Document types for Medicare eligibility and enrolment 011-44140000

Two residency documents are required for:

• Australian citizens who have:
• never enrolled in Medicare, or
• been absent from Australia for more than 5 years
• Permanent residents (migrants) who have:
• not applied to enrol in Medicare within the first 12 months from their visa grant date
• been absent from Australia for more than 12 months, or
• returned to Australia on a return resident visa
• New Zealand citizens enrolling in Medicare
• never enrolled in Medicare, or
• been absent from Australia for more than 12 months

Requirements:

• when a family arrives in Australia to reside, 2 residency documents are required to be provided for the family unit enrolment. These documents must be dated within 6 months prior to date of lodgement
• residency documents can be made up of 2 documents from Australia or one document from Australia and one from the country where the customer last lived
• it may be acceptable for a customer to complete a statutory declaration in support of their enrolment in Medicare where the necessary residency document cannot be provided. Go to Acceptable use of a statutory declaration when enrolling or re-enrolling in Medicare

The Resources page contains a list of documents.

Forms can be completed digitally using Adobe Acrobat Reader on some browsers, or they can be printed and completed by hand. Customers can complete the declaration digitally or by hand.

Each person aged 15 years and over must complete the relevant declarations by ticking the check box and completing their full name. Providing a middle name or date on the declaration is not mandatory.

If the form has not been completed in all required fields, go to Medicare eligibility and enrolments request for information.

Service Officers must accept previous versions of the Medicare enrolment form (MS004), including versions with a signature. If Service Officers are unsure, contact Medicare and Aged Care - Local Peer Support (LPS) for help.

To be eligible for enrolment under a RHCA, customers from some countries will need to provide proof of their residency in the RHCA country to establish eligibility for Medicare.

The Resources page contains a list of documents.

For more details on residency documents, see Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA) eligibility for Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

In some circumstances, it is acceptable for a customer to complete a statutory declaration in support of an enrolment or re-enrolment in Medicare if the necessary residency documents cannot be provided.

A statutory declaration cannot be used in lieu of:

• 2 residency documents within the first 6 months of arrival for migrants and eligible New Zealand citizens
• specific documents required for visitors to Australia requesting enrolment under a RHCA (except Italian citizens)

Australian citizens who return to Australia to reside after an absence of 5 years or more

Where an Australian citizen has been residing overseas for 5 years or more and has returned to Australia to reside, the customer must provide 2 documents.

If the customer cannot provide residency documents after 6 months, they can complete a statutory declaration.

Examples include when the applicant is:

• residing in Australia with relatives or friends and is currently unemployed
• not included on a rental agreement contract and utility accounts

The statutory declaration must comprehensively detail why the applicant cannot provide 2 acceptable residency documents from the list on the Resources page. The statutory declaration must also include:

• the applicants previous country of residence
• what steps they took to cease residing in the overseas country
• confirmation that the applicant has returned to reside in Australia (as opposed to returning to visit), and
• any other steps taken to establish their residence back in Australia

Service Officers can accept statutory declarations submitted after 6 months as they do not need to be escalated.

In some circumstances a statutory declaration can be made available to an applicant within 6 months from their arrival date if the applicant cannot provide 2 acceptable residency documents to confirm their residency. Service Officers must follow the Escalation process for Medicare Eligibility in this instance to accept the statutory declaration.

Australian citizens who return to Australia to reside after an absence of less than 5 years

Under a Ministerial Order, Australian citizens remain eligible for Medicare on return visits to Australia for 5 years from the date they left Australia to reside overseas.

Holders of a permanent resident visa

A holder of a permanent resident visa (migrant) who has been absent from Australia for 12 months or more and has returned to Australia to reside must provide 2 residency documents. If they do not have documents to prove residency, they can:

• return anytime within 6 months of arriving in Australia to reside, with residency documents, or
• complete a detailed statutory declaration (if they cannot provide 2 residency documents) once they have been residing in Australia for 6 months or more

The requirement to prove residency in Australia applies to migrants who are:

• already enrolled in Medicare as a migrant, but have been residing overseas for 12 months or more, or
• have not applied to enrol in Medicare, within the first 12 months from their visa grant date

Service Officers can accept statutory declarations submitted after 6 months as they do not need to be escalated.

New Zealand citizens who have entered Australia to reside

When an applicant cannot provide 2 residency documents after being in Australia for 6 months or more, they can submit a Commonwealth statutory declaration together with any documents they have.

The Commonwealth statutory declaration must:

• be comprehensive
• provide reasons why residency documents cannot be submitted

Examples are:

• living with friends or relatives and have no employment, or
• they are on a fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) contract with an Australian employer (they must include the name of their Australian employer)

Service Officers can accept statutory declarations submitted after 6 months as they do not need to be escalated.

New Zealand citizens may be eligible for Medicare under the RHCA with New Zealand until they can provide the 2 residency documents. See Reciprocal Health Care Agreements (RHCA) eligibility for Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme(PBS).

A customer completing a statutory declaration must understand the statements must be true and that it is a chargeable offence to intentionally make a false statement. The penalty for making a false statement is a maximum of 4 years imprisonment.

Services Australia accepts a:

• Commonwealth statutory declaration form, or
• statutory declaration on a state or territory form

The Resources page contains links to the Commonwealth statutory declaration and the statutory declarations page on the Attorney-General's Department website.

A translation request is required where a customer provides:

• a document in a foreign language
• their own translated document

See Translation of documents.

If the documents provided for a DME application are not in English and have not been translated by a National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) accredited translator. See Digital Medicare enrolments (DME) and the MEE Portal.

The Resources page contains a link to NAATI and Department of Home Affairs.

Service centres can scan enrolments, re-enrolments and original documents into PaNDA by selecting Medicare Eligibility and Enrolment work type Enrolment.

A tax file number (TFN) must not be requested for identification purposes, or to establish residency. If a TFN is provided, it must not be retained on any documents and the number must be erased or made illegible.

To enrol a customer in Medicare, they must provide:

• a Medicare enrolment form (MS004), or
• Digital Medicare enrolment (DME), and
• documents to determine eligibility and identity

If the name on the Medicare enrolment form is different from the name on eligibility documents, Service Officers must:

• sight evidence of a change of name, and
• do a name search before enrolling a customer, as the person may have been enrolled under a previous name due to a name change

See Register a customer for Medicare in the Consumer Directory Maintenance System (CDMS).

Service Officers use the Medicare DVS Portal:

• to verify identification documents for all customers enrolling and re-enrolling in Medicare, and
• where they are not satisfied with the validity of documents for applications received and processed in a service centre

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

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

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

Common accepted documents, such as expired:

• foreign passport linked to a current Australian visa
• 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.