What is the health requirement for Australia Visa applicants?

The immigration health requirement for Australia Visa applicants is outlined in the Migration Regulations 1994. This is under the Public Interest Criteria of Schedule 4. The requirement has 3 major objectives according to the Government:

•    To safeguard Australians from public safety and health risks like infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis

•    To protect access for Australians to short supply medical services like organ transplants

•    To limit the volume of cash that the government has to spend on community and health services

The present guidelines for the administration of the policy state that “it is crucial for Australia and continuing the Australia Visa programs that health costs and public health risks are not improperly enhanced by immigrants and travellers”.

The cost for health requirement has however been criticized by advocates. Many of them claim that it unjustly targets those with a permanent disability. This is in contravention with the international human rights obligations of Australia. It is under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations.

In practice, whether the health costs will be unduly increased or not is calculated against something known as ‘significant cost threshold’ policy of the government. The Australia Visa applicants with medical condition or disability will not pass the requirement. This is if the cost of the medical condition or disability is judged by an MCO - Medical Officer of the Commonwealth to be higher than the threshold. As of now, the ‘significant cost threshold’ is fixed at $40,000, as quoted by the SBS.

The hypothetical cost of services for Temporary Australia Visa is assessed by the intended stay period. For example, consider an applicant of Australia Student Visa. The student wants to remain in Australia for 4 years and the predicted medical costs are $12,000 annually. The applicant will not fulfil the requirement in this scenario.

Whether the cost is exceeded or not is calculated by the cost of services incurred over 5 years for most applicants of Australia PR Visa below 75 years. The costs are calculated for over 3 years only for applicants above 75 years.

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