Entry to Australia

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Arrival in Australia is fairly straightforward, if occasionally time-consuming.

On the flight, you will receive an arrival card that you need to fill out. Answer this honestly, and if you have any doubt about the answers to the "are you bringing in X" questions, answer "Yes". Australia has very strict biosecurity requirements for food, untreated wood, soil etc. If you declare, the worst that can happen is that the item is confiscated; if you don't declare, you can be heavily fined.

Once you've landed, follow the crowds to Immigration for passport control. Nationals of a select few countries (at time of writing, Canada, Ireland, NZ, Singapore, Switzerland, UK, USA) can use the SmartGate automated system, but I presume you're not a citizen of these, so you'll need to queue up in the Non-Australian Citizens line, which can take some time.

If your visa is in order and you can answer the Immigration officer's questions satisfactorily, your passport will be stamped and you'll continue to baggage claim. Keep the arrival card!

Pick up your bags and head to Customs. The queues here can be long: at peak times, an hour is not unusual. Here your arrival card will again be inspected and you'll be asked if you have any food or other items to declare. (Again, answer honestly!) Depending on your answers, whether you have raised any suspicions plus the odds of a random check, you will either:

  1. be sent straight through with no checks
  2. have your bags sniffed by a Customs dog looking for food and drugs
  3. have your bags X-rayed
  4. have your bags manually opened and inspected

And that's it -- you're in Australia!

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