Residents eligible for a border permit because they live within 50 kilometres of the NSW-Victoria state line have been left frustrated by a glitch in the application system.
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It comes after the Service NSW website crashed on Tuesday night, within half an hour of opening for applications.
The eligibility requirements released by the NSW government allow anyone within 50 kilometres of the border to get a permit - meaning Wodonga, Beechworth and Rutherglen residents would be successful, but those in Wangaratta and Bright would not.
The exceptions are members of Parliament, a person providing critical services, seasonal workers, boarding school and university students, and carers.
But Beechworth and Yackandandah residents found their postcodes were not listed with Service NSW as within the "border bubble" so they were wrongly denied a permit on Wednesday.
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Yackandandah-based Tim Roberts is the managing director of Powdersafe, an Australia-wide company in the mail safety business, and spent more than an hour on hold with Service NSW trying to get a permit.
"Yackandandah is not recognised as a border town even though, obviously, we are in a 50km range," he said.
"The reason given was a postcode problem with the IT folks. I'm sure our postcodes have been around for a long time and jeez Google maps will give you a good idea.
"Utter chaos and I feel sorry for the folks on the phone at Service NSW."
One Beechworth resident said she was told by Service NSW to manually enter her address along with the phrase "within 50kms of border" then enter Wodonga's postcode to ensure the permit was automatically issued.
Service NSW would not confirm if this was the right way to get around the issue, but a spokesman said the permit application system was "experiencing high levels of demand".
"We are aware that some people have experienced delays in securing a permit and we apologise for the delay," he said.
"In the interim, travellers will be able to demonstrate their eligibility to cross the border to police by carrying relevant documentation based on a category of exemption."
Despite Google maps listing Wangaratta as exactly 50 kilometres away from the NSW border at Corowa, that city also has not bee included on the list of approved postcodes for permit.
The NSW Health Department would not answer questions from The Border Mail about issues specifically related to Beechworth, Yackandandah and Wangaratta residents, only saying "entry permit applications are assessed on a range of eligibility criteria, including for individuals who are cross-border residents or an individual who provides critical services".
The original Service NSW website for permit applications went live just before 7.30pm on Tuesday, but crashed very quickly.
A different URL of www.disasterassistance.service.nsw.gov.au/bcpermit was up and running again by 9pm.
