Immigration New Zealand has joined eMedical, an online immigration health processing system developed by Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. eMedical will replace INZ’s existing paper-based medical certificates, and will be used by INZ’s panel physicians.
eMedical is used by panel physicians to record results of an applicants’ immigration medical examination. This information is provided to Immigration New Zealand through a secure online channel.
Why eMedical?
eMedical will save time and costs for Immigration New Zealand and its customers. It provides a secure online channel for a visa applicant’s health information. In most cases, this information will not need manual assessment by immigration officers.
The current paper-based manual process for processing and assessing immigration health information is slow and costly and it’s a significant barrier to achieving timely visa decisions.
What are the benefits of eMedical?
Eliminating paper medical certificates will help Immigration New Zealand cut application processing times, reducing administrative overhead costs and client follow-up queries.
eMedical will shorten the referral process required when an applicant’s medical certificate must be reviewed by a medical assessor. Requests for additional information will be electronically channelled back through eMedical to the applicant’s panel physician, improving the customer experience by eliminating the current Immigration New Zealand’s “middle man” step.
When will eMedical be introduced?
eMedical is being rolled out in a staged approach from November 24, with the system and new business processes tested on a group of six offshore countries in the first stage. These countries are Cambodia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
eMedical will have a second rollout stage at the end of January 2015 to all offshore eMedical-enabled countries. The final rollout stage will be onshore in New Zealand from the end of March 2015, coinciding with the establishment of Immigration New Zealand’s new onshore panel physician network.
From the end of March 2015, the majority of medicals in support of a visa application will be submitted electronically by Immigration New Zealand’s panel physicians and be triaged, and decided in most cases by the Immigration Health System.