Your first 30 days in Queensland: a checklist for OTs, speech pathologists and physios

Written by Callum Trevorrow. Last checked 28 October 2026 against official sources.

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Do three things in your first week: apply for your tax file number (the ATO posts it within 28 days), open a bank account while your passport is the only ID you need (the first six weeks, says Home Affairs), and give your employer a super choice form. Then work through Medicare if you’re eligible, your Ahpra or SPA contact details, your Medicare provider number and, if you hold a permanent visa, Queensland’s three-month licence clock.

This is the order I’d do things in, because some steps depend on others: the ATO posts your TFN to an Australian address, and your pay needs a bank account. It’s general information; the agencies linked at each step decide your own case.

Week 1

1. Apply for your tax file number

• Apply online, free, once you’re in Australia on a visa with work rights. The online route isn’t available on a visa with a no-work condition (8101, 8103 or 8116).
• The ATO posts your TFN to your Australian address within 28 days of receiving the application, so use an address you’ll still be at in a month.
• When you start work you’ll fill in a TFN declaration, which is also where you claim the tax-free threshold or not. If you’re a non-resident for the full year you can’t claim it. Not sure which you are? Read tax in your first year and ask a tax agent before you tick the box.
• Working holiday makers: ask whether your employer is registered with the ATO to employ working holiday makers. If it is, it withholds 15% on the first A$45,000 you’re paid in the year; if not, it must withhold at foreign resident rates.

2. Open a bank account

Home Affairs says that if you open an account within six weeks of arriving, your passport is the only ID you need. After six weeks you need at least two forms of ID, one with a photo or signature. Do it in week one, so your account details are ready for your employer’s payroll.

3. Give your employer a super choice form

Your employer pays super at 12% of your ordinary time earnings on top of salary. If you’re eligible to choose a fund, your employer must give you a Superannuation standard choice form. If you don’t choose, the money goes to your existing (“stapled”) fund, or, if you’ve never had an Australian fund, the employer’s default fund. The ATO’s YourSuper comparison tool compares MySuper products. If you’re on a temporary visa, read super and DASP first, because the tax when you take it home depends on your visa history.

Weeks 1 to 2

4. Sort Medicare, if you’re eligible

It depends on your visa and where you lived before you came:

• On a permanent visa: check your Medicare eligibility with Services Australia. The country rules below are for temporary visas.
• UK: enrol through myGov or an enrolment form, with your visa, passport and proof you lived in the UK (such as your UK GHIC, or two dated documents like a lease, bank statement or utility bill). Cover starts the day you arrive.
• Ireland: no enrolment and no Medicare card; your cover is public hospital care and some PBS medicines, not GP visits.
• New Zealand: you can enrol any time in the six months after you first arrive, if you meet Services Australia’s residence conditions.
• USA, Canada, South Africa, on a temporary visa: no reciprocal agreement, so your private health policy needs to be running from the day you land.

The full comparison, including condition 8501, is in Medicare and health cover by country.

5. Update your Ahpra or SPA contact details

Make sure your registration or certification body has your Australian address, not the one you applied from.

• OTs and physios: you’re registered with Ahpra (through the Occupational Therapy Board or the Physiotherapy Board). Log in to the Ahpra portal and click “Update my details”. Ahpra’s pages don’t give a deadline, so just do it as soon as you have a settled address.
• Speech pathologists: you aren’t registered with Ahpra, so there’s no Ahpra step. Speech Pathology Australia assesses and certifies you. I couldn’t find an SPA page setting out how or when to change your address, so contact SPA directly to update your details.

Weeks 2 to 4

6. Apply for a Medicare provider number, if your role bills Medicare

You only need one if your services will be billed to Medicare, so ask your employer whether yours will.

• Who’s eligible: OTs need current general or limited registration with the Occupational Therapy Board; physios need current general or limited registration with the Physiotherapy Board. Speech pathologists need Certified Practising (CPSP) status with SPA; other SPA membership types aren’t eligible.
• How: apply online in HPOS (you need a PRODA account). Most health professionals get their number straight away there, though some applications go to a service officer. If you can’t apply online, there’s a paper form (HW093).
• Each practice location needs its own provider number, so if you’ll work across sites, add each one.
• Timing: Services Australia says to apply early, because applications surge between December and April.

7. Check the driver licence clock

• Permanent (resident) visa holders: you must transfer to a Queensland licence after living in Queensland for three months, counted from your arrival if you held the visa before you moved, or from the grant date if it came later.
• Temporary visa holders (482, working holiday and others): the Queensland Government doesn’t count these as resident visas. You can drive on a valid overseas licence, and its page sets no time limit for you.
• Everyone: a licence that isn’t in English needs a recognised English translation.

Whether you need tests to transfer depends on your country; see the driver licence guide by country.

Where I come in

You’re talking to a physio and a service operator, not a sales team. And we stay in touch after you start, which is when a list like this matters most.

Your next step

Most of this list starts once you’re here, but your route into work decides when that is.

• OTs: your Occupational Therapy Board route comes first, and it depends on where you trained. A UK (HCPC-approved, completed 2010–2030) or Irish (CORU-approved, 2015–2030) qualification, or a degree on the Board’s recognised list (30 listed programs from Canada, South Africa and the USA), goes to registration (A$250 application plus A$138 registration). New Zealand OTs with current registration and a practising certificate use Trans-Tasman mutual recognition. Otherwise it’s a portfolio assessment (A$688). OT registration for overseas OTs.
• Speech pathologists: Speech Pathology Australia assesses you, not Ahpra: the MRA (A$825, up to 7 weeks; Canadian S-LPs can’t currently use it) or the OSQCA (A$2,000 across four stages). Speech routes by country.
• Physios: your Australian Physiotherapy Council route comes first (Express FLYR A$1,742, FLYR A$3,490 or APEP A$8,321), then Physiotherapy Board registration (A$452 application plus A$220 registration). Physio routes by country.
• Pay, for all three: the award minimum for a first-year health professional (AQF 7) is A$1,308.80 a week, and Queensland Health’s HP3 grade starts at A$83,824, with 12% super on top.

The pathway check works out your route and likely start, and tells you whether an info session or a call is the right next step.