We have information in different languages about Travel outside Australia
For Centrelink payments and services, you can call our multilingual phone service.
If you leave Australia to live in another country, your payment will stop when you depart.
If your travel is short term, your payment will stop when you depart, unless you’re travelling for an approved reason.
What the approved reasons are
There are some approved reasons for overseas travel.
Family crisis, humanitarian reasons or medical treatment
You may get Farm Household Allowance if you’re travelling outside Australia for an approved reason. If granted, you’ll get your payment for the time required to deal with the reason. This will generally be 2-3 weeks. The maximum period is 6 weeks.
The approved reasons are:
- to attend an acute family crisis - for example, to visit a family member who’s critically ill
- for specific humanitarian reasons - for example, to adopt a child or attend custody proceedings
- to get eligible medical treatment that isn’t available in Australia.
Defence training
If you’re attending an Australian Defence Force Reserves training camp, you’ll get your payment for the duration of the training.
Evidence we need
You need to give us a written statement from the camp commander or the person in charge. It must show all of the following:
- camp details
- duration of the camp including the start and end dates of the camp
- camp location.