If you’re a temporary resident covered by a Ministerial Order

To access Medicare when you’re in Australia, you must meet certain criteria.

We have multiple system updates and changes to some of our content and services

Bridging Visa E holders - Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

You can apply for Medicare from 31 January 2024. Enrolments will be processed from mid-September. Keep your receipts if you have medical costs in Australia before your enrolment is processed.

Visa requirements for Ukrainian nationals

Ukrainian nationals currently on a Humanitarian Stay (Temporary) (subclass 449) visa cannot enrol in Medicare. Read more about support for Ukrainian nationals in Australia.

You can enrol in Medicare if you have a valid temporary visa covered by one of these Ministerial Orders:

  • Contributory Parent visas (subclasses 173, 143, 884, 864)
  • De facto partners of Australian citizens or permanent residents
  • Fulbright scholars
  • Humanitarian Stay (temporary) visa (subclass 449)
  • Participants in the family accompaniment pilot under the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme (subclass 403)
  • Persons from Israel holding a Bridging Visa E (Subclass 050 or Subclass 051) with work rights, and their immediate family members holding a Bridging Visa E
  • Persons from the Occupied Palestinian Territories holding a Bridging Visa E (Subclass 050 or Subclass 051) with work rights, and their immediate family members holding a Bridging Visa E
  • Removal Pending Bridging visa (subclass 070)
  • Safe Haven Enterprise visa (subclass 790)
  • Secondary Movement Offshore Entry visa XB (subclass 447)
  • Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional Provisional visa (subclass 494)
  • Skilled Work Regional Provisional visa (subclass 491)
  • Support for Victims of People Trafficking Program
  • Temporary Humanitarian Concern visa (subclass 786)
  • Temporary Protection visa (subclass 785)
  • Unauthorised maritime arrivals holding a Bridging E (Class WE) visa
  • Witness Protection (Trafficking) Temporary visa (subclass 787).

How to enrol

You can enrol in Medicare either:

  • online through myGov
  • by completing a Medicare enrolment form.

Enrolling online

Some people can enrol online as either an individual or a family through myGov and track the progress.

To enrol online you and your family members need to:

  • live in Australia
  • have a current passport or ImmiCard
  • have valid visa details from the Department of Home Affairs if you’re not an Australian citizen.

If you want to enrol as a family, we need details and identity documents for any children under 15.

If you want to include someone 15 or older, you need to give that person your myGov online application number.

They need the number to give us their details and identity documents through their own myGov account to complete their Medicare enrolment.

If you have a myGov account sign in and enrol in Medicare now. If you don’t have a myGov account you need to create one.

Sign in to myGov

If your application is approved, we’ll contact you with your next steps. We’ll also send you your Medicare card in the mail to the address you gave us.

Enrolling or extending with a form

If you can’t enrol online, complete a Medicare enrolment form. You can mail or email it with your supporting documents to Medicare Enrolment Services.

If you email us, include ‘Medicare enrolment’ in the email subject line.

Make sure your documents are:

  • in PDF, JPG, PNG, GIF or BMP format
  • not password protected, or in a WinZip or RAR file
  • no larger than 5MB for each document
  • no larger than 10MB in total for all the documents.

Find out what documents you need to enrol.

Page last updated: 17 September 2024.
QC 60323