Moving to Australia from South Africa

What changes when you move from South Africa to Australia

The seasons fall in the same months and the time difference to the east coast is 8 or 9 hours, depending on daylight saving. These are the parts that genuinely work differently:

• Leaving South Africa is a tax step as well as a move. Before your savings can follow you, SARS checks your tax compliance, including the date you stopped being a South African tax resident.
• Your licence usually means sitting tests. New South Wales and Queensland don't list South Africa as a recognised country, so you'll need to pass a knowledge test and a practical driving test there to get a local car licence.
• There's no reciprocal health care agreement with South Africa. Your Medicare access depends on your visa, so health insurance carries more weight in your first months than it does for movers from the UK or Ireland.
• Pets can come directly. South Africa is on the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry's Group 3 list, so a cat or dog can fly straight to Australia with an import permit and a quarantine stay. The process takes at least 6 months.

This is general planning information, not immigration, tax or financial advice. For your visa, start with the Department of Home Affairs' visa finder, and check any adviser on the OMARA register before you pay them.

Leaving South Africa: tax residency and your savings

Moving money out of South Africa runs through your bank and SARS, so the order of steps matters more than the transfer itself.

• Prove when you stopped being a tax resident. When you apply to SARS to move funds offshore as someone who has left, SARS asks for proof that you've ceased to be a resident for tax purposes.
• Expect a capital gains calculation. SARS treats your worldwide assets as sold on the day before you ceased to be a tax resident, a deemed disposal under section 9H of the Income Tax Act, and asks for that calculation with your application. You can owe tax even though you haven't sold anything.
• Retirement annuities have a waiting period. You can only reach the vested part of a retirement annuity fund once you've been non-resident for tax purposes for an uninterrupted 3 years. SARS says the savings component, and the vested part of a pension or provident fund, don't carry that requirement.

See SARS: supporting documents for international transfers. A tax practitioner who handles emigration cases can tell you which of your assets the calculation covers, and your bank's foreign exchange desk can tell you how it will process the transfers. Once the money is cleared, compare the exchange rate and fees before you send it. Our currency exchange task covers what to compare.

Tax and your TFN in Australia

• Apply for a Tax File Number once you've arrived. You apply online with the ATO from inside Australia. See applying for your TFN.
• Your tax residency is a separate test from your visa. It decides how Australia taxes your income, including anything still earned in South Africa. Use checking your Australian tax residency and the ATO's residency tool.

Healthcare without a reciprocal agreement

Australia has reciprocal health care agreements with 11 countries, and South Africa isn't one of them. See Services Australia: reciprocal health care agreements.

• Medicare depends on your visa. Permanent residents can enrol, and some applicants for permanent residency can too. On most temporary visas you won't be eligible. See Services Australia: enrolling in Medicare.
• Keep your visa's health insurance condition. Many temporary visas carry condition 8501, which means holding adequate health insurance for your whole stay. See Home Affairs: adequate health insurance.
• Bring your records. A summary from your South African GP, your prescriptions and your children's immunisation records make the first appointment here much simpler.

See enrolling in Medicare and finding a GP.

Driving: plan for a test

Licensing is run by each state and territory, and each keeps its own list of recognised countries.

• New South Wales: South Africa isn't on the recognised list, so you need to pass the knowledge test and the driving test for a NSW car licence. See Transport for NSW: knowledge and driving test exemptions.
• Queensland: South Africa isn't a recognised country either, so you need to pass a road rules test and a practical driving test. You can use your South African licence for the practical test without first getting a Queensland learner licence. See Queensland Government: recognised countries.
• Elsewhere: check your destination's transport authority before assuming either outcome.

Book the tests early, because they're the step most likely to hold up a licence swap. See converting your overseas licence.

Pets from a Group 3 country

South Africa is on DAFF's Group 3 list, meaning rabies is present but well controlled, so your dog or cat can travel to Australia directly. The main steps are:

1. Import permit, applied for through DAFF with your pet's rabies and blood test records.
2. A government-approved vet for all of the pre-export preparation in South Africa.
3. Rabies vaccination and a rabies blood test (RNATT), with a result of at least 0.5 IU/ml. Your pet can't be exported for at least 180 days after the blood sample arrives at the laboratory, and DAFF allows no exceptions to that wait.
4. Quarantine at the post-entry quarantine facility in Mickleham, Victoria, for at least 30 days, or at least 10 days if an official vet verified your pet's identity before the blood sample was taken.

DAFF's dog and cat guides each list further tests and treatments, so work through the one for your pet with your vet. DAFF recommends starting at least 7 months before you plan to export. See DAFF: bringing your dog from a Group 3 country, the cat guide, our pet biosecurity clearance task and our guide to moving with pets.

Shipping your household goods

• Declare your shipment on Form B534. The Unaccompanied Personal Effects statement goes to the Australian Border Force with your shipment. Anything you've owned for less than 12 months has to be declared and may be assessed for duty. See the ABF's Form B534.
• Clean anything that's touched soil. Garden tools, outdoor furniture, bicycles, shoes and camping gear need to be clean and dry before they're packed.
• Pack with biosecurity in mind. Don't reuse fruit, vegetable or meat cartons, avoid straw as packing material, and number every box against a contents list.

See DAFF: preparing your personal effects for shipment and arranging international shipping. Sea freight is far cheaper than air but takes weeks, so book it early and get at least 2 or 3 quotes.

Documents to gather

Your first days in Australia

1. Get a local SIM and data plan. Most of what follows needs an Australian phone number.
2. Apply for your Tax File Number with the ATO.
3. Open an Australian bank account with your passport and visa details, so your transferred savings have somewhere to land.
4. Check your health cover is active, and enrol in Medicare if your visa makes you eligible.
5. Sort transport. If you'll need to sit licence tests, book them now and use public transport or ride share in the meantime.

Setting up your life in Australia

• Utilities: once you have a fixed address, connect electricity and gas and connect your internet. Compare retailers on Energy Made Easy.
• Housing: bonds, condition reports and tenancy rights are set by each state and territory. Our guide to finding a place to rent or buy in Australia covers the process, including the limits on temporary residents buying an established home.
• Insurance: see our home and contents insurance guide once you've secured a place.

Where South Africans settle

The 2021 Census counted about 189,000 people born in South Africa living in Australia. Western Australia had about 44,900 of them, and South Africa was one of its 5 most common countries of birth. Most of those live in Greater Perth, about 38,800 people, and Perth's north-west has the highest share of any part of the city. See the ABS's QuickStats for people in Greater Perth born in South Africa.

If your job or visa sets your city, start there. Otherwise, weigh up the state as well as the city, since it sets your licence process, tenancy rules and schools. The Bureau of Meteorology publishes climate data for each city.

Timeline

Build your personalised moving plan

This guide covers what's different about moving from South Africa. Your own plan depends on your move date, your destination state, whether you're renting or buying, whether you have pets, and plenty of details a general guide can't know. Navaroa can build a personalised, week-by-week moving plan for your situation, free and with no signup needed to get started.