Arrival, Immigration Clearance, And Entry – Incoming Passenger Card Procedural Instruction ​

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 28 Feb 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

This procedural instruction from November 2018 establishes the Department of Home Affairs' framework for administering Incoming Passenger Cards (IPCs) collected from travelers arriving in Australia. The document outlines the legal basis for IPC requirements under sections 166, 504, and 506 of the Migration Act, detailing completion protocols, health and character screening questions, exemptions, and processing procedures across different arrival contexts including airports, cruise ships, and international round-trip cruises. It specifies that IPCs must be completed in English, addresses third-party completion for unaccompanied minors, establishes referral protocols for visa determination officers when health or character concerns arise, and sets out consequences for refusal to complete cards by both non-citizens and Australian citizens. The instruction covers data collection, batching procedures, and the roles of various departmental sections including the Passenger Card Steering Committee and ABF Operations Systems Management Section in administering the system