but a New Zealander.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration Act 1958 · Section 42(2A)(a) · consolidated to 2026-06-04
«(2A)Subsection(1) does not apply to a non‑citizen in relation to travel to Australia: (a)if the travel is by a New Zealand citizen who holds and produces a New Zealand passport that is in force; or»
Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration Act 1958 · Section 13(1) · consolidated to 2026-06-04
«13Lawful non‑citizens (1)A non‑citizen in the migration zone who holds a visa that is in effect is a lawful non‑citizen.»

Section 14(1) is the mirror image: a non-citizen in the migration zone who is not a lawful non-citizen is an unlawful non-citizen. There is no third state.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration Regulations 1994 · Schedule 2, clause 601.511 · consolidated to 2026-07-01
«601.511 Temporary visa permitting the holder: (a)to travel to, and enter, Australia on multiple occasions within the shorter of: (i)12 months from the date of the grant of the visa; and (ii)the life of the holder’s passport; and (b)to remain in Australia, after each entry, for 3 months.»
Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration Regulations 1994 · Schedule 2, clauses 651.211 and 651.511 · consolidated to 2026-07-01
«651.511 Temporary visa permitting the holder: (a)to travel to and enter Australia on multiple occasions within 12 months from the date of the grant of the visa; and (b)to remain in Australia, after each entry, for 3 months.»
Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration Regulations 1994 · Regulation 1.11C · consolidated to 2026-07-01
«1.11CeVisitor eligible passport A passport is an eVisitor eligible passport if: (a)it is a valid passport of a kind specified by the Minister in an instrument in writing for this paragraph to be an eVisitor eligible passport; and (b)the conditions(if any) specified in the instrument are satisfied.»

Regulation 1.11B does the same for the Electronic Travel Authority. Neither regulation names a country: the lists are ministerial instruments and can be replaced without touching the Regulations.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration (IMMI 18/084: Specification of ETA-Eligible Passports) Instrument 2018 · Schedule 1, item 31 · consolidated to 2022-02-20
«United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | Passport must indicate that the applicant’s nationality is British Citizen or British National (Overseas)»
Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMigration (Specification of eVisitor eligible passport) Instrument (LIN 23/064) 2023 · Schedule 1, item 35
«United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | Passport must indicate that applicant is a national of Britain (excluding British National (Overseas), British Dependent Territories Citizen, British Overseas Citizen, British Protected Person and British Subject)»

This instrument is registered as made and has not been compiled, so it carries no cut-off date of its own.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Practical notes

The counts of thirty-three and thirty-six are of the numbered items in each Schedule 1, which are kinds of passport rather than countries: the Electronic Travel Authority list includes Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vatican City as separate items, and the eVisitor list includes the Vatican City (Holy See).

The passport lists are the part most likely to move without warning. They are ministerial instruments under regulations 1.11B and 1.11C, so a country can be added or removed without the Migration Regulations changing at all.

What is published here comes from the Migration Act 1958, the Migration Regulations 1994 and the two ministerial instruments. It does not describe the Home Affairs application process, the visa application charges, or the conditions attached to each visa, which are in Schedule 8 to the Regulations and were not read for this record.

Sources5 · all accessed 2026-10-11
  • consolidates
    Migration Act 1958, compilation 171

    Office of Parliamentary Counsel, Federal Register of Legislation · consolidated to 2026-06-04

    About this source

    The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

    We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    Migration Regulations 1994, compilation 288, volume 2 (Schedule 2, Subclasses 010 to 801)

    Office of Parliamentary Counsel, Federal Register of Legislation · consolidated to 2026-07-01

    About this source

    The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

    We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    Migration Regulations 1994, compilation 288, volume 1 (Parts 1 to 5 and Schedule 1)

    Office of Parliamentary Counsel, Federal Register of Legislation · consolidated to 2026-07-01

    About this source

    The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

    We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    Migration (IMMI 18/084: Specification of ETA-Eligible Passports) Instrument 2018, compilation 1

    Office of Parliamentary Counsel, Federal Register of Legislation · consolidated to 2022-02-20

    About this source

    The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

    We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    Migration (Specification of eVisitor eligible passport) Instrument (LIN 23/064) 2023

    Office of Parliamentary Counsel, Federal Register of Legislation

    About this source

    The Commonwealth of Australia's statute book, run by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel under the Legislation Act 2003. It carries every Act, legislative instrument and notifiable instrument of the Commonwealth, each as made and as compiled, and it is the only publisher in this corpus whose own enabling Act gives its text a standing in court: section 15ZB of the Legislation Act 2003 says proof is not required in a court or tribunal of the text of a registered law, and section 15ZA presumes an authorised version of a registered compilation correctly shows the law as in force on the compilation date. Addressing is by register identifier rather than by name - C1958A00062 is the Migration Act 1958, F1996B03551 the Migration Regulations 1994 - and /latest/text serves the current compilation. Every compilation page prints its compilation number, its compilation date and the last amending Act or instrument taken into account.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: Three things, each of which has already bitten. First, an unknown identifier does not 404: the site serves its own home page, so a wrong guess looks like a short page of search boxes rather than an error, and an absence inferred from one would be invented. Second, a long instrument is served in volumes and /latest/text gives volume 1 only - the Migration Regulations 1994 run to four volumes and Schedule 2, where every visa subclass actually lives, is in volumes 2 and 3 at a separate address. Third, and most important, nothing in the HTML served at /latest/text claims to be an authorised version. Section 15ZA makes an electronic copy one only if it is downloaded from an approved website in a format prescribed by the rules and either the site or the copy says so in the way the rules prescribe; the Act's own example of such a format is a locked pdf file. The words authorised version do not occur anywhere in any of the readings stored from this publisher except in the Legislation Act 2003 itself, so what we quote is the register's text without the status the register is able to give it. The presumption in section 15ZA(5)(h) is also expressly subject to section 15Q(4), under which a compilation need not take account of a retrospective commencement, so a compilation can be accurate on its face and behind the law. It is not a source for the Immigration Rules equivalent - departmental policy and procedural advice are published by Home Affairs, not here - nor for any state or territory law, which has its own register, nor for the text of a treaty, which is published in the Australian Treaty Series.

    We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source