I’ve found a statement from Services Australia about how the new international vaccination certificates will work for those of us who are dual citizens. Previous posts in this thread have provided basic details of the certificates (ICAO-compliant Visual Digital Seal etc) which will start to become available this month, but the certificate’s link to the subject’s Australian passport left me still uncertain about proof of vaccination when entering another country on a non-AU passport.
The Senate Covid-10 Enquiry took evidence from Services Australia on 30 Sep. Reading the transcript over the weekend I came across this passage which I don’t think has been reported by the media:
‘Senator KITCHING: I want to go to passports. There was a briefing given yesterday by Mr Robert and Senator Reynolds. You put in your passport number, there's back-end work, and your passport is then listed as having a certificate. But what happens with dual or multiple passport holders—people who may go out of the country on one passport because, say, they're lucky enough to be going to Europe? What happens if they come back on another? What happens if they're dual passport holders?
Mr Howard: There is the digital process, which Mr McHardie described earlier, which is for Australian passport holders—Australian citizens. For those people out there who have a dual citizenship, at the moment there's an assisted staff channel to enable them to get the certificate. They just need to ring Services Australia and we will be able to help them get the certificate for their foreign passport as well. There are plans in place for us to automate that process—to give a digital option to dual citizens—but that's going to take us a little bit more time. In the meantime, there's a staff assisted channel. You just need to ring the agency.’
To see this exchange in context it’s on p16 of the PDF of the transcript
here; other discussion of the international certificate (as reported in the media) is on p11.
www.smh.com.au
