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I have had to have a medical done for my non migrating step-son and this has been received in Sydney at HOC. I am concerned that because our meds have been done and finalized they wont know what application his are to be uploaded to. Please can anyone tell me if I should be worried or if you have had a similar experience?

I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Both myself and wife are applying for 457 visa. Need medicals as we are both nurses. Medicals were completed on 23rd April, sent on 25th April and wifes were finalised on 26th. They were sent electronically by the Hospital. We both received separate letters stating same. We thought that my medicals could have been referred as I have an ongoing medical condition. On emailing case officer, we were informed he was on annual leave until 13th May. He has now returned and confirmed that my medicals Health Operation Centre claim they have not received. Has anyone experienced this with HOC? ​Thanks

The Health Operations Centre (HOC) assesses and processes offshore Immigration health examinations. Permanent visa applicants: All applicants for permanent visas, including the main applicant, partner and any dependants, must be assessed against the health requirement. Even if the applicant's partner and dependants are not included in the visa application, they must still be assessed against the health requirement. Applicants for a permanent visa will be asked to undergo a medical examination, an x-ray if 11 years of age or older and an HIV/AIDS test if 15 years of age or older, as well as any additional tests requested by the Medical Officer of the Commonwealth (MOC). From the Check the progress of an application website, typical Application Status are: 1) "Further medical results received" HOC received your envelope. [process takes 2 days after received] 2) "Health requirements outstaning" HOC decides if the applicant has local clearance capability. Here should be checked if applicants belong to class A (no significant history or abnormal findings) or class B (Significant history or abnormal findings present) according to assessed by the Panel Doctor in the FORM 26 (point "24 Recommendation"). For example: If applicant is Class A and lives in gazetted countries, the process is faster than B. This step involves checking of: envelope arrives sealed, applicant identity, doctor identity, all reports certified and translated to English (if required) and correct tests done. Today many "overseas medical test" for permanent VISA go to LCU (Local Clearance Unit) regardless of class A or B (I'm not sure why: Efficient, HOC collapsed?). Nevertheless, DIAC do not require a MOC assessment on all applications for permanent entry visas, and is therefore largely reliant on overseas panel doctrors and COs to ensure that health examinations and tests are conducted in line with DIAC requirements. [delivery process takes from 2 days to 1 week after 1 - don't frustrate if status doesn't change, sometimes online status are not updated but the process continues] 3) "Further medical results referred" If not tuberculosis(TB), medicals (X-ray, hepatitis, VIH/AIDS, TB/blood tests or relevant considerations) are received by LCU. Key Functions from LCU are: Processing and local clearance of medical results sent from panel doctors, Process 'A' cases, referral of health assessment 'B' cases to HAS (compulsory for permanent VISA). In addition, medicals will be referred from LCU to a MOC (HAS) if any criteria for 'A' not met, problems with identity, panel doctor not found,medical results not legible or high risk country. [this process takes 3 weeks to 2 month after 2 depending on your health condition (or a family member) and whether new assessments are required]. (Category 2 is currently taking 3 weeks -approximately -) From here you may go to 4 or 5, depending on a MOC opinion from HAS. 4) "Further medicals required" If necessary, MOC may also ask any applicant to undergo extra medical reports: full medical history, medical reports from specialists, reports from school, others. You or your Agent will receive an e-mail from HOC (see below). Contact to DIAC if you have not yet received notification about these requirements, after your status has changed. New tests/medical reports should be sent to Global Health (same building of HOC in Sydney) [same day you receive a letter asking you extra meds, the status will change to 4.] 4.1) "Further medical results referred" If 4, extra medicals received by Global Health are sent to a HAS again for further review. [2-4 days after meds are received the status will change to 4.1] [process and final decision/advice takes 3 weeks to 2 months, depending on many factors] (Category 2 is currently taking 3 weeks -approximately -) 5) "Health requirements finalised" Finalised is a status that means each documents fulfills requirement to be analyzed by a MOC. MOC takes from 1 to 4 days for a decision. Outcomes are entered in HATS (Health Assessment Tracking System), overseas post/case officer is notified of this outcome. Nevertheless, MOC can ask you to undergo new tests again. You will go to 4. If not extra test are required, Case Officer deciding visa applications is notified and must accept the opinion from MOCs. After that CO will update the document checklist. It seems in this exactly time you will see "met" or "not met" in the website. [you will see this status 2-4 days after a MOC from HAS decides over your health criteria] If all meds are "met" and the rest of the VISA requirements too, congratulations! DIAC will inform you VISA is granted. Else, if "not met", you can think in a re-view by means of a lawyer, a "Health Waiver" possibility (very difficult but possible) or even to think in another country. This is typical letter from HOC to Panel Doctors, if 4 ("Further medicals required"): =============================================================== Dear Panel Doctor, The bearer of this letter, Person X, DOB: /date/, F is required to provide further medical information (details given below). Please include the following information: A current further assessment from "list of specialist here". Please forward a further report addressing "list of requirements here" The report must be sealed by you, the Doctor, stamped and signed, then sent from your clinic to the Global Health (GH) at the following address: Global Health Department of Immigration and Citizenship Level 3, 26 Lee Street SYDNEY NSW AUSTRALIA 2000 Please include a copy of this letter when sending any further documents to the Global Health. Please do not hesitate to contact GH with the details provided below, should you require further clarification or information. Global Health, Level 3, 26 Lee Street Sydney NSW Australia 2000 GPO Box 9984 SYDNEY NSW 2001 Facsimile 61 2 8666 5901 Email: Health.Operations.Centre@immi.gov.au Website: www.immi.gov.au =============================================================== This is only a guide for understanding the process. Hope this is useful for you.

We did the the health exmination on 20 June 2011 and HOC received our health reports on 29 June 2011. However, now the health requirements have still now been cleared. I emailed HOC but they were quite impatient and just told me that the reported had been received. Could anybody tell me the current processing date of HOC? Thanks a lot. Chuncheng

Hi, Does anyone have any idea of the current processing timelines for medicals that have been referred? My OH were finalised 01 Jul and mine were referred. This is all that stands between us and the visa. Any advice on here would be appreciated before I email global health with an enquiry. Thanks peeps Yoyo x

Hi all. Our non migrating sons medical was referred to HOC on 7 June 2010, and our case officer is still waiting for a reply from them (now 23 June). Can anyone explain why this is taking so long? I understand they might have a backlog, and is there any way of finding out what this is? How do I contact HOC? Am getting frustrated. Jen

Hi, I had medicals done last Friday. The result was delivered to HOC by courier. Just wondering know how long it takes HOC to start processing a paper-based case currently. Is it much longer than using ehealth? Thanks

Just wanted you guys who are waiting for medicals to be finalised to know the following: We submitted our medicals (mine and other half) via e-health last Monday (11/4/11) (as part of our 175 visa app lodged in May 09). On 11/4//11 (same day) my partners showed received and then referred, and then four days later changed to finalised, and then at the same time changed on the document checklist to met (for both forms). Mine, however, still said requested. Then this Wednesday 20th, mine changed to received and referred, and then today (22nd!) changed to health requirements finalised (not changed to met on doc checklist). I'm absolutely blown away by this. For 1, it's the early hours of Saturday morning (and the previous day was bank holiday Friday), so why have they changed now? And also the speed at which they have been referred and then finalised. We both have medical issues but minor ones that we weren't too concered about. I can only assume that computer updates are automated and delayed, and not particularly accurate? I'm only posting this to help understand how HOC works, and give hope to people waiting (things can move quickly when they want them to). Why people have been left waiting for weeks and weeks when things seem relatively straight forward is beyond me. After nearly 2 years of waiting, we've now submitted everything. Can't wait for CO to get to work and pray he'll give us our visa asap (we leave for Sydney is less than 3 wks on a temp visa and would love to be able to validate then!). Best of luck to everyone waiting. :jiggy:

I am sure, you can give us some advice, what to do and when. My husband has a non-migrating adopted son, who underwent the medicals about 5-6 weeks ago back in Europe, after the CO asked us to do so. The results of this medical has been arrived in AU on the 21/02. The CO advised us on 27/02 he was still waiting for the health clearance of the child and will contact us when he gets it. Now it's been 4 weeks now that the results arrived in AU. What should we do? should we contact HOC? or should we ask the CO what is happening? or should we just keep waiting?

Well, as expected Hubbys medicals have been referred to HOC, whilst mine & the childrens have all been finalised. We sent a letter from his consultant about his condition (psoriatic arthritis), this letter stated it was mild & under control hasn't stopped hom working & has a good prognosis. Does anyone know how long HOC will take to come back with a response? Has anyone experienced this scenario lately? It's driving us crazy!!!

I did my medicals on the 20th of December 2010 and was told by my case officer that it was sent to the Health Operations Centre on the 4th of January 2011. How long does it take for them to process it? My case Officer says that it has not been processed yet. Can I check the status of the processing? If yes does anyone know how I could do that? Thanks.

Any recent update on the HOC processing timelines? My medicals was received on 18-Jan-2011 and I am waiting for it to be finalised. Was anyone asked by the HOC to undertake a further up-to-date chest x-ray? Cheers, Erwinel

How do HOC notify the ASPC that your meds have been finalised?? (told you it was a quick question)!! Cheers Rich:biggrin:

I'm not sure if this is a very rare thing or it has happened with anyone else in the world, but I found out today that HOC Sydney cannot find my spouse's medical records. Can this really happen? I checked with my local medical center and they said they dispatched it on 10th Nov LAST YEAR. They even gave me a courier tracking code, which I checked only to find out that the docs infact reached sydney on 13th Nov last year. Guys, I'm really concerned. Kindly guide me as to how I can fix this. Looking forward to positive and quick responses. Thanks!

Hey guys, Our medicals were delivered in Sydney last tuesday but they are still not showing up as received on our online status, is there anyway we can send an enquiry? Thanks! Shreen

Hi folks, we had a meds done on the 27th May. and I was wondering how long did it take from the date you had your meds done for the doctor to have it all ready to be sent to HOC, in Sydney. The doctor did say it would be 7 to 10 days, 10 working days will take us to next Wednesday but with the amount of money you pay them, I was hoping it would be sooner. Thanks Mandisfam who is fed up waiting.....:cry:

Dear All, Please can somebody tell me at what stage following one's medicals does HOC process them? Do they process ALL as they come through the door or only those where the applicant has already put in a visa application? I ask because we had our medicals last Thursday but haven't yet applied for our 475 because we're still waiting on Qld State Sponsorship (surprise, surprise). Will they wait until we've applied for the 475 or will they start processing our medicals anyway? And if so how long are they taking to process them these days? Thanks in anticipation. Alison.

We had our medicals done in May, and this was received by the HOC on the 25th of May 2009. Mine changed to finalised pretty much straight away, but my wife’s remained (and still does) outstanding, most likely due to a procedure she had done late in 2008. I decided to contact the HOC for an update, and this was their response (my wife’s name replaced with XYZ :spinny:): “The Health Operations Centre (HOC) has finalised the medical assessment of XYZ. The assessment was completed on 29/05/2009 and a result was recorded in our systems. The medical documents for XYZ required examination by a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth (MOC). When documents are submitted to the MOCs for assessment we only have the capacity to deal with the case manually. This means that the result recorded by our MOCs will not be reflected online. The medical results have been recorded in XYZ’s file which can be accessed by the visa processing case officer. Please contact the case officer to follow up on the visa application and to access the results of the health assessment.” I do not know what this means. Do they mean that her status is now also finalised (albeit not showing so online)? Is a status of finalised any guarantee that it was successful? Do CO’s provide results of heath assessments upon request? I have found that my CO is very slow to respond to any queries from my side (I have NOT had many), or does not respond at all. Not sure what to do…

I emailed HOC to check the status of my medicals, the reply was..... "The health clearances are available on Departmental systems to your visa case officer." Does this mean the have passed?

Hi, Does anyone know what is the current timeline of HOC for processing the meds?? how long does it take them to finalize the meds?? I did my meds last year and it took them about a month. but i have read some posts on the forum and looks like they are doing it really fast now.. in some cases, less than a week. I have recently done new meds so just wanted to know the timeline. thanks.

Hi guys I have noticed that some of you have e-mailed HOC for news on meds but how do you e-mail them - I have been on the DIAC website but cannot find anything to direct me to e-mailing HOC Any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks Sue :arghh:

Hello All My meds have been referred to HOC (Health Office of the Commonwealth) in Oz for mild depression last year. Doctors letter supplied explaining circumtances, stress of my course of study and exams. Have been told meds were referred from DIAC on the 28th Jan 09 and they take 10 working days to reach the HOC and a further 4 days to be processed by a medical panel. Is this realistic? Thanks

Hi there can anyone help my wifes medical docs have gone off to the commonwealth for clearance - what does this mean? As mine and our childrens have been cleared already. Cheers.

:v_SPIN: hi all some of you may have read my previous post. I was stressing out about not knowing if my meds had arrived (after reading lost meds post) anyway sorry didn't take advice dont panic & no need to email them. I emailed HOC using the online message service on there site & guess what, emailed back already meds were received, have been finalized & attached to file woohoo! another step closer wasn't even expecting response let alone there finalized That took only 4 weeks from having them done wow HOC flying through them! just wanted to let you all know you can find out whats happning with meds & you may not have to wait as long as you think!

Hi all hope someone can help I've just been reading about meds being lost in post & how HOC had emailed them for further meds. well my meds were done same day & sent around same time but I've heard nothing:arghh: does everyone get confirmation that there meds have arrived & progress of them please help can i email them? (anyone know the address) or get in contact some how thanks inadvance