Medicare While Waiting for a Carer Visa (Subclass 836)

You can enrol in Medicare while waiting for a subclass 836 Carer visa from the day you applied, if you live in Australia and either your visa lets you work or your parent, spouse or child is an Australian citizen or permanent resident (Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) s 3(1), definition of "Australian resident", paragraph (f)). A carer looking after a mother or father usually qualifies through that parent, but a carer looking after a brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew qualifies only with work rights, unless another parent, spouse or child of the carer is a citizen or permanent resident.

The relative you care for is your…	Counts for Medicare?	You can enrol while the 836 is queued if…
Mother or father	Yes, as your parent	You live in Australia
Spouse or de facto partner, or your child	Yes	You live in Australia
Brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew (or a step relative)	No	Your visa lets you work, or another parent, spouse or child of yours is a citizen or permanent resident

Can you get Medicare while waiting for a Carer visa?

You can get Medicare while waiting for a subclass 836 Carer visa if you live in Australia and pass one of two tests: your visa lets you work, or a parent, spouse or child of yours is an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

The 836 is a permanent visa and not a parent visa, so it fits the rule Services Australia publishes for people who have applied for permanent residency. Enrolment runs from the date you applied.

Who can enrol in Medicare while an 836 is pending?

Two groups of 836 applicants can enrol in Medicare while the application is pending:

Applicants whose visa lets them work. The visa in effect, whether a bridging visa or your current visa, must have no condition that stops work.
Applicants with a qualifying close family member. That means a parent, spouse or child who is an Australian citizen or permanent resident. Services Australia also accepts a de facto partner, and a parent, spouse or child who is a New Zealand citizen living in Australia.

Each person included in the 836 is tested separately. Services Australia asks for documents "for each person you want to enrol", so a partner or child in the application needs their own qualifying link or work rights.

Why does your relationship to the relative matter for Medicare?

Your relationship to the relative matters for Medicare because the Health Insurance Act counts only a parent, spouse or child, while the Carer visa counts a much wider circle of relatives (Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) regulation 1.03).

The Carer visa's own test is whether you are a relative who is willing and able to give the care, and that list runs to siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Medicare's list stops at parent, spouse and child. So a carer who is looking after a sibling or a niece usually has no family route to Medicare.

That carer usually holds a Bridging visa A that copied condition 8101 from a visitor visa, or 8115 from an Electronic Travel Authority. Condition 8101 fails the work test unless a new Bridging visa A without it is granted for financial hardship. Neither Services Australia nor the Act says whether condition 8115 (business visitor activity only) counts as "an authority to work", so a carer in that position should ask Medicare before relying on it. On the relative's side, the relative's citizenship or residence evidence, and the birth certificate linking carer and parent, are the documents Medicare asks for.

How do 836 applicants enrol in Medicare?

836 applicants enrol in Medicare online through myGov or on the Medicare enrolment form, with a passport or ImmiCard and the Department of Home Affairs' proof that the 836 was lodged.

Firstly, keep the Department's acknowledgement of your 836 as proof of the permanent-visa application.
Secondly, have a current passport or ImmiCard for each person.
Thirdly, if your visa does not let you work, add proof of the qualifying family member: a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, a joint bank or utility statement, or proof you own or rent a home together.
Fourthly, enrol through myGov, or mail or email the Medicare enrolment form and documents to Medicare Enrolment Services.

Services Australia's documents page (updated 22 September 2026) says the documents do not need to be certified.

Interim registration also starts a private-insurance clock. For a new migrant, the Lifetime Health Cover base day is the later of 1 July after the 31st birthday or the first anniversary of full Medicare registration, and interim (blue card) registration counts (privatehealth.gov.au).

If you cannot enrol in Medicare, what cover can you buy?

If you cannot enrol in Medicare, the cover you can buy is Overseas Visitors Health Cover (OVHC), sold by Australian health insurers, general insurers and overseas insurers. The Australian Government's private health insurance site describes it as insurance for visitors who do not have access to Medicare.

Health insurance is not a condition of an 836 applicant's Bridging visa A. Condition 8501, "The holder must maintain adequate arrangements for health insurance", is not on the list of conditions cl 010.611(4) of the Migration Regulations lets a Bridging visa A carry. A visitor visa granted with 8501 still binds you while it is in effect, so keep that cover until the visitor visa ends.

The costs are what make cover matter. The same government site says a visitor can be charged more than A$1,000 a day in hospital fees alone, even in a public hospital, and high-cost drugs such as those used in chemotherapy can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Membership costs vary greatly between insurers and policies, and no government source publishes premiums. The Lifetime Health Cover rules and the private health insurance rebate do not apply to OVHC, and GST does.

Check these points before you buy OVHC

the level of hospital cover (the government site suggests the highest you can afford);
the waiting period for pre-existing conditions (most insurers impose 12 months, and some exclude them permanently);
the limit on pharmaceuticals, which is low on most OVHC policies;
the excess you choose instead of restrictions or exclusions;
what happens to the policy when your visa or Medicare status changes.

The relative who sponsors the carer has no legal duty to pay the carer's health costs during the queue. The sponsor's undertaking to help with accommodation and financial support starts only after the visa is granted (regulation 1.20(2)(a)).

Does Medicare stop if the 836 Carer visa is refused?

Medicare stops if the 836 Carer visa is refused and no review is lodged, but you can apply to stay enrolled while an Administrative Review Tribunal review is under way.

For that stage, Services Australia asks for proof of the Tribunal application dated within 12 months. Once the Tribunal affirms the refusal, a request for judicial review or ministerial intervention does not keep Medicare: Services Australia states that such applicants are not Australian residents under the Health Insurance Act. The Act's test is that the permanent-visa application is not "withdrawn or otherwise finally determined" (s 3(1), paragraph (f)(ii); Migration Act 1958 (Cth) s 11A), so withdrawing the 836 ends eligibility too.

Can a 116 applicant use Medicare?

A 116 applicant cannot use Medicare while the application is pending, because the applicant lives outside Australia and the subclass 116 is granted only while they are outside Australia (cl 116.411). Medicare starts once the 116 holder arrives to live in Australia as a permanent visa holder (Health Insurance Act s 3(1), paragraph (b)), and the Department's 116 page lists Medicare among the rights after grant.

How does Medicare change once the Carer visa is granted?

Medicare changes once the Carer visa is granted from a conditional enrolment into full eligibility, because a permanent visa holder who lives in Australia is an Australian resident under paragraph (b) of the Health Insurance Act definition. The work and family tests no longer apply, and OVHC gives way to Medicare. Tell your insurer when your status changes, as privatehealth.gov.au advises, and consider the Lifetime Health Cover deadline above before choosing residents' hospital cover.

Until the grant, your work rights come from your Bridging visa A, and a new one granted for financial hardship lifts a no-work condition. The rest of the onshore Carer visa, from criteria to grant, is in the parent guide, and both subclasses are compared at Carer Visa Australia.

A registered professional makes a grant more likely

A registered migration agent or an Australian legal practitioner makes continuous Medicare cover more likely, because it depends on the work condition on your bridging visa and on lodging any Tribunal review within the 28-day limit. They also check which family members in the 836 have their own qualifying link, so no one is left without cover by mistake.

Ask about your case

Medicare while waiting for a Carer visa: who can enrol, and cover if you cannot