2015-Oct 16: Health Requirements for Fee Paying Foreign Students

Visa Pak 233 - Information about Health Requirements required to be met for Fee Paying Foreign Students

Visa Paks

16 October 2015

Health Requirements for Fee Paying Foreign Students

Health requirements for fee paying foreign students remain unchanged and they do not need to provide chest x-ray certificates and medical certificates unless stated below.

Fee paying foreign students will only be required to provide a chest x-ray certificate if:

  • They are from a country not listed on the Low TB-Incidence Countries, Areas and Territories list and are intending to stay longer than 6 months.
  • They have visited a country not on the list for a combined stay of 3 months or more in the past 5 years.
  • They have provided a chest x-ray certificate in their previous application but spent 6 consecutive months in any one or more countries not listed on the Low TB-Incidence Countries, Areas and Territories list.

Fee paying foreign students MAY be required to provide a medical certificate if:

  • They declare that they have a medical condition.
  • Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has knowledge or suspects they may have a medical condition.
  • They have previously applied for a visa and in that previous application the INZ medical assessor recommended an updated medical certificate for their future applications.

It has been noted that some students are supplying a general medical certificate with their chest x-ray certificate even if they do not meet any of the scenarios above. When this occurs INZ is obliged to consider this as part of the visa application and assess against standard health instructions. This may delay the visa application.

The Immigration Health Team has advised Panel Physicians that it is the client’s responsibility to know the examination they require and not the physicians.

Action
If asked by an applicant, advise them they should only complete the health requirements specified by INZ because anything extra will be considered as part of their visa application.
If dealing with students advisors, please make them aware of the requirements to ensure their clients provide the correct health requirements.