Australia ends need to complete outgoing passenger card

People leaving Australia no longer need to complete an outgoing passenger card.

Use of the paper-based passenger card ended on 1 July as part of a move towards a more efficient and streamlined process for travellers.

“The automated process will add to existing state-of-the art passenger processing technology at our border and will help reduce queuing times and get travellers to their destination more quickly,” said Peter Dutton, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. “Removal of the outgoing passenger card further supports the move towards a more seamless, secure and simplified border clearance process.”

Since 1 July 2017, Travellers no longer need to complete the Australian outgoing immigration card. The information previously gathered via paper-based outgoing passenger cards will now be collated from existing government data and will continue to be provided to users

Re-using data in this way is just one of the measures being taken by the Australian government to reduce the burden on citizens and international visitors to provide the same information multiple times.

In 2015-16, the Australian Border Force processed more than 40 million international travellers across the Australian border with the number of people travelling in and out of Australia estimated to rise up to 50 million by 2020.

Arriving travellers are still required to complete the orange incoming passenger card.