[grosslee]

Good Morning!

My wife and I have applied for a 5 year work visa through the Pretoria High Commission in South Africa. We are stuck at the medical phase (everything else has been assessed as perfect). Her medicals were sent to London for medical assessment, this we were expecting due to my wifes diabetes.

My wife is a Social Worker and has found employment with a DHB in New Zealand.

Here's our problem; my wife is a type 1 diabetic and has had the condition since the age of 7 (now 28), she self injects on a daily basis. Everything was supplied to the assessors including a specialist diabetic report. In the origional medical she mentioned that she has had laser treatment done to her eyes but she does not wear glassess, does not have any visual loss whatsoever and the opthalmologist indicated that she has 6/6 vision. Here is where NZIS have come in and said they need reports on the history of this condition, the current status and 3 year prognosis...All fine and well, we got these reports and submitted it to our case manager who then fowarded it onto the medical assessors in London. London have now come back to us to say that they are going to be sending her medical away for a second opinion with the New Zealand medical assessors. I know it is completely out of our control but i would appreciate it if someone that has gone through similar trials and tribulations to comment:

1) Should we be worried? Are our New Zealand ambitions about to crash and burn since these medicals have now been sent to New Zealand?

2) She has a job in a skill level 1 occupation with qualifications in that job, how long can we expect this process with the New Zealand assessors to last? Will they speed up the process due to her employment?

3) Can anyone comment if epthalomologist are in shortage in New Zealand? My wife has excellent vision but just needs a checkup every 6 months. Would this have an adverse affect on a decision to grant us entry?

So sorry for the long winded thread but I am sure you can understand the stress, nerves and emotional strain we are going through as we sent our application off at the beginning of June already and this process just does not seem to want to come to a rest now. Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

Glenn and Candice

[JandM]

Hello and welcome. :)

I don't think you need read anything sinister into the fact of your wife's medical having been referred to the MA. This happens whenever the CO sees some issue on the medical report which the doctor at the medical examination has marked as not absolutely cut-and-dried 'normal' (and laser eye treatment is relatively new). Passing the medical is usually dependent on forecast cost to the NZ health service not being more than $25,000 NZ over the next four years. Even when it would be, some members here have managed to argue the benefit of the main applicant's contribution to NZ outweighing a medical problem (and so gaining a medical waiver).

To the best of my knowledge, there aren't any medical assessors in London - they're all in NZ. I guess that your reports were forwarded to your CO at NZ House in London, who has then forwarded them to the MA - that would be the normal process. We hear that medical reports and correspondence relating to them are all sent by post, so there is a built-in time-lag you have to allow for. The COs have no influence over this process at all. You now just have to wait for a reaction.

I'm sure everybody here will sympathize with your nervous anticipation. However, I'm sorry to have to tell you that the beginning of June is not at all long ago in the general scheme of things. Look at various people's signatures for their timelines. These things take the time they take. You're in the hands of a big bureaucracy, and there's no way to tell where in the queue you are. Some will envy you that you have a CO already, and this will be because of your wife's job offer - you HAVE been fast-tracked on that account.

[Mamee & Co]

Hi Glenn & Candice

((((Hugs))))

I'm waiting too on the second round of medical assessment, for some members of my family. I ahve sent off the reports we obtained after the GP doing our assessment reckoned we should not bother with the original submission. We are hoping that they may clear this time but it is possible we will be asked to provide more info. I was advised that this is fairly standard procedure in any case where there is a deviation from the norm, even if the perosn concerned is healthy..so here's hoping.

I just keep repeating my mantra, "Patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue!" and keep on decluttering so that we can move when the time comes, fingers crossed!

Mamee

[grosslee]

Thank you all for the kind responses. Though I think some confusion seems to have cropped into the post, we have applied for a 5 year WORK VISA, not PR. The standard turn around time for the NZ High Commission in South Africa for Work Visa's is around 6-8 weeks at the most. Our medicals were assessed in LONDON (So say our visa manager as well as the people in London, this was all done through email which I was rather suprised with as I was anticipating post) but have now been fowarded to New Zealand for a second opinion (this will be done by post). Trust me, we are extremelly well versed in the beaurocracy of NZIS. Has anybody experienced the turn around times for second opinions through New Zealand medical assesors for people with job offers?

Regards,

Glenn and Candice

[JandM]

Sorry, slip-read over that detail. Maybe someone who has been that route (which I think is rarer) will be able to help out.

[Mamee & Co]

We don't have job offers but have been advised for this second round by our CO that it can take up to four weeks.

[BkyMonster]

There are medical assessors in both London and NZ (don't know about elsewhere) and they have different specialties while all being generalists. My medical was sent to 3 different medical assessors for a variety of things as they were specialist in those areas. At least 1 in London, 1 in NZ and not sure about the 3rd. I don't think the medical process for a 5 year WP at this stage is significantly different than for PR. Medical assessment turn around ranges from 2-6 weeks. It takes as long as it takes.

[grosslee]

Thank you so much for the replies everyone. The support and information off of this site is great!

[Susan2502]

My wife had to had extra blood tests because she is overweight, BMI of 30! Our CO wanted the fasting bloods which we did at our GP. The GP said her levels were normal and so we sent off the details to our CO. She came back on Friday to say that it needs to be sent off to the MA because the bloods are 'ABNORMAL'.

Could they seriously not allow us to NZ because she is overweight? She isn't even a BMI 35 which I thought was the limit! She has no health issues at all. Very frustrating!

Our Co told us it would take up to 4 weeks to get an answer.

Again, we wait!! It is extremely stressful!!

Thanks
John

[Ulysses_tga]

.

Could they seriously not allow us to NZ because she is overweight? She isn't even a BMI 35 which I thought was the limit! She has no health issues at all. Very frustrating!

John


You'll be even more frustrated when you take a drive through South Auckland and look at all the seriously obese islanders that have been allowed to make New Zealand their home. Unless I've got it wrong and they only became obese after living the good life over here :D

[Jolie]

You'll be even more frustrated when you take a drive through South Auckland and look at all the seriously obese islanders that have been allowed to make New Zealand their home. Unless I've got it wrong and they only became obese after living the good life over here :D

Wow, what an incredibly racist statement. And you're assuming that those people aren't NZ-born -- which they very well may be.

I've seen PLENTY of obese NZ-born Pakeha in NZ, too.

Really, a multi-cultural migrant forum has no place for that sort of small-minded crap. Leave it outside, will you?

:(

[Ulysses_tga]

Wow, what an incredibly racist statement. And you're assuming that those people aren't NZ-born -- which they very well may be.

I've seen PLENTY of obese NZ-born Pakeha in NZ, too.

Really, a multi-cultural migrant forum has no place for that sort of small-minded crap. Leave it outside, will you?

:(



:uhoh:uhoh I'm a bit confused Jolie. What part of my statement is racist? Read my reply in the context of the thread. I regularly do business with people from Tonga and Samoa and believe me, the majority of them is obese. The fact of the matter is that the NZ government has agreements in place with various island nations whereby there is free access of citizens to member countries without having to meet the stringent health, language, skill and other standards thatt other non-member immigrants have to.
A hugely frustrating fact for someone that is in the process of jumping through the hoops and might have their hopes and dreams dashed to to a small weight problem.

I agree with you about pakeha's also being overweight but that is not relevant to the context of this thread.

So peace mate? :cool:

[Jolie]

I agree with you about pakeha's also being overweight but that is not relevant to the context of this thread.

Neither is the weight of Tongans, Samoans, or South Aucklanders -- who might be neither Tongan or Samoan.

There have been some in-depth discussions in numerous threads here on the subject of racism in NZ.

THIS, in my opinion, is the difference between racism in the States and racism in NZ.

In the U.S., racism is definitely alive and well. But it tends to be a fair bit more subtle and underground. Racist people there generally realise that they're racist -- and they know better than to vocalise their racism very loudly, unless they're in a group of like-minded people.

Here, the racism tends to be very overt and in-your-face. And I'm convinced that a great deal of the reason for that is because a lot of people here don't even recognise that they're racist. The rest of the racists just don't give a **** if everybody knows that they're racist.

I hear a lot of people make racist remarks to the faces of the people they are slagging off -- and then they excuse it by saying, "It's okay, they don't mind" or "they know I'm just joking". Well, you wouldn't know that by looking at the face of the person they just slagged.

So you work with Tongans and Samoans -- you figure that gives you the right to slag them off in a public forum?

What about people who live in South Auckland, you have the right to slag them off, too? I have a number of friends who live in that area, and guess what -- not one of them is Tongan, Samoan OR obese.

Go back and read the original posts in this thread. Then read yours. And wake up and realise that your post was not in the slightest bit germane or appropriate in this thread.

[Jo Jo]

The fact of the matter is that the NZ government has agreements in place with various island nations whereby there is free access of citizens to member countries without having to meet the stringent health, language, skill and other standards thatt other non-member immigrants have to.

I don't think this is correct.

There are several special policies in place for people of certain nationalities.

The Samoan Quota Scheme allows up to 1,100 Samoans, including their partners and dependent children, to be granted residence in New Zealand each year. These quotas have been in place, in one form or another, since 1967. (In comparison, people from the UK were able to migrate freely to NZ until 1974, and didn't require work permits until 1986.)

The Pacific Access Category allows up to 250 citizens of Tonga, 75 citizens of Tuvalu, and 75 citizens of Kiribati, (including the partners and dependent children of principal applicants* under the Category), to be granted residence in New Zealand each year.

All applicants under these policies have to, amongst other things,


be between 18 and 45
have an acceptable offer of employment
meet a minimum income requirement if they have dependent children
meet a minimum level of English language ability
and meet the same health and character requirements as those applying under the skilled migrant category


You can read all about the policies in NZIS's operations manual here (http://www.immigration.govt.nz/nzis/operations_manual/2037.htm).

And, of course, people of these nationalities can also apply via the SMC, family and other categories, and many are born here.