Australia ETA and eVisitor: which one you need and what it costs

Australia does not have visa-free entry in the usual sense. Almost every visitor needs a visa granted before they travel, even for a two-week holiday. For most tourists from wealthy countries, that visa is either the Electronic Travel Authority, known as the ETA, or the eVisitor. Both are electronic, linked to your passport and quick to get, and neither involves a sticker or a visit to an embassy.

Which one you get depends on your passport, and for many European passports you can choose. Americans, Canadians, Japanese, Singaporeans and holders of several other passports use the ETA, which you apply for in a phone app for AUD 20. Citizens of EU countries and some other European states can use the eVisitor, which is free and applied for online, and most of those passports are also on the ETA list. British citizens are on both lists. New Zealanders need no visa before they travel. For a quick check by passport, use the visa checker; for the trip itself, start with the Australia travel guide.

The ETA is visa subclass 601 and the eVisitor is subclass 651. Both are temporary visitor visas for tourism, visiting family and friends and some business visitor activities. Both allow multiple entries over 12 months and stays of up to 3 months at a time, and both must be applied for, and granted, while you are outside Australia.

The official page is the Department of Home Affairs' Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601) listing, which carries the list of eligible passports and links to the app.

The official page is the Department of Home Affairs' eVisitor (subclass 651) listing, with its own list of eligible passports and a link to apply. The UK government's entry requirements page for Australia says the same in plain terms: you must have a visa to visit Australia, and British citizens can usually get an eVisitor or an ETA.

The ETA list on the Home Affairs page covers Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR of China), Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (excluding official or diplomatic passports), the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (British Citizen and British National (Overseas)), the United States and Vatican City.

The eVisitor list covers 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 Citizen) and Vatican City, where the passport must show you are a national of the Vatican City.

Read together, the lists give three groups. Passports on the ETA list only, such as the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Taiwan and British National (Overseas), use the ETA. Passports on the eVisitor list only, such as Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states, use the eVisitor. Passports on both lists, including Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway and British Citizen, can choose.

If you can choose, the eVisitor is the cheaper route because it costs nothing, while the ETA adds the AUD 20 app service charge. The ETA has two practical advantages. Home Affairs says that in most cases it tells you the ETA result immediately, so it suits a late booking. The eVisitor is applied for through the department's online system, and the page tells you to check your application status in ImmiAccount if no email arrives within 12 hours. For a trip planned weeks ahead, the free eVisitor is the better value. For a flight next week, the app is the safer choice.

If your passport is on neither list, you need a different visa, usually the Visitor visa (subclass 600), which has its own fee and processing times. The eVisitor cannot be used with a non-citizen passport, certificate of identity or other travel document, or with a British National (Overseas), British Dependent Territories Citizen, British Overseas Citizen, British Protected Person or British Subject passport. The ETA likewise cannot be used with a non-citizen passport, certificate of identity or other travel document.

New Zealand citizens are the main exception to all of this. They do not need to apply for a visa before they come, and can apply on entry for a Special Category visa (subclass 444), which is granted if they meet the criteria. Australian citizens are ineligible to apply for an ETA or an eVisitor and need no visa, and a person who is also an Australian citizen cannot use the ETA with a second passport.

For the ETA, download the official Australian ETA app, which is free to download, from the Apple or Google store. You need a phone with a camera, near-field communication (NFC) switched on, location services enabled, a valid email address and a payment method for the service charge. In the app you scan your passport to pre-fill your details, take a photo of yourself, answer questions about criminal convictions, previous names and contact details in Australia, pay and submit. Check every detail, including your name and date of birth, before you submit.

You can get help from a friend or family member, but they must be physically with you when you apply, and a travel agent can lodge the application in the app only if you are there to have your photo taken and your passport scanned. If you cannot use the app, Home Affairs says you can apply for another suitable visa through ImmiAccount, which is the usual fallback for travelers without a compatible phone.

For the eVisitor, apply online through the Department of Home Affairs, which you reach from the official eVisitor page. There is no charge. Each person, including children, needs their own application, even if the child is listed on a parent's passport. Spell your name exactly as it appears in your passport, including your middle name, and check that your device has not auto-corrected it. The department warns that a visa granted with incorrect information can cause delays or refusal of entry. You must meet the department's health and character requirements, and you must have enough money to support yourself in Australia and to leave at the end of your stay.

You do not need an agent for either. The only official routes are the Australian ETA app for the ETA and the Department of Home Affairs website for the eVisitor. If a site asks for more than AUD 20 for an ETA, or anything at all for an eVisitor, it is not the government.

The ETA has no visa application charge, and the official page says there is no other charge payable beyond the AUD 20 app service charge. The eVisitor is free. Those are the whole costs for the visa itself, and neither includes health cover.

An ETA is valid for 12 months from the date it is granted, or until your passport expires, whichever is shorter. An eVisitor is valid for 12 months from the date of grant. You can leave and re-enter as many times as you like while the visa is valid, staying up to 3 months after each entry. Neither visa can be extended: if you want to stay longer, you must apply for another visa.

The ETA is attached to your current passport. If that passport expires or you get a new one, the ETA ceases and you must apply for a new ETA. The eVisitor is also linked digitally to your passport, and you do not receive a label in either case, so carry the passport you applied with. If you hold more than one passport, declare it in your ETA application, and travel on the passport you used to apply.

The ETA page says most applicants hear the result immediately, but it can take longer if you do not answer the questions correctly, the department needs more information or your information is hard to verify. It suggests not making travel arrangements until the ETA is granted. For the eVisitor, Home Affairs links a processing-time guide that shows recent decisions, and tells you not to arrange travel until you have the written grant. Apply well before you fly in either case.

Both visas cover a holiday, visiting family or friends and some business visitor activities such as general business enquiries, negotiating or reviewing a contract, an official government visit, or a conference, trade fair or seminar where the organizers do not pay you. You can study or train for up to 3 months in total, but if study is your main reason for traveling, Home Affairs says to apply for a student visa instead.

Some plans need the Visitor visa (subclass 600) rather than an ETA or eVisitor. Home Affairs gives these examples: training at a childcare centre, studying to be a doctor, dentist, nurse or paramedic, entering health care or hospital environments, a previous failure to meet the health requirement, and any criminal conviction in any country. If you have a conviction, apply for the Visitor visa and provide evidence about it, rather than risk refusal at the border.

Neither visa is a work visa. You cannot do paid work for an Australian employer, sell goods or services directly to the public or provide services to an Australian business, and working on one of these visas can lead to cancellation, removal or refused entry. Cruises have one extra rule: you need a visa if you enter Australia during a cruise, and on a round trip cruise that starts in Australia the time on board counts as time in Australia, so it will not reset your stay period.

A visa does not guarantee entry. Airlines check electronically that you hold a valid visa before you board. On arrival, everyone completes an Incoming Passenger Card. The UK government's advice for Australia says to declare goods that carry a biosecurity risk, such as food, animal products and plant material including wooden articles, or to dispose of them in the bins at the airport or seaport. It also asks you to declare contact with farms, farm animals, wilderness areas or freshwater streams and lakes in the past 30 days, and it warns of a heavy fine for breaking quarantine rules.

Check your passport as well. The UK government says your passport must be valid for the length of your planned stay, and Canada's travel advice says a regular Canadian passport must be valid on the day of entry. Your airline's rules can be stricter, and the ETA ends when the passport expires. If you are arriving from a country the Australian Department of Health lists as a yellow fever transmission risk, you also need a vaccination certificate.

Border officers can ask about your plans. If you stay for long periods or make frequent visits, they may ask whether you are a genuine visitor, and if they conclude you are not, the visa can be cancelled. For either visa a stay longer than 3 months at a time needs a different visa, applied for before you go.

Home Affairs recommends health insurance, because you are personally liable for all healthcare costs in Australia, and some countries have a reciprocal healthcare agreement with Australia, which Services Australia explains on its website. Compare travel insurance before you fly, and check what a policy covers for adventure activities and evacuation if your trip goes beyond the cities.

The most expensive mistake is paying a private site. Because Australia requires a visa even for short holidays, private services offer to arrange one, and some present themselves as official. The ETA costs AUD 20 in the official app and the eVisitor costs nothing, so anything more means you are paying an intermediary, not the Australian government.

The second is the wrong passport or the wrong list. A British National (Overseas) passport can use the ETA but not the eVisitor, and a non-citizen passport can use neither. Dual nationals should apply with the passport they will actually travel on, because the visa is linked to it, and an ETA applicant must declare any other passport. Families also get caught out: for both visas, every person needs their own application, including children listed on a parent's passport.

The third is forgetting the new-passport rule. If you renew your passport between booking and flying, an ETA tied to the old one ceases, so apply again once you hold the new passport. Check the visa grant details match the document you will show at check-in.

The fourth is the 3-month limit. It applies to each entry, not to the trip plan you have in your head. A four-month backpacking loop needs either a hop out of the country or a different visa, arranged before you fly, and neither visa can be extended once you are in Australia.

The last is leaving the application until the airport. An ETA is often quick, but the department says it can take longer, and the eVisitor tells you not to travel until the grant arrives in writing. Treat the visa as a booking task and finish it when you buy the flights.

Applications for the ETA go through the Australian ETA app, which the department's page names as the way to apply if you hold an ETA-eligible passport. The Home Affairs ETA and eVisitor pages were last updated on 8 September 2026, and as of 2 October 2026 they show the AUD 20 app service charge, 12 months of validity and stays of up to 3 months for the ETA, and a free eVisitor. The ETA list now includes many European passports alongside the Americas and Asia, so check your own passport on the official list before you choose.

If your trip includes New Zealand, you need a separate NZeTA, which has its own fee and a conservation and tourism levy. For medical and cancellation cover on a long-haul trip, see our travel insurance guides.