J Voorhees

Thank you for your reply Loopylu and for sharing your own experience. May I ask how recent your experience was? Also, do you know if the health requirements for a Partner visa are the same as the 186? Just wondering if because (I presume) you are the partner of an Australian the health requirements are perhaps less strict? I've been torn between going back on the meds for the time being to get me in a better place, and staying off them for the duration of the application process. Of course, my application might require a psychiatric assessment regardless because of relative recency of it and I'm sure I'd come across better if I'm in a happier and calmer place. With your colleague who had the assessment, do you know how long it was and what kind of questions they asked? Did they contact his employer at all do you know? I'd have they couldn't because of confidentiality and privacy. The condition has never prevented me from working and I've always been in work since graduating from University 10 years ago.

Hi all Apologies for the long post in advance. I'm hoping that if anyone has been in a similar position to me previously might be willing to share their experiences with me. My wife and I have been in Australia for a little over 2 years now on a 457 Visa. We are just now getting started on our journey towards Permanent Residency through the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) visa via the Temporary Residence Transition Stream. We have engaged the services of a Migration Agent and both the Nomination and Visa applications are being prepared. One of the main reasons that we decided to engage an Agent is because I was diagnosed with an Anxiety Disorder in 2012. I have always been quite an anxious person but, barring a single isolated incident 5 years ago, I had never sought any medical treatment previously. However, late in 2012 it got to a peak, and I sought assistance (I now understand that only around half of people who struggle with this ever seek assistance). I began seeing a counsellor and was prescribed an antidepressant/anxiety alleviating medication to help me manage the condition. I was seeing the Counsellor on a monthly or so basis and regularly taking the medication for a little under a year and a half after feeling that it was more under control/manageable. I know that Anxiety never goes away and that there can be peaks and troughs. I'm having a bit off a tough time at the moment, and considering resuming the medication/revisiting my counsellor to help with it. Having been coping without for a few months now, I am concerned about resuming the support because of the potential impacts on our PR application. I'm reluctant to resume any treatment, because I'd presume it would improve our chances of securing PR if I was able to demonstrate I am managing it without aid? Or as long as it's being managed would it not matter if I was still being treated? I am aware of the 'significant cost' threshold when Immigration consider health issues. My medication costs were around $22 a month, though I presume there would have been some rebate from Medicare making the actual cost higher and my counselling sessions cost me less than $200 a time total, with a rebate of circa $80 from Medicare, but still, would seem unlikely to take me up to the threshold I'd have thought. I guess I'm hoping to hear from anyone who's been through similar - with Anxiety or other 'chronic neurosis', such as Depression or Phobias who can tell me what the process and outcome was for them. Were you referred for a psychiatric assessment? Will going on and off medication/for counselling hurt our application? Might be refused PR because of high costs? Perhaps some costs to the community which I'm not considering. I know that I can ask our Agent these questions too but I think there are always things to learn from the first hand experiences of those who've gone through this kind of thing. Again, apologies for the length of post. If you've gotten this far well done, and thank you.