How to fill in the Incoming Passenger Card on Arrival to Australia.

Incoming Passenger Card or Arrival to Australia.

Most of the Australian Incoming Passenger Card is quite simple to complete, but the ‘reason for your entry into Australia’ is sometimes a bit difficult, for some visa holders.

You have three options

  • A – Migrating permanently to Australia
  • B – Visitor or temporary entrant
  • C – Resident returning to Australia

A PR visa holder coming to Australia for the first time, would correctly tick “A”.
A Visitor Visa or Student Visa holder would correctly tick “B”.
A Citizen or a PR visa holder, coming back to Australia, would correctly tick “C”.

820 Temporary visa.

Most Immigration staff at the airport have stated that a subclass 820 temporary visa holder is classed as PR, so they would tick “C Resident returning to Australia”

300 or 309 Temporary Visa.

Someone on a subclass 300 or 309 visa, which is a Temporary Visa, might be confused.
Are they: “A”, migrating permanently, which is actually their intention, or is it “B”, a temporary entrant, as they have a Temporary visa.

My personal view is that selecting “A – Migrating permanently to Australia” would be right for a 300 or 309 visa holder, as they are migrating permanently to Australia, unless Immigration refuse a visa later.


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An 820 visa holder, who is entitled to various benefits that a PR gets in Australia, and who is often classed as Tax Resident in Australia, and is physically resident in Australia, could in many ways quite correctly tick “C – Resident returning to Australia”.

This is an image of the “Reason for your entry into Australia” part.

Incoming Passenger card

We did “B – Visitor or temporary entrant” on first arrival on a 12 months visitor visa, while the subclass 300 visa was processing.

After 6 months of residing in Australia, albeit on a visitor visa, we did: “A – Migrating permanently to Australia”, when coming back into Australia on the subclass 300 visa, after a 7 day holiday trip outside Australia.

2 years later, we did: “C – Resident returning to Australia”, after returning from a holiday while on the 820 visa, but before getting PR.

Full example of Incoming Passenger Card at abf.gov.au/…/ipc-sample-english.pdf

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The information we give is based on personal experiences, reading and formulation of available statistics.
Some Visa Applicants might find an Experienced Australian Migration Agent of great assistance. - ai16

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