New Health Requirement – PIC 4005 and PIC 4007
For most Australian Visas, the applicant will need to meet either PIC 4005 or PIC 4007 being the health requirement and undertake certain medical assessment to ensure that they meet the relevant standards under the Migration laws.
The Purpose of Public Interest Criteria (PIC) 4005 and PIC 4007
The purpose of the above Public Interest Criteria (PIC) is to ensure public health risks and health costs are not unduly increased by traveler and migrants, and most importantly is to protect the Australian community from increased public health risks, including Tuberculosis and emerging health epidemics.
Requirements of PIC 4005 and PIC 4007 – Meeting Health Requirements for Australian Visa Application
There has been a recent update in relation to the requirements that the applicant will need to meet in satisfying is to meet the ‘significant cost’ test.
Under the current assessment methods, when a health case cannot be locally resolved or cleared must be referred to a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth (MOC) to be assessed.
The role of the MOC is to provide an opinion as to whether an applicant’s condition or disease would be likely to result in ‘significant’ health care and community service (which includes the provision of an Australian social security benefit, allowance or pension. Under policy, it is also taken to include services such as supported accommodation, special education, home and community care under r 1.03 of the Migration Regulations 1994).
When assessing whether the applicant will incur significant cost current being set at maximum AUD$49,000, the MOC is required to take into the following considerations:
Whether the visa applied is either a permanent or provisional visa;
If it is a temporary visa, a period for which the Minister (or delegate of the Minister) intends to grant the visa if the visa applicant has applied for a temporary visa
The period of permanent stay in Australia if the visa applicant has applied for a permanent or provisional visa.
The age of the applicant
For temporary visa applicants, the estimated costs for their proposed stay in Australia is assessed over the period of stay that the visa officer intends to grant the visa, but when assessing the costs, certain health care and community services are excluded from the cost assessment.
For permanent and provisional visa applicants, the time period for estimating significant health care and community service costs is calculated as follows:
if the applicant is aged less than 75 years: a five year period; or,
if the applicant is aged 75 years or older: a three year period;
unless:
the applicant has a condition that is permanent and the course of the disease is inevitable or reasonably predictable (65% likelihood) beyond the five year period - in these circumstances, the applicant would be assessed for a maximum of 10 years. When assessing costs, the MOC should estimate costs for a period up to a maximum of 10 years
the applicant has an inevitable or reasonably predictable (65% likelihood) reduced life expectancy due to their health condition or disease - in this case, the applicant should be assessed for a time period up to a maximum of 10 years.
For a better summary, we have also extracted the Table 11 - Visa type and MOC cost assessment consideration from the Procedural Advice Manual as follows:
How can we help you?
If you currently suspect that you may not be able to meet health requirement either PIC 4005 or PIC 4007, please contact our lawyers immediately and discuss your matter.
Our Immigration Lawyers are well trained to handle highly complex matters so book one of our lawyers to seek professional advice now by calling (02)-7200 2700 or email us to book in a time at info@ahclawyers.com.
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