Emigrate To New Zealand - How To Sponsor Your Parents Part 3 - Medical Assessments Explained
This is something that can cause a huge amount of trauma to applicants trying to emigrate to New Zealand, whichever route they take to get here. I'm guessing that it affects more parent sponsorship applications because generally the applicants are older.
So what is the deal?
Your parents have to be reasonably healthy in order to emigrate to New Zealand. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has what is called an "acceptable standard of health" that they need to have.
When your parents have their original medicals done, the panel doctor will record any issues or problems, and has to tick one of two boxes:
- No abnormal or significant findings
- Abnormal or significant findings.
If the second box is ticked - you will almost certainly have the medicals referred to a Medical Assessor (MA). It is worth noting however that, despite what many people believe, having a tick on the "No abnormal or significant findings" box does not mean you have "passed the medical" and that it won't be referred to a medical assessor. It was pointed out to us rather snottily that "Case Officers look at the whole medical certificate in deciding whether to refer a medical: we don't just read the last page."
The medical form says, "A significant finding is one that should be reviewed by the Immigration New Zealand Medical Assessor. Note this is not an assessment of whether or not the applicant has an acceptable standard of health in relation to the Immigration New Zealand standard." (My emphasis)
When a Medical assessor reviews the file they have a number of choices about what to do. They get a 5 page document to fill out and send back to the case officer. The medical assessors can either:
- Ask for further tests and information (they have a whole host of boxes to tick to specify which ones, and plenty of room to make comments).
- Give a favourable opinion (in which case you are home and dry)
- Give an adverse opinion (they think your health is unacceptable)
- Defer the application (this gives you up to 3 months (or 6 months in the case of Pulmonary Tuberculosis) to treat the condition and prove you have improved your health.)
If the Medical assessor says they will not give you a favorable opinion - they need to specify why that is. There are cases that you can read at the Residence Review Board where the Medical Assessor failed to do this - and it can be enough to overturn their decisions. If the Medical Assessors ask for further information - they should be specific. Again, the Residence review board has overturned immigration decisions on the basis of "The exceedingly brief comments provided by the Medical Assessor in the Report"
If you are asked for more information - you can actually refuse to provide it if you wish. You need to let INZ know in writing. This can be useful if like us, you get the run-around for over a year! We also found though, that while INZ staff were happy to repeat over and over that we had the right to do this - they didn't want to accept it when we actually did refuse to get them more information.
If the Medical assessor refuses to give an opinion on your health, then INZ will send the information to another Medical assessor for a second opinion. If the Medical assessor says your health is not acceptable - you have the right to ask for a second opinion as well.
A second opinion is final, so if that also comes up as "unacceptable"- your only choice is to then apply for a Medical Waiver.
It is well worth noting that the burden of proof in this is squarely on the Medical Assessor to show that you have an unacceptable standard of health if INZ want to turn you down. If they cannot prove that, then you are deemed to actually meet the standard required. Again, reading the Residence Review Board cases shows quite clearly that unless INZ shows specifically that you do not meet the standard of health required, a decision not to grant residency can be overturned.