Child born overseas enrolling in Medicare 011-44120070

Child holds a foreign passport

Eligibility

A child born overseas is eligible for Medicare when they:

• have one or both parents who are Australian citizens, and
• hold a foreign passport, and
• have entered Australia on a temporary resident visa, and
• intend to reside in Australia (application for citizenship lodged)

Documents required

Where a child's parents have been absent for less than 5 years the following documents are required with a completed Medicare enrolment application form to enrol the child:

• foreign passport and
• birth certificate

Where an Australian citizenship document is provided at time of enrolment:

• citizenship granted offshore, enrol child as Australian Citizen and eligible from date of entry (on parent's card)
• citizenship granted onshore, change from conditional migrant to Australian citizen from date of grant (transfer to parent's card)

Where a child's parents are absent for more than 5 years (or it cannot be established that they have been residing in Australia) the following documents are required, with a completed Medicare enrolment application form, to enrol the child:

• foreign passport, and
• birth certificate, and
• two residency documents, or
• statutory declaration declaring the family has returned to Australia to reside

Note: if the child’s parents are enrolling at the same time as the child, a Digital Medicare Enrolment (DME) can be submitted.

See also: Ministerial orders and Medicare eligibility

Where an Australian citizenship document is provided at time of enrolment:

• citizenship granted offshore, enrol child as Australian citizen and eligible from date of entry (on parent's card)
• citizenship granted onshore, Australian citizen from date of grant (on parent's card)
• where initially enrolled as conditional migrant and citizenship was granted onshore, amend entitlement to Australian citizen from date of grant (transfer on to parent's card)

Entitlement

• Start Date - date citizenship is granted or entry date
• End Date - open
• Entitlement Type - Australian citizen

Child holds an Australian passport

Eligibility

A child born overseas is eligible for Medicare if they:

• have one or both parents who are Australian citizens, and
• hold an Australian passport, and
• has returned to Australia to reside

Documents required

Where a child's parents have been absent for less than 5 years the following documents are required with a completed Medicare enrolment application form to enrol the child:

• Australian passport, and
• birth certificate

Where a child's parents are absent for more than 5 years (or it cannot be established that they have been residing in Australia) the following documents are required with a completed Medicare enrolment application form to enrol the child:

• Australian passport, and
• birth certificate, and
• two residency documents, or
• statutory declaration declaring the family has returned to Australia to reside

Note: if the child’s parents are enrolling at the same time as the child, a Digital Medicare Enrolment (DME) can be submitted.

See also: Ministerial orders and Medicare eligibility

Entitlement

• Start Date - date of arrival
• End Date - open
• Entitlement Type - Australian citizen

Eligibility

Australian diplomats or employees of the Australian Government residing overseas remain eligible for Medicare benefits for the entire period of their overseas posting.

A child born to an Australian diplomat or Australian Government employee:

• is eligible for Medicare regardless of whether or not they have returned to Australia to reside, and
• can be enrolled on first visit/entry to Australia

Documents required

The following documents are required with a completed Medicare enrolment application form to enrol a child:

• child’s Australian passport, or
• child’s foreign passport, and
• Australian citizenship document, and
• birth certificate

Entitlement

• Start Date - date of arrival in Australia
• End Date - open
• Entitlement Type - Australian citizen

Where absence from Australia has gone beyond 5 years evidence of their diplomatic status or continuing government employment is required. Where a person cannot produce evidence of this nature a Statutory Declaration is acceptable.

Entitlement

• Start Date - date of arrival in Australia
• End Date - open
• Entitlement Type - Australian Citizen

Eligibility

A New Zealand citizen who has already been enrolled in Medicare and has a child born overseas, can apply to enrol the child in Medicare once the family returns to Australia to live.

Documentation required

To enrol the child in Medicare the following documents are required:

• Medicare enrolment form (MS004)
• The child’s current New Zealand passport, and
• The child’s birth certificate

If the child’s parent/s have been absent from Australia for more than 12 months, see Medicare eligibility for New Zealand citizens for more details.

Entitlement

• Start Date - date of arrival in Australia
• End Date - open
• Entitlement Type - New Zealand citizen

Record all documents in CDMS when registering a customer’s Medicare entitlement.

Eligibility

A child born overseas who has parents who hold permanent resident status in Australia, does not have automatic right of entry to Australia. The child does not automatically gain permanent resident status and, as a result, does not gain access to Medicare until they meet the usual criteria. An application for permanent status must be lodged with the Department of Home Affairs seeking approval for the child to migrate to Australia.

Documentation required

Where the child’s parents have been absent from Australia for less than one year, the following documents are required with a completed Medicare enrolment application form:

• child’s passport, and
• birth certificate, and
• evidence from Department of Home Affairs confirming the child’s lodgement of an application for permanent residency, or
• evidence from Department of Home Affairs that permanent resident status has been granted to the child

Where the child’s parents have been absent for more than one year, the following documents are required with a completed Medicare enrolment application form:

• child’s passport, and
• birth certificate, and
• evidence from Department of Home Affairs confirming the child’s lodgement of an application for permanent residency, or
• evidence from Department of Home Affairs that permanent resident status has been granted to the child, and
• two residency documents to confirm that the family has returned to Australia to reside along with confirmation of the parent's current eligibility

Note:

• evidence of the parent's and child’s residency status can also be confirmed via the Immigration Data Link or VEVO
• if the child’s parents are enrolling at the same time as the child, a Digital Medicare Enrolment (DME) can be submitted

Entitlement

Where the child is a conditional migrant and the parents are migrants, the child must be enrolled on a separate card to the parents with the parent/s being the group contact.

If the application for permanent residency was lodged before arriving in Australia:

• Start Date - date of arrival to Australia
• End Date - 12 months from the entitlement start date
• Entitlement Type - Conditional Migrant

If the application for permanent residency was lodged after arriving in Australia:

• Start Date - date of lodgement of the application for permanent residency
• End Date - 12 months from the entitlement start date
• Entitlement Type - Conditional Migrant

Where the child has been granted permanent residency status, they can be enrolled directly onto the parent/s Medicare card.

Application for permanent residency was granted before arriving in Australia:

• Start Date - date of arrival to Australia
• End Date - open
• Entitlement Type - Migrant

Application for permanent residency was granted after arriving in Australia:

• Start Date - Conditional Migrant until date permanent residency granted, once entitlement recorded as migrant, child can be transferred on to parent's Medicare card

Where a child is born overseas and arrives in Australia after the parents’ application for permanent resident status is lodged, the parents of the child (applicants) must lodge an application for permanent resident status for the child with the Department of Home Affairs.

The child will hold a visa subclass 445 and this is displayed in VEVO.

Where VEVO displays visa TK/445, the child is onshore and is an applicant for permanent resident visa, this information is sufficient to confirm the child is eligible for Medicare and can be enrolled on the card with the parent who holds the visa subclass 309.

Where a parent application is being appealed, the child cannot automatically be added to the parent’s application.

If the visa subclass 445 was granted before arriving in Australia:

• Start Date - date of arrival in Australia
• End Date - same as parent already enrolled on the card
• Entitlement Type - Conditional Migrant

If the subclass was granted after arriving in Australia:

• Start Date - date of lodgement of the application for permanent residency (visa subclass 445)
• End Date - same as parent already enrolled on the card
• Entitlement Type - Conditional Migrant

Note: evidence of date of arrival or application lodgement date is required, confirmation email from Department of Home Affairs is sufficient.

Where the parent can't provide the confirmation letter from Department of Home Affairs showing the parent's details and sponsor's details, a birth certificate as well as child's passport is required. Refer to Tier Two.