A$1.08 billion of super belongs to people who left Australia. Is some of it yours?

Over a million super accounts are sitting with the Australian Taxation Office for people who worked in Australia on a temporary visa and went home. Here is how to find yours from wherever you live now.

The short answer

If you worked in Australia on a temporary visa, your employer paid super into a fund for you. Once you have left and your visa has ended, you can apply for that money through the ATO's free online system, called the Departing Australia Superannuation Payment, or DASP. If six months have passed, the fund has probably moved it to the ATO. It is still yours, and you can still apply.

The hard part is not the application. It is finding out which fund, or funds, hold your money when you no longer have myGov, an Australian phone number or your old payslips. That is what most of this guide is about. For a shorter route in, our post on Australian super from overseas goes through the ATO steps.

The number nobody talks about

At 30 June 2026, the ATO held 1,004,000 super accounts for former temporary residents alone, worth A$1.08 billion, because nobody had applied for them. Across all of Australia, lost and inactive super came to A$21.2 billion in just under 7.5 million accounts.

Behind those accounts are people who worked in cafés, on farms, in hospitals, offices and building sites, had super paid in for them, then went home. Leaving it behind is easy: your visa ends, you move on, and the fund's letters go to an address you no longer live at.

Does this apply to you?

You can apply for DASP if all of these are true:

• You built up super while on a temporary resident visa (not subclass 405 or 410)
• You have left Australia
• Your visa has ended (expired or cancelled) and you hold no other active Australian visa
• You are not an Australian or New Zealand citizen, or an Australian permanent resident

Working holiday visas (417 and 462) count.

The 6 month rule, exactly

You will see this rule written several different ways. Here it is as the ATO puts it.

"My super went to the ATO." What now?

Nothing is lost. The ATO says you can apply for super it holds at any time, and super it holds can be paid to you as a DASP. You use the same online system, or a paper form sent to the ATO.

One thing the ATO's pages do not say is whether money it holds for a former temporary resident keeps growing while it waits. If that matters to you, ask the ATO directly when you call.

If you know which fund holds your super

1. Go to the DASP online application system on the ATO website. It is free.
2. Enter your details: name, date of birth, email, and your passport country and number.
3. Add your fund: the fund's name, its ABN and your member number. You can find any fund's ABN through the ATO's Super Fund Lookup.
4. Send certified copies of your ID if the fund asks. Funds may ask for this, especially for balances of A$5,000 or more.
5. Wait for payment.

If you have no idea where your super is

This is where most people abroad get stuck. The usual answer is "log in to myGov and look". But linking myGov to the ATO means answering identity questions built from your Australian paperwork, which is hard years after you left. And the DASP system can only search for your accounts if you give it your tax file number (TFN). Without a TFN, you have to tell it where your accounts are.

So we asked the ATO, in writing, what someone outside Australia without myGov should do.

"If FTRs are not sure where their super is, they can search for it by: using the DASP online application system once the eligibility requirements have been met and a TFN has been provided, phoning the ATO."

For someone without a myGov login, an ATO spokesperson added these routes:

Authorise a third party to make enquiries on their behalf. Contact a former employer to find out which super fund it paid contributions into and obtain the fund member number, if available. Contact funds they know they had accounts with.

The ATO also pointed to its paper search form for lost super, and noted that you will need to give the fund proof of identity. You can read the full replies on our answers page.

Put together, the route from abroad looks like this:

1. Find your TFN if you can: old payslips, a payment summary, a tax return, or an email from your employer or the ATO. With it, the DASP system searches for you.
2. No TFN? Write to every employer you had. Ask which super fund they paid into for you, and your member number if they have it.
3. Contact each fund you now know about. Give your name, date of birth, the years you worked and the employer's name. They will tell you whether they hold an account and what ID they need.
4. Or phone the ATO. From outside Australia call +61 2 6216 1111, and ask to be put through to 13 10 20. If English is not your first language, the Translating and Interpreting Service can help on +61 3 9268 8332.
5. Or ask the ATO for its lost super search form.
6. Once you know where it is, apply through DASP as above.

What tax comes off

The fund takes tax before paying a DASP. These are some of the rates the ATO lists today:

The working holiday rate applies to the part of the payment built up while you held a 417 or 462 visa. If you are now back in the UK, our page on Australian super in the UK covers that case.

Do you need to pay someone to do this?

No. The ATO's online system is free, and a paper application sent to the ATO costs nothing.

You can authorise someone to apply for you, such as a tax agent or another person you trust, but they need a written authority from you first.

What to gather before you start

• Your passport (the one you used in Australia, even if expired)
• Your tax file number, if you can find it
• The names of every Australian employer and the years you worked for each
• Any old payslip, payment summary or welcome letter from a super fund
• Your fund member numbers, if you have them
• An email address you will keep checking
• Bank details for the payment
• Someone who can certify copies of your ID where you live, if a fund asks for them

Worked somewhere else too?

If Australia was one stop in a working life that crossed borders, there may be more than super waiting. A workplace pension in the UK, Dutch AOW years, a German Rente, a Spanish record of contributions. Each country has its own free route and its own clock, and most of them are easy to miss once you have moved on.

Our free pension check takes about a minute. Tell us where you worked and roughly when, and it shows which countries are likely to hold a pension in your name, the free official route for each, and any date to know. For Australia specifically, see our Australia page.

Questions people ask

Can I apply for my super while I am still in Australia?

You can start the online application and save it, but you can only submit it after you have left Australia and hold no active visa.

Is there a time limit once my super is with the ATO?

The ATO says you can apply for super it holds at any time.

I don't have my tax file number. Can I still find my super?

Yes, but the DASP system will not search for you. Ask your former employers which fund they paid into, contact those funds, phone the ATO from abroad, or ask the ATO for its lost super search form.

Can New Zealanders apply for DASP?

No. New Zealand citizens are excluded from DASP.

Does my super keep growing once it moves to the ATO?

The ATO's pages for former temporary residents do not say. Ask the ATO when you call.

Start with the free check

Over a million super accounts were left behind in Australia. Plenty of their owners also worked somewhere else. The free check shows you where to look, in about a minute.

Run the free pension check

Want to see what a full report looks like? Here is a sample report.

We identify where a pension is likely to be and the route to it. We give no financial advice, and you apply and sign everything yourself.

The PensionHunter Team