medicals?

[ritchie]

I rang immigration and was told my medicals and x-rays were sent off to
australia on 25-1-00 and should take about four weeks to get a reply. My
question is; is this a usual procedure or do they only send things to
australia for extreme cases? many thanks -----ritchie

[J S Uppal]

Hi,

Guess this question will always crop up... so here's some info:

If there is information available that an applicant may not satisfy the
health requirement, the case must be referred to an Medical Officer of the
Commonwealth (of Australia). Such information

. may be in the application, the medical documentation of the applicant or
advice from an RMD/HAS that there is sufficient concern about health
standards or availability of suitably qualified doctors in a given country
such that health checks or MOC assessments are required; or

. may already be held i.e. in respect of an earlier (or concurrent)
application for any visa subclass, for example if an earlier visa was
refused on health grounds or health assessment was deferred e.g. while the
applicant underwent treatment for TB; or

. may already be suspected i.e. in respect of an applicant who has been
referred for an MOC assessment that has not yet been received by the
processing office.

Local clearance criteria

Provided every local clearance criterion is met, officers may regard the
applicant as meeting the health requirement without need for MOC opinion.
These criteria apply also to cases where forms other than forms 26 and 160
are used.

. If a radiological report (form 160) is required (i.e. the applicant is 16
years or over) the reporting radiologist must have answered all questions
and made no mark or comment indicating any abnormality.

. If HIV testing is required there must be an accompanying HIV test report
and it must be negative.

. There should be no indication on the form 26 that the applicant

. has - or has had - TB, AIDS or HIV, psychiatric illness, hepatitis B,
leprosy, trachoma, epilepsy, cancer, paralysis, syphilis, leukaemia,
diabetes mellitus, heart disease, stroke or mental disability; or

. has used illegal drugs or been addicted to legal or illegal drugs at any
time; or

. has had an illness or operation within the previous five years except for
obviously minor complaints or for operations such as appendectomy,
haemorrhoidectomy, tonsillectomy, herniorrhaphy (hernia repair), rhinoplasty
(or other cosmetic surgery) or sterilisation; or

. if 16 years or over, has recorded blood pressure readings above a certain
level at the examination (on repeat if necessary, as initial readings may be
higher).

. if above reading age (say six or seven years according to local
conditions) has recorded visual acuity (vision), corrected if necessary,
worse than 6/12 in the best eye ("worse" is a figure larger than the "12" or
no reading at all); if below reading age, has comment other than eyesight
appears normal; or

. is on prescribed medication.

. The examining doctor or radiologist must not be recommending or suggesting
further investigations of any kind.

. There must be no accompanying reports submitted by the examining doctor or
radiologist, other than negative HIV (if applicable).

. The examining doctor must have recommended "A". Note that, while this "A"
endorsement is a criterion for local clearance, it is not in itself enough.
All other local clearance criteria must be met.

. Even if all the above criteria are met, there should be no other reason to
doubt the applicant's ability to meet the health requirement, e.g. ambiguous
comments by the examining doctor or radiologist or advice from RMD/HAS
concerning the need for MOC opinions in a particular area. If health
documentation for an applicant has been dispatched to an MOC for assessment,
except as specifically indicated in guidelines for the Emergency visas (302
or 303), no visa (whether the class of visa applied for or any other class
of visa) may be granted to that applicant without advice from the MOC. Such
cases do not meet criteria for local clearance.

If local clearance cannot be given, without exception the following must be
referred to an MOC for advice on the applicant's ability to meet the health
requirement:

. reports not eligible for local clearance; and

. reports that, while eligible for local clearance, are found not to meet
all the local clearance criteria;

Best wishes.
Jas
--
J S Uppal, B.Econs (Hons), Immigration Law (UNSW)
Registered Migration Agent No. 9803103
Sydney, Australia
website: http://firms.findlaw.com/JSUppal/
email: jsu...@one.net.au
fax: +61 2 4628 6003