Why you may need to provide evidence you are in good health

Visa health requirements, which we call the acceptable standard of health criteria, help us to decide if we should approve or decline your application. 

We check if:

• you are a risk to public health
• you will add significant cost to, or place demands on, New Zealand's health services
• your health may stop you working or studying, if this is what the visa is for
• you are a student with a high need for learning support and will qualify for Ongoing Resourcing Scheme funding.

Ongoing Resource Scheme — Ministry of Education 

When we decide if you meet the visa's health requirements, we cannot consider:

• your ability to access the private health system
• any health insurance you may be covered by
• the ability of family, friends or an organisation to care for you or pay for health services, pharmaceuticals or residential care.

You may need to get a medical examination as part of your application. We will use this to determine if you meet the visa's health requirements.

Who needs a chest X-ray or medical examination

Your medical examination results may mean we either:

• continue with your application as you meet the visa's health requirements, or
• ask one of our medical assessors (registered New Zealand medical practitioners) for their medical opinion on whether you meet the visa's health requirements.

If we ask the medical assessor for their opinion, we may then:

• ask you for more medical information 
• continue processing your visa application as you meet the visa's health requirements
• see if you are eligible for a medical waiver assessment as you have not met the visa's health requirements
• decline your visa application as you have not met the visa's health requirements — we only do this when we cannot give you a medical waiver.

Medical waivers for visa applications

We may decline your temporary visa application if we think during your stay you are likely, because of your health, to need:

• hospitalisation
• residential care
• high-cost pharmaceuticals
• high-cost disability services.

We may also decline your temporary visa if you are assessed as having a severe developmental or cognitive condition that will need significant support.

The conditions include, but are not limited to:

• physical disability
• intellectual disability
• autistic spectrum disorders
• brain injury.

The visas this requirement applies to:

Child of a Worker Visitor Visa

Child of Military Visitor Visa

Child of a Student Visitor Visa

Dependent Child Student Visa.

You are included in the additional health requirement if you are under 20 and applying for a student or visitor visa as the dependent of a work, student or military visa holder.

We may decline your application for a resident visa if you, or somebody else in your application, have any of these conditions:

• hepatitis B-surface antigen positive, and you meet criteria for anti-viral treatment in New Zealand
• hepatitis C-RNA positive, and you meet criteria for anti-viral treatment in New Zealand
• malignancies of organs, skin (such as melanoma) and haematopoietic tissue, including if you have had this in the past, or are currently undergoing treatment. Exceptions are:
  
  • treated minor skin malignancies
  • malignancies where the length of time since treatment means the likelihood of it recurring is below 10%
• requirement for organ transplants (excluding corneal grafts), or following organ transplant when immune suppression is required (excluding corneal grafts)
• severe, chronic or progressive renal or hepatic disorders
• musculoskeletal diseases or disorders, such as osteoarthritis, likely to require surgery in the next 5 years
• severe, chronic or progressive neurological disorders, including but not limited to:
  
  • any dementia including Alzheimer's disease
  • poorly controlled epilepsy
  • complex seizure disorder
  • cerebrovascular disease
  • cerebral palsy
  • paraplegia, quadriplegia
  • poliomyelitis
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • motor neurone disease, Huntington’s disease, muscular dystrophy
  • prion disease
  • relapsing or progressive multiple sclerosis or both
• cardiac diseases, including but not limited to:
  
  • severe ischaemic heart disease
  • cardiomyopathy
  • valve disease likely to require surgery, other procedural intervention, or both, in the next 5 years
  • aortic aneurysm likely to require surgery, other procedural intervention, or both, in the next 5 years
• chronic respiratory disease, including but not limited to:
  
  • severe or progressive restrictive (including interstitial) lung disease, or both
  • severe or progressive obstructive lung disease, or both
  • cystic fibrosis
• significant or disabling hereditary disorders, including but not limited to:
  
  • hereditary anaemias and coagulation disorders
  • primary immunodeficiencies
  • Gaucher’s disease
• severe autoimmune disease that may require treatment in New Zealand using immune-suppressant medications other than Prednisone, Methotrexate, Azathioprine or Salazopyrin
• severe (71–90 decibels) hearing loss or profound bilateral sensori-neural hearing loss (after best-possible correction at country of origin), where significant support is required, including cochlear implants
• severe vision impairment with visual acuity of 6/36 or beyond (after best-possible correction at country of origin), or a loss restricting the field of vision to 15–20 degrees where significant support is required
• severe developmental disorders or severe cognitive impairments where significant support is required, including but not limited to:
  
  • physical disability
  • intellectual disability
  • autistic spectrum disorders
  • brain injury
• major psychiatric illness or addiction, or both, including any psychiatric condition that has required hospitalisation or significant support, or both
• a history or diagnostic findings of, or treatment for, MDR-TB or XDR-TB, unless cleared by a New Zealand respiratory or infectious diseases specialist after reviewing any file or applicant according to the New Zealand Guidelines for Tuberculosis Treatment.

We may also decline your visa application if the medical assessor thinks that your health services costs are likely to be more than NZ$81,000 (NZ$41,000 if you applied for a visa before 4 September 2022).