Arriving in Australia on a 482 or 494: the first weeks, in the order that avoids a problem later

MARN 1576536

Immigration clearance and the arrival date

The visa is recorded against the passport and there is nothing to show at the border beyond the passport itself; the SmartGate or the officer reads the visa from it. The incoming passenger card is answered truthfully, including the questions on goods and on criminal convictions, and the grant letter is carried in case of a question. The date of entry is recorded, and it starts two clocks: the 90 days within which the worker must start with the sponsor, and the period within which the address must be notified. A worker whose family travels later brings them in on their own secondary visas, each recorded against their own passports, which a renewal before travel has to have been notified for. The passport guide covers that.

The first week

1. A phone number. An Australian mobile number is the thing every other service verifies by; a prepaid SIM at the airport with the passport is enough.
2. A bank account. Within six weeks of arrival the banks open an account on the passport alone, with the arrival date; after that they want more identification than a new arrival has. Some banks open the account before arrival online and activate it in branch.
3. The tax file number. Applied for online with the Australian Taxation Office once the worker is in Australia and the visa is in effect, with the passport and the address; it arrives by post within a few weeks. The employer withholds tax at the top rate without it, and the worker gives it to the employer and to the bank and the superannuation fund when it arrives.
4. Health cover activated with the Australian address and the policy certificate kept.
5. A myGov account, linked to the Tax Office, for the tax return at the end of the year and for Medicare where it applies.
6. The address notified to the Department, which is a condition and is covered below.

Starting work within 90 days

Condition 8607 on the 482, and 8608 on the 494, require the worker to commence work with the sponsor within 90 days of arrival, or of grant if the worker was in Australia, and thereafter to work only in the nominated occupation for the sponsor, with the allowances for a period between sponsors. The employment is the one in the nomination: the position, the location, the salary. The worker starts on the agreed date, receives a contract that matches the nomination, and keeps the first payslip. A sponsor who delays the start beyond the period, or who presents a contract that differs from the nomination, has created a problem for the worker as well as for itself, and the worker raises it at once rather than at the permanent stage. The conditions guide sets out 8607 and 8608.

Health cover and Medicare

Condition 8501 requires the worker and each family member to maintain adequate health insurance for the whole stay, and the overseas visitor health cover taken out for the grant continues, with the address updated and the premiums paid; a lapse is a breach that is discovered when the permanent application asks for the policy history. A worker who is a citizen of a country with a reciprocal health care agreement, which includes the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and several European countries, enrols with Medicare for medically necessary treatment, and still holds the private cover the condition requires unless the Department has accepted the reciprocal cover as adequate for that nationality, which it does for some. Everyone else uses the private cover for every doctor's visit and prescription, pays, and claims. The Medicare guide lists the agreement countries.

Telling the Department your address

The visa carries a notification condition requiring the worker to tell the Department their residential address within a period after arrival and of any change within a period after it, through ImmiAccount's update-details function. The sponsor records the address too. The Department's notices, including any that affect the visa, go to the address and the email it holds, and a worker who moved and did not notify is a worker who did not receive the notice and is treated as if they had. The notification takes minutes and is done in the first week and on every move. The updating guide covers the mechanics.

Driving

Each state's road authority sets the rule, and in most states a temporary visa holder may drive on a current overseas licence, with an English translation or an international driving permit where the licence is not in English, for as long as the visa lasts; some states require conversion after a period or on taking up residence, and a worker who becomes a permanent resident must convert within a few months of the grant. The licence's class must cover the vehicle, and a worker whose job involves driving confirms the position with the employer before the first day. Insurance follows the licence and is checked at the same time.

Superannuation, schools and the rest

The employer pays superannuation on top of the salary into a fund the worker chooses or the employer's default, and the worker gives the fund the tax file number and names a beneficiary; a temporary visa holder who leaves Australia permanently can claim the superannuation back as a departing Australia superannuation payment, taxed. Children are enrolled in school on the visa, with the state deciding whether temporary visa holders pay fees in public schools, which some do for some visas. Rental applications ask for the visa grant, the employment contract and the bank account, which is one reason the order above is the order. Tax residency usually follows within the first year and the first tax return is lodged after 30 June through myGov or an accountant.

Your family's first weeks

A partner on the secondary visa has unrestricted work rights and goes through the same list, with their own tax file number, bank account and health cover, and can work for anyone or run a business; their work is not tied to the sponsor. Children attend school, and a child born in Australia holds the visa by operation of law and is added to the health cover and notified to the Department. The family's visas end with the primary holder's, so a change in the worker's employment is a change for everyone, and the partner's own employment experience in Australia is worth recording from the first day in case it becomes the family's own route. The dependants guide covers the secondary holders' position.

The file for permanent residence

The 186 under the transition stream, two years on, asks the sponsor and the worker to show that the worker was employed in the nominated position, paid at or above the nominated salary and the market rate, for the qualifying period, with the health cover maintained and the conditions kept. The 191, for a 494 holder, asks for three years of taxable income at or above the threshold in the regional area. The evidence is created from the first week: every payslip, the contract and each variation, the bank statements showing the pay arriving, the superannuation statements, the annual income statement, the health cover certificates for each year, the address notifications, and the Department's correspondence. A worker who keeps a folder from the first pay has the permanent application assembled when the time comes; a worker who does not spends the months before it chasing an employer's payroll department. The 186 pathway guide sets out what will be asked for, and the underpayment guide what to do if the first payslip is wrong.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Conditions 8501, 8607, 8608 and the notification conditions in Schedule 8 to the Migration Regulations 1994, as in force at the date above; tax, superannuation, banking, driving and schooling rules are those of the Australian Taxation Office, the banks, the state road authorities and the state education departments and change. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.