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Moving to Mauritius from Australia

By Rory Phillips · Published 30 October 2026

Australians do not need a visa to visit Mauritius: the Passport and Immigration Office lists Australia as no visa required, and the officer at the port of entry sets the length of stay. Living there needs a residence route. On the Australian side, leaving does not by itself end tax residence, and Australian citizens and permanent residents cannot generally take their super out on leaving.

If you are moving to Mauritius from Australia, this guide sets out what the official Australian and Mauritian bodies say about entry, leaving Australian tax residence, super, Medicare, the Age Pension, pets and shipping. It is general information drawn from published pages, not advice for your own circumstances.

Entering Mauritius on an Australian passport

The Mauritius Passport and Immigration Office publishes a country-by-country visa list, and Australia is shown as no visa required. No official page gives a fixed number of days for these nationalities: the immigration officer at the port of entry decides how long you may stay. Our visa requirements guide covers how that works and what extensions involve.

Smartraveller, the Australian government travel advice service, puts the same point in its own words: for stays of under 60 days a visa is provided free on arrival, while other visa types must be applied for before travel. It also warns that entry conditions can change at short notice, and that an All-in-One Travel Digital Form is completed online or on arrival. Smartraveller says to carry a copy of any prescription and a letter from your doctor, because some medicines may be illegal in other countries even when prescribed in Australia. It also says travel insurance should cover all medical costs, including evacuation, and that anyone carrying more than MUR 500,000 must declare it on arrival and departure.

Smartraveller currently rates Mauritius at exercise normal safety precautions. Its latest update, from 20 October 2026, records localised demonstrations after a police shooting on 9 October, with overnight curfews lifted on 19 October. It also describes health border measures linked to Ebola. Its summary and its detailed section list slightly different countries for those measures, so read the live page before you fly.

Residence routes open to Australians

A visit is not a right to live or work on the island. The Economic Development Board lists Australia among the countries eligible for the Premium Visa, an e-visa issued free of charge, valid for more than six months and up to one year, and renewable. The Board says holders should not enter the Mauritian labour market, and that their main business and source of income should be outside Mauritius. Our Premium Visa guide has the detail. Work or investment goes through an Occupation Permit, explained in the occupation permit guide, and people who have stopped working may look at the retirement guide.

Leaving Australian tax residence

Moving abroad does not automatically make you a foreign resident for Australian tax. The ATO describes four statutory tests for Australian residency, and meeting any one can make you a resident.

• The resides test. The primary test, based on the ordinary meaning of the word. The ATO looks at physical presence, intention, behaviour, family and business ties, assets, and social and living arrangements.
• The domicile test. You are a resident if your domicile is in Australia, unless your permanent place of abode is outside Australia. The ATO notes that someone who has always lived in Australia keeps an Australian domicile while overseas unless they choose to migrate permanently.
• The 183-day test. Being in Australia for more than half the income year, continuously or in total, makes you a resident unless your usual place of abode is outside Australia and you do not intend to take up residence here. The ATO counts this by income year, not calendar year.
• The Commonwealth superannuation test. It applies to contributing members of the Public Sector Superannuation scheme or the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme, both closed to new members, and also covers their spouse and children under 16.

Residents declare worldwide income and may claim a foreign income tax offset. Foreign residents declare Australian-source income, including Australian pensions and annuities, and have no tax-free threshold and no Medicare levy. The year you change status can be split, with a part-year tax-free threshold. The ATO says people leaving permanently can lodge a return before they go or from overseas through myGov linked to the ATO. Those with study loans have notification duties for time spent overseas, and the Medicare levy surcharge may apply if private hospital cover is cancelled while you are still an Australian resident. The underlying ruling is TR 2023/1, which the ATO cites for the residency tests.

Capital gains tax when you stop being a resident

The ATO lists this as CGT event I1: when an individual stops being an Australian resident, they are taken to have disposed of their CGT assets at market value, with the gain worked out as market value less cost base. Taxable Australian property is excluded, and temporary residents are not treated as disposing. An individual may instead choose to disregard capital gains and losses when leaving. The assets then stay taxable Australian property until a later CGT event or until the person becomes a resident again, and the ATO says the tax return is generally enough evidence of the choice.

Other points the ATO makes: the full CGT discount is not available on assets acquired after 8 May 2012 and sold after becoming a foreign resident, though an apportioned discount may apply, and the main residence exemption is limited for foreign residents. Foreign residents are taxed on taxable Australian property only. What any of this means for a particular portfolio or home is for the ATO or a qualified tax adviser in both countries.

Is there an Australia and Mauritius tax treaty?

Not a full one, on the official lists we checked. The Treasury page of income tax treaties has no entry for Mauritius. Treasury does list a tax information exchange agreement with Mauritius, with an additional benefits agreement signed on 8 December 2010. The Mauritius Revenue Authority lists Australia as a partial double taxation agreement, and publishes the regulations as Government Notice 23 of 2011.

That agreement is limited to income tax. It includes a residence tie-breaker, using permanent home, centre of vital interests and nationality, and it says pensions and retirement annuities paid to a resident of one country are taxable only there, with an exception where the income is not taxed in the other country. In Australian terms, a retirement annuity means a superannuation annuity payment. How that reads for lump sums, or for your own mix of income, is not something the published text settles in general terms, so we leave it there.

Both countries can still tax the same income under their own domestic rules. Mauritius taxes residents on foreign income only when it is brought into the country, as set out in the Mauritius tax guide.

Superannuation when you leave

The ATO says you can withdraw super at 65, or at your preservation age on retiring, or on transition to retirement, or on meeting another condition of release. Early access is allowed in very limited circumstances, including medical, compassionate, hardship, incapacity, the First Home Super Saver scheme, low balances, and being a temporary resident leaving Australia. Preservation age is between 55 and 60, and 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964. Withdrawing without a condition of release is illegal.

The Departing Australia superannuation payment is a different route, and the ATO restricts it to people who built up super on a temporary visa, whose visa has ended and who have left Australia, and who are not an Australian or New Zealand citizen or a permanent resident of Australia. For Australian citizens and permanent residents, then, a move to Mauritius does not release super by itself. It stays in the Australian system, and it is not something that can be transferred out. The ATO is the right place for questions about a particular fund balance.

Medicare and health cover

Services Australia states that Medicare does not cover you while you are overseas, and suggests making a health care plan before you leave. If you return after more than 12 months away you may need to enrol in Medicare again, with different rules for citizens and permanent residents. Its list of reciprocal health care agreements names Belgium, Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and Mauritius is not among them. Our healthcare guide covers how care works on the island.

The Age Pension from Mauritius

Services Australia says Age Pension and Disability Support Pension may be paid outside Australia in some circumstances. If you already receive the Age Pension and leave to live elsewhere, you are paid an outside-Australia rate, and from the date you leave the Energy Supplement and Pension Supplement stop and the Pensioner Concession Card is cancelled. After 26 weeks away, the rate depends on your Australian residence between age 16 and Age Pension age: 35 years or more means the rate is generally unchanged, while fewer years means a lower rate. Some exceptions apply.

For anyone not yet receiving a payment, Services Australia says that if you live in a country with no social security agreement with Australia you will not be eligible to claim the Age Pension from there. The Department of Social Services lists 32 agreement countries, and Mauritius is not among them. A claim can be lodged up to 13 weeks before Age Pension age, and Services Australia asks people to call before leaving.

Smartraveller: registration and updates

Many people expect to register their trip, but Smartraveller says pre-trip registration ended in 2019. It now asks travellers to subscribe to its free email updates, for one destination, a region or all destinations, with a daily option. In a crisis, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade can open a registration portal.

Pets, shipping and flights

Mauritius sets its own import conditions, covered in our guide to moving pets to Mauritius. Australia has export requirements too. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry tells exporters to check the importing country’s requirements and pass them in writing to a registered veterinarian. A Notice of Intention to Export must be lodged at least 10 working days before departure or the start of isolation, with a fee, and DAFF then issues the export permit and health certificate. Documents from the importing country that are not in English need a certified NAATI translation. Contact DAFF before export if the pet may return to Australia. No official source gave a Mauritius quarantine category for pets arriving from Australia, so none is stated here.

For household goods and vehicles, see our shipping guide.

The airport operator’s winter schedule for 25 October 2026 to 27 March 2027 shows Perth as the only Australian city served, with arrivals on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday and departures on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The schedule calls itself indicative only, so confirm dates with an operator. We found no official flight time, so none is given.

Frequently asked questions

Page history. First published 30 October 2026, with every source checked that day. Corrections are listed here with their date and what changed.

Sources, checked 30 October 2026

These are the pages of the Mauritian and Australian government bodies named below, read on 30 October 2026.

• Visa Requirement Country-wise (Passport and Immigration Office, Mauritius): Australia listed as no visa required.
• Mauritius Premium Visa (Economic Development Board): eligible countries, validity, free issue and the work limits.
• Mauritius travel advice (Smartraveller, Australian Government): entry, health, medication and safety advice.
• You no longer need to register and Smartraveller subscription (Smartraveller, Australian Government): registration ended and how to subscribe.
• Australian resident for tax purposes and the pages for the resides, domicile, 183-day and superannuation tests (Australian Taxation Office): the four residency tests.
• Foreign and temporary residents and Living overseas and remaining an Australian tax resident (Australian Taxation Office): treatment of foreign residents, lodging a return and study loans.
• How changing residency affects CGT and Summary of CGT events (Australian Taxation Office): CGT event I1, the choice to disregard, and the discount.
• Income tax treaties and Tax information exchange agreements (Treasury, Australian Government): no full treaty listed, and the Mauritius agreement.
• Double Taxation Agreements and Government Notice 23 of 2011 (Mauritius Revenue Authority): the partial agreement and its text.
• When you can withdraw your super and Departing Australia superannuation payment (Australian Taxation Office): conditions of release and who can use the payment.
• Before you leave Australia, Retiring overseas and Reciprocal health care agreements (Services Australia): Medicare overseas and the agreement list.
• When you leave Australia if you get Age Pension (Services Australia) and International social security agreements (Department of Social Services): outside-Australia rates and the agreement countries.
• Exporting companion animals (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry): export steps and the Notice of Intention.
• Arrivals and departures winter schedule 2026-27 (Airports of Mauritius): Perth days.

General information only, not immigration, tax, legal or financial advice. Mauritius often changes these rules in its June Budget and Australian rules change too, so check the official pages above and speak to a qualified professional before you act.