You Just Got Your Australian PR — Here Are the 10 Most Important Things to Do Next

The email arrives. Subject line: Visa Grant Notification.

You open it with hands that aren't entirely steady. You read the words "permanent visa has been granted" and for a moment, you just sit there. Years of paperwork, waiting, uncertainty, skills assessments, English tests, health checks, police clearances, and more waiting — and now it's done.

This is one of the most significant moments in a person's life. And it deserves to be felt fully before you move on to the practical side of things.

But once the celebration settles — and it should settle slowly — there's a set of genuinely important steps that every new Australian permanent resident needs to take. Some of these have time-sensitive implications. Some, if missed, can create real complications down the track. And a few are simply life-changing in ways that many new PR holders don't realise until they discover them.

This guide walks you through the ten most important things to do after your Australian PR is approved. Not the official government checklist — there are plenty of those. This is the honest, practical, human guide to your first weeks and months as a permanent resident.

What Does Australian Permanent Residency Actually Mean?

Before diving into the steps, let's be clear about what you now hold.

A holder of a permanent visa may remain in Australia indefinitely. You are not on a countdown anymore. There is no expiry date on your right to be here. You can work for any employer, in any industry, without restriction.

Your children can access free primary and secondary education. You can access Medicare — Australia's public health system. You can sponsor eligible family members for their own path to Australian PR. And you are on the pathway to Australian citizenship.

A 5-year initial travel facility is granted alongside the permanent visa, corresponding to the underlying migration program, during which the visa holder may leave and re-enter Australia freely.

That travel facility — and everything connected to it — is one of the most important things to understand and manage carefully from day one. More on that shortly.

1. Enrol in Medicare — Your First Week Priority

This one should happen within your first week, ideally within your first few days if you're already in Australia.

Medicare is Australia's universal public health system. As a permanent resident, you are eligible to enrol immediately after your visa is granted. Medicare covers the cost of visits to general practitioners, specialist consultations, most diagnostic tests, and treatment in public hospitals — either fully or at a heavily subsidised rate.

If you've been living in Australia on a temporary visa and paying Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC) or relying on private insurance, Medicare changes your situation significantly. The financial difference — particularly for a family — can be substantial.

How to enrol: Visit a Services Australia service centre with your passport, visa grant letter, and proof of address. Enrolment is straightforward and your Medicare card typically arrives within a few weeks. In the interim, you can use a temporary Medicare reference number for services.

If you're arriving in Australia for the first time on a permanent visa, enroling in Medicare at the airport Services Australia counter or within the first few days of arrival ensures you have coverage in place from the beginning.

2. Get Your Tax File Number (TFN)

A Tax File Number is your unique identifier in Australia's tax system. Without one, you'll be taxed at the highest rate on any employment income — and sorting this out retrospectively is an unnecessary administrative headache.

Apply for a TFN through the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website. The process is straightforward for permanent residents, and your TFN is issued within a few weeks. You'll need your TFN for:

• Starting a new job or informing your existing employer of your PR status

• Opening bank accounts and investment accounts

• Lodging your annual tax return

• Applying for government benefits or the First Home Super Saver Scheme

• Any financial institution that asks for a tax identifier

If you're already employed in Australia, inform your employer of your permanent residency status and provide your TFN. Your payroll will be updated to reflect the correct tax treatment.

3. Open or Update Your Australian Bank Account

If you're arriving in Australia for the first time on your permanent visa, opening a full Australian bank account — rather than a basic account available to temporary visa holders — gives you access to the complete range of banking products including home loans, credit cards, and higher-interest savings accounts.

If you're already in Australia and have an existing account, your PR status doesn't require you to change banks. However, it's worth informing your bank of your updated visa status, as this can affect the products you're eligible for, particularly if you're considering a home loan in the future.

For new arrivals, most major Australian banks — CommBank, Westpac, NAB, ANZ — allow you to open an account before arriving in Australia if you have your visa grant notice and passport details. This means you can have a functioning Australian account with your BSB and account number ready when you land, which simplifies the first few weeks significantly.

4. Understand Your Travel Facility — And Protect It

This is the area where new permanent residents most commonly make costly mistakes, and it's worth spending some real time understanding it.

Your first Australian PR approval includes a fixed travel facility of five years. This means you can travel unlimited times in and out of the country as long as your PR visa remains valid. Once the travel facility expires, you need to apply for a Resident Return Visa (RRV) to re-enter Australia as a permanent resident.

The five-year travel facility starts from the date your visa is granted — not from when you first enter Australia. This is important. If your visa was granted on 1 June 2025, your travel facility expires on 1 June 2030, regardless of when you first land.

What happens when the travel facility expires? If you travel outside Australia without a valid travel facility or if it expires while you are overseas, you need to apply for a Resident Return Visa (RRV) to return to Australia as a permanent resident.

The RRV is not automatically granted. You need to demonstrate substantial ties to Australia — employment, property, family, community involvement. This means it could change your eligibility date for citizenship due to the gap in your permanent residence status.

The practical rule: Set a calendar reminder six months before your travel facility expires. Check it regularly if you're a frequent international traveller. To maintain permanent residence after approval, always check the validity and current travel facility and renew it through an RRV before any international trip where there is any doubt about the travel facility's validity.

5. Start Your Citizenship Countdown — From Day One

Australian citizenship is the ultimate goal for most permanent residents — and the countdown to eligibility starts the moment your PR is granted, not the moment you think to start paying attention.

The most critical eligibility rule for citizenship by conferral is the 4-Year Residency Rule, which requires you to have lived lawfully in Australia for four years immediately before applying, including the last 12 months as a permanent resident.

This means your citizenship eligibility date is calculated from your PR grant date, and any time spent outside Australia during those four years can affect your eligibility timeline. Absences are permitted — Australia doesn't require you to stay put — but they count against the residency calculation.

Keep records of every time you leave and return to Australia. Keep copies of boarding passes, passport stamps, and travel itineraries. When your citizenship application time comes, many citizenship applications are refused or delayed due to simple errors like miscalculating residency, missing documents, or lodging too early. Accurate travel records from day one prevent this.

The four-year wait feels long when you've just arrived. It passes quickly — particularly if you're building a life, career, and community in Australia with the full rights of a permanent resident. When the eligibility date comes, you want to be ready to apply without delays.

6. Update Your Records With Relevant Government Agencies

As a new permanent resident, there are several government agencies and institutions that need to know about your updated visa status:

Australian Electoral Commission (AEC): Permanent residents are not eligible to vote in Australian elections — that right comes with citizenship. However, once you become a citizen, enrolling promptly ensures you meet your legal voting obligation. For now, make a note for when your citizenship is granted.

Services Australia (Centrelink): As a permanent resident, you may become eligible for certain social security payments and family assistance payments after a waiting period — generally two years of residence as a permanent resident for most payments. The waiting period begins from the date of your PR grant. Register with Centrelink and keep your records updated, so you know when your waiting period ends.

Your employer or university: Inform them of your permanent residency status. This affects your work rights, any work restrictions that may have applied under a previous visa, and your fee status if you're studying. Permanent residents pay domestic fee rates at Australian universities rather than international student rates — a significant financial difference.

7. Consider Sponsoring Family Members

One of the most meaningful rights that comes with Australian permanent residency is the ability to sponsor eligible family members for their own path to living in Australia permanently.

Eligible family members typically include spouses or de facto partners, dependent children, parents (through the Parent Visa stream), and in some cases other family members depending on the specific visa pathway.

The family sponsorship pathways have their own eligibility criteria, processing times, and costs — and some, like the Parent Visa, involve very long processing queues that make early application particularly important. If bringing family members to Australia is a priority, exploring the options promptly rather than waiting is strongly advisable.

A registered migration agent can assess which family member pathways are available to you based on your specific PR visa type and family circumstances.

8. Understand Your Superannuation Rights

Superannuation — Australia's compulsory retirement savings system — applies to all workers in Australia, including permanent residents. Your employer is required to pay a superannuation guarantee on your behalf (currently 11.5% of your ordinary time earnings), into a compliant superannuation fund.

If you've been working in Australia on a temporary visa and accumulated superannuation, you may have previously considered withdrawing it when you left Australia. As a permanent resident, this option is no longer available on the same basis — and more importantly, leaving superannuation invested and allowing it to compound over the decades of your working life in Australia is one of the most powerful long-term wealth-building mechanisms available.

Review your existing superannuation fund, consolidate any multiple accounts (multiple accounts mean multiple sets of fees eating into your balance), and nominate a beneficiary. If you don't have a preferred fund, your employer's default fund is a reasonable starting point — but comparing fees and investment options is worth the effort.

9. Get Serious About Building Your Financial Foundations

Permanent residency opens financial doors that are closed or restricted on temporary visas. This is the right moment to think seriously about several financial building blocks:

Home ownership: As a permanent resident, you can purchase property in Australia without the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval that temporary residents require. You're also eligible for first home buyer assistance schemes — grants, stamp duty concessions, and the First Home Guarantee — that can make purchasing your first home significantly more accessible.

Investment: Permanent residents have full access to Australian financial markets, managed funds, and the superannuation co-contribution scheme.

Private health insurance: While Medicare covers many healthcare needs, private health insurance gives you access to private hospitals, shorter waiting times for elective procedures, and dental and optical coverage that Medicare doesn't include. Taking out private hospital cover before you turn 31 avoids the Lifetime Health Cover loading — an annual surcharge that increases the cost of private health insurance for everyone who waits until after age 31 to take out their first policy.

None of these decisions are urgent in your first week. But permanent residency is the right moment to sit down with a financial adviser and build a plan — because the financial decisions you make in the first few years of your permanent residency can have a significant impact on where you stand a decade from now.

10. Protect Your PR — Know What Can Threaten It

Permanent residency is exactly what the name suggests — permanent. But it is not unconditional. Understanding what can put your PR at risk is essential for protecting it.

While the Australian PR visa is granted permanently, the government maintains the authority to cancel it if there are breaches in migration laws, incomplete documentation, or failure to meet the required good character standards.

The most significant risks to permanent residency include:

Criminal convictions: Australia takes character requirements seriously. A conviction for a serious offence — or in some cases, even a series of minor offences that collectively suggest a character concern — can result in visa cancellation. This applies even after years of living in Australia as a permanent resident.

Providing false information: If it is discovered at any point that your original visa application contained false or misleading information, your visa can be cancelled regardless of how much time has passed.

Extended absences without active ties: While living abroad as a permanent resident is permitted, very extended absences with minimal connection to Australia can create difficulties when you apply for an RRV to return. Maintaining genuine ties — employment connections, property, financial accounts, family in Australia — protects your ability to demonstrate the substance of your Australian permanent residency.

By following residence requirements and visa conditions and demonstrating substantial ties to Australia, you can protect your PR visa and increase your chances of getting Australian citizenship.

The goal is citizenship. Protecting your PR is the journey between where you are now and where you're going.

One More Thing: Let the Milestone Land

It's easy, in the rush of Medicare enrolment and TFN applications and bank account updates, to let one of the most significant achievements of your adult life blur into administrative process.

Don't let that happen.

Getting Australian permanent residency represents years of effort, patience, sacrifice, and commitment to building a life in this country. The checklist above is important — but so is acknowledging what you've done. Call the people who supported you through the process. Mark the date. Let yourself feel the weight of what this moment means.

The administrative steps will get done. They always do. But the milestone deserves its moment.

Need Guidance on Your Next Steps After PR?

Whether you're approaching citizenship eligibility, considering sponsoring family members, or navigating the RRV process, migrateVerse's registered migration agents are here to help you make the most of your permanent residency — and to support the next phase of your Australian journey.

Book a Post-PR Consultation with migrateVerse →

Explore Family Sponsorship Pathways →