MEDICALS ????

Nathan & Mandie · 24-08-2006, 01:40 PM

Hi All Again. Thank you everyone who replied on our question on 'put house on market now or wait' topic. From reading many of your replies has lead us to stray onto another subject of medicals. I thought you had to wait to be asked by the C.O to get medicals done, but it appears many of you have already done them. How long should we expect to wait to be allocated a C.O our application was received 23 May 06. A bit confused and starting to get agitated!!!!

Many Thanks Mandie

Pesky Varmit · 24-08-2006, 02:10 PM

Hi Mandie

We too thought you had to wait for case officer but we had meds done on Mon, unrequested. In hindsight we probably would have done them earlier as Est, who had her aplication acknowledged same time as us just got her C/O on Mon and visa granted yesterday!! She had front loaded police checks and meds and therefore when case officer was assigned, all information was already there. We had police checks done in May so this will be the date our visa will be based on anyway, so therefore we could have done meds then. We decided at the beginning of this process to wait for C/O but have got very impatient so decided to frontload. House is alreay sold, so when meds are posted off in next two weeks or so, we''ll hopefully not have to wait too long for visa. It's entirely your decission on how to do things, we just got fed-up waiting!!!
Good Luck

Nathan & Mandie · 24-08-2006, 04:40 PM

Thanks Pesky Varmit. I think what you have said makes good sense and we will follow suit. I will arrange for medicals asap especially as our police checks were done in June and did not realise that the visa started from this date!!! I thought it was from visa approval!!! - Which is quite worrying. When did you get your application adknowledged? We are also going to put the house on the market in a few weeks, just getting round to those 'unfinished jobs' (like painting the back of the bathroom door which was hung nearly 2 years ago).

Sounds like you could be on your way very soon - how exciting. Good Luck.

Mandie

Est · 24-08-2006, 04:44 PM

We wish we had put the house up for sale earlier. We are in the situation now that we have our visa and are held up with the house.

Est x

Gollywobbler · 24-08-2006, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan & Mandie

Hi All Again. Thank you everyone who replied on our question on 'put house on market now or wait' topic. From reading many of your replies has lead us to stray onto another subject of medicals. I thought you had to wait to be asked by the C.O to get medicals done, but it appears many of you have already done them. How long should we expect to wait to be allocated a C.O our application was received 23 May 06. A bit confused and starting to get agitated!!!!

Many Thanks Mandie

Hi there

DIMA prefer people to wait until Meds & PCCs are requested by the CO. The reason is threefold.

Firstly, they will not normally ask for the PCCs & meds unless they are sure that the application is OK in all other respects - they are trying to discourage you from spending your money in a possibly fruitless pursuit.

Secondly, the meds and pccs are usually only valid for 12 months from the date of issue. The visa must be 'validated' by everyone included in the application physically entering Australia (if only for the briefest of visits) within 12 months of the date of the earlier of the pccs and the meds. Consequently, if people frontload and then there is a delay with their application for any reason, they can either find themselves having to re-do the pccs and/or the meds, or they can find that they have maybe only a month post-grant in which to gallop out to Australia and then straight home again. Which is an absurd waste of money as well as a stress that nobody needs.

Thirdly, meds done unrequested are all too frequently sent to the wrong place by Panel Doctors. That causes DIMA administrative hassle and costs in sending them on to the correct processing centre.

The UK pccs only cost £10 each, so it is no big deal to renew those if need be. However the meds tend to cost about £200-£250 per person, so you wouldn't want to have to get those done twice if you could avoid it.

What some people opt to do is to wait and watch the ASPC timelines via sending off a blank e-mail each week. They frontload the pccs and the meds about a month before they expect to hear from a CO. Cleverly timed, I think this strategy can often save 4-6 weeks on the overall timescale.

However, tastes & preferences vary from one applicant to the next. Do whatever feels right to you, but do so in the light of understanding what the potential up and down sides respectively might be, I suggest.

Best wishes and here's to your new lives in Oz

Cheers

Gill

Pesky Varmit · 24-08-2006, 05:23 PM

Hi Mandie

What Gill says also makes good sense. By following ASPC timelines we reckoned we would get a C/O by 5/9 as we had our application acknowledged 4/4 so we may have saved ourselves few weeks, hopefully!! Lets see if we do get C/O by then, fingers and everything else crossed!!

Nathan & Mandie · 24-08-2006, 05:59 PM

Thanks Gill you seem to have all angles covered from the sensible point of view which is what we should probably follow, but as some of the advice Pesky Varmit has given you cant help wonder if sometimes it may be worthwhile throwing caution to the wind as it were. Its a difficult one!! Like everything in life, nothing runs smoothly.

Keep positive Est and things will work out soon. Well done with the Visa and Good Luck.

Gollywobbler · 24-08-2006, 06:15 PM

Hi again

Any fool can give sensible advice. What I might do myself is another matter, however.....

Gill

spray21 · 24-08-2006, 06:16 PM

It is true that you take a gamble by front-loading medicals and police checks, but it can undoubtedly speed up the visa process - assuming that visas are ultimately approved.
We had our meds done today - the one bit of advice I would offer is to shop around and get some prices. We wanted to do ours this week because we are both off work so it's a good time for us. Our nearest panel doctor couldn't see us until mid-September, so we drove an hour to another one who could - in the end we paid £85 per person rather than £135, £20 each for blood tests rather than £25, nothing for postage - local place charged £15 (each). Also went further afield for x-rays (which you have to get done first and take with you to the panel doc), again to get seen as early as possible, and paid £60 each rather than £80.
So we managed to do it all this week AND paid about £150 less than if we'd got it all done locally.

Another problem we faced was that when we arrived to have our x-rays done they expected us to have all the forms, which we did not have as you do not get sent them until you have had the medicals requested. (In fact the hospital told us not to worry as they had some spares, but then it turned out that they didn't! So we drove home again and got on line...)
On the immi website you cannot download basic P160 (which is the x-ray form) only ones for use within Oz or for doctors to use if applying themselves. But a google search turns up ones that you can download and print out. Same goes for the P26 which is the basic medical form that you take with you to the panel doctor.

I've made it sound really complcicated but it's not that bad! Basically just shop around for prices and make sure you have the forms to take with you to save wasted journeys. Good luck with it!

Pesky Varmit · 24-08-2006, 09:22 PM

These forms can be downloaded and printed from here

http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/health.html

V.good advice about phoning around. There is a list of Panel Doctors on this site too.