Commonwealth legislation

Migration Act 1958 - Determination under section 175A - Eligible Passports - August 2007

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

1/10 complexity

What this does: This short document sets the rules for who can use automated border gates (like SmartGate) at Australian airports instead of lining up to see an immigration officer. It declares that only two types of passports qualify as "eligible passports": Australian ePassports and New Zealand ePassports (the modern passports with a digital chip).

Who it affects: Travelers entering Australia who hold these specific biometric passports.

Why it matters: It creates the legal basis for automated immigration clearance. If your passport isn't on this short list (e.g., a traditional paper passport from another country), you must be cleared by a human officer. This determination essentially draws a line between "fast track" self-service entry and standard manual processing.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Migration Act 1958 - Determination under section 175A - Eligible Passports - August 2007.

Migration Act 1958 - Determination under section 175A - Eligible Passports - August 2007

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Commonwealth of Australia

Migration Act 1958

ELIGIBLE PASSPORTS

(SECTION 175A)

I, ANDREW METCALFE, Secretary to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, acting under subsection 175A:

DETERMINE that for the purposes of section 165, the following kinds of passports are “eligible passports”:

Australian ePassports; and
New Zealand ePassports.

This Instrument, IMMI 07/030 will take effect 27 August 2007.

Dated 24 August 2007

ANDREW METCALFE

Secretary to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship

[NOTE 1: Section 165 of the Act provides that ‘eligible passport’ means a passport of a kind specified in a determination under section 175A.

NOTE 2: Section 166 provides, relevantly, that a person who holds an eligible passport may, in certain circumstances, be immigration cleared via an authorised system, rather than an immigration clearance officer.

NOTE 3: Section 175A provides that for the purposes of Division 5 of Part 2, which deals with immigration clearance, the Minister or the Secretary may determine, by legislative instrument, that a specified kind of passport is an eligible passport.]

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 Migration Act 1958 - Determination under section 175A - Eligible Passports - August 2007