2017-Jun 02: Requesting Further Medical Information

Visa Pak 312: Guidelines for Immigration Officers requesting further medical information from applicants in subsequent applications.

Visa Paks

02 June 2017

Requesting Further Medical Information

In some instances an applicant may be deemed ‘ASH with Conditions’.  This means the Medical Assessor (MA) believes the applicant is currently ASH, but is concerned they have a condition that may mean they are ‘Not ASH’ if they were to apply for a further visa.  In these instances, the MA will often request additional medical information be provided by the applicant with their next visa application.

Requesting further medical information
If you are instructing an applicant to provide further medical information, you must contact the Health Assessment Team (HAT) in Auckland to have their eMedical health case reopened.  The health case needs to be reopened so the request for further medical information can be added to eMedical before the applicant gets the medical tests completed.  Please note it may take up to two working days for the HAT to action your request.
 
The additional medical information is not required to be provided by a panel physician.  If however the additional information is submitted by a non-panel physician then the additional medical information should be forwarded to the HAT to upload into the IHS.

If it is being submitted by a panel physician, it should be submitted through eMedical.  If you do not inform the HAT in advance that you have requested this additional information then it cannot be submitted successfully into eMedical against the relevant health case.  This can cause an unnecessary time delay in Immigration New Zealand (INZ) receiving required information.

Returning the applicant’s passport
If INZ holds an applicant’s passport you will need to return this to them so that they can use it as evidence of their identity in order to complete the additional medical requirements with a panel physician.  Neither certified nor ordinary copies of identity documents are acceptable forms of identification for panel physicians because of the risk of fraud.  If the applicant does not provide their passport (or other approved documentation), the panel physician will advise the applicant that their immigration medical cannot proceed and they need to contact INZ. 

INZ has instructed panel physicians that the applicant must have their original passport at their examinations.  This is one of the few times that the applicant is actually checked against their passport before they arrive at the border, and the panel physician can comment if they feel there is an identity concern.

Instructions to an applicant for an ‘ASH with Conditions’ health outcome
As part of processing an application in which the applicant has been deemed ‘ASH with Conditions’, it is important that you make clear to the applicant that they have been deemed ASH only for the duration of their current visa, and that they will be required to submit further medical information to INZ should they decide apply for any further visas in the future

You should advise the applicant that if they will be returning to a panel physician to obtain the further medical information for their next visa, their ‘health case’ in the eMedical system will need to be ‘reopened’ by INZ to allow the panel physician to directly upload the new information into the system.

The applicant should be advised that they can arrange to have their health case reopened in the eMedical system by contacting the Immigration Contact Centre and making this request.