Documents to enrol in Medicare if you're a permanent resident

You can enrol in Medicare if you have a permanent resident visa. You’ll need to give us both:

We need these for each person you want to enrol.

You don’t need to get your documents certified.

Complete a Medicare enrolment form and mail or email it with your documents to Medicare Enrolment Services.

If you don’t have these documents, tell us. We’ll talk to you about other options.

When you live overseas after you enrol

If you live overseas again for more than 12 months, you’ll no longer be in Medicare. You’ll need to enrol again when you move back to Australia.

You can call the Medicare program line to extend your enrolment. You’ll need to prove your identity over the phone.

If you can’t prove your identity over the phone, you can mail or email your Medicare enrolment form and supporting documents to Medicare Enrolment Services.

You’ll need to give us both:

You don’t need to get your supporting documents certified.

You can also give us your old Medicare card numbers.

You can prove you live in Australia by giving us either:

Documents from Australia	Documents from the other country
Proof of rental or lease agreement and gas or electricity account in the same name	Proof you sold your property
Proof of purchase of property and gas or electricity account in the same name	Proof you ended your lease
Proof of job	Proof you ended your job
Proof your child is enrolled in school, childcare or university	Proof you moved household goods or furniture
A statement from your bank	A statement showing you closed your bank account
Proof of health, property or contents insurance	Proof you cancelled health, property or contents insurance

You don’t need to get your documents certified.

Complete a Medicare enrolment form and mail or email it with your documents to Medicare Enrolment Services.

If you don’t have these documents, tell us. We’ll talk to you about other options.

Page last updated: 29 January 2021