Life in Australia Guide

An Australian visa is linked to your passport details. If you have renewed your passport, or lost it and been issued a new one, Home Affairs (the Department of Home Affairs) says: "Tell us when you get a new passport." This is so that your new passport can be linked to your existing visa or application, and the fastest way is ImmiAccount. This guide sets out the steps in order: reporting a lost or stolen passport to the police and contacting your country's embassy or consulate, telling Home Affairs about the new passport, and rechecking in VEVO (Visa Entitlement Verification Online). Home Affairs notes that a change in circumstances may affect your visa, but this guide does not assess individual effects.

There are currently two pathways for giving Home Affairs your new passport details. The standard one is changing your passport details in ImmiAccount (the Home Affairs online services account), which Home Affairs describes as the fastest method. In a few cases that ImmiAccount cannot handle, use the New Passport Details web form. The paper Form 929 cannot be used from 25 November 2024.

Before you enter your new passport details, check three things: whether your application appears in ImmiAccount (if it does not, whether it can be imported and whether the web form applies), whether the new passport details you need to enter are ready, and whose passport you are reporting. Check each item against the Home Affairs guidance.

• Can you see your application in ImmiAccount? — if not, check whether it can be imported; if it cannot, use the web form
• New passport details — number, country of issue, issue and expiry dates; the web form also needs a copy of the photo page
• Whose passport is it? — the web form lets you choose yourself, your child (under 18) or another person; another person's passport needs documents such as written consent

The web form's reasons: name, date of birth or gender change; lost or stolen; a new passport from a different country from the one on record; expiry or replacement. Start with the card that fits your situation.

Start at step 1 if your passport was lost or stolen, or step 3 if you already have a new one. Follow each organisation's own advice for your case.

• Police report (lost or stolen) — where to report differs by state, so check your state police's official website. The embassy or consulate of your passport's issuing country decides whether a report (number) is required
• Ask your country's embassy or consulate about a replacement — find it in DFAT's list of embassies and consulates in Australia, and follow its guidance on requirements and procedures
• Tell Home Affairs when you get your new passport — ImmiAccount is the fastest method; use the web form if it applies to you
• Recheck in VEVO after processing — look up your visa with your new passport details, and if you get an error, check for input mistakes first
• Check with other organisations separately — banks, employers, schools, Medicare, licences and the ATO each differ on whether they need your updated passport number, so check each one's official guidance

These are misconceptions and mistakes that often come up when linking a new passport. Check the following five first.

• Assuming an ETA 601 can also just be linked — an ETA cannot be transferred, and you must apply for a new one with your new passport
• Looking for the Form 929 you saw online — the paper Form 929 cannot be used from 25 November 2024. Use ImmiAccount or the web form
• Confusing ImmiAccount with the web form — if ImmiAccount can handle your case, use Update details in ImmiAccount, not the web form
• Thinking you are done once you have told other organisations — telling banks, schools and others is separate from telling Home Affairs about your new passport
• Entering passport details without checking them — check the number and dates against the photo page of your new passport. The form warns that giving false or misleading information is a serious offence