Your first month in a new country
The handful of things that unlock everything else, roughly in the order they unlock it, and the two that people leave until they are already a problem.
Almost everything in the first month is blocked by something else. A job wants a bank account, the bank wants an address, the address wants a deposit you cannot move without a bank account. Knowing the order is most of the battle.
The order that usually works
1. A local phone number, because everything else sends a code to it. 2. A bank account. Many banks let you open one from overseas before you fly, which breaks the circle above, and it is worth an hour before you leave. 3. A tax number. In Australia this is a tax file number, applied for free from the ATO. Working without one is allowed for a short period and is taxed at a much higher rate, so it is one of the first things to do and not one of the last. 4. An address, even a temporary one, because it unlocks the rest. 5. Superannuation or pension details, which your employer will ask for in the first week.
The two people leave too late
**A tax number.** It is free, it takes minutes to apply for, and the cost of not having one is taken out of every pay until you do. Nobody should ever charge you to get one.
**Proof of address.** A tenancy agreement, a utility bill, a bank letter. It is the document that unlocks the most and the one nobody thinks to keep.
Do not pay for anything that is free
Government numbers, tax numbers and register searches are free and are applied for directly. Any website charging a fee to obtain one for you is selling you a form you can fill in yourself in ten minutes.
Set up the boring things while you have signal and time
- Two ways into every important account, not one, and neither of them only your new SIM
- Your documents photographed and stored somewhere you can reach from any device
- An emergency contact at home who knows where you are staying
- The number for your country's consulate, saved before you need it
Know what your visa actually allows
Work rights, hours, and which employer you may work for are conditions of your visa, not of your job, and only the Department of Home Affairs can tell you what yours are. Read them yourself rather than relying on an agent, a recruiter or a friend who arrived two years ago on a different one.
Then the thing everybody forgets
Work out, in the first month, how you will send money home and what it will actually cost. Doing it once carelessly is how people lose a week of pay across a year without noticing.