Medicare eligibility for customers with permanent resident status 011-44040000

A customer can enrol in Medicare as a migrant when they:

• have been granted permanent residency, and
• are living in Australia

A customer can enrol in Medicare if they are onshore and meet all eligibility criteria. Once enrolled, the customer will get a green Medicare card.

The customer must supply documents to enrol in Medicare.

Identification documents must be verified for all customers enrolling and re-enrolling in Medicare in the Medicare Document Verification Service (DVS) Portal before processing an application.

If an application is received and processed in a service centre, DVS is only needed if the Service Officer is not satisfied with the validity of the documents.

See Identity verification for Medicare enrolments and re-enrolments in the Medicare Document Verification Service (DVS) portal.

Note: if a customer submits a DME application, DVS is completed in the MEE Portal. See Digital Medicare enrolments (DME) and the MEE Portal.

For Medicare eligibility some expired identity documents can be accepted if they can be successfully verified through the Medicare Document Verification Service (DVS) Portal.

Common accepted expired documents:

• expired foreign passport linked to a current Australian visa
• expired ImmiCard that has not been cancelled

For more details on acceptable identity documents, including all expired identity documents see, Medicare identity documents A to Z.

Service Officers must access VEVO when processing applications.

See Access Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) program.

Department of Home Affairs share details with Services Australia for customers who:

• are Migrants (includes customers who have a permanent resident status before or after arriving in Australia)
• are Conditional Migrants (includes customers who have a temporary resident visa and have applied for a permanent visa. For example, a spouse of an Australian citizen)
• live in Australia and have applied for a permanent resident visa
• have applied under a Ministerial order and the visa has been granted

The shared details are through an electronic data link and show the status of the customer's visa with Department of Home Affairs.

Service Officers can:

• access the above in CDMS, and
• use the Department of Home Affairs link when enrolling or amending a customer's record

The details Department of Home Affairs sends through an electronic data link may change a customer's Medicare entitlement.

If a customer's data link is not on the system, they can still enrol in Medicare.

A person living in Australia who has applied for a parent visa (subclass 103 or 804) is not eligible to enrol in Medicare until the parent visa has been granted.

The only exception is where a person who has applied for a parent visa (subclass 103 or 804) is from a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) country. They must meet the conditions for that RHCA country to be eligible for Medicare.

See Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) eligibility for Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Service Officers must take care when assessing an enrolment where a person has a parent visa.

A person living in Australia and granted one of the following visas, is eligible for Medicare:

• Refugee visa (subclass 200)
• In-country Special Humanitarian Programme visa (subclass 201)
• Global Special Humanitarian Programme visa (subclass 202)
• Emergency Rescue visa (subclass 203)
• Woman at Risk visa (subclass 204)

Note: the Department of Home Affairs has more details on the Refugee category visas.

Holders of permanent resident visas who permanently reside in Australia can lose their Medicare eligibility when they are absent from Australia for 12 months or more.

Services Australia accepts advice confirming that a customer is residing overseas from the following sources:

• over the phone
• in person, or
• in writing (letter or email)

If advice is received that a permanent resident intends to or is residing overseas enter the departure date (if known) in the Comments field in Personal.

If confirmed that a permanent resident has been absent from Australia for 12 months or more, however the exact date they left the country is unknown, eligibility can be end dated using the date:

• advised, or
• the written advice was received

Do not apply a consumer end date to a customer's record until the customer has been residing outside Australia for 12 months or more.

The Process page provides information on:

• how to consumer end date a customer
• permanent residents returning to reside in Australia

Where a customer:

• is a Conditional Migrant and their entitlement is updated to Migrant through the Department of Home Affairs immigration (DIAC) link, this will:
• automatically update the customer's entitlement type in CDMS, and
• reissue a new Medicare card
• has not been linked to the DIAC link, an update will need to be done manually

Where an enrolled customer provides Australian citizenship papers, their Medicare entitlement type can be updated to reflect Australian (A). A Medicare enrolment form (MS004) is not required. However, Document Verification Service (DVS) consent is required to verify the customer's document.

The customer can provide one of the following documents:

• Australian Citizenship certificate
• Australian Citizen by Descent certificate
• Current Australian passport

See Australian citizens eligibility for Medicare.