It took me a long time to get set up in Austria, over a month and seven visits to various agencies compared to two days with a single online process in my nativ

It took me a long time to get set up in Austria, over a month and seven visits to various agencies compared to two days with a single online process in my native Australia. They also had mandatory "social insurance" payments. These payments don't actually cover you very well if you are foreign, at least they didn't cover me after I'd been in normal employment paying them for a long time and the company I was working for went through insolvency. When I went for self-employment to do consulting I was told I didn't have to make social insurance payments for the first year which sounded positive. I wasn't told however that that process was not automatic and there was yet another another form to fill out. So I got hit with them anyway, and received no sympathy when I explained my situation. I didn't use it but I gather the legal system there for business matters is also extremely complex and expensive. In Australia we have fairly straight forward small claims courts where people can settle small to medium disputes without a lawyer. I would say it was all very unforgiving, bordering on hostile. My interpretation is certainly influenced by the fact I know, having done it in Australia, that 90% of the processes and paperwork were entirely pointless, but that doesn't really excuse any of it.