Did anyone else find the medical incredibly difficult and time consuming?

[new horizon]

Hello,

I am back from completing (most) of the medical testing. I was busy with this for eight hours today! One office said they could do the tests, and after getting there, couldn't. After finding another place they made me wait one hour in between each part of the test. Then there was going to a separate facility for the x rays, being told I would need to come back for resulting paperwork, etc, etc, etc. Oh, and so many specific things to do (writing a name across your photo). I'm so hyped that I am going to forget something and have to go back On top of two failed attempts to find veins for a blood analysis, the twenty hour fast after it all, and the 400 in expenses, I'm pretty whipped!

I sure hope this is all worth it

[Wooly_Cow]

It took quite a long time as there were 6 of us. One of us had to go back to repeat a test, and my OH had to get a doctors note saying that her low Iron count was 'normal' for her and represented no medical issue....but given the depth of the tests it was all handled very smoothly. It did however cost a HUGE amount...thankfully my Kiwi employer picked up the tab and we reused the tests for PR.....that's good planning for you!

[SueDonim]

It's a major headache. My doctor said she had never seen an immigration physical so detailed.

$400 was a pretty good rate. I paid over $600.

I also triple checked each one and found several minor errors and omissions, so had to corral the doctor a couple of times to get those filled out.

Definitely a headache (but at least that doesn't show up on the physical)

[cbrown]

Oh yeah. We did our immigration physicals on Tuesday. Doctor was an expat from Canada and very empathetic. He gave us a "two-for-one deal" and charged us $400. We got our blood work done at his office (four tubes, ouch) and had to go to another office for our chest xrays. All said and done, we spent over $600 in one day...hope everything goes well!!!

[fye]

Medical was a breeze for me. I took a little less than an hour for them to check me up. And it was cheap too...about NZ$100. 3 days later, they called me to come and collect my certificate.

When you're searching for a panel, make sure they have X-Ray facility there. Otherwise, they'll refer you to another facility (e.g. another clinic, hospital) which has it. If so, also check if the price quoted for the medical checkup include x-ray.

[baldi]

Hi, we had our x-rays last week and our medicals yesterday. Total cost nearly £900 for two adults and a child of 11 years. It was a hassle booking it all and getting the required print outs from our Local Doctor, but as the Doctor we used for the medical was one of the designated ones (that you are forced to use in the UK) .

It was well organised on the day and the whole team at the surgery were fantastic. (Four Elms Medical Centre, Pengam Green, Cardiff)

Just waiting for the bloods to come back end of next week and my wife's birth certificate (I had to order the version with her parent's names on as the one she had was the shorter version) and then I will be ready to send the full application pack off to NZ House, at last!

Good Luck to everyone else who is going through this at the moment!

[Ana&Steve]

We did them in2007. We went to our gp for the paperwork and general checkup and to two other places for the blood work and Xrays. It was $175ea + $20ea for blood and Xrays totaling$205ea. We also got pics done at our passport place as we didn't want to deal with cropping.

[seattle]

Ours took about an hour and were covered by our medical insurance. The part I didn't like was having to get chest xrays for the kids - their pediatrician was against unnecessary xrays due to radiation and couldn't understand why NZ wouldn't accept a TB test instead.

[JandM]

I thought children didn't have to have them - ? Oh, having looked it up, I guess yours must have been over 11.

Playing devil's advocate, I suppose other unsuspected conditions besides TB could show up in that area.

[Mickfin]

Ours went fairly fast. We spent maybe an hour with the NP and then we had to go to a lab for blood work and another place for xrays. We did make a mistake though. We used an NP but luckily it was caught the same day our paperwork arrived in LA and they overnighted it back to us to get counter signed by an MD. So anyone in the US, make sure it is an MD you are seeing. It was quite expensive too. It probably cost us around $800 US for all of it.