8501 visa condition
The 8501 visa condition means you need to get health insurance before you come to Australia. 8501-compliance OVHC starts from around $53 a month, but it does vary by visa type.
Key takeaways
- If your visa is subject to condition 8501, you will need to take out health insurance for your time in Australia.
- Most visas come with the 8501 condition.
- You might not need health insurance if you come from a reciprocal health care country.
What is the 8501 visa condition?
This condition means you need to take out health insurance before coming to Australia. The Australian government's immigration website says that "you must have and maintain adequate health insurance for the whole of your stay in Australia" if you are subject to the 8501 visa condition.
Most Australian visas come with the 8501 visa condition.
Expert insight: Why does condition 8501 exist?
"Most Australian visas come with the condition that the visa holder must maintain adequate health insurance. This is called condition 8501. Health insurance has been mandated by the Australian government to ensure that visa holders make appropriate arrangements to cover any medical or hospital care they may require while in Australia, so that they can pay for the care they require should they fall sick or get into an accident. This ensures the visa holder's access to healthcare while in Australia without the need to rely on public funding, or having to pay for the full cost of health care out of pocket."
What visas does the 8501 condition apply to?
| Visa Subclass | Visa Name |
|---|---|
| BVA 010 | Bridging Visa A |
| BVB 020 | Bridging Visa B |
| BVC 030 | Bridging Visa C |
| BVE 050 | Bridging Visa E |
| 403 | Temporary Work International Relations (m) |
| 405* | Investor Retirement (m) |
| 407 | Training (m) |
| 408 | Temporary work activity (d) |
| 410* | Retirement (d) |
| 417 | Working Holiday (d) |
| 461 | NZ Citizen Family Relationship (d) |
| 462 | Work and Holiday (d) |
| 482 | Skills in Demand (formerly Temporary Skill Shortage) (m) |
| 485 | Temporary Graduate – (Post-Vocational Education Work, Post-Higher Education Work, Second Post-Higher Education Work) (m) |
| 500 | Student (m) |
| 590 | Student Guardian (m) |
| 600² | Visitor (Tourist) (d) |
| 771 | Transit (d) |
| 870 | Sponsored Parent (m) |
Mandatory (m) conditions apply to the visa by operation of law at the time of visa grant.
Discretionary (d) conditions are imposed by the delegate as part of the decision to grant, once the visa is granted the condition(s) has been lawfully imposed and cannot be revisited with a view to removing the condition from the visa.
²Condition 8501 can only be imposed on a Visitor visa granted in certain streams or in certain circumstances.
*Visa subclasses closed to new applicants.
How can I meet the 8501 visa requirement?
You can meet the 8501 health insurance requirement by taking out Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC). This is a type of health insurance designed specifically for visa holders coming to Australia.
The policies below all meet the 8501 condition. You can attach this to your visa application. The start date should be when you expect to arrive in Australia, so you won't start paying for your policy until then.
Compare OVHC policies that meet the 8501 condition
Compare other products
How we picked these
Finder Score for overseas health insurance
To make comparing overseas health insurance even easier, we developed the Finder Score. Factors like price, hospital cover, extras cover, emergency travel, and more are weighted and scaled across 50+ policies from 15+ providers to produce a score out of 10. The higher the score, the more competitive the policy.
Do I need to get health insurance?
You aren't obligated to get health insurance if you are from a country that has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Australia. These countries are:
- Belgium
- Finland
- Italy
- Malta
- The Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- The Republic of Ireland
- Slovenia
- Sweden
- The United Kingdom
It's worth noting, RHCAs generally don't cover ambulance transportation, medical evacuation and some out of hospital services such as dental care – but many OVHC policies can.
FAQs
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Hi,
My friend’s 85years old mother got s cancelled her membership saying she is on medication visa now. How can my friend get appropriate insurance or funds to cover this? As they are not rich and they are righteous.
It’s appreciated that if the question could be answered.
Thank you,
Ming
Hi Ming, This is a tricky one. Health insurance associated with visas typically assumes those visa holders are working. Given your friend’s mother is on a compassionate medical visa, she’s unlikely to be covered by many health insurance options, as she has a pre-existing condition. She would likely need advice from an immigration lawyer or other expert on what options (if any) are available.
Hi Gary,
Thanks for writing this very useful article.
Is it right to say there is only one provider for non-working visitor visa for subclass 600 with health 8051 requirements?
i.e Allianz
And the covers are
Allianz Australia Budget Visitors Cover
Allianz Care Australia Standard Visitors Cover
If not can you state the others I might have missed?
thanks
Hi Varun,
All the insurers in the table provide appropriate cover for 8051 visa holders, including Allianz, HCF and Frank. There may be others who don’t currently partner with us as well.
You can contact each insurer for more information by clicking “get quote” or “more info”.
Best of luck!
Hi,
I wanted to know which all insurers provide OVHC that meets the 8501 requirement for VIsa Visitor subclass 600. It is for my parents aged around 68 and 75.
Thanks,
Ranjit
H Ranjit,
All of the insurance policies on this page meet the 8501 requirement.
Hope that helps.
Thanks,
Gary