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 accept applications from overseas. You get an account number straight away so relocation funds or a first salary have a destination, but the account remains 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 any branch. Originals only — scans and photos are refused. Perth branch hours are shorter than you may expect and Saturday opening is limited, so plan a weekday.
In personWho: YouAbout 20–30 minutes
3
Activate the digital card immediately
Most banks issue a digital card into Apple Pay or Google Pay as soon as verification completes, which is enough to tag on with a bank card on Transperth and buy groceries the same afternoon.
Mobile appWho: YouDigital immediately; plastic 3–10 days by post
4
Add your Tax File Number as soon as 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 in Perth the clock runs against shorter branch hours.

For roughly six weeks after landing, a foreign passport alone counts as the full 100 points, because banks accept you cannot yet hold Australian documents. After that you need a WA licence or Medicare card you do not have. Perth branches close earlier and open fewer Saturdays than eastern-state equivalents, so the practical window to actually get there is narrower than the policy window.

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

Australia's time zone problem lands on your banking too.

Bank phone support, card fraud teams and business banking desks are largely staffed to eastern-states hours. In summer that means the queue at 8am Perth time is already three hours into the Sydney day, and lines go quiet by mid-afternoon here. Call early, and do anything time-critical before lunch.

Source: community-reported

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 this. Arriving expecting cheques or a cash economy is friction you can remove in your first week.

Source: Australian Payments Plus — New Payments Platform

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

The TFN letter comes by Australian post only; 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 into the account. Any other order 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 instead of the original.
Letting the new-arrival identity window lapse before reaching a branch.
Assuming the pre-arrival online account is fully usable on landing.
Leaving the TFN off the account and being withheld at the top rate on interest.
Trying to resolve anything urgent with a bank's phone support late in the Perth afternoon, when eastern-states teams have finished for the day.

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