Medical Exams & Police Checks

In order to qualify for our Australian Visa, we need to pass 2 main checks, Medical & Police. They need to make sure that we are not only in good health,  but also have what they consider 'good character'. Normally we are not required to undertake these test until we are assigned a Case Officer for our visa,  however in order to speed up the process people often 'front load' these.The biggest risk here is that by the time you are assigned a Case Officer, they may have already expired since they are only valid for one year.

We decided that with the strong possibility of  moving into a higher processing priority mid-year, it would be worth taking the risk of doing the medicals and police checks early. This means once a Case Officer is assigned, they will have all required documents in hand, and should be able to rule quicker.

On Thursday we made an appointment for our Medical Check, which will involve X-rays, blood tests, and general health checkup. Luckily we have no pre-existing conditions that would raise red flags in Immigration. The appointment is scheduled for the 25th.

We also need to go ahead with our police checks. There are 2 parts. One is the California State police check, which requires LiveScan fingerprinting. Being digital, this is a quick process and results can be back in as little as 3 days. The second check is FBI clearance. This requires ink-rolled fingerprints, which are then mailed to FBI headquarters. Results from this can take 8-12 weeks. We will begin this process this coming week.