Your first 90 days in Oceania: deadlines that matter in 2026

The table below compresses the core arrival sequence for each country. Read it as a checklist order, not a priority ranking — all of these items matter.

Nauru's arrival sequence is unusual because the constraint isn't bureaucratic complexity — it's physical access. There is no visa on arrival for most nationalities, and unannounced arrivals are refused entry. Your visa must be arranged before you leave, through the Nauru Department of Justice and Border Control, whether that's a business visa, employment visa, or the investor residence programme. The economic citizenship programme launched in 2024 is a separate track administered as a climate-resilience funding measure.

Once on-island, you'll need an Employment and Services Tax registration number — Nauru introduced its employment and services tax in 2014, and the number identifies employees and contractors for it. With roughly 12,000 people and a handful of government offices, the process is direct, but availability drives the timeline more than any published rule.

Banking is similarly constrained. Bendigo Bank operates the country's only commercial banking presence, restored in 2015 after Nauru spent several years with no bank at all. Services are basic, the Australian dollar is the currency, and there is no meaningful choice of provider. Keep your primary banking relationship offshore — see Banking that works before the local account exists for options that travel well.

The full sequence is in the Nauru: the full arrival playbook.

New Zealand's visa system is entirely electronic — there is no label in your passport. Your status lives in the Immigration New Zealand system, tied to your passport number. That means your first task on arrival isn't a stamp or a sticker; it's confirming your conditions are correctly recorded and that your employer, if you have one, is accredited under the Accredited Employer Work Visa framework before they can legally hire you.

The IRD number is the most time-sensitive item. Without it, your employer must deduct tax at the highest no-notification rate, and you can't open most bank accounts or claim any entitlement. The IRD number application depends on having a New Zealand bank account, and the bank account requires you to be physically present for identity verification. ANZ, ASB, BNZ, and Westpac all let you start an application from overseas before you arrive, then complete it in a branch on landing. Starting that pre-arrival application is one of the few things in this process where earlier is unambiguously better.

Your overseas driver's licence — in English or with an approved translation — is valid for 12 months from arrival. After that, you must convert. Drivers from a list of exempt countries convert without a practical test; everyone else sits theory and practical. The 12-month window is long enough that most people forget it exists until it's nearly gone.

For healthcare enrollment, read Healthcare enrollment, by country — New Zealand's public system access depends on visa duration in a way that catches people out.

The New Zealand: the full arrival playbook covers the full sequence including GP enrollment and the IRD application steps.

Vanuatu is the only country in this group where the registration deadline is set by a stamp you receive on arrival, not a fixed calendar rule. Most nationalities get 30 to 120 days on arrival, and your residence permit application goes in at the Vanuatu Immigration Department in Port Vila before that stamp expires. The main categories are investor, self-funded, and employment — the self-funded route for retirees and financially independent people requires proof of regular offshore income and is renewed annually.

If you're working, you also register with the Department of Labour. Employment permits require a labour-market test showing no ni-Vanuatu candidate was available for the role.

Vanuatu has no personal income tax, capital gains tax, or inheritance tax. The identifiers that matter are the VNPF number (Vanuatu National Provident Fund) for employment, and a business registration number for anyone trading. Banking is provided by ANZ Vanuatu, BRED, and the National Bank of Vanuatu. The tax headline attracts attention, but Vanuatu's offshore financial centre has been under sustained international pressure — its citizenship-by-investment programme has cost it visa-free access to the EU and UK, and correspondent banking is slower and more scrutinised than the tax story suggests.

Driving is on the right. A foreign licence is accepted for visitors for a limited period; residents convert locally in a straightforward process. Outside Port Vila and Luganville, roads are unsealed.

Step-by-step arrival detail lives in the Vanuatu: the full arrival playbook.

All three countries have thin or constrained local banking options. In Nauru, there is one provider and no competition. In Vanuatu, correspondent scrutiny adds friction. In New Zealand, the account-IRD number dependency means you can arrive and still be weeks away from a fully functional setup if you haven't started the pre-arrival application.

The practical answer is to arrive with a card that works internationally without foreign-transaction fees, and enough liquidity to cover your first month without relying on a local account. Banking that works before the local account exists covers the specific accounts that hold up across Oceania.

The traps across these three countries look different on the surface but share a structure: they're all consequences of a detail in the published rules that most people read past.

• Nauru: the single airline route and limited medical infrastructure mean your contingency planning matters as much as your paperwork. Verify current flight schedules and medical arrangements immediately before travelling.
• New Zealand: the exact visa duration — not the category — determines whether you access public healthcare. A one-month difference in what Immigration NZ grants you has real financial consequences.
• Vanuatu: the visitor-stamp clock starts on arrival, and the residence permit process happens in Port Vila. If you arrive in a remote island first, you're burning days before you can even start the application.

Each government makes the actual eligibility and approval decisions — the published rules set the bar, but outcomes vary. The Every first-90-days playbook has the full country list if you're comparing options beyond these three.