AustralianETA 4+

Writing a review because I want to give proper credit to a great app to apply for AUS visa. I finished my application within 5 minutes. Also got approved within 5 -10 min. When scanning the passport, I opened it flat to the page where my photo and info is and placed my phone on the center of the page. It vibrated and picked up the chip right away so I let it do it’s thing, which allowed me to go to the next step. Make sure you take your photo with a blank wall behind you so it doesn’t pick up other images. The selfie was easy enough and got accepted; even though you don’t see what your selfie looks like, it doesn’t matter because it takes the photo from your passport anyway once I completed the whole process. It’s really easy. Sorry for those who struggled or have issues. I don’t believe this is the app’s error.

App worked well for us. Not sure what our selfie pictures look like (no way to review) but our ETAs were granted within minutes of applying. We found 2 passport apps on the Apple app site where you can practice taking a photo of your passport data page and practice reading the chip on the back page of the passport. Wish they had added practice taking the selfie getting it set within the oval before it takes the picture automatically. It appears that many of the one star reviews are from countries other than the USA. Hope Australia can fix whatever the problem is. I think an online option would help those that don’t have technology skills using an app on a mobile phone.

1) The video instructions for US passport chip reading are incorrect. My family has a mix of the old/new style passports, and they all scanned on the front or inside cover, not the info page. 2) Reading the chip is super glitchy. It worked instantly on the 3rd try for each passport… so I think it’s a glitch rather than trying to get the chip read correctly.
3) How to handle minors is a mess, and there are zero instructions or resources available on what to do. There are no options to adjust it to a minor, so you have to fill it out as if they are an adult. And good look trying to get a small child to do the photo thing correctly. It took multiple tries with a 3 yr old, Im pretty sure it would be impossible with a kid younger than that.

Overall, this process took an hour to submit 4 visas for my family, with a lot of glitches. The old online process took about 10 min, so I would definitely say the app is a big step backwards. But we got our visas in the end, so it works.