OSHC compliance checklist: the seven things to confirm before you enrol

Enrolment deadlines compress. OSHC compliance is the item most likely to be bought late in that window and the item least forgiving when it is wrong, because the requirement sits on the visa rather than on the course.

This is a seven-item checklist. Every item is drawn from the OSHC Deed, Home Affairs’ requirements, or the Department of Health’s OSHC fact sheet — not from a checklist a broker wrote.

Work through it before you enrol, not after.

1. The cover period matches your whole stay

Clause 7.1 of the Deed is the anchor: evidence of continuous OSHC for the duration of the Student Visa is “a pre-requisite before a Student Visa may be granted by Home Affairs” and “an ongoing condition for the Student Visa to remain valid.”

So the question is not “is my policy for a year?” It is “is my policy for every day I hold a Student visa?” Check the policy start date against your arrival date and the end date against the end of your Confirmation of Enrolment. If your enrolment runs beyond the policy, you have a gap — and a gap is a compliance problem, not a billing one.

2. Everyone who needs cover is on the policy

The OSHC fact sheet puts the obligation plainly: “You, your partner and family must have OSHC as a condition of your Australian student visa (Subclass 500).”

That means the people on your visa, not the people in your household. The Deed’s definitions tie eligibility to being an “eligible family member for the purposes of a Student visa”, so a family member who is not eligible for your visa is not a dependant for OSHC purposes, and an eligible family member who is in Australia must be covered.

Confirm your policy category matches your visa: student only, student plus partner, student plus dependant children, or the full family. If your visa names a partner or children and your policy says otherwise, this is the item to fix before enrolment.

3. The product is OSHC, not OVHC

These are different products in different regulatory regimes. A Student visa requires OSHC. Buying visitor cover because it was cheaper or easier to find is a common and expensive error.

If you have moved between visa subclasses — graduating, moving to a work or visitor visa, or bringing family on a different visa — check which product each current visa actually requires before you buy for the next period. Our OSHC vs OVHC guide sets out how to tell.

4. You understand the waiting periods before you need care

Schedule 4 of the Deed sets maximum waiting periods from the OSHC start date. The ones most likely to matter to you:

Treatment	Maximum waiting period
Emergency Treatment	Nil
General practice and the MBS groups named in Schedule 4 row (a)	Nil
Psychiatric hospital treatment (except emergency)	2 months
Hospital treatment for a pre-existing condition	12 months
Any other Schedule 1 service not listed in Schedule 4	2 months

The trap is the third row paired with the first: a nil wait on emergencies, but a psychiatric hospital admission that is not an emergency carries a waiting period of up to 2 months. Check your policy’s own waiting periods at enrolment, not at the point you need treatment.

5. You know what the policy does and does not cover

OSHC is a Medicare-based product. Base cover is out-of-hospital medical services at 85% of the MBS fee, in-hospital medical services at 100% of the MBS, public hospital services at 100% of the charges raised by the public hospital, emergency ambulance, and a capped pharmaceutical benefit.

Routine dental, optical and standalone physiotherapy are not in base OSHC. They sit in additional coverage, which insurers offer differently. If you are budgeting, budget those separately. Our guide to what OSHC actually covers has the detail.

6. You have the documents

Clause 11.1 of the Deed requires the insurer to give you, on purchase:

• the policy document;
• the policy schedule, including the names and details of dependants covered;
• the relevant Rules;
• a summary of your duties, responsibilities and obligations;
• a summary of your benefit entitlements; and
• a summary of extra fees, charges and out-of-pocket expenses.

Keep these. You will need the policy schedule as evidence at a visa renewal, and the extras and out-of-pocket summary is the document that tells you what you are actually paying for beyond the premium.

7. The renewal is diarised before you leave

A policy that lapses mid-study breaks the “ongoing condition” in clause 7.1. Set the renewal date in your calendar when the policy is issued, and buy the next period before the current one ends.

If you renew with a different insurer, the Deed’s offset rule protects you only if cover is continuous: a waiting period served under a previous OSHC product is credited against a new one “provided there is continuous cover.” Our guide to switching insurers covers the switching sequence.

Key takeaways

• Compliance is about the cover period and the people on it, not about which brand you bought.
• Cover must run for the whole visa period, with no gap at the start or end.
• Your policy category must match the family named on your visa.
• Know your waiting periods at enrolment — psychiatric hospital treatment can carry up to 2 months.
• Keep your policy schedule and disclosure documents — they are your visa evidence.
• Diarise the renewal before you leave, so continuity holds.

Once you are confident the structure is right, compare the insurers currently selling OSHC on the comparison page and price it for your dates on the quote page.

Sources

• OSHC Deed commencing 1 July 2025 (PDF) — clause 7 (cover periods), clause 11 (policy documents), Schedule 1 (base coverage) and Schedule 4 (waiting periods).
• Department of Health — OSHC fact sheet
• Department of Home Affairs — Adequate health insurance for visa holders
• Private Health Insurance Ombudsman — Overseas Student Health Cover

Information is current as at 1 October 2026. This is general information, not personal advice, and it does not consider your personal circumstances. CompareOSHC is not an insurer or underwriter. We may receive a commission from insurers; commissions do not influence our comparisons.