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I am Australian, currently living in Madrid for just over a year now, and I want to return to Australia permanently around mid-September. I just realized my passport expires in late July and the embassy wants to charge me $400 to renew it; I'm almost out of cash as it is. Can I travel back to Australia with a passport that's been expired for 7 weeks?

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    You can usually receive an emergency travel certificate for free that is only valid for returning home.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Jul 7, 2017 at 13:31
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    You are asking two different things here. You can certainly re-enter Australia if you magically appear at Immigration there - you're still AU citizen, and you will be let in eventually (with the possibility of fine). However traveling to Australia is more difficult - it is unlikely a) the airline would check you in, especially if it is a non-direct flight, and b) EU passport control would let you out with an expired passport.
    – George Y.
    Jul 7, 2017 at 19:22
  • @GeorgeY. +1 good answer, you should add it, and I'll upvote. You might also emphasize that airlines are reluctant to board such passengers, even on non-stop flights, because of the hefty potential fines.
    – Giorgio
    Jul 8, 2017 at 15:22
  • The answer to this question is also helpful.
    – molypot
    Jul 9, 2017 at 11:51

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You are asking two different things here.

You can certainly re-enter Australia if you magically appear at Immigration there - you're still AU citizen, and you will be let in eventually (there is the possibility of a fine though).

However traveling to Australia would be much more difficult:

  • It is unlikely that the airline would check you in, especially if it is a non-direct flight - and as Dorothy mentioned above, even with direct flights they are reluctant because there is a possibility of a heavy fine. Note that the airline does not know whether you're still Australian citizen (as maybe you renounced it and didn't surrender your old passport). Also even a direct flight could possibly be diverted to another country due to weather or mechanical failure, and having such a passenger would make things quite complicated for the airline.

  • EU passport control is not likely to let you out with an expired passport if they notice it.

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