News

Over the holiday period, you can start a passport application online and lodge it at Australia Post. Make sure to check Australia Post’s opening hours.   

Australian Passport Offices (APO), including the APO contact centre, will operate as follows:   

Collecting a passport:    

• If you asked to collect your passport, you can get it from the following locations.    

Notarial services:   

• An appointment to lodge documents for legalisation must be made via the Smartraveller website. Limited notarial services are available between 23 and 31 December. If you require urgent assistance, you can email legalisations.australia@dfat.gov.au.    

On closed days:   

• All APO sites, including the APO contact centre, will be closed.   
• For urgent passport enquiries, emergency consular assistance can be provided by our Consular Emergency Centre (CEC).  

Please note: The CEC is only available for compassionate or compelling reasons, such as the death or serious illness of an immediate family member, or an unexpected need for urgent business travel.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is aware of a cyber incident impacting health care service provider, JewishCare. 

JewishCare’s  investigation into the cyber incident has found the personal details of a number of its clients were compromised, potentially including images of up to 1,000 Australian passports.

JewishCare will be contacting impacted individuals directly.

Affected Australian passports are still safe to use for international travel. Your passport number cannot be used to obtain a new passport. Robust controls are used to protect passports from identity takeover, including sophisticated facial-recognition technology.  

See our page on protecting against scams and identity theft for more advice on how to safeguard your personal information.  

You can also seek help from IDCARE, a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in providing advice and support to Australians on how to respond to identity theft.    

More advice on what you can do to protect yourself and your family from cyber security incidents is available on the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) webpage at:  www.cyber.gov.au.

Have you recently lodged your passport application and are wondering where it’s up to? 

With our status tracker, you can check the progress of your passport application online, right up until its ready to be collected or posted out. 

It also gives you an estimated date for when your passport will be ready to collect or post. 

All passports can be tracked using this tool, including child, priority and fast-track applications, as well as applications lodged overseas.   

You can also check the status of your application by logging into your AusPassport account. Sign in from the apply or renew page and go to the ‘Check your application’s status’ section.

 Check the progress of your application online today!

Did you know over 30,000 Australian passports were lost or stolen in 2023-24?

This Fraud Awareness Week we’d like to remind you that identity thieves target passports. They can use your passport information for criminal purposes, like opening bank accounts, or applying for loans in your name.

Make sure you always keep your passport in a safe and secure place. 

If your passport is lost or stolen, you must tell us. Phone us on 131 232 or contact your nearest Australian diplomatic or consular mission. 

We’ll cancel your passport and tell border authorities in Australia and overseas. This helps stop criminals misusing your passport. 

If you find your passport again, we can’t undo the cancellation so don’t try to travel on it.

For more information, visit our lost or stolen passport page.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is aware of a cyber incident impacting Bloom Hearing Australia. 

Bloom Hearing Australia’s investigation into the cyber incident has found the personal details of a number of its clients were compromised, including images of Australian and foreign passports. 

Bloom Hearing Australia has contacted impacted individuals directly.

Affected Australian passports are still safe to use for international travel. Your passport number cannot be used to obtain a new passport. Robust controls are used to protect passports from identity takeover, including sophisticated facial-recognition technology.  

See our page on protecting against scams and identity theft for more advice on how to safeguard your personal information.  

You can also seek help from IDCARE, a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in providing advice and support to Australians on how to respond to identity theft.     

More advice on what you can do to protect yourself and your family from cyber security incidents is available on the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) webpage at: www.cyber.gov.au.

If you’re a foreign passport holder whose personal details have been compromised, you should contact the government that issued your passport for further advice what to do.  Please refer to DFAT’s list of foreign government representatives based in Australia.