In the two years since Australia logged its first COVID-19 case and sealed its borders, thousands of citizens and permanent residents were locked out. Despite having a formal right to return, their ability to come home was hampered by a ‘one size fits all’ approach to hotel quarantine, travel caps linked to state/territory capacity, and a lack of federal facilities. This article examines the legality of Australia’s entry controls in light of international and domestic law. It documents the evolution of Australia’s response from the initial outbreak in China to the 2021 Delta outbreak in India, analysing the (limited) publicly available information as to the rationale for the restrictions. It examines the right to return in Australian domestic law, including whether citizens have a constitutionally protected right of entry. It also analyses the right to enter under international law, evaluating whether Australia’s settings constitute an arbitrary restriction of that right—especially since the drafters of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights thought it ‘inconceivable’ that a government would prevent citizens from returning for public health reasons.