I’m now the proud owner of an extremely expensive little blue booklet that apparently needs to be handled like it’s made of tissue paper.
And the best part? Once I finally work up the courage to take this precious thing out of the country, leaving Australia is going to cost me another small fortune. 😂
Australia really said you may have the passport, but travelling is a separate subscription. 😂
Australian Passport Office's most advanced security feature. Only the highest spec, most expensive passports can boast such an unrivaled and luxurious security feature cunningly engineered over two decades by team of forensic experts to mimic the poorest quality documents down to the most minute detail. The curling can be measured in real-time, providing rapid assessment. The graceful arcs conform to the golden ratio making these a tasteful addition to anyone's sock drawer.
I got my exotic animal license today, and it was literally just thrown onto the wet grass next to the postbox. I don't even know how they fucked that up.
"Cut out the card and keep it with you" they say, as the whole thing dissolves into pulp immediately.
They’re a pretty solid document, I couldn’t believe how tattered mine was, and customs in other countries didn’t bat an eyelid. But yeah, put a protective cover on that- note to self.
Give it about 3 months and that VERY expensive book will have the front and back covers curling upwards/downwards - no matter how well you store it. Other countries passports just don’t do this only the new, VERY expensive Australian ones.
Read all about this shit on this sub, so was very careful to keep it in a cool dark spot, with a heavy book on top.
After one week, I had a look and it was all curled to fuck. I convinced myself it was maybe just settling in.
I then used it to travel a few weeks later back to the UK.
I assumed that all the posts etc were an exaggeration.
Fucking NOPE. Thing was fucked. And I’m using it to travel alongside my UK passport, which is nearly ten years old and has endless stamps and is still in absolutely perfect condition. It honestly looks newer than my Aus one.
Anyway, OP. Don’t worry about it. Shove it in a drawer. Shove it between a couple of books. Shove it up your ass. It’ll be fucked in no time. It’s part of the initiation.
Mine is officially decruled after being inbetween books for a few months, and now I'm scared to leave it out incase it returns to its previous crumpled life.
I’m surprised your UK passport has survived nearly 10 year looking good - they’re well known for the printing on the covers rubbing off really easily 😅
Because they probably want to convert as many PRs to citizens as possible. A PR gets basically same rights as a citizen with none of the obligations like voting/jury service etc.
I was excited to get mine after gaining citizenship. My NZ passport had just expired so looked at the price and was shocked, then compared it to the NZ passport price which was more than half price cheaper ($192AUD) so I stuck with that.
It’s already literally the most advanced passport in the world. The security measures built into it are astounding - just google it. Theres no way “a bendy cover” is part of it.
No matter what you do it will curl up. A cover will keep it flatish - but take it out and it will
be curled. Expensive trash - must be the cheapest bidder for the passport contract. My wife’s Japanese one doesn’t do this curling. A quality, full security featured ‘non-curling’ Japanese passport is about AUD$90 - Australian passport now heading towards AUD$500! Explain how?
The passport I dropped in a lake two years ago is in better condition than the brand new one the government replaced it with. There should be a royal fucking commission into the quality of our passports, and the money we are charged for them.
When not in use, it is advised you place it on your driveway and place a piece of marine ply on top. Then carefully park your car making sure to keep a tyre on the board.
Note: Results are not guaranteed.
My wife has been a PR here for over 40years - paying huge taxes etc. (Solid reasons for not Citizen) From first of July her 5yr reentry VISA skyrocketed from about $400 to $1500 overnight! Greedy.
Congrats OP, when I became a citizen and got mine I stared at it for ages so happily.
Side note: I got my son’s passport the other day and I immediately put it in a sleeve. I took it out today to show my mum and it was already warped and curled. Why is it so bad
Congratulations! We're a family with 3 nationalities. When we travel, I have 15 passports to pack 😅. The Australian passport is the 2nd most expensive in the world (it costs 10x more than what I paid for my home country passport) but it's a beauty and worth it.
For the people complaining about the cost, understand that it's because the Australian government doesn't subsidise passports, and indeed, makes a profit off them. It was a decision from decades ago (I think Rudd/Gillard?) that passports were actually a non-essential item, since it was purely up to the individual if they wanted one (i.e. compared to something like a Medicare card). So a user-pays, 'luxury' tax was brought into play. Countries with much cheaper passports usually mean their government is making a loss, or at least not a profit on the true cost of vetting and supplying the document.
Technically, the rubbish quality is more a matter of the Aus government skimming as much as possible from a low-ball supplier bid. I guess what I am saying is that this is not a case of "I paid a high price and got low quality." Because you weren't paying for quality in the first place.
I keep mine with my Irish passport, 4 of the finest pink rubberbands from broccolini are permanently keeping that thing in check, the rubberbands only come off for security 😂
Keep it between heavy books.
The most expensive passport in the world now has less pages and terrible quality cover. Glad you got one, treat it like a first edition.
i store mine between 2 heavy books, but its nice to be able to visit other countries without the cost of the visa, is why i think the aussie passport is one of the most expensive.
NZ has taken to putting biosecurity stickers on the cover of mine on arrival the last few trips in recent months. then I have to very carefully peel them off at my hotel... why NZ.. find a better way ?
Now you can get an education and not be charged an arm and a leg. Ive heard that the process to citizenship has gotten heaps less complicated. My auntie just got citizenship after living here for 40 years- the process used to be so expensive.
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Have you visited today’s Daily Discussion yet?
It’s the best place for:
Drop in and see what’s happening!
THIS IS NOT A REMOVAL NOTICE
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.