Australia Post Verification of Identity for Loans 2026

Australia Post verification of identity for a loan starts with the Land Title Verification of Identity Form from the lender or conveyancer who asked for the check. The borrower completes that form without signing it, then takes it to a participating post office with original identity documents.

The form decides where the result goes. The requesting business issues it through its own Australia Post account, and Australia Post sends the identity report back to that account.

As at October 2026, the check costs $49 including GST and needs no appointment. Australia Post takes the borrower’s photo at the counter and generally sends the report within 15 minutes of the check.

Start With the Instruction

Start by confirming who requested the check and which property transaction it covers, because that party issues the form and receives the report. Australia Post’s property verification of identity (VOI) service, which it calls Property VOI, confirms the identity of people buying, selling or transferring land. It also helps confirm their authority to deal with that property.

Conveyancers, lawyers and mortgagees register with Australia Post to use the service. A mortgagee is the lender that takes a mortgage over the property. For a loan, the requesting party is the lender, or the conveyancer or lawyer acting on the purchase or refinance.

Before you contact the borrower, read the instruction and note these details:

1. The business that requested the check and the person to contact there.
2. Each borrower who must complete the check.
3. The property address or loan the check relates to.
4. That the instruction names the Australia Post in-person property service.
5. Any extra form sent with it, such as a Client Authorisation Form.
6. The date the requesting business needs the report.

This guide covers the property service only. Australia Post’s passport and tax file number identity checks are separate services, and they don’t produce a property identity report. When the instruction doesn’t name a method, the verification of identity guide explains the property identity check itself and the ways to complete it.

Find the Australia Post Identity Verification Form

For a property transaction, Australia Post’s identity verification form is the Land Title Verification of Identity Form, and the borrower gets it from the business that requested the check. As at October 2026, Australia Post tells registered businesses to give clients this form from their Property VOI portal. Because the form comes from that business’s account, a copy from another business won’t send the report to your lender or conveyancer.

AusPost is the common short name for Australia Post. A request for an AusPost VOI, an AusPost verification of identity or a post office verification of identity for a property deal points to this same service and form.

Australia Post’s buyer and seller page directs people to the form their practitioner provides and offers no general form PDF. Australia Post’s only downloadable land title form is on a separate page for people completing their own Land Use Victoria transfer without a conveyancer. A borrower whose loan has a lender and conveyancer uses the form issued for their own transaction instead.

Check the Form and the Post Office Before the Visit

Confirm both before the visit, so the borrower arrives with the right paperwork at a branch that performs the check.

1. Match the form to the instruction. The requesting business, borrower names and property details on the form must match the instruction you noted.
2. Check for a second form. If the requesting business supplied a Client Authorisation Form, the borrower completes it as well.
3. Leave the signature blank. The borrower fills in the form but doesn’t sign or date it, because an Australia Post Identity Verifier must witness the signature.
4. Print the form. The verifier witnesses the signature on the form itself, so the borrower brings the completed paper form to the counter.
5. Find a participating post office. Not every post office performs this check, so search Australia Post’s location finder for land title identity checks or call 13 POST (13 76 78).

As at October 2026, Australia Post lists more than 1,500 participating post offices. Move on when the borrower holds a printed, unsigned form for this transaction and has chosen a post office from the finder.

Prepare the Visit

Prepare the visit by checking the borrower’s original identity documents against Australia Post’s categories, then confirming names, the fee and the post office. As at October 2026, Australia Post asks for two original, current Category 1 documents. An expired Australian passport still counts if it hasn’t been cancelled and was current within the past two years.

A borrower who can’t meet Category 1 brings documents from the next highest category they can satisfy. Australia Post’s categories for an Australian citizen or resident are below.

Category	Documents the borrower brings
Category 1	An Australian or foreign passport, plus an Australian driver’s licence or a state or territory photo card or proof of age card
Category 2	An Australian or foreign passport, plus a full birth certificate or citizenship certificate, plus a Medicare, Centrelink or Department of Veterans’ Affairs card
Category 3	An Australian driver’s licence or a state or territory photo card or proof of age card, plus a full birth certificate or citizenship certificate, plus a Medicare, Centrelink or Department of Veterans’ Affairs card
Category 4a	An Australian or foreign passport, plus an Australian boat, firearms, private security or WorkCover licence with a photo
Category 4b	An Australian or foreign passport, plus a full birth certificate, plus a Medicare, Centrelink or Department of Veterans’ Affairs card

A borrower who isn’t an Australian citizen or resident uses Category 6, which starts with a foreign passport. They add one of these two sets of documents:

• An Australian or foreign driver’s licence, or a state or territory photo card or proof of age card.
• A full birth certificate, plus a Medicare, Centrelink or Department of Veterans’ Affairs card or a foreign government identity document.

Australia Post accepts only a plastic Medicare card. The borrower doesn’t need to bring photographs, because Australia Post takes the photo at no extra cost. No appointment is needed.

The $49 fee includes GST and is paid to Australia Post by cash, EFTPOS, Visa or Mastercard. Australia Post doesn’t accept cheques. Under its default registration, the client pays the fee.

Name Differences and Missing Documents

Every document must show the same personal details, so a borrower whose name has changed brings a change of name document as well. Australia Post accepts a marriage certificate or change of name certificate issued by a Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, but not one issued by a celebrant.

A passport, driver’s licence or birth certificate that isn’t in English needs a translation from a translator certified by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI). If the borrower can’t meet any category, Australia Post directs them to a conveyancer or other property professional. In that case, return the file to the requesting business, as the last section explains.

Checklist Before the Borrower Leaves

Run this checklist with the borrower before they go to the post office.

1. Current form. The borrower has the form issued for this transaction, plus any Client Authorisation Form, completed but unsigned and undated.
2. Originals. They have two original, current Category 1 documents, or originals from the highest category they can meet.
3. Names. Every document matches the name on the form, or a Registry-issued change of name document links them.
4. Photographs. None are needed, because Australia Post takes the photo in store.
5. Appointment. None is needed.
6. Location. The post office appears in Australia Post’s land title identity check finder.
7. Fee. The borrower can pay $49 by cash, EFTPOS, Visa or Mastercard.

At the counter, the verifier checks and scans the documents, takes the photo and witnesses the signature. The borrower pays the fee and leaves with nothing more to send.

Return the Evidence

Australia Post returns the completed report to the business that issued the form, through that business’s Property VOI portal. Neither the borrower nor the broker carries the result back. As at October 2026, Australia Post doesn’t send reports by email, and participating post offices generally deliver them within 15 minutes of the check.

Confirm completion with the requesting business. Australia Post emails the registered business when a new report arrives in its portal, so ask your contact there to confirm in writing that the report is in.

The report stays valid for two years from the date of the check, but only with the business that requested it. If the borrower changes conveyancer during that time, or starts another property transaction after two years, they need a new check.

What the Broker Keeps

Keep a file note of the check and the confirmation, not copies of the borrower’s identity documents. Australia Post already scans the documents and sends them to the requesting business, so the broker has no need to hold a second set for this check.

Under Australian Privacy Principle (APP) 11, an organisation covered by the Privacy Act must take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information it no longer needs. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s APP 11 guidance adds that keeping more personal information than needed increases the harm a data breach can cause. If a lender separately requires you to verify and hold identity documents for the loan application, keep those under that lender’s requirement.

Here’s a hypothetical file note. The business and dates are examples.

Both borrowers completed the Australia Post property identity check at a participating post office on 6 October 2026. The form was issued by Harbour Conveyancing. Its paralegal confirmed by email on 6 October 2026 that the report is in the firm’s portal. The broker kept no identity document copies.

When the Service Does Not Fit

When the borrower can’t complete the Australia Post check as instructed, send the case back to the business that requested it. That business decides the alternative, because the report has to satisfy its own identity obligations.

Situation	What to send back	Who decides the next step
The borrower can’t meet any document category	The documents the borrower does hold, and which category requirement they miss	The requesting lender, conveyancer or lawyer
A borrower or signer is overseas	Where the signer is and when they can attend	The requesting business, which sets the overseas verification method
The lender gives a different identity instruction	The lender’s instruction and the Australia Post form you received	The lender
The borrower changed conveyancer after the check	The date of the earlier check and the new conveyancer’s details	The new conveyancer, which needs its own report

Australia Post’s in-person check happens at participating post offices in Australia. As at October 2026, its report validity rules also refer to identity checks done at an Australian consulate. For a signer outside Australia, ask the requesting business which method it accepts before the signer arranges anything.

A lender’s own instruction overrides the Australia Post route for that lender’s file, because the report only satisfies the business that requested it. If you need to check a lender’s documentation policy before you ask, Bulma’s Policy Advisor answers from that lender’s current policy documents and quotes the wording it relied on.

Before the borrower goes to the post office, check that the instruction, the printed form and their documents all agree. If any of them doesn’t, return it to the requesting business and send the borrower once the business confirms the fix.