What is a Health Waiver?

The Australian Migration Act (1958) and Regulations (1994) stipulate that most visa applicants need to meet Public Interest Criteria (PIC). The health related PICs (4005-4007) stipulate the health requirement that must be met before the grant of a visa.

To meet the health requirement to be granted a visa, a visa applicant’s immigration medical examination results must be assessed and they must be granted a health clearance. If the health clearance is a “Does Not Meet”, the applicant has not met the health requirement and a visa cannot be granted unless a health waiver is available and exercised.

Where PIC 4005 applies, if an applicant (or a non-migrating family member) fails to meet the health requirement for a visa, there is no provision for a health waiver to be considered.

A health waiver can only be exercised for visa applicants (and any non-migrating family members) for certain visas to which PIC 4007 applies. This includes:

• all Refugee and Humanitarian visas
• certain skilled, business and other non-humanitarian migration visas
• the 500 (Foreign Affairs or Defence Sector) student visa
• the Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) visa