Anyone currently waiting for medical assessor decision?

[gclamb]

My partner's medical was referred as he has had mild depression 4 years ago and is still on anti-depressants. He has never come off them more just out of habit than anything, and is absolutely fine and stable now.

His medical was referred about a week ago, and they said 2-3 week wait.

Just wondered if anyone else is waiting at the moment, or has recently received theirs?

Would be good to just get an idea of how timelines are looking at the moment!

[lemarshall]

What visa are you applying for? I applied for residence visa and also was requested for further reports about my daughter's medication 3 weeks ago as she has albinism. She is not with any medication and her vision is better than requirement in ASH. They requested the reports with other relationship documents so Im not sure if she was referred to medical assessor or my CO assessed and required further reports. May I ask how did you find out about your partner's medication got referred to MA?

Im also applying for Essential Working visa and havent heard anything from them. One of my friend who applied it one day after me already got his visa last week, so I guess her medication was referred in both case. I'll wait until Friday to call and ask if we all have AHS or not.

[gclamb]

Applying for a Talent - Accredited Employer work visa.

He got a letter attached to his application online saying his medical has gone for further assessment. That was the only thing out of the ordinary with his medial so I can imagine that is what it is. He supplied a letter from his GP with the medical so hopefully they won't need more information.

[lemarshall]

I just called immigration today and was told that they are waiting for MA after further reports submitted, seem that we got referred from the start. They didnt tell me how long for it. Just hope that we will hear back from INZ soon with good news

[JandM]

Nobody can tell you how long for the MAs. They are a separate entity, and INZ can only pass evidence through to them and pass their requirements back to the applicant. INZ just has to wait for them to state ASH (acceptable standard of health), or not.

[gclamb]

Nobody can tell you how long for the MAs. They are a separate entity, and INZ can only pass evidence through to them and pass their requirements back to the applicant. INZ just has to wait for them to state ASH (acceptable standard of health), or not.

I know, I just wondered if anyone else was waiting and if they had been waiting long as surely there are busier times than others

[JandM]

You're right that it varies. In the best times, the turnaround for each answer from an MA was a minimum of three weeks. Bear in mind, that's not necessarily the final decision - it could be a message requiring further tests or a doctor's or specialist's report, then there would be a further at least three weeks before the next response. Then around the turn of 2016 - 17, there were terrible backlogs when an 8 - 10 week reaction time was common. It did improve again after that. As with all the immigration business, it's partly a fluke as to how many cases are in the queue in front when yours arrives, though.

[gclamb]

You're right that it varies. In the best times, the turnaround for each answer from an MA was a minimum of three weeks. Bear in mind, that's not necessarily the final decision - it could be a message requiring further tests or a doctor's or specialist's report, then there would be a further at least three weeks before the next response. Then around the turn of 2016 - 17, there were terrible backlogs when an 8 - 10 week reaction time was common. It did improve again after that. As with all the immigration business, it's partly a fluke as to how many cases are in the queue in front when yours arrives, though.

Thank you

[mjae23]

We are in the waiting game too. We applied for a residence from work visa. App was received at INZ 26th Feb.
The case officer's 1st email to me was on 4Th april, (after over a month) she asked for further medical test reports for my partner. This was submitted back to INZ on 10th April. After 3 weeks (3rd May) she emailed asking for a further medical test report from a Specialist (diagnosis, long term prognosis etc). My partner did all that, doctor said he is fine and there are no issues from his medical point of view. ... Results submitted back to INZ 15th May. After 1 week (yesteday) I emailed CO to check for updates, and she replied right away to say that she is still waiting for the health team for the results before she could continue to assess our app. And that it could take about 2-6 weeks to hear from the MAs. We are praying for a 3 week turnaround for their response.

The wait is a serious torture esp with our current visas expiring in mid July.

[Nzs]

There can be delays based on the nature of the medical issue and the type of visa that it is.

Obviously INZ's MA are not specialists in every area of medicine and sometimes need to get opinions from DHB's and other professionals in the field in forming their opinions. This can obviously take time to do. They are also dealing with hundreds if not thousands of people at any one time.

There is also a crucial difference between a residence (and work to residence) applications and a temporary applications(Think student, visitor etc) because for a temporary they just have to ensure that an applicant in their proposed stay is not going to turn up to the hospital or specialist needing treatment.

Under a residence or work to residence assessment they need to do costings and check with dhb's etc in the area to make sure that your condition will not impact the overall publicly funded healthcare system. These measures are in place to protect the healthcare system from undue costs or use of already stretched resources because once you become a resident your ability to access the healthcare system changes. Most conditions get determined to be an Acceptable Standard of Health but you'll need to give them time to ensure that your conditions doesn't fall under those conditions that will pose a burden. You've also got to bear in mind they are doing this for all the applicants being referred to them and as with all things delays could be being caused by particularly difficult cases that they are trying to resolve.