Getting your Covid-19 vaccination proof without a Medicare in Australia [add to mobile wallet]

A comprehensive guide explaining how to get your Covid-19 vaccination proof or certificate when you have or don’t have a Medicare card.
Also included are the step by step instructions on how to add your Covid-19 vaccination proof as a pass to an iPhone wallet or an android wallet.

This guide will be helpful for you if you have got a Medicare card or don’t have one.

I have listed and explained the process to obtain the Covid vaccination certificate, adding it to the mobile wallets and downloading the vaccination digital certificate to your phone which will be helpful for you even when you don’t have a Medicare.

If you are in rush and want to get into the main part you can skip the following section (where I share the story behind writing this post) and go straight to how to get your Covid19 vaccination proof without medicare and adding covid-19 vaccination passes to mobile wallets like Apple Wallet for iPhone and Android wallets like Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

our story

Sonisha and I recently visited the state vaccination centre in Adelaide, SA to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Sonisha got her second dose of Pfizer and mine was first.

Since we are required to present our proof of vaccination against Covid-19 (aka coronavirus) at work we had to get a certificate.

When we asked for a certificate, we were advised we could get one from the myGov website (my.gov.au) or through the Medicare app after some time.

We weren’t aware of this online service of accessing our vaccination certificates until the time we visited this vaccination centre. I got curious how it worked and later after I went home, I logged in to myGov and did all the linking and was able to access my immunisation history in about a few days.

So I thought it would be helpful to write how we did, in case some other temporary residents and international students like us might be wondering how to do this.

Vaccinating without a medicare

In Australia, you can get vaccinated against the Covid-19 whatever visa you might be on. This is available for free and can be booked online. Some vaccination hubs and clinics also accept walk-ins for vaccination.

And if you don’t have Medicare in Australia, you can still get vaccinated!

We are international students in Australia and even though we are required to have health insurance (OSHC), temporary visa holders like international students aren’t eligible to get Medicare benefits (with some exceptions).

One mightn’t have a medicare service available if s/he is a temporary visa holder in Australia like international students. Some other people who mightn’t have a Medicare card can be:

• student
• temporary visa holders
• student graduates
• tourists and visitors, family members

How to get proof of your Covid-19 vaccination when you don’t have medicare

Once you have got vaccinated, your vaccination clinic or hub is responsible to submit the details of your vaccination to the federal government for records. So your details are double checked before you are vaccinated.

After you get your vaccine, in few days the vaccination details will be logged into your healthcare record on myGov.

You can access the details of your vaccination by logging into your myGov account or via the Medicare app (if eligible for Medicare).

Accessing the immunisation history via IHI

If you don’t have a Medicare, you can link Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) on myGov and get access to your immunisation records.

If you haven’t previously linked IHI you can do this by:

• by clicking on COVID-19 Vaccination Status or by searching and linking IHI from services from myGov’s home page
• once you click on COVID-19 Vaccination Status, you can proceed ahead by tapping you don’t have a Medicare
• if you aleady have IHI you can state you have one, else you can tap on I need one
• in next few steps you’ll be asked to provide your personal details like Name, Passport number/ visa, DOB, address etc
• once your data is matched with the record on myGov successfully a success message with your IHI number is displayed
• tap on View immunisation history to got to history page
• in the next page you can view the statement, add the certificate as a pass to your mobile wallets if you have got both of your doses and option to download your digital certificate

What you can find at immunisation history page

You can access the following information the immunisation history page

1. immunisation statement history
2. digital certificate for your Covid-19 vaccination
3. buttons to add the vaccination pass to your mobile wallet

Adding your proof of covid vaccination to mobile wallet

It is possible for us to add the proof of Covid 19 vaccination as a pass in our mobile wallets. You can add the vaccination proofs both on iPhone and Android-based smartphones.

These vaccination proofs can be added to the mobile wallets in smartphones and accessed when needed.

5 reasons why should you add Covid vaccination proof passes to mobile wallets?

1. As businesses and people around are quickly adapting to the new technological advancement, the mechanism of verifying the passes’ genuiness will be easier with mobile wallets. just like tap and go.
2. Paper to paperless digital transition if you care about the mother earth 🙂
3. It is relatively easier to handle, manage and store a vaccination proof on your phone than saving the hard copy.
4. Mobile wallets have strong security and privacy measures
5. Let’s not forget the convenience of portability and worrying about what to do if it gets lost (until you lose your phone, but still you can download it again 🙂 )

2 ways of adding the covid vaccination proof pass to phone’s wallet

There are two ways to add the COVID-19 digital certificate to your phone:

1. by downloading Medicare app, logging in with myGov and clicking on View COVID-19 digital certificate from the Immunization History section
2. from my.gov.au, accessing the Immunization History by linking services Go to medicare or Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) if you don’t have medicare

Here since we are talking about the situation when we aren’t eligible to get Medicare benefits or when we don’t have Medicare, the following guide explains how to add the Covid vaccination certificates to your phone’s wallet with Individual Healthcare Identifier also known as IHI.

How to add vaccination proof pass on Apple Wallet on iPhone

Adding the proof of vaccination for Covid-19 in Australia to the Apple Wallet application on the iPhone is simple and straightforward.

You can do this either by accessing the myGov website from a browser or by using the Medicare app if you have got one.

We will be talking about how to add the Covid-19 vaccination digital pass to the iPhone wallet from the myGov website hereunder.

Login to your myGov account (if you haven’t got one you can easily create one) and from the homepage look for linked services.

Look for a section saying COVID-19 Vaccination Status.
If you don’t this section you can proceed ahead by searching for services to link (search for IHI).

Open up the COVID-19 Vaccination Status and it will take you to your vaccination status page.

You’ll see the button to add to the apple wallet.

Here you can also download the PDF version of your Covid Vaccination Certificate and save it to your phone or maybe email it to your employers or anyone asking for one.

How to add Covid-19 vaccination proof on Google Play on Android

On your android device, you can add the proof of vaccination as a wallet pass to apps like Google Pay or Samsung Pay.

To do this, you have to visit the myGov website at my.gov.au and open up the COVID-19 vaccination status page from linked services.

You can click on the button to set up the pass to your phone’s wallet.

You’ll also see the option to download the PDF version of the digital vaccination certificate.

Resources

• myGov my.gov.au
• Medicare servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/medicare
• How to get an IHI if you don’t have a Medicare https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/steps/how-get-individual-healthcare-identifier/51650
• COVID-19 vaccines in Australia https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines
• How to use Wallet on your iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple Watch https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204003
• Google Pay https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204003

FAQs