Commonwealth Games officials fear athletes heading to the Gold Coast in 2018 may not be able to enter the country because of tough visa restrictions, but the Government insists that's not the case.

Visa rules have been the number one issue of discussion at this week's Chef de Mission conference in Surfers Paradise.

Commonwealth Games Federation president Louise Martin told the media that in the past, each nation's Chef de Mission had been in charge of their athletes visa and accreditation forms.

"Now it has completely changed, for every individual person, every single athlete has to fill in a form online with a PDF," she said.

She's worried that if athletes do have to fill out forms themselves, some will not have the capacity to do so.

"We have a lot of athletes who don't have laptops, who don't have access to internet, and to be fair to some of them, some of them are not very literate," she said.

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Ms Martin said it could leave some teams short.

"Some people have already said if they can't change it, they can't send a team, they won't have a full team," Ms Martin said.

"This is the one stumbling block that we reckon is the biggest risk to these games."

GOLDOC chief executive Mark Peters said the tightening of visa conditions was justified by health and national security issues.

"It was a lot simpler in Melbourne in 2006 but so was the world," Mr Peters said.

"I think it's the Australian Government having to respond to what happens internationally."

But just hours later the Government denied anything had changed.

"The suggestion that athletes will have to apply individually is incorrect," a Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesman said in a statement to the ABC.

"The Games Organising Committee have been informed that visa applications may be lodged in bulk by the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation, or by individual nation or territory organising committees on behalf of participating athletes."

The ABC has sought comment from the Games Organising Committee.