Changes to immigration health system

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Created on Tuesday, 02 July 2013 15:32

Written by Editorial staff

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has sent all registered migration agents (RMAs) in Australia some information about changes that have been and are being made to the immigration health system.

All migration agents should take note of the following alterations.

First, the eMedical offshore rollout has just completed its main phase, and 100 countries are now online.

The eMedical system was developed by the DIAC in conjunction with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), and will be used by approved panel physicians or radiologists to process examinations in both Australia and Canada.

It has been designed to replace the eHealth system, and is now available in all previous eHealth locations. As of June 30, no new cases will be processed on the eHealth system, except for those that are already in progress.

The rollout of the eMedical system to all Medibank Health Solutions (MHS) clinics will continue until September. July 15 and 22 will see it implemented in Canberra and Parramatta respectively.

As of July 1, all "front-end loaded" cases will be processed using the eMedical system, which clients and migration agents will be able to access through the DIAC's My Health Declarations service.

All Australian migration agents with clients who need immigration health checks in Australia or another country where health processing is entirely electronic will not be able to "front end load" without using My Health Declarations.

In addition to this, clients who have lodged a hard-copy visa application will now be able to log onto the new eMedical Client service before attending a medical appointment.

Clients will also be asked to declare any health examinations they have undergone in the past year, so online applicants will not have to complete unnecessary health checks.

My Health Declarations has been created to help streamline the visa application process, so it should be beneficial to the migration industry.

It will be particularly useful for those applying for temporary immigration visas, who need the process to be quick.

However, the DIAC reveals that it will not be appropriate for all types of visa applications, so migration agents should only encourage clients to use the system "where useful".

For instance, they say not to encourage clients to undergo "up-front" health examinations if you know that it will take more than 12 months to process their visa.

For more information, visit the DIAC website.