You know these little green and yellow cards you are asked to fill in when arriving or leaving Australia? Are you all-too-familiar with the struggle of trying to find a pen (and a solid surface to lean on) to complete them as you wait in the immigration queue.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) has announced the outgoing passenger forms (the green ones) will be scrapped come 1st July, 2017.
"Removing paper-based manual processes is integral to achieving a seamless and automated traveller experience," a spokesperson for the DIBP tells SBS French.
The incoming passenger cards (the yellow ones) are remaining in place for now but it is expected they will soon scrapped by the end of 2018.
A total of 234,333 outgoing passenger card records went missing in the month of April 2017 alone
The cards are often a source of pain for travellers who are forced to find a pen, their passport and flight numbers as well as declare their job, foods in their bags and other personal information.
The news follows statistics released by the ABS earlier this month showing that a total of 234,333 outgoing passenger card records went missing in the month of April 2017 alone, in addition to another 2,179 incoming passenger cards that also went missing.
The DIBP and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will now focus on an electronic version of the system, which is thought to be more reliable.
A spokesperson for the DIBP tells SBS French, "The Government is focused on low contact automated border clearance processes and technologies to manage the 50 million travellers expected annually by 2020."
"As part of this work, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) has been reviewing the use of paper-based passenger cards. Removing paper-based manual processes is integral to achieving a seamless and automated traveller experience.
"Recognising the importance of the data collected on paper-based cards, DIBP has worked closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics to identify and successfully test alternate data sources instead of relying on manual collection by paper-based cards."
With all this is expected to stop soon and with more than 50 million travellers estimated to visit Australia in 2020, the government wants a more automated process and we can't blame them.
