anitalund

My son's visa was declined (as part of the family unit, he has Downs Syndrome) they said he didn't meet the health requirement but have said that we can apply for a health waiver, they have estimated the amount at $9000 (so you can guess how marginally affected he is by his learning difficulty). Anyway, by the by, that process of getting to where we are took 3 months and I'm trying to find out how long the health waiver application will take to be processed which seems to be impossible. Anyone have any clue? It sounds straight forward (you'd guess a letter signed from the sponsor saying they'll stump up the cash) but on further investigation it doesn't sound quite as cut and dried. Hope to hear from someone who can share an experience or has some knowledge of such things. ps - the migration company we are dealing with have said they cannot provide timescales, the troble is, my hubby is already working out there while the rest of us are stuck in the UK

Bermudashorts

As I understand it, the visa has not been refused yet, he just has not passed the health requirements and the health waiver is being considered.

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/heal...th-waivers.htm

There are no statistics posted on how long this takes, but I did some googling and found a site for some migration lawyers and they have mentioned that in their experience this would take at least 3 months and quite often much longer.

Source: http://www.mackeylawyers.com.au/arti...estions-to-Ask

MarkNortham

Hi Anitalund -

We've found these can take anywhere from 3 to 9 months, and sometimes longer depending on the quality of the health waiver submission and the specific case details.

Unfortunately the entire health approvals system seems to have been bogged down recently - possibly as a result of a surge in applications for PR visas. In some cases keeping in regular contact with your case officer can help move things along, but some case officers don't really want to hear from applicants (amazingly) and tell you to "just wait".

Hope this helps -

Best,

Mark Northam
Registered Migration Agent MARN 1175508
Northam & Associates
Sydney, Australia
http://mnvisa.com

anitalund

Good heavens, that's a terrible shock, especially coming from someone in your field. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm really going to have to consider our options but will try to get some information from our agent in the meantime and I'll ensure I give them a hard time! after all, that's what they are getting paid for...

MarkNortham

There are 2 primary aspects to a health waiver - the first makes whatever arguments are to be made re: the cost of care, etc - however cost estimates from medical experts are essentially all that DIAC will consider.

However the second part of a waiver is the key - this part argues that whatever the cost estimate may be, and even if that cost estimate is greater than the "significant cost" threshold,those costs "would be unlikely to result in undue cost to the Australian community; or undue prejudice to the access to health care or community services of an Australian citizen or permanent resident." This is the key part where a knowledgeable agent can make arguments that bring in all sorts of other aspects - ie, information about the availability of the care in Australia (arguing that your care won't disadvantage others), etc. And as the regulations talk about "cost to the Australian community", this bring in the opportunity in health waivers to talk about the cost benefits of your being granted the visa, ie what services/products/etc you can produce and how you can benefit Australia and the Australian community by your presence here, etc. For instance, if you're a college professor and your are given the visa, you could share your knowledge to the benefit of Australians, could teach at a public college which would then benefit economically from offering the course you teach, etc.

Also my view is that it's very important that an agent share all documents with clients - if you are having an agent prepare a health waiver, make sure you see a complete copy of it before it goes out and have the opportunity to comment on it and suggest changes. While suggesting changes to the legal and regulatory parts of a waiver request may not be what you're interested in, given the non-legal arguments are often made (ie, "cost to the community" and benefits to the community, etc), you are in a great position to know what types of benefits you might bring to Australia by your presence, work and study here.

Good luck with your case, and please advise if I can be of any assistance going forward.

Best,

Mark Northam

anitalund

Thanks Mark, that's all very useful. I've passed your details onto my husband, we are not happy with our migration agent, we are receiving little support or advice. My husbands company is dealing with our application but if we decide to change I will recommend that they contact you.

MarkNortham

Thanks, Anita - regardless of whether your company is paying the agent or you are, you have every right to expect excellent and responsive service, and the agent has every obligation to provide that. And above that, you have a legal right per the MARA Code of Conduct to have a copy of your complete file including all documents lodged on your behalf, regardless of whether you or the company is paying the agent.

Best of luck with your case!

Best,

Mark Northam

anitalund

Spent a good few days thinking over all this stuff and the one thing I keep coming up with is this...

If we finally get the visa (with the health waiver) and we decide to go for PR in a couple of years time, does it make life easier in that we have gone through all of this, is it easier because 'once you're in you're in' or will we have the same obstacles plus more on top? I would like to think we could settle in Australia if we really like it, but I want to be prepared for maybe a 3 year adventure if that's all it can ever be.

Thanks again.

Bermudashorts

I am afraid not, it will only get harder if you are going for PR. I was going to ask about that before but thought you have enough on your plate.

goldchoccycoin

For your interest: http://www.theage.com.au/national/ge...1126-6hzr.html

George Lombard

Anita you need to discuss the prospects for PR with a migration agent - the waiver provisions for the permanent visa in your case are quite different to the 457 requirements.

Also, we see many situations where the employee does not use the employer's agent, although the 4006A waiver does require an undertaking by the employer so it's hard to see how you could avoid it for the 457 in your case.

On the other hand there is no employer involvement in the 4007 waiver for a PR applicant and you should pursue that with some urgency as it's quite uncertain how a serious disability such as Down Syndrome might be treated in the various states here.

Cheers,

George Lombard

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Thought I'd add a positive note.

I arrived on a 457 with my disabled son. When I went for PR I was told to expect a "long battle" and to expect to have to make appeals to the Minister and various other horrible sounding options.... my 457 to PR cleared in a week!!

I was staggered, as were many others, but it does show that it can be done.

George Lombard

Hmm, I wonder what the disability was and how it cleared so quickly.

These days the DIAC officers handling the disability queue find it difficult to do anything within six months not counting the processing time before they're given the file.

Cheers,

George Lombard

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Cerebral Palsy. This was roughly five years ago.

anitalund

The migration agent we had was in the UK and clearly had not dealt with a health waiver before so now we have someone in Australia who knows what they're doing (apparently)! It's good to read something positive (thanks creature from Uranus), I feel very down about the whole thing and we are at a loss regarding how long we have to wait. I just want someone to say, OK, your son is not seriously disabled (he learns slower and that's about it) so it will take x amount of time approximately. Is that too much to ask? It's very hard living apart and we are both having major wobbly days...