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Type of project Electronic border control system Country Australia and New Zealand Launched 2007; 10 years ago (2007)
Brisbane Airport Budget Capital cost: NZD $15.9m
Operational cost: NZD $7.4m | ||
SmartGate is an electronic border control system introduced in 2007 developed by the Australian Border Force. The service was introduced to facilitate faster and more secure travel between countries by performing passport control checks electronically.
Contents
Travellers require a biometric passport to use the service as it uses information from the passport (such as photograph, name and date of birth) and in the respective countries databases (i.e. banned travellers database) to decide whether to grant entry / departure from the country or to generate a referral to a customs agent. These checks would otherwise require manual processing by a human which is time-consuming, costly and potentially error-prone.
History
Originally launched at Brisbane Airport, SmartGate is now available for use at most international airports across Australia and New Zealand.
2002
First trial of SmartGate begins with Qantas aircrew.
2004
Trials expanded from use with Qantas aircrew to include over 1,000 Qantas platinum frequent flyers.
2007
Introduced to the public at Brisbane Airport.
2009
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, as part of an official visit to Australia, struck an agreement between himself and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to allow Trans-Tasman travellers to "transit through the entire [customs] process within eight minutes" to further free up the already liberal travel arrangements between the two nations.
Eligibility
Travellers are still required to make arrangements for a valid visa and to complete an arrival / departure card in order to comply with travel requirements. In order for the system to be process travellers, they are advised to look as much like their passport photo as possible. This means removing any glasses or hats when using SmartGate.
Requirements
Departing travellers, regardless of age and nationality, can use SmartGate so long as they have a machine-readable passport.
Arriving travellers using SmartGate must:
Exceptions
There are a number of notable exceptions when entering and departing Australia and using SmartGate.
Locations
In Australia SmartGate is available at all major international airports, including:
Requirements
Arriving travellers using SmartGate must:
Locations
In New Zealand SmartGate is available at all major international airports (with the exception of Dunedin), including:
Privacy
The personal information collected by SmartGate includes the information on the biometric page of the passport, such as:
Other information may also be collected and collated, such as:
Travellers passports are no longer stamped if they are processed by SmartGate.