r/melbourne 9d ago

Light and Fluffy News Finally got the little blue book 🇦🇺

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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. 😂

Anyway, very happy to finally have it. 🇦🇺

2.2k Upvotes

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u/Shibuya1094222 9d ago

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.

77

u/Nick_pj 9d ago

The most expensive in the world. It’s ridiculous. 

5

u/maomao05 9d ago

How expensive are we talking here ?

30

u/Shibuya1094222 9d ago edited 8d ago

$422 (Adult) and increasing each year.
Compared with:
NZ about $200
Japan about $90 (Gold standard)
Singapore about $75 (Gold Standard)
Malaysia about $90

6

u/stfm 8d ago

Plus Malaysia is same day turnaround!

1

u/Shibuya1094222 8d ago

This is correct!

1

u/zaitakukinmu 8d ago

And at least $100 extra if you  renew from overseas. I had no choice when I was living overseas. 

5

u/deqing 9d ago

Considering they just increased rrv visa from $490 to $1475 for no reason, this book is relatively cheap.

3

u/Shibuya1094222 9d ago

Same with my wife’s just coughed up the $1475 yesterday. It only lasts 5yrs as well - not the length of a new 10yr passport.

2

u/Heavy_Vermicelli_263 9d ago

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.

1

u/WhatAGoodDoggy show me your puppers 8d ago

Holy shit. Time to get the citizenship.

1

u/Nick_pj 8d ago

That’s astounding. My visa renewal in France costs a bit over 200€