What Documents do I Need to Apply for Medicare

To register for Medicare as a permanent resident of Australia, you need to provide documents that prove your identity and residency.



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

  • a current passport or Immicard
  • proof of permanent residence from the Department of Home Affairs

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.



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’ll need to give us:

  • your completed Medicare enrolment form
  • a current passport for each person
  • 2 documents per family proving you now live in Australia.

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

You can also give us your old Medicare card numbers.

Proving you now live in Australia



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

  • 2 documents from Australia
  • one document from Australia and one from where you last lived.