Immigration medical certificate no longer required before submitting resident visa application

Friday, 4 February 2022

Queues form into the night at Auckland City Doctors for immigration medicals.

Massive queues for immigration medicals outside one of the few walk-in clinics in the country could soon disappear with Immigration New Zealand announcing a change to its resident visa application process on Friday afternoon.

From March 1, the second round of applications for resident visas opens, spiking demand for immigration medicals. Auckland City Doctors on Auckland’s Queen St has been operating after closing hours to cope, with people even camping overnight to be seen the next day.

But on Friday afternoon, INZ general manager Geoff Scott confirmed that “people applying in phase 2 will be doing so using our enhanced Immigration online system”.

That meant, phase 2 applicants could still apply even if they’d not been able to get a medical certificate beforehand. If a medical certificate was required, phase 2 applicants would be asked to provide one later, Scott said.

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Long line of people waiting for immigration medicals at the Upper Queen St immigration doctors Auckland City Doctors. (Image description: applicants are forming a line and setting up chairs by the medical centre on Queen St.)

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He acknowledged the uncertainty and stress applicants had been facing and said changes should reduce the immediate pressure.

“Anyone who has provided a medical certificate within the last 36 months and were assessed as having an acceptable standard of health do not need to provide a further medical certificate,” he said. But if an applicant’s health had changed, or was previously assessed as not having an acceptable standard of health, a new limited medical certificate was required.

The overnight queue at Auckland City Doctors wrapped around the block just after 9pm. (Image description: a queue of applicants lined up against a wall around the block by Queen St at night. Some are sitting on the ground, some in camping chairs and many are on their phones.)

People in phase 1 of the resident visa application process still needed to provide a medical certificate when submitting their application, but “they have until 31 July, 2022 to [do this],” Scott said.

Meanwhile, those who have already received a medical certificate can submit it in the phase 2 application and would not need to supply another one later.

Stanley Duncan travelled with his wife and children from Napier to Auckland, taking turns to camp overnight in the queue at Auckland City Doctors. (Image description: Stanley Duncan is wearing sunglasses and a disposable face mask and sits in a camping chair in front of a brick wall near the clinic. He is wearing jeans and a striped top and is holding a backpack and laptop in his lap.)

There are 140 medical clinics providing Immigration Medical Examinations and Scott said that “clinics should advise INZ if they are having capacity issues”.

Auckland City Doctors on Auckland’s Queen St was seen operating after closing hours lately and at 5.30pm on Wednesday, people were seen setting up camping chairs for the next day. Clinic staff used megaphones to call patients’ names. By 9pm, the queue had wrapped around the block on Scotia Place and applicants slept overnight awaiting the clinic’s opening at 9am the next day.

Many applicants were vocal about their experiences with the immigration medicals process but did not want to be identified. Several wished for more panel physicians and clinics around the country so that they would not have to travel out of town and sleep outside overnight.

Stanley Duncan travelled from Napier with his wife and children and checked into a hotel near the medical centre so that they could tag team through the night to secure a walk-in appointment.

Juliana Carvalho, an immigrant from Brazil, believes the current immigration policy discriminates against disabled people. (Image description: Juliana Carvalho, a woman with fair skin and blonde hair, sits outside in front of a garden with lilies. She is dressed in black and uses a wheelchair.)

“It’s that important to us. We want to get it in on March 1 as soon as possible,” Duncan said. The first round of applications opened on December 1 but was interrupted by technical issues.

“It’s very hard to find any kind of bookings [before March],” Duncan said, with Hawke’s Bay and Hamilton centres booked until April and Taupō taking only local residents. “[Auckland City Doctors] are the only ones who take walk-ins.”

Gunwant, a woman who was waiting in the queue, asked the Government to “look after the people who are serving and making a difference in the economy of New Zealand”.

She added that local residents did not feel safe with so many people queued up while there was the possible transmission of Omicron, a point echoed by Green Party MP and immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March.

“From a safety perspective, I think it’s problematic while we’re having a Covid-19 outbreak to force people to queue up early in the morning, often in close quarters. More importantly it’s a dehumanising experience for immigrants.”

While the loosening of deadlines for medical certificates relieves some pressure for applicants, others believed that the policy needed to be changed altogether, particularly in regard to its treatment of people with disabilities.

March said the policy “ultimately breaches the rights of disabled people and reduces migrants to an economic value and a cost to the healthcare system”.

In December 2021, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended to Government that the health requirements used by Immigration to inform its decision-making on applications be aligned to a strengths-based approach, after Juliana Carvalho’s petition to end discrimination on disability grounds in the immigration system.

INZ did not respond when asked whether disabled people and people with chronic health conditions should be able to qualify for a resident visa, nor did Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi. However, March said that the ministry had acknowledged the ethical issues of the policy in the past but nothing had been done about it.