Hi all,

I'm hoping to get a Partner Visa, but I'm concerned about the Health Requirement. If you have diabetes or epilepsy or high blood pressure would you mind sharing your experiences?

They are all well controlled, and the only expense to Australia would be for medication, but I don't know whether they consider that or would just rule me out.

The only guidance I've found is

1071i - seems to suggest that diabetes "may mean that you are assessed as
not meeting the health requirement"

Instructions for medical and radiological examination of Australia visa applications - my obesity does not give me a B grade, but diabetes does (the diabetes is unrelated to obesity)

If you have any of these conditions, and have any experiences to share, I would really appreciate it. Or, has anyone found a UK migration agent who's experienced/honest enough to advise me?

Thanks
Iain

Hi Iaian,

I wanted to write because I noticed nobody answered you yet. I am not in the same medical boat as you are so I cannot pass on any experience, but this is the best advice i can give you:

Call up your local immigration hotline and ask to speak to an angent about the medical requirements, explain your situation and say that you wanted to get a clearer idea as to in which situation would you be excluded. Say you don't want to spend the money to apply, etc if you application is doomed, know what I mean?

Hopefully they can guide you from there. Good luck!

Thanks very much elkitten. They are insanely expensive, but cheaper than making a doomed application!

You were totally right elkitten I went to a Skilled Migration event today and spoke to someone from immigration.

He assured me that, should I fail medical, I would have a good chance of a health waiver anyway if I meet requirements for Critical Skills List. I think I do. But I'll still apply for Partner Visa because it's wayyy quicker. He claimed <3 months for partner rather than >7 months for GSM(CSL) with no job offer.

By the way, do those numbers agree with your impressions from these boards? I have looked at the timeline posts but it's hard to get an idea of the 'average' time.

That's great Iain!

Right now it looks like most people from low risk countries get theirs within 3 months or a little bit more. It all depends on how complete your application is and what the circumstances are. I dare say that yours may take a slight bit longer than the average if you have to do a medical waiver like you said--im not sure how that works, it might not affect processing at all. Also, a lot of embassies are currently swamped with applications--if you can wait till jan/feb to apply, things might slow down a bit by then, but then again maybe the "swamping" has less to do with the holidays and more about the recession.... you can call your local immigration hotline and they can give you an estimated time.

What might be a good idea though is be prepared at your imigration medical (you have to get it done by an aussie panel doctor) by bringing all the right info from your other doctors, eg how your diabetes, epilepsy and hypertention are well controlled. I don't know how the immi doctor would use that in their report, but it couldnt hurt to have it all with you to prove that yes, you have some health problems, but no you will not be making a significant impact on the medicare system. I and most people wouldn't have to bring extra documents, but i would if i were you just to be on the safe side.

Very happy for you that you got some good information--tons of people have gone defacto on this board so have a poke around, there is tons of info and experiences.

Good luck!

hi iain, we are too applying with medical issues, the forms for the medical are on the web somewhere. I googled for the and took them to the specialist my hubby sees to get a report to take for the panel doctor. Although we are in the USA I found a lot of info on the British sites, like british expats, but a google search for 309 spouse visa may give you some hits. If not pm me, and I will try and dig up some links, we are still getting all the paperwork together, there is a lot of it.

good luck

Thanks you guys!

I will make a start on my paperwork and jayde I bet I I'll PM you later on.