Quote:
Originally Posted by jo90
Hi!
Does anybody know whether you can have a tattoo after you've had your med? My husband had the blood test coz he already has a tattoo - but I'm thinking of getting my first. I know they wouldn't know unless they stripped me down but just want to play safe!
Cheers
Jo x x  |
Hello Jo
I very strongly recommend that you
do not have any tattoo or anything else involving skin-piercing of any sort done until after you have validated your visas.
I don't know what the extra blood test that the Panel Doctor has to do if someone has a tattoo is for exactly, but I think it could be a test for Hepatitis, which I believe is a potentially nasty liver-disease.
The problem is that if you have a tattoo done after your medicals and you do not then have another blood test to go with the meds, to prove that you have not got whatever disease it is, your visa will be at risk if you are the unlucky one in a thousand who catches the disease. (I don't know whether they would also want another HIV test if somebody has a tattoo done in this situation, but I guess they might.)
Please see Form 1025i:
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1025i.pdf
Specifically, please see the top right hand side of Page 2 where it speaks of a change of circumstances. That section is a layman's decription of Section 104 of the Migration Act 1958 and DIAC mean business about it.
In the application form you have not declared a known medical condition because as far as you know, you haven't got one. However if you should develop a potentially serious medical condition before your first arrival in Oz on your new visas, then you must declare the changed circumstances to DIAC
prior to attempting to enter Australia on them.
If disclosure of a new medical condition is made, DIAC get a second bite at the question of whether or not the person still meets the Health Requirement for migration to Oz. If not, then the visa must be refused. Where someone has had a tattoo prior to attending his/her meds, the Panel Doctor is required to tick Box B on Form 26.
That means that the Medical Officer of the Commonwealth must examine the person's meds file because the clerical staff at the Health Operations Centre in Sydney are not competent to read blood test results etc.
If somebody, say, has a tattoo done between the meds and the date of validating the visa and contracts Hepatitis or whatever it is prior to validating the visa, then if this person validates the visa without the rigmarole described above but DIAC subsequently discover what has happened, they would potentially have the power to cancel the visas and deport the whole family. I am serious.
There has been a case very recently where the person concerned had the meds done for
PR and all was well. The
PR visa was duly granted. However before it could be validated, the person was diagnosed with a potentially serious medical condition which must have been brewing but the Panel Doctor apparently didn't spot it.
It is all OK because a Consultant's report was obtained and sent to the MOC, who has accepted the Consultant's opinion. Apparently it is a condition that could worsen but might not do so if treated with the right drugs or whatever, and so far the person only has a very mild degree of the condition. The MOC has accepted all that and has confirmed that the person still meets the health requirement.
Nevertheless nobody needs the sheer stress if they can avoid the potential problem arising in the first place, I would suggest.
Best wishes
Gill
