Documents You Must Have Notarised for an Australian Transit Visa

No document needs notarising for an Australian Transit visa. What Home Affairs asks for, when last checked, is certified copies of your passport pages and any national identity card. Those are certified by an eligible person in the country where you live. A notary matters only for your onward destination, or for a child's travel consent.

Key takeaways

• Many travellers need no Transit visa at all. Check whether you can transit without a visa, or whether a visa you already hold covers it.
• The Transit visa (subclass 771) page asked for certified copies of identity documents, and original police certificates where requested. Certified is not the same as notarised.
• Applying from outside Australia, a certifier who is a citizen of the country you are in, not related to you and in a listed occupation can usually certify.
• Documents for your onward destination are that country's business. Finish them before you leave home.
• You cannot see an Australian notary while in transit airside. A notary must see you in person.

Do you need a Transit visa at all?

Start here, because the answer is often no. Home Affairs lets some travellers transit without a visa if they meet its conditions, including staying airside and flying on within a set time. Others already hold a visa that permits transit, such as an electronic travel authority, an eVisitor or a Visitor visa. A New Zealand passport holder eligible for a Special Category visa also does not usually need one.

Check the current conditions on the Home Affairs Transit visa page. Eligibility depends on your nationality, your route and your airline, and it changes. Do not rely on a forum post or an old booking.

When you do need one, the Transit visa is for passing through Australia on the way to another country within a short window set by Home Affairs, or for joining the crew of an eligible ship. It needs evidence of an onward booking and the correct documents to enter the next country.

What does the Transit visa ask for?

When last checked, the Transit visa page listed, for an ordinary transit:

• a certified copy of the pages of your current passport showing your photo, personal details, and issue and expiry dates;
• a certified copy of your national identity card, both sides, if you have one;
• a recent passport-sized photograph;
• your plans while in Australia and confirmation of your onward booking;
• evidence you can enter the next country, such as a visa for it.

The page also said not to certify police certificates, because Home Affairs wants the originals of those. For other documents, including non-English documents and their English translations, it asked for certified copies. Sea crew joining a ship have their own list, including crew documents and a Maritime Crew visa.

This is a real requirement, and it is worth getting right. But it is a requirement for a certified copy, not a notarised one.

Who can certify a copy for Home Affairs?

A certified copy is a copy confirmed as a true copy of the original by an authorised person. Home Affairs publishes the rules on its certified copy page.

In short, the certifier should not be related to you and should work in one of the occupations Home Affairs lists. Inside Australia, the certifier should be an Australian citizen. If you are applying from outside Australia and do not know an Australian citizen, the certifier can be a citizen of the country you are in, who meets the same conditions. The certifier sees your original and your copy together and confirms they match.

Because a Transit visa applicant is almost always outside Australia, the certifier is almost always in the applicant's own country. An Australian notary has no role here, and paying one from abroad is not possible anyway. A notary in your own country may be on the list of eligible occupations there, but so are many others.

Step	What it is	Needed for a Transit visa?
Certified copy	An eligible person confirms a copy matches the original	Yes, for identity documents, when last checked
Notarised copy	A notary certifies the copy under seal and records it	No
Apostille or legalisation	A government authenticates a signature and seal for use abroad	No
Original	The document itself	Police certificates only, where requested

Where does a notary actually come in?

Documents for the onward destination

If you are transiting Australia, you are going somewhere. That country has its own entry requirements, and they can be substantial: a work permit, a study permit, proof of a relationship, a police certificate or a qualification.

That is where notarisation lives. A document issued overseas for use in another country is notarised and authenticated in the country that issued it. A document issued in Australia for use overseas is notarised here if needed, then apostilled by DFAT where the destination is a Hague Convention member. Where it is not, DFAT authenticates it and the destination's embassy or consulate legalises it. None of that has anything to do with your transit through Australia, and it must be finished before you leave home.

A child in transit

A child travelling alone, with one parent, or with a relative is the most common real reason someone in this situation needs a notary. The requirement usually comes from the airline and from the departure country's border authority, not from the Australian transit arrangement. It typically takes the form of a consent letter from the non-travelling parent, notarised, and sometimes apostilled or legalised as well.

Requirements differ by carrier and by departure country, so confirm with both. Unaccompanied minor services are booked separately from the ticket and have their own paperwork. A consenting parent who lives in Australia can sign before an Australian notary; see travel consent letters.

Crew and seafarers

People joining a ship's crew often carry employment, medical and certification documents. Where an employer, a maritime authority or a foreign port wants those authenticated, that is ordinary notarial and legalisation work, done before travel. The employer or the flag or port state sets the rules. Ask them in writing, and do not rely on a general page like this one.

Can you see a notary during a stopover?

No, not airside. If you are transiting airside, you have not entered Australia and cannot attend a notary. A notary needs the signatory in person, with original identification, in the notary's presence.

If you will need something notarised in Australia, you need a visa that permits entry and enough time in the country to arrange it. A Transit visa's short window is not built for that. Plan it before you book, or have the document signed before you leave home. See getting an Australian document signed from overseas for the options when you are abroad.

How should you carry sealed documents through a transit port?

This is a practical warning rather than a legal one. Notarised and legalised documents are often bound, sealed and ribboned in a way that must not be disturbed.

Transit is not where documents for another country are assessed. Carry them intact and present them where they are actually required.

What about translations?

For the Transit visa, Home Affairs asks for all non-English documents to be translated into English, with both the original and the translation provided. Translators in Australia must be accredited by NAATI. Translators outside Australia need not be, but each translation must show their full name, address, telephone number, and qualifications and experience in the language.

For a document going on to another country, that country sets the translation standard. A notary does not translate. A notary can witness a translator's declaration and bind the translation to the original, if the receiving authority wants that. See NAATI translation with a notary.

In what order should you prepare?

1. Check whether you need a Transit visa at all, on the current Home Affairs page.
2. Finish the onward country's documents first, in the country that issued them.
3. Arrange any child consent the airline or departure country wants, where the parent actually is.
4. Have identity copies certified by an eligible person where you live, if you need a Transit visa.
5. Apply with the onward booking and evidence you can enter the next country.

Everything on that list must be finished before you begin travelling. Nothing on it can be done at an airport.

Here is an illustration, not a real case

A nurse from Kathmandu is flying to Auckland for a new job, changing planes in Sydney. She checks the Home Affairs page and finds she needs a Transit visa. A local lawyer she is not related to certifies copies of her passport pages in Kathmandu. Her New Zealand work documents, including her registration papers, are prepared and authenticated in Nepal before she leaves. Nothing is notarised in Australia, and nothing needs to be.

In short

An Australian Transit visa needs certified copies of identity documents, when last checked, not notarised ones. Those are made by an eligible person in the applicant's own country. A notary comes in for the onward destination or a child's travel consent, and all of it must be finished before you travel. See document notarisation for when an Australian notary genuinely fits.

People also search for

• Do tourist visa documents need notarising?
• What does a student visa need certified?
• Do New Zealand visa documents need a notary?
• Which documents do I need to work overseas?
• When do visa documents need a notary?

Told a transit document must be notarised? Send us who asked and what they said, and we will explain each step before you book.