Visa for Australia From the UK: eVisitor or ETA, Costs and Arrival Steps

No visa label goes in your passport, because Australia links the visa to it digitally. Home Affairs asks you to keep a copy of its decision with you while you are in Australia. With a HelloRoam Australia eSIM on your phone, that decision email and the ETA app's Visa check open in the arrivals hall. If the eSIM needs help after the long flight, HelloRoam support is a message away, 24/7.

The eVisitor and the ETA side by side

Australia's Department of Home Affairs sets the rules for both visas. The details below come from its eVisitor (subclass 651) page and its Electronic Travel Authority page, checked as of 1 October 2026.

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Both visas cover holidays, cruises, visits to family and friends, and business visits such as conferences or contract talks. Neither lets you work for an Australian business or sell to the public. One cruise rule is easy to miss: a round-trip cruise from Australia counts as time spent in Australia, so it does not reset your 3 months.

Your passport type decides which visitor visa you can use

With a full British Citizen passport you can choose either visa. The eVisitor saves the AUD20 fee per person, which comes to AUD80 for a family of four. The ETA suits you if you would rather do everything on your phone and get an answer straight away.

British National (Overseas) passport holders can use the ETA but not the eVisitor. Home Affairs also excludes British Dependent Territories Citizen, British Overseas Citizen, British Protected Person and British Subject passports from the eVisitor, and these are not on the ETA list either. It points other passport holders to the Visitor visa (subclass 600), covered further down.

A few more passport rules come from the UK government's Australia entry requirements. Your passport must be valid for the length of your stay, though many countries you might change planes in want 6 months left. British-Australian dual nationals must enter and leave Australia on their Australian passport, and Home Affairs says Australian citizens cannot apply for an ETA.

Both visas ask about criminal records. Home Affairs tells anyone with a criminal conviction in any country to apply for the Visitor visa (subclass 600) instead and give evidence about the conviction. It also warns that arriving on an eVisitor with a conviction can lead to refused entry.

Applying for the free eVisitor takes one online form per person

The eVisitor is lodged through ImmiAccount, Home Affairs' online account. Home Affairs lists the details to get right, because a grant with wrong information can mean delays or refused entry:

1. Apply from outside Australia. You must be outside the country when you apply and when Home Affairs makes its decision.
2. Start a separate application for every traveller, children included. You cannot add family members to your own application.
3. Type each name exactly as it appears in the passport, middle names too, and check that autocorrect has not changed it. Dates of birth go in dd/mm/yy format.
4. Answer the health and character questions truthfully, then submit.
5. Look out for an acknowledgement email. If nothing arrives within 12 hours, check the application status in ImmiAccount.
6. Wait for the written grant before you arrange travel. It shows your grant number, the date the visa starts and its conditions.

The ETA is applied for in an app that reads your passport chip

You can only apply for the ETA in the Australian ETA app, free from the App Store or Google Play. Home Affairs lists what the phone needs:

• a camera that can take your photo and an image of the passport data page;
• NFC switched on, so the phone can read the chip in your passport;
• location services switched on;
• a working email address and a way to pay the AUD20 service fee.

In the app you scan your passport, take a live photo, answer questions on criminal convictions, previous names and your contact details in Australia, then pay and submit. Check every detail before you press submit. Home Affairs cannot change an ETA once it is issued, and a mismatch with your passport can mean delays at boarding or refused entry.

Families still apply one person at a time, but if everyone uses the same phone you can submit and pay together. A friend, relative or travel agent can apply for you only while you are physically with them, because the app needs your live photo. Home Affairs will not grant an ETA without it.

The ETA is tied to the passport you scanned. If you renew your passport, the ETA ends and you apply again, so sort out a renewal that is due soon before you apply.

The official eVisitor and ETA routes cost nothing or AUD20, so skip paid middlemen

Home Affairs offers the eVisitor free through ImmiAccount and the ETA only through its own app. A website that charges you to fill in an eVisitor is selling a form you can submit yourself at no cost. A site that promises an ETA without the app does not match the process Home Affairs describes, since every ETA needs a live photo taken in the app.

For help, GOV.UK points British travellers to the Australian High Commission in London. The High Commission's visa page says its staff cannot assist with visa enquiries. It sends callers to the Global Service Centre on +61 2 6196 0196, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm your local time. It also recommends making no non-refundable travel commitments until your visa is granted.

Australia's authorities set and enforce these rules, and they can change. Check the Home Affairs visa pages and GOV.UK again in the week you fly.

Passports on neither list use the Visitor visa

UK residents and international students whose passports are on neither list, such as Indian passports, need a different visa. Home Affairs points them to the Visitor visa Tourist stream, applied for from outside Australia through ImmiAccount. It costs from AUD250 per applicant, and health checks, police certificates or biometrics can add to that.

It is slower than the eVisitor or ETA. In Home Affairs' current processing guide, half of Tourist stream applications were decided within 21 days and 90% within 33 days. The stay is set case by case: Home Affairs usually grants 3 months and may grant up to 12 months in certain circumstances.

Working in Australia needs a Working Holiday or skills visa

Neither visitor visa allows paid work. For a gap year or a working break, UK passport holders aged 18 to 35 can apply for the Working Holiday visa (subclass 417), and the age limit runs on Australian time. Your application must go in before midnight Australian Eastern time on the day before your 36th birthday.

Under the UK Working Holiday arrangements, UK passports, including British National (Overseas) passports, can hold up to three separate 12-month Working Holiday visas. Since 1 July 2024 they can do so without the 'specified work' that other passports need for a second or third visa. You do not have to stay three years in a row.

Home Affairs lists the first Working Holiday visa at AUD840. You apply from outside Australia and must enter within 12 months of the grant. You apply on your own, and dependent children cannot come with you on this visa. You also need enough money to support yourself, which Home Affairs puts at about AUD5,000 plus your onward fare. To manage high demand, Home Affairs says it is spreading out processing for most Working Holiday applications and expects the average to be around three months. It asks you not to book flights or make travel, work or study commitments until the visa is granted.

Skilled UK citizens with an Australian job offer have another route under the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement: the Innovation and Early Careers Skills Exchange Pilot. Its Early Careers stream gives a 12-month visa to tertiary-qualified applicants aged 21 to 45 with at least 3 months in their current role. The Innovation stream gives a three-year visa, with no age cap, to highly skilled, experienced applicants who can show a contribution to innovation in their field. Employers do not need to sponsor either one.

Changing planes in Australia can be visa-free under strict rules

All non-citizens need a visa or permission to enter Australia, even in transit. UK citizens can transit without a visa only when all of these apply:

• you arrive by air;
• you hold a confirmed flight to a third country that leaves within 8 hours of arriving;
• you hold valid documents for your destination;
• you stay in the transit lounge and never clear immigration.

If you need to clear immigration, for example to collect bags between flights, you need a visa. An eVisitor or ETA covers a transit stop, and the separate Transit visa (subclass 771) is free for stays of up to 72 hours.

Landing in Australia means a passenger card, SmartGates and a biosecurity check

The Australian Border Force runs the arrival process. In order:

1. Fill in the Incoming Passenger Card, handed out on the plane or in the terminal. It must be in English and asks for your passport number, flight, address in Australia, customs and quarantine answers, and questions on health and criminal convictions. Parents can complete it for their children.
2. On some Qantas flights you may be invited to use the Australia Travel Declaration in the Qantas app instead. The Border Force is piloting it on Qantas flights into Brisbane and selected flights into Sydney and Melbourne. Anyone not invited keeps using the paper card.
3. Use the arrivals SmartGates if you can. A kiosk reads your passport and prints a ticket, then a gate checks your face. The Border Force sets out who can use SmartGates: travellers aged 7 or more and at least 1.1m tall with a valid passport. Under-16s need a parent or guardian with them.
4. Declare food, animal products and plant material, including wooden items, or drop them in the bins provided. You must also declare contact with farms, farm animals, wilderness areas or freshwater streams or lakes in the past 30 days. Bags are X-rayed, and GOV.UK warns of heavy fines for breaking quarantine rules.
5. Hand your SmartGate ticket and passenger card to a Border Force official on your way out.

Getting online on arrival day

The visa itself needs nothing from your phone at the border. The rest of arrival day does: a check of your visa conditions in VEVO, maps, messages home and the ride to your hotel. HelloRoam's Australia plans list Optus as their network. A plan starts when your phone first connects in Australia, so you can set up the eSIM at home before you fly.

The plans carry data only. Keep your UK SIM switched on for texts such as bank codes. Set the eSIM as your mobile data line, with its data roaming on. If your UK SIM has its own data roaming switch, as on iPhone and Google Pixel, turn it off so it cannot use data at your UK network's roaming rates. If one switch covers the whole phone, as on a Samsung Galaxy, leave it on. Turn off automatic data switching instead, so data stays on the eSIM. Before you buy, check that your phone supports eSIM.

A year on a working holiday needs far more data than a fortnight's holiday, so estimate how much data you need before you pick a plan. If you are only changing planes airside, you may not need mobile data at all.