Your first two weeks in Australia, in order

The visa is done, the flight has landed, and then a wholly different kind of journey begins: the practical one. The first weeks in Australia consist of a handful of registrations that interlock — no address, no bank card delivered; no tax number, a hefty deduction on your first payslip. Whoever knows the order is sorted in two weeks. Whoever doesn't takes months and pays for the lesson along the way.

Day one: your phone number

Start with an Australian SIM card, because almost everything after this asks for a local number: the bank, the tax office, the letting agent. A prepaid SIM card from one of the big providers is for sale in every supermarket and active in ten minutes. Optimising can come later; now what counts is that you're reachable on a number that starts with +61.

The bank account: open in advance, activate on the spot

Most large Australian banks let you open the account online from the Netherlands already, up to a few months before arrival. You can then transfer money to it in advance; using it fully is only possible after you have identified yourself with your passport at a branch. Do that activation in your first days — you want to be able to pay the deposit for a rental home from an Australian account, and your employer wants one for your salary.

The Tax File Number: free, online, and not optional

Your TFN is your number with the Australian tax office, and this is the step with the hardest financial incentive. The application at the ATO is free and goes online as soon as you're in Australia; count on the number possibly taking up to four weeks.

Without a TFN your employer withholds the maximum tax rate on your wages. So start the application in your first days, not only when you have a job — the difference on one payslip is bigger than all the other savings of your first month put together.

After that you also need the TFN for your bank interest and for your superannuation, the compulsory Australian employer pension for which you choose a fund at your first job.

Medicare: your right to care, but you apply for it yourself

As a permanent resident you are entitled to Medicare, the public health insurance — but that right doesn't become a card by itself. You enrol at Services Australia, and until your enrolment is done you want your bridging insurance to demonstrably cover you. So arrange Medicare in those same first weeks, even if everyone is in perfect health.

And then ordinary life

With number, account, TFN and Medicare in your pocket, the rest follows at its own pace: a permanent home (renting is fast and competitive — deposit via the state, rental file at the ready), school for the children (public schools allocate by address, so choose your neighbourhood accordingly), and your driving licence — your Dutch licence is usable temporarily, but as a resident you must exchange it within your state's deadline, often three to six months.

One more thing, before you tick off this list and close the file: the deregistration in the Netherlands has a tail. For the year of your departure you file next year a return with the M form — put that in your diary while it's still fresh, because an invitation usually doesn't come.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but then for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Australia.