Every country has the right to safeguard the interests of its citizens by applying appropriate filters in its immigration process. However, it is also unethical to lure applicants in investing time and energy into an immigration process without disclosing key criteria to them and later refusing their applications based on the same undisclosed criteria. As I experienced, Australian immigration process has this flaw at two places. First at the time of sending invitation to apply for VISA and later in the framework of health screening. For details, please refer to Figure 1 and read on.
I am a Pakistani Engineer working in Saudi Arabia. I applied for Immigration VISA under subclass 189 in March 2016. After completing all eligibility requirements, I received an invitation to apply for VISA from the department. I submitted fee (AUS 8100 for the family) which is besides medical and professional accreditation expenses. However, the visa was refused in the final stage citing medical condition of my daughter. I did receive a notification of adverse comments (without any specific referrals), prior to refusal, from MOC* (Sept 2016) regarding my three year old daughter's health. I did supply several fresh reports based on my own understanding since no specific requirement was given (Oct 2016), and a statement highlighting her improving health condition. However, this did not change the opinion of MOC, so the case officer refused my visa (March 2, 2017). My daughter was born premature and suffered birth trauma. Resulting in developmental delays. She just turned 4, has normal limbs, can walk with support, recently started to speak, responds well, plays alone and in group, is aware of and interacts with everything around her etc. Above all her condition is constantly improving, and exhibits immense potential. In-fact there has been significant improvement from the time I received initial adverse comments from MOC and the eventual refusal of visa application.
Figure 1 Australian Immigration Process
I am a Pakistani Engineer working in Saudi Arabia. I applied for Immigration VISA under subclass 189 in March 2016. After completing all eligibility requirements, I received an invitation to apply for VISA from the department. I submitted fee (AUS 8100 for the family) which is besides medical and professional accreditation expenses. However, the visa was refused in the final stage citing medical condition of my daughter. I did receive a notification of adverse comments (without any specific referrals), prior to refusal, from MOC* (Sept 2016) regarding my three year old daughter's health. I did supply several fresh reports based on my own understanding since no specific requirement was given (Oct 2016), and a statement highlighting her improving health condition. However, this did not change the opinion of MOC, so the case officer refused my visa (March 2, 2017). My daughter was born premature and suffered birth trauma. Resulting in developmental delays. She just turned 4, has normal limbs, can walk with support, recently started to speak, responds well, plays alone and in group, is aware of and interacts with everything around her etc. Above all her condition is constantly improving, and exhibits immense potential. In-fact there has been significant improvement from the time I received initial adverse comments from MOC and the eventual refusal of visa application.
MOC opinion is too harsh
and negative on her and based on scale that is not available to applicant. They
estimate, based on the medical reports that she is “dependent
for assistance with most activities
of daily living”,
“her condition is permanent” and is likely to incur significant cost to
Australian social security systems, (estimation methodology
or breakdown of cost was not provided). I continue to disagree with them
strongly. There is a video library in which I have been documenting her
activities since getting initial adverse opinion of MOC in October 2016 [1]. You
can go through the video library yourself and vet MOC’s opinion mentioned above.
I have following points
to summarize my opinion on this issue:
1. The assessment framework of MOC is flawed,
unfairly rigid and is responsible for miscarriage of my immigration case. It
relies too much on blindly supplied medical reports and lacks the dynamic
inquisitive nature of medical profession that is needed in cases such as my
daughter.
2. There is no way for applicant to assess in
prior if a medical condition will incur "significant cost" which
becomes THE reason for refusal. The "Notes of Guidance" that MOC uses
are not publicly available to the best of my knowledge as per para 4.68 here [2].
3. The immigration portal does highlight
diseases like TB or polio as a matter of concern. However, acute sensitivity to
children with delays that I have experienced, qualifies explicit presentation
so that unsuspecting applicants like me do not commit so much time and money
into immigration process.
4. It is unfair to take hefty visa fee (apparently
nonrefundable) before conducting critical medical screening and without making MOC
assessment criteria available to applicant.
5. Health screening or adequate presentation
of health criteria should be incorporated before sending invitations to
applicants to avoid making them commit so much time and money.
6. The concerns I have raised are not unique.
A little research revealed this issue was debated at length and the relevant
committee of Australian Parliament and several recommendations were made. I am not
an expert on law and legislation but following might be of interest to you:
a. See 4.71 [2], suggest that notes for guidance should be
made public. To the best of my knowledge they are still not public.
b. See Recommendation 6, 4.72 [2],
i. Detailed cost estimation regarding a
health condition should be published on the website. I did not find any on
website.
ii. Applicant should be provided with detailed
breakdown of cost that MOC estimates will be incurred due to a medical
condition. I did not receive any cost breakdown.
c. See
Recommendation 8,
i. “…Australian Government remove from the
Migration Regulations 1994 the criterion under Public Interest Criteria 4005,
4006A and 4007…”. Well my application was refused citing PIC 4005(1)(c)(ii)(A).
d. See Recommendation 9
i. “The Committee recommends that the
Australian Government amend Regulation 2.25A of the Migration Regulations 1994
in a manner which does not bind the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship to
take as final the decision of a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth in relation
to ‘significant cost’ and ‘prejudice to access’ issues, and provides scope for
Ministerial intervention…” ….. My refusal letter states that I have no right to
a review so an increased scope of ministerial intervention is a luxury.
ii. “The Committee also recommends that the
Australian Government revise the approach which assesses visa applicants’
possible health care and service needs against ‘the hypothetical person test’.
This test should be revised so that it reflects a tailored assessment of
individual circumstances in relation to likely healthcare and service use”.
….The individual nature of my daughter’s case was not considered.
e. See 4.10, 4.11, mentioned the attitude and
understanding of panel doctors. My experience with him in Riyadh was
disappointing. To date he is the only representative of Australian government
to have directly examined my doctor. Well he examined 5 family member in in
less than 20 minutes and asked for some documents to assess my daughter’s
history. I handed over an 18 month old assessment report and he mailed it to
the case officer without any further discussions. The MOC arbitrarily formed
opinion on that outdated report which was submitted as history (which could not
be changed later). This is what I meant by highlighting the lack of “dynamic
inquisitive nature of medical profession” in point 1, above.
To Summarize
- The process is inherently flawed as it sends invitation to apply for visa and collect fees without incorporating critical health information.
- The methodology of health assessment and cost calculation employed by MOC is passive and not transparent to the applicant at any stage.
- Any country has the right to guard its interests however, it is unfair if not unethical to send invitations and obtain non refundable hefty fee from applicants without disclosing key information and make arbitrary decisions while giving no privilege to review.
- I intended to give better living to my family but ended up being deceived by concealed filters in Australian immigration process.
- Besides the time and energy, I lost hard earned AUD 8100 in fees. In other word the 'system' ripped me off the money I could have spent on my kids including the one they think is permanently disabled !!
*MOC: Medical Officer of the Commonwealth
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