Approved Panel Physicians for Australian Visa Medical Exams

Approved panel physicians for Australian visa medical exams are doctors and radiologists formally appointed by the Department of Home Affairs to examine visa applicants at clinics outside Australia. If you are offshore, you must use one of these approved clinics; results from your own GP will not be accepted. If you are already in Australia, you don’t use a panel physician at all. You book instead through Bupa Medical Visa Services, the government’s designated onshore provider.1Department of Home Affairs. Arrange Your Health Examinations

How to Find an Approved Panel Physician

The Department of Home Affairs keeps a searchable directory of approved panel clinics outside Australia. You reach it through the “offices outside Australia” tool on the Home Affairs website, and you can filter by country or region to find the nearest approved clinic with its address and contact details.1Department of Home Affairs. Arrange Your Health Examinations Check the directory before you pay any fees or travel. A clinic’s approval status is what matters, not its reputation locally.

In some countries, the International Organization for Migration runs or manages the clinics that carry out these assessments for the Australian government. Whether the clinic is an independent practice or an IOM-managed facility, it has to appear in the Home Affairs directory to be valid. Availability is thin in some regions, so book early, especially if the nearest approved clinic is a long trip away.

The clinics operate under strict protocols. Their staff enter your examination results directly into the government’s eMedical system, which sends the data to immigration authorities without you handling paperwork.2Department of Home Affairs. Panel Physician Gateway

What to Book and Bring

The one thing you cannot walk in without is your HAP ID, the Health Assessment Processing identifier generated through eMedical. The clinic cannot pull up your case without it.3Department of Home Affairs. eMedical If you applied for your visa online, your HAP ID sits on the referral letter you downloaded from your ImmiAccount when you lodged the application. Print that letter and bring it with your current passport.

The referral letter is also the physician’s instruction sheet. It tells the clinic which tests your visa subclass requires, so there is no guesswork at the appointment. Look over the biographical details on the letter before you go, and flag any errors. If you have pre-existing conditions, bring specialist reports, past surgery records, and anything else that lets the panel physician assess your case properly rather than flagging it for further follow-up.

Which Tests You’ll Have

Your exact tests depend on your age and visa type. For permanent and provisional visa applicants, the general requirements are:

  • All ages: a standard medical examination.
  • Age 11 and older: a chest X-ray to screen for tuberculosis.
  • Age 15 and older: an HIV blood test and a serum creatinine/eGFR kidney function test. A hepatitis B test is also required if you were born in a country the department considers higher risk for that disease.

Children under 11 are exempt from the chest X-ray. Extra tests apply in specific cases. If you plan to work or train in healthcare, aged care, or disability care, you may need hepatitis B and C screening, a syphilis test, or latent tuberculosis screening depending on your role and country of origin.4Department of Home Affairs. What Health Examinations You Need Protection and refugee visa applicants have expanded testing that includes syphilis and hepatitis screening.

Temporary visa applicants coming from countries with higher tuberculosis risk also need a chest X-ray if they are 11 or older and plan to stay six months or more. Your referral letter spells out exactly which tests apply to you.

What It Costs

You pay the clinic directly. The Australian government does not set the prices, and costs vary a lot from country to country.5Department of Home Affairs. Your Health Examinations Appointment – Section: Cost Home Affairs says fees will generally be comparable to what you would pay locally for a full medical examination.

As a rough benchmark, Bupa Medical Visa Services in Australia charges $371.70 AUD (GST inclusive) for a combined medical examination and chest X-ray, with individual pathology tests adding $47 to $107 AUD each depending on the test.6Bupa. Fees for Australian Visa Medical Assessment Offshore panel clinic prices vary widely. Ring the specific clinic before your appointment to confirm what you’ll owe.

If the physician identifies a condition that needs specialist consultation or advanced testing, those extra costs are yours too. You pay the specialist or laboratory directly under their own billing.5Department of Home Affairs. Your Health Examinations Appointment – Section: Cost

How Results Reach Home Affairs

Panel physicians enter your findings straight into eMedical, which sends the data securely to the Department of Home Affairs. Once all your required tests are complete, the submission happens automatically.7Department of Home Affairs. Australian Panel Member Instructions You don’t carry paper results anywhere. The clinic is not allowed to hand you original completed forms or medical reports to submit yourself.

You can ask the clinic for copies of your results and any diagnostic reports for your own records. The originals belong to the Commonwealth of Australia. A Medical Officer of the Commonwealth then reviews the submitted data and decides whether you meet the health requirement. If they need more information, you’ll be contacted through your ImmiAccount or by email.

How Long the Results Stay Valid

Your health examination results are valid for 12 months from the date you completed them.8Department of Home Affairs. After Your Health Examinations If the visa isn’t decided in that window, you may have to redo the whole exam at your own cost. Have the rest of your application ready before you book the medical, so the 12-month clock doesn’t run out while you chase other paperwork.

If a Condition Gets Flagged

Not every abnormal finding ends an application. Two mechanisms sit behind the health assessment: health undertakings and health waivers.

A health undertaking, signed on Form 815, is a formal agreement to see an Australian healthcare provider to manage your condition after you arrive. Conditions that commonly trigger one include:

  • Tuberculosis-related risk, meaning an abnormal chest X-ray, a history of treated tuberculosis, or inactive tuberculosis.
  • HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C.
  • Leprosy.

Pregnant applicants for protection visas who choose not to have a chest X-ray during pregnancy sign a separate pregnancy health undertaking agreeing to complete the X-ray after giving birth.9Department of Home Affairs. Health Undertaking Refusing to sign a requested undertaking means the visa will not be granted. A signed undertaking is valid for six months.8Department of Home Affairs. After Your Health Examinations

Some visa subclasses also allow a health waiver on a case-by-case basis if the Medical Officer of the Commonwealth decides you don’t meet the health requirement. You don’t apply for one separately. If a waiver is available for your subclass, the processing officer will contact you and ask you to fill out a submission template explaining why it should be granted. A waiver is not available at all if you have active tuberculosis or if your condition poses a direct danger to public health.10Department of Home Affairs. Health Waiver