Linking the ATO to myGov with a foreign passport

This is the wall almost every backpacker hits: you create a myGov account, try to link the Australian Taxation Office, and it asks for an Australian ID you don't have, a driver's licence, a Medicare card, an ImmiCard. Your foreign passport gets rejected. Here is the way through.

The fix: the myID app

myID (formerly myGovID) is the government's digital identity app. It can verify you with your foreign passport, no Australian document needed, by reading the chip inside your passport with your phone's NFC reader, the same tech as contactless payment.

1. 1Download myID from the App Store or Google Play and tap Get started.
2. 2Follow the prompts and scan your passport: hold the phone against the front cover so it reads the biometric chip (the little rectangle symbol).
3. 3Set a PIN or use Face/fingerprint once verified.
4. 4Sign in to my.gov.au, choose Link a service → Australian Taxation Office, and pick myID (it may show as "Digital Identity") as the verification method.
5. 5Answer the ATO's identity questions (your TFN, plus things like a recent payslip amount or employer name). Two wrong attempts can lock you out for 24 hours, so answer carefully.

Easier if you have a Medicare card

Travellers from countries with a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and several European countries) can get a Medicare card. If you have one, even the temporary number given on the spot at a service centre, it's the easiest document to link the ATO with. Likewise, a converted Australian driver's licence works (a foreign licence does not).