Before you start

Passport
An Australian residential address — a hotel or short stay is fine to begin
Visa details
Your home-country tax identification number for the tax residency declaration

Step-by-step

1
Open the account online before you fly
All four majors and BankSA accept pre-arrival applications. You get an account number immediately, so relocation funds or a first salary have a destination, but the account stays restricted until you verify identity in person.
OnlineWho: YouAccepted up to about 3 months before arrival by most banks
2
Verify in a branch after you land
Take the original passport into a branch. Originals only — scans and photocopies are refused. Rundle Mall branches are busiest at lunchtime; suburban branches at Marion, Norwood or Prospect are quicker.
In personWho: YouAbout 20–30 minutes
3
Activate the digital card straight away
Most banks push a card into Apple Pay or Google Pay as soon as verification completes, which is enough to tap on to Adelaide Metro and buy groceries the same afternoon — useful now that paper tickets are gone entirely.
Mobile appWho: YouDigital immediately; plastic 3–10 days by post
4
Add your Tax File Number when it arrives
Supplying a TFN is not compulsory, but without one the bank withholds tax at the top marginal rate on interest. Thirty seconds in the app once the ATO letter turns up.
Mobile appWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport (original, presented in person)
Visa evidence via VEVO
Australian residential address
Tax File Number, once issued — not needed to open the account

Things most newcomers don’t know

The new-arrival identity concession is short and it is the single reason to bank in week one.

Banks accept that someone who landed last week cannot hold Australian documents, so for roughly the first six weeks a foreign passport counts as the full 100 points on its own. After that they ask for a South Australian licence or a Medicare card you do not yet have. Nobody reminds you — the process simply gets harder without announcing it.

Source: Major bank new-arrival banking pages; confirm the current window with your bank

Adelaide's move to contactless-only transport makes the bank card a day-one requirement.

Since February 2026 paper tickets are not accepted anywhere on Adelaide Metro. You tap a bank card, a phone, a metroCARD or the Buy and Go app. A newcomer without a working Australian card or a metroCARD has no way to pay a fare, which turns the bank verification appointment into a transport dependency rather than an administrative one.

Source: Adelaide Metro — Tap and Pay

PayID and Osko settle in seconds, and Australia effectively has no cheque culture.

Register a mobile number or email as a PayID and money arrives instantly, any day. Bond payments, tradespeople, share-house costs and casual work all run on it. Arriving expecting cheques or a cash economy is unnecessary friction.

Source: Australian Payments Plus — New Payments Platform

The account, the address and the TFN unlock each other in a fixed order.

The TFN letter arrives by Australian post and nowhere else; the bank withholds at the top rate until you supply the TFN; every rental application wants an Australian account. Stable postal address, then account, then TFN, then feed the TFN back in. Any other sequence means repeating a step.

Source: ATO guidance combined with standard bank practice

Common mistakes to avoid

Presenting photocopies or a phone photo of the passport rather than the original.
Letting the new-arrival identity window lapse before getting to a branch.
Assuming the pre-arrival online account is fully usable on landing.
Arriving without a working Australian card or a metroCARD and finding there is no paper ticket option.
Leaving the TFN off the account and being withheld at the top rate on interest for months.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.