Transplant advice for NZ Medicals

[greem20]

Long term lurker, first time poster here.

I’ve got a bit of a worry and wanted to get some opinions on it.

Basically me and my girlfriend moved on to New Zealand in April 2011 on a one year working holiday visa.

Since then we’ve both gotten jobs and have settled into life in Wellington quite nicely, I’m currently working in a full time role in IT and my partner as a nurse.

Now that our one year visa is expiring we’ve decided to apply for a skilled working visa, but we’ve got a potential issue with the medicals.

Around 9 years ago I had a liver transplant and I’m worried that as a result we may get rejected! From looking around NZ seem to reject people based on the alleged cost to their health service, I’ve read on a few forums and sites that a cost of over $25,000 over four years would get rejected.

Currently I’m receiving my medication under a reciprocal agreement with the UK and NZ, which means I end up paying just the prescription costs of my anti-rejection drugs.

But from initial conversations with my doctors, my drugs would normally cost $1000 per month if I were to pay for them myself.

(Meaning a total cost of $48,000 over four years!)

Now I could be sourcing all my information from crappy sources (and I hope I am), but I can’t see how I’m going to get accepted! Has anybody got any insight or similar experiences to this?

We’re holding off on putting through our EOI at the mo, as we don’t really want to have to pay $400 dollars plus another $500 for medicals if we stand no chance.

Any help would be appreciated!

[72andsunny]

From the operational manual: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/

A4.10.1 Medical conditions deemed to impose significant costs and/or demands on New Zealand's health and/or education services

Solid organ transplants, excluding corneal grafts more than 6 months old