A foreign passport holder with work rights applies online after arriving (you must be in Australia to apply); the TFN takes up to 28 days, and an employee who has not supplied one within 28 days is withheld at the top rate — 47 percent. This is the single most expensive thing to postpone.
Landing Month One — Australia
The 482/186 arrival sequence. Australia's traps are numeric: a withholding rate that punishes a late TFN, a health-cover condition written into the visa itself, and licence clocks that differ wildly between Sydney and Melbourne.
India has no reciprocal health agreement with Australia, so a temporary 482 holder is not Medicare-eligible and visa condition 8501 requires maintaining adequate health insurance. Permanent residents are Medicare-eligible on grant. Do not let employer onboarding imply otherwise.
The big banks let new migrants open an account online on passport and visa details, and within roughly the first six weeks a passport alone typically satisfies the identity check; after that the full 100-point check applies. This is uniform bank practice rather than law — confirm your bank's cutoff.
In NSW a temporary visa holder may drive on the overseas licence for only six months before needing a NSW licence (permanent residents get three); in Victoria a temporary visa holder may drive on a current overseas licence indefinitely, while a permanent visa holder has six months to convert. Check the state you actually live in, not the one your colleague does.
Employers pay 12 percent superannuation (the final legislated rate, from 1 July 2025). Choose a fund or you get stapled to a default. A temporary resident who permanently departs can claim it back as a DASP — money most 482 leavers forget exists.
The ATO applies four tests and any one makes you a resident; the resides test is primary and the 183-day test typically captures new arrivals mid-year. Residency changes what is taxed and at what rate — worth one properly-informed conversation before your first return.
We already computed the public version — it is complete and stays free. Add three facts and the runbook becomes standing: Join DesiSquare and the Square remembers your dates, re-runs this when the rules change, and puts a credentialed human one message away.