Moving to Australia from the Philippines

The paperwork sequence every newcomer runs — Tax File Number, Medicare, ID, and eventually the road to citizenship.

The first three things

Everything else in Australian admin flows from three items: your Tax File Number (TFN), your Medicare card (if eligible), and a state-issued photo ID or driver licence. The TFN is free, applied for online via the ATO once you’re on Australian soil (a physical presence check ties the application to your passport and visa), and typically arrives by mail in 10–28 days. You can start work before it arrives, but without one your employer must withhold tax at the top marginal rate, so apply on day one.

Medicare and the Reciprocal Health Care Agreements

Medicare, Australia’s universal public health scheme, is free for citizens, permanent residents, and New Zealand citizens, and it also covers visitors from 11 Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) countries: the UK, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Malta, Belgium, Slovenia, Norway, and New Zealand. RHCA cover is usually limited to “medically necessary” treatment and typically only for the length of the visit or a set period — it is not a substitute for full travel or private health insurance. Most other temporary visa holders (Skills in Demand 482, student visa 500, working holiday) are not Medicare-eligible and must hold private health insurance, either as a visa condition (482, 500) or as a practical necessity. Enrolment happens in person at a Services Australia service centre with your passport, visa grant notice, and (if applicable) proof of address; the card itself usually arrives within 1–2 weeks, though you’re covered from the date of enrolment.

Driver licences by state

Australia has no single national licence — each state and territory issues and converts its own. If your country is on a state’s recognised country list (broadly: the UK, US, Canada, most EU states, Japan, South Korea, and others) and you’ve held a full licence for 3+ years, you can usually convert with a knowledge test only, skipping the practical driving test. Non-recognised countries require both a knowledge and an on-road test. Time limits to convert vary: permanent residents must convert within 3 months in NSW, Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT, while Victoria allows 6 months; temporary visa holders can generally keep driving on a valid overseas licence (plus an International Driving Permit if it isn’t in English) for the life of their visa, except in the Northern Territory, which requires conversion within 3 months regardless of visa type.

Permanent residency to citizenship

Once you hold a permanent visa (via 189/190/491, 186 employer sponsorship, 858 National Innovation, or partner visa), citizenship by conferral requires 4 years of lawful residence in Australia, including the most recent 12 months as a permanent resident, with no more than 12 months total absence across those 4 years and no more than 90 days absence in the final year. Applicants aged 18–59 sit the citizenship test (20 multiple-choice questions on Australian values, history, and government, drawn from the official test booklet; a pass requires 75% plus all 5 mandatory questions on Australian values correct). The application fee is $490 AUD for adults and $245 for children under 18, paid via ImmiAccount; processing has been running at roughly 5–12 months for a decision, with the citizenship ceremony itself scheduled separately after approval.

Setting up money in Australia is fast if you use the new-arrival ID exemption window — and superannuation starts accruing from your very first payslip.

Opening an account before you land

All four major banks — Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ, and NAB — let you open a transaction account online from overseas up to 12 months before arrival, using just your passport number and an Australian mailing address (a hotel or short-term rental works for the first weeks). The account activates once you visit a branch or verify identity in person after landing. This matters because Australia’s standard 100-point identity check is hard to satisfy on day one — you won’t have a driver licence, utility bill, or Medicare card yet.

The 6-week exemption

Recognising this, the Big Four all offer a new-arrival ID exemption: for roughly the first 6 weeks (some, like Commonwealth Bank, extend to a similar short window) after your account is opened, your passport alone is accepted as full identification, letting you bank, receive salary, and get a debit card immediately. After that window closes, you must complete full identity verification (typically a second document — Medicare card, licence, or visa grant notice) or the account can be restricted. Set a calendar reminder for week 4 so you’re not caught out.

Everyday fees and building credit

Everyday transaction accounts from the Big Four are free of monthly fees for most personal customers (some conditions apply, like a minimum monthly deposit), and ATM withdrawals within your own bank’s network are free; other banks’ ATMs typically charge $2–$3. Australia doesn’t use a US-style FICO score — Equifax, Experian, and illion compile comprehensive credit reports that already factor in on-time bill and loan repayments from your first bill in the country, so paying phone and utility bills on time from month one genuinely builds your file. A secured or low-limit credit card, or a "buy now pay later" service used lightly, are common ways new arrivals build a repayment history before applying for a car loan or mortgage.

Superannuation: compulsory retirement savings

Superannuation (“super”) is Australia’s compulsory retirement savings system. Employers must contribute a percentage of your ordinary earnings into a super fund of your choice on top of your salary — the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate reached 12% on 1 July 2025, the final step of a long legislated climb from 9.5% a decade ago, and is expected to hold at 12% going forward. A major structural change, Payday Super, took effect from 1 July 2026: employers must now pay super into your fund at the same time as your wages, rather than quarterly, closing a long-standing gap where unpaid super went undetected for months. The old $450-per-month earnings threshold to qualify for SG was abolished back in 2022, so even part-time and casual earnings from dollar one now attract super. On departure, temporary residents (working holiday, 482, student visa) who leave permanently can claim their super back via the Departing Australia Superannuation Payment (DASP), though it’s taxed at 35% (65% for working holiday makers specifically) — factor that into any “how much did I really earn” calculation.

Australia rebuilt its entire points-tested and employer-sponsored visa system in December 2024 — here’s what replaced what, and current thresholds.

Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) — replaced TSS in December 2024

The Temporary Skill Shortage visa was retired and replaced by the Skills in Demand (SID) visa on 7 December 2024, restructured around income rather than fixed occupation lists. It has three streams:

• Core Skills stream — the main employer-sponsorship route; requires the offered salary to meet or exceed the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT) of $79,423/year (from nominations lodged 1 July 2026) or the Annual Market Salary Rate for the role, whichever is higher. Visa length up to 4 years, with a clear path to permanent residence via the subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme after 2 years.
• Specialist Skills stream — for high-earning specialists in any occupation (not tied to a skills list), requiring a salary at or above the Specialist Skills Income Threshold (SSIT) of $146,576/year; faster processing and broader occupation eligibility in exchange for the higher salary bar.
• Labour Agreement stream — salary set by the individual labour agreement negotiated between the employer and the Australian Government (common in aged care, agriculture, and hospitality where CSIT-level wages aren’t always realistic), still subject to the underlying Annual Market Salary Rate test.

Visa application charges run around $4,015 AUD for the primary applicant plus similar amounts for a partner and roughly $1,005 per child.

National Innovation visa (subclass 858) — replaced Global Talent in December 2024

The Global Talent and Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) visas were both wound down, replaced from 6 December 2024 by the National Innovation visa, which keeps the 858 subclass number. It’s a permanent, points-free, invitation-only visa for exceptionally talented individuals — researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors — in sectors of “national importance” (advanced manufacturing, defence capability, digital technology, renewables, and similar priority areas). There is no investment-for-visa pathway anymore: applicants need a nomination, a genuine track record of achievement, and evidence they’ll contribute economically. Any Global Talent EOI lodged before the switch did not carry over — those applicants had to resubmit under the new program.

Points-tested skilled visas: 189, 190, 491

The General Skilled Migration points test still sets a minimum of 65 points just to lodge an Expression of Interest (SkillSelect) — but 65 rarely gets invited. In practice, subclass 189 (permanent, no sponsorship, no state nomination) is now running at 75–85 points for many healthcare and education occupations and 95+ points for oversubscribed ICT and engineering occupations, while trade occupations can still receive invitations from the mid-60s. Subclass 190 (state/territory nominated, permanent) and subclass 491 (state or family nominated, provisional, 5 years, regional-only) both add nomination points (5 or 15 respectively) on top of the same test, making them the realistic route for applicants below the 189 cutoff — 491 holders become eligible to apply for permanent residence (subclass 191) after 3 years living and working in a regional area.

Partner visas

The onshore Partner visa (subclass 820, leading to permanent 801) carries a government application charge of $9,365 AUD for the primary applicant (as of mid-2026, reviewed every July) — a single payment covering both the temporary and permanent stages. Processing is currently running at roughly 17 months for 50% of applications and 24 months for 90%, so plan for well over a year of uncertainty; a bridging visa keeps you lawfully in Australia (with work rights) while it’s assessed.

Working Holiday visas (417/462)

The standard eligibility window is ages 18–30, but several countries now go further: UK passport holders have had an 18–35 range since 1 July 2023, and from 1 July 2026 Cyprus, Finland, Germany, and South Korea also moved to 18–35 under new bilateral arrangements. Age eligibility is now assessed at the time you lodge, not when the visa is decided, so turning 31 (or 36) mid-processing no longer disqualifies you. For UK applicants specifically, the old requirement to complete 3–6 months of “specified work” (regional farm or disaster-recovery work) to unlock a second or third-year visa was removed from 1 July 2024 — UK citizens can now get all three consecutive 12-month visas without any specified work at all, a real outlier versus most of the roughly 45-country program. Visa fees sit at $840 for a first WHV and $1,000 for a second or third.

Student visas

The Student visa (subclass 500) covers full-time enrolment in a CRICOS-registered course; the application charge is roughly $2,500 AUD for higher education courses (around $2,050 for ELICOS/non-award study), and you must show sufficient funds, Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) for the visa length, and genuine student intent. Standard work rights are capped at 48 hours per fortnight during term (unlimited during scheduled breaks), a limit reinstated after a pandemic-era removal.

Australia sets pay by industry award, not just a flat minimum — understanding modern awards is the single biggest lever on what you’ll actually be paid.

Modern awards: Australia’s wage-setting system

Australia doesn’t just have one minimum wage — it has around 120 modern awards, industry- and occupation-specific instruments registered with the Fair Work Commission that set minimum pay rates, penalty rates, overtime, and allowances for almost every sector (retail, hospitality, clerical work, aged care, and so on), each with multiple classification levels tied to skill and experience. The national minimum wage is the safety net for the small number of employees not covered by any award or enterprise agreement; the Fair Work Commission’s 2026 Annual Wage Review, handed down in June 2026 and effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, lifted it to $26.44 per hour ($1,004.90 for a 38-hour week), a 5.97% rise, while modern award minimum rates rose a slightly smaller 4.75% — a deliberate move to compress the gap between the two. Roughly 2.8 million award-reliant workers were affected. Before accepting any job offer, check the relevant award and classification on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s free Pay and Conditions Tool — many entry-level hospitality and retail roles pay meaningfully above the bare national minimum once penalty rates for evenings, weekends, and public holidays are included.

Super, on every payslip

On top of wages, employers must pay the 12% Superannuation Guarantee into your nominated super fund — from 1 July 2026 this is paid via Payday Super alongside each pay run rather than quarterly, so check your fund balance moves with every payslip, not just every few months.

Job search norms

SEEK dominates general job search, with LinkedIn standard for corporate and professional roles and Indeed widely used too; recruitment agencies are heavily used for accounting, IT, engineering, and healthcare placements. Australian resumes (“CVs”) run 2–4 pages, commonly include a short personal summary and full work history with dates, and a photo is not expected (and can actually count against you under anti-discrimination norms). Australian employers put real weight on “cultural fit” and communication style in interviews, and a reference check by phone is near-universal before an offer is finalised.

Recognition of overseas qualifications

Regulated professions — nursing, medicine, engineering, teaching, law, accounting — require formal skills assessment through the relevant national body (e.g. AHPRA for health professionals, Engineers Australia, VETASSESS for many other trades and professions) before you can practise or, often, before a skilled visa nomination is even accepted; assessments commonly take 2–6 months and cost $500–$1,000+. Many trades also require an Australian licence exam or a bridging course even after a positive skills assessment, so budget both time and money for this step before assuming your overseas qualification transfers directly.

Centrelink and the Newly Arrived Resident’s Waiting Period

Australia’s welfare and family payment system runs through Centrelink (part of Services Australia), but most new permanent residents face a Newly Arrived Resident’s Waiting Period (NARWP) of 208 weeks (4 years) for most working-age payments (JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment), reduced to a shorter wait or waived entirely for refugees, humanitarian entrants, and some family-violence and hardship cases. Family Tax Benefit and Medicare access generally aren’t subject to the same wait. In practice this means: budget your own emergency fund for at least the first two years in Australia, because the safety net most citizens take for granted largely won’t apply to you as a new migrant.

Public school is free for citizens and PRs but can cost thousands per year for a temporary visa holder’s kids — and the bill varies sharply by state.

Public, Catholic, and independent schools

Australian schooling splits into three sectors: free government (public) schools for citizens and permanent residents, lower-fee Catholic systemic schools (roughly $2,000–$8,000/year depending on state and year level), and independent schools ranging from a few thousand dollars up to $35,000+/year at Australia’s most prestigious private secondary colleges. Public schools are organised by state, are strong across most metro and regional areas, and are the default choice for the large majority of families, including most migrants.

Fees for temporary visa holders’ children — NSW vs Victoria

Here’s the detail that catches new arrivals off guard: public school is not automatically free for a temporary visa holder’s children, and the fee schedule differs sharply by state. In New South Wales, the Department of Education runs a Temporary Residents Program specifically for children of temporary visa holders (including Skills in Demand 482 visa holders): the 2026 annual tuition fee is $6,400 for Kindergarten through Year 10 and $7,600 for Years 11–12, covering 40 school weeks, plus a one-off $150 application fee. In Victoria, by contrast, most non-citizen, non-PR temporary visa holders (482 visa families included) are billed on the same schedule as genuine international students: $16,000/year for Prep–Year 6, $19,600 for Years 7–10, and $22,000 for Years 11–12 — roughly two-and-a-half times the NSW rate for the same visa category. A narrower “dependant visa holder” category in Victoria pays somewhat less ($13,600–$18,700), and some other states (notably Queensland, for certain employer-sponsored visa subclasses) offer partial or full fee exemptions — so the practical cost of sending two kids to public school for a year can differ by $15,000–$20,000+ purely based on which state you land in.

University: domestic vs international fees

Universities classify students as domestic (citizens, permanent residents, NZ citizens — eligible for government-subsidised Commonwealth Supported Places and HECS-HELP income-contingent loans) or international (everyone else, including most temporary visa holders’ dependent children turning 18 while still on a parent’s visa). International tuition runs roughly $25,000–$45,000+ per year depending on the course (medicine, veterinary science and some specialised programs run higher), paid upfront or per semester, with no access to HECS-HELP. If your long-term plan includes a child attending an Australian university, being on a pathway to permanent residency well before they finish high school can be worth tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.

Childcare subsidy

The federal Child Care Subsidy (CCS) reduces the cost of approved childcare and outside-school-hours care based on family income and activity level (hours worked/studying), and is available to eligible visa holders — broadly citizens, permanent residents, and holders of certain temporary visas including partner visas and some skilled visas, but generally not student visa or working holiday visa holders. Full-time long day care without any subsidy commonly runs $130–$180+ per day in capital cities, so confirming your visa subclass’s CCS eligibility before budgeting for childcare is essential.

A tight rental market, record asking rents in every capital, and a foreign-buyer ban on existing homes reshape how newcomers should approach the property search.

A rental market still under real pressure

Australia’s rental vacancy rate has sat near historic lows — around 1% nationally in major capitals through 2025–26 — and Domain’s 2026 rental reporting shows record or near-record asking rents in every capital city. As of Domain’s June 2026 data, median weekly asking rents were:

Unit rents run somewhat lower across the board — Sydney units sit around $780/week, Melbourne and Adelaide units around $550–$600/week — but the gap between house and unit rents has narrowed as more people compete for smaller, cheaper stock. In practice this means arriving with proof of income (payslips or an employment contract), rental history or references, and photo ID ready to go the moment you inspect a property — competitive listings in Sydney and Melbourne can draw dozens of applications within 48 hours.

Bonds, leases, and utilities

A rental bond (security deposit) is typically 4 weeks’ rent (higher for pricier properties in some states), lodged with the state’s official rental bond authority — not paid directly to the landlord or agent — and refunded at lease end pending a condition inspection. Standard leases run 6 or 12 months, with rolling periodic leases common afterward. Electricity and gas are deregulated and require you to actively choose a retailer (via comparison sites like Canstar Blue or the government’s Energy Made Easy); water is typically billed by the property owner or utility directly. Setting up power, gas, internet, and a phone plan is usually the first “adulting” task after signing a lease, and can take 1–2 weeks to connect.

The foreign-buyer ban on established dwellings

Since 1 April 2025, foreign persons — including most temporary visa holders and foreign-owned companies — have been banned from purchasing established (existing) dwellings in Australia, a policy explicitly aimed at freeing up existing housing stock for residents. The ban currently runs to 31 March 2027. Key exceptions: purchases that will significantly increase housing supply (e.g. redevelopment, build-to-rent, or commercial-scale projects), workers under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, and — importantly for many relocating families — permanent residents, New Zealand citizens, and spouses of Australian citizens or permanent residents remain exempt and can buy established homes as normal. Temporary visa holders can still buy new dwellings or vacant land to build on with standard Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval (an application fee applies, scaled to purchase price). Breaches carry serious consequences — forced divestment orders and fines have been issued (one Melbourne case resulted in a $250,000 penalty) — so any temporary visa holder considering buying should get FIRB advice before signing a contract, not after.

Australia runs meaningfully more expensive than the US or UK on groceries and health cover, competitive on transport, and the Medicare Levy Surcharge quietly pushes most middle earners into private health insurance.

The Medicare Levy Surcharge: the quiet tax that shapes insurance decisions

All taxpayers pay the base 2% Medicare Levy, but higher earners without private hospital cover also pay the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS), an extra 1–1.5% of taxable income, explicitly designed to push people who can afford it into private insurance and off the public system’s waitlists. For the 2026–27 income year the thresholds are: singles pay 0% up to $105,000, then 1% up to $123,000, 1.25% up to $164,000, and 1.5% above $164,000; for families the base threshold is $210,000 (plus $1,500 per dependent child after the first), with the same tiered rates above that. Because the surcharge applies to your entire taxable income once you cross a threshold (not just the portion above it), a single professional earning $110,000 without private cover pays an extra ~$1,100/year in tax alone — often more than a basic private hospital policy would cost, which is precisely the incentive design. Note this is separate from whether you’re Medicare-eligible at all: most temporary visa holders aren’t on Medicare in the first place and need private cover as a visa condition regardless of income.

Groceries, dining, and transport

Numbeo’s ongoing city-cost comparisons consistently put Sydney and Melbourne grocery prices meaningfully above New York and well above London — a function of Australia’s geographic isolation, high domestic freight costs, and a concentrated supermarket duopoly (Woolworths and Coles). Dining out, by contrast, is comparatively reasonable for casual meals (a mid-range restaurant meal for two commonly runs $80–$120), though this reflects Australia’s mandated minimum wage and penalty rates flowing through to menu prices rather than cheap ingredients. Public transport is genuinely good value: a single adult fare in Sydney or Melbourne is typically around $4.90 AUD or less with off-peak and daily/weekly capping, and most capitals (Sydney’s Opal, Melbourne’s myki, Brisbane’s translink go card) use tap-on-tap-off smartcards accepted across bus, train, ferry, and tram.

Putting it together

For a household relocating from the US, the sharpest adjustments are usually groceries (noticeably higher), a rental market as tight as any major US coastal city, and the need to actively budget for private health insurance regardless of income once visa conditions or the MLS make it close to mandatory. Coming from the UK, rent and groceries land in a similar range to London and the south-east, but wages (helped by the award system’s wage floors) and superannuation’s forced savings mean take-home comparisons are closer than headline salary numbers suggest — a $90,000 AUD salary effectively comes with an additional $10,800/year in compulsory retirement savings that a like-for-like UK salary typically wouldn’t include. The honest summary: Australia is not a cheap country to relocate to in 2026, but wages, superannuation, and universal healthcare (once you clear the waiting periods and RHCA rules) offset a meaningful share of that cost over a multi-year stay.

The Philippines versus Australia

Australia costs roughly 2.5× more to live in than the Philippines, while average pay is about 13.0× higher. The gap usually works in your favour — but housing is where it bites hardest, so budget that first and everything else second.