The medical treatment visa (602): who it is for, the arrangements for payment, applying onshore when treatment outlasts your visa, and why it cannot be extended

MARN 1576536

Who the 602 is for

• A person who seeks medical treatment or medical consultations in Australia, where the treatment has been arranged and will be paid for, and where it will not prejudice Australians' access to care.
• A person who needs to be in Australia to support a patient who is here for treatment, or an Australian patient, where the treating doctor says the support is needed.
• A person coming to Australia to donate an organ to a recipient here.
• A person in Australia whose medical condition makes them unfit to depart, or whose treatment is continuing when their current visa ends.
• A person who is aged 50 or over, who has applied for a permanent visa and been refused only on health grounds, in a narrow provision the consultation explains where it applies.
• A person whose treatment in Australia is supported by the Australian Government or a state, in a programme the government has arranged.

A person who wants to visit Australia and see a specialist while here, where the appointment is paid and short, uses the visitor visa; the 602 is for the case where the treatment is the reason for the stay, or where the stay must outlast the visa the person holds.

The medical evidence

The application turns on a letter from the treating doctor or hospital in Australia, on letterhead, setting out the diagnosis, the treatment proposed or under way, the expected duration including recovery and follow-up, the dates of appointments, whether the applicant is fit to travel now and when they will be, and, for a support person, why the patient needs that person present. A letter from a doctor abroad referring the patient to Australia supports an offshore application, with the Australian provider's confirmation that it has accepted the patient. The Department's medical officers read the letter, and a letter that is vague about duration, that describes treatment available in the applicant's country, or that describes a condition that does not require the applicant to be in Australia leads to a request or a refusal. The applicant also completes the health examination the Department requires for the visa, which for a long stay includes a chest x-ray, with the treating condition disclosed; the health requirement applies, and a condition that will cost the public system is examined under it, which is why the arrangements for payment are examined alongside.

Paying for the treatment

The Department must be satisfied that the applicant has made arrangements to pay for the treatment and for all costs related to it, including accommodation and living costs during the stay, and that the treatment will not be at the expense of Australians' access to health care; the regulations put both as criteria, and the Department reads them as requiring treatment in the private system, or in the public system at full cost, paid by the applicant's funds, insurance, a sponsor's undertaking, a government programme, or the provider's confirmation that payment has been made or guaranteed. The evidence is bank statements, the insurer's policy and confirmation of cover for the treatment, a sponsor's statement with their own financial evidence, or the hospital's letter confirming the arrangement. An applicant who has received treatment in a public hospital on an earlier visit and has an outstanding debt is refused until it is paid, and the hospital debt is the commonest reason a 602 is refused onshore; an applicant who cannot show the money for the course of treatment is refused for the same reason. The Department also requires adequate health insurance for the stay, which for a person with a known condition is the policy that covers it, not a visitor policy that excludes it.

The support person

A relative or friend who needs to be in Australia with a patient applies for the 602 as a support person, with the treating doctor's letter that the patient needs the support, the relationship evidence, and their own evidence of funds for the stay; the support person's visa runs with the patient's treatment, carries no work, and ends when the treatment does. A support person for an Australian patient, a parent coming to be with an adult child through an illness, applies on the same basis. A support person who could instead come on a visitor visa, for a stay within a visitor visa's period, usually does, and the 602 is for the case where the stay will be long or the visitor visa carries a condition that prevents the application. The urgent visitor guide covers the quick route to a sick relative.

Organ donors

A person coming to donate an organ to a recipient in Australia applies for the 602 with the transplant unit's letter setting out the donation, the assessment, the surgery and the recovery, the recipient's details, and the arrangements for the donor's costs, which the recipient or the unit ordinarily meets; the donor's own health examination is required, and the Department processes these applications with the urgency the surgery date demands when the application says so. A donor whose donation is later found to involve payment is in a different position, since organ trading is an offence, and the Department asks about the relationship between donor and recipient.

Applying onshore when treatment outlasts your visa

A person in Australia on a visitor, student, working holiday or other temporary visa who becomes ill, has an accident, or has complications from planned treatment, and who is told that they cannot leave or that the treatment will run past their visa, applies for the 602 before the visa ends, with the doctor's letter, the payment arrangements and the health cover; a bridging visa A is granted and holds them lawfully until decision. The 602 can be applied for in Australia by a person whose visa carries condition 8503, no further stay, where the application is on the medical grounds the regulations specify, because the condition's own terms exempt an application for the 602 on those grounds; it is one of two or three visas with that exemption and the reason the 602 is the visa a visitor with a medical emergency applies for rather than a further visitor visa. A person whose visa has already expired is unlawful, and the 602 can still be applied for, with the Schedule 3 criteria and the explanation of the lapse, and the Department grants it on medical grounds where the evidence is strong. The 8503 guide explains the condition, and the extension guide the ordinary route when the reason is not medical.

The stay period and conditions

The 602 is granted for the period the Department considers the treatment requires, on the medical evidence, which may be weeks or a year or more, and the grant letter states the date. The ordinary conditions are no work, with the Department able to grant work rights in a limited class of long-term cases; maintain health insurance; and, for a holder granted onshore, often a no further stay condition that limits what can be applied for next. A holder who works breaches the condition and faces cancellation, and a holder who stops the treatment and stays on is examined for whether the visa was obtained for its purpose. The visa permits travel, and a holder who leaves and returns within the period can do so unless the grant says otherwise.

A further application

The 602 is not extended; a holder whose treatment continues past the date applies for a further 602 before the current one ends, with an updated letter from the treating doctor setting out why the treatment continues, the revised duration, and why it cannot be completed in the applicant's country, and with updated evidence of payment and cover. A bridging visa holds the applicant between the two. The Department examines a second or third application for whether the treatment is genuinely continuing, whether the applicant is in fact well enough to leave and be treated at home, and whether the visa has become a means of staying; a chronic condition that will be treated for life is not a basis for an indefinite series of 602s, and the Department says so at the second or third application. A holder with a no further stay condition on the 602 itself applies for the further 602 under the same medical exemption.

Medicare and reciprocal agreements

A 602 holder is not entitled to Medicare, and public hospital treatment is charged at the full rate to an ineligible patient, which is why the arrangements for payment are a criterion. A person from a country with a reciprocal health care agreement with Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Italy, Malta, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Slovenia and Finland at the time of writing, has access to the medically necessary care the agreement covers while in Australia, which varies by agreement and does not generally cover treatment the person came to Australia to obtain; the Department reads the agreement for what it covers, and a reciprocal entitlement does not replace the payment arrangements for planned treatment. The Medicare guide sets out who is covered.

What the 602 is not

• Not free treatment: the applicant or someone for them pays, and the public system is not the payer.
• Not a way to stay: the visa ends with the treatment, and a holder who has recovered and stays is unlawful.
• Not a pathway: the 602 leads to no other visa, counts toward nothing, and often carries a condition that limits the next application.
• Not a work visa: the holder and the support person do not work.
• Not a parent visa: an aged parent with a chronic condition is not a medical treatment applicant for the length of the condition, and the parent visas and the sponsored parent visa are the route.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The subclass 602 criteria in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, conditions 8503 and 8501 in Schedule 8 and the exemption for medical treatment applications within condition 8503, the health requirement in Schedule 4, and the reciprocal health care agreements administered by Services Australia, as in force at the date above; the Department’s practice on further applications and on work rights is a matter of its policy and the current position governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.