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.
| 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 | Temporary Skill Shortage (m) |
| 485 | Temporary Graduate – (Graduate work, Post study work, Replacement stream) (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.
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.
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:
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.
The 8501 visa condition means you need to get health insurance for your stay.
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