Is the golden age of visa-free (and fee-free) travel over for Aussies?

We’ve had it good for decades, but after a golden age of visa-free entry, requirements are tightening. Countries that once allowed you to enter just by flashing your Australian passport are tightening the rules.

According to the Henley Passport Index, which ranks the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a visa, Australian passport holders have the right of visa-free entry to 186 countries. That puts us in sixth place on the table of the world’s most desirable passports, tied with the UK and one rung on the ladder below New Zealand and Swiss passport holders. It’s a great number – there are only 195 countries in the world according to the United Nations – but many of those countries require Australians to apply and pay for a visa waiver. Among them are the countries we’re most likely to visit, and that number is increasing.

Countries that once allowed Australian passport holders to enter without a visa now require them to apply.Credit: Getty Images

Visas, visa waivers and e-visas – what’s the difference?

A visa is an official authorisation from a foreign government allowing you to enter their country for a specific purpose and duration. They’re issued by the country’s consulate, embassy or an immigration authority. To obtain a visa, you need to fill in an application form, pay a fee and submit it together with your passport, either electronically or in person at the country’s diplomatic mission.

A visa waiver is a less stringent entry requirement than a visa. It allows visitors from approved countries to enter for a specific period without a visa. In general, visa waivers are granted to citizens of those countries that are not considered a security risk, and with a low probability of overstaying the time they are allowed to remain in the country. For more than a decade, Australians have been allowed to enter the US with an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA), a visa waiver.

Many countries that once allowed visitors from approved countries to enter without a visa now require them to apply for a visa waiver. For example, Australian passport holders have been able to enter Britain just by showing their passport at the immigration counter. That ended on January 8, 2025, when a new rule came into effect requiring Australians entering the UK for business or pleasure to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).

Starting from the last quarter of 2026, Australians will need to apply for a European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) visa waiver to enter most European countries.

On the bright side, neither the UK’s ETA nor the EU’s ETIAS system affect the time Australians are allowed to remain in those countries, which is six months in the case of Britain and 90 days in the EU’s Schengen Zone area. When those 90 days are up, the traveller is not permitted to re-enter the countries of the Schengen Zone plus most of Europe’s non-Schengen countries and micro-states for a further 90 days.

The process of applying for a visa waiver is simpler than a visa application. Go to the country’s visa website, answer a few questions, pay a fee and you can expect a response within a few days. The fee is typically low. The USA’s ESTA costs $US21 ($33.80), the EU’s ETIAS will cost €7 ($12.70) and the UK’s ETA is £16 ($33.50).

Visa waivers might sound unnecessary or even sinister, but they’re a way for countries to monitor who is within their borders and how long they’ve been there. Australia has had a visa waiver system in place for several years, available to all travellers who do not require a visa to enter the country.

An e-visa is simply an electronic visa, and the application is completed via a website. It can be either a visa, such as the Indian e-visa for which Australians are eligible, or a visa waiver.

Submitting an e-visa application online is fast and convenient, and there’s no need to send your passport to a consulate or embassy to be stamped, but the advent of e-visas has also opened the door to scammers.

There are plenty of fake websites that offer to help you obtain a visa or visa waiver but do nothing apart from submitting the application form on your behalf and charging an exorbitant fee for doing it. It’s essential to apply at the official government website, usually identifiable by the “.gov” in the website’s URL.