Setting up your myGov account

myGov is the federal government's single sign-on for ATO, Medicare, Centrelink, Australian Immigration (sometimes), MyHR (your health record) and others. Set this up early — you'll use it constantly.

How to set up

• Create a myGov account at https://my.gov.au/ — you need an active email address that isn't already linked to another myGov account.
• Verify your identity using myGovID (rebranded as myID in 2024) — install the app, scan your passport and Medicare card.
• Link the services you need (Medicare, ATO, Centrelink if eligible).

Linking services — each has its own quirks

• Medicare: needs your Medicare card number plus your Individual Reference Number (the small number next to your name on the card) plus either a recent benefit you've claimed, a one-time passcode to the email or mobile registered with Medicare, or a linking code from a Medicare service centre.
• ATO: needs your TFN plus two pieces of information from recent ATO correspondence (a notice of assessment, a recent payment summary, or a super statement). Without a recent record, link via the ATO app first.
• Centrelink: needs your Customer Reference Number (CRN). If you don't have one, you can get a linking code by calling the Online Services Support hotline or visiting a Services Australia service centre.

Practical notes

• The myGov inbox is where most government correspondence lands now. Check it. Letters to your paper address are increasingly the exception.
• "Strong" identity in myID requires Australian documents — your passport plus an Australian Medicare or driver's licence. Build up to it as you collect those.
• Treat the myID app like a digital passport. The login codes it generates are how you authenticate to most federal services going forward. If you change phones, transfer myID to the new device before wiping the old one — re-registering from scratch can take a couple of weeks and a service-centre visit.
• Multi-factor authentication is now compulsory. You set it up on first login. Use the authenticator code option (via the myID or myGov Code Generator app) over SMS where you can — SIM-swap fraud is a real risk.

Common gotchas

• Linking the ATO too soon after arriving means you may not yet have a tax record to verify against. Save the linking step for after your first payslip processes.
• The myID app is separate from the myGov app. Both are needed for the strongest identity tier. The naming is genuinely confusing — myID was called myGovID until 2024.
• If you share a Medicare card with family, only one person can have it linked to their myGov at a time. To link to a different myGov account, the previous link must be removed first.
• Most cold-call scams about myGov are scams. Services Australia will never ring asking for your password or one-time passcode. See common scams.