Children born and ordinarily resident in Australia no longer required to pass visa medicals

Visa medicals are an important aspect of Australia’s migration system. They are required for almost all visas and come under the general requirements that must be met called public interest criteria (PIC).

PICs are standard requirements that are commonly referred to as health and character. Which PIC is assessed depends on whether the PIC is listed as a criterion for the visa. For instance, exclusion criteria for overstaying a visa (PIC 4014) or for having a visa cancelled for certain reasons (PIC 4013) generally do not apply to permanent visas.

The health requirement PIC of 4005 and 4007 apply to almost all visas. The reason for medical PIC is to ensure Australia’s public health system is not overly burdened. PIC 4005 and 4007 require the person assessed against either of these criteria must be free from tuberculosis and free from a disease or condition that:

• is, or may result in the applicant being, a threat to public health in Australia or a danger to the Australian community; and

• a person who has it would be likely to require health care or community services and that community service would result in a significant cost to the Australian community or prejudice the access of an Australian citizen or permanent resident to health care or community services.

The difference between PIC 4005 and 4007 is that where 4007 applies, a health waiver is possible, which allows a person to satisfy PIC 4007 despite having a condition that would result in a significant cost or prejudice to access services.

For applications lodged from today and those not finally determined by merits review at the Administrative Review Tribunal, where a child is born and ordinarily resident in Australia they can no longer fail to satisfy PIC 4005 or PIC 4007 due to any disability or a health condition they have.

The reason for amending the PIC with a new legislative instrument is in response to a Disability Royal Commission Report, which criticised the discriminatory nature of the previous regulation towards Australian-born minor visa applicants.

Where a person fails to meet this criterion, as it is a “one fail, all fail” criterion, all visa applicants are refused. Due to this, the change will benefit all applicants in a combined application. Any children who are born and ordinarily resident in Australia are still required to undertake visa medicals.