Changes to Australia’s migration laws have lowered the barriers to permanent residency for people living with hepatitis B. These changes come after years of lobbying by advocacy groups.
The Australian migration system is set up to make it more difficult for people living with chronic illnesses to get permanent visas, using the justification that the financial cost of meeting those people’s health needs is prohibitive. However, over the past five years, there have been incremental changes to migration law and policy that have improved the prospects of people living with chronic hepatitis B becoming permanent residents in Australia.
The Department of Home Affairs, who control Australia’s immigration system, has what they call a ‘significant cost threshold’, which is the cut-off amount beyond which the government has decided that a potential migrant will be too expensive to support (or, as they put it, a visa applicant’s estimated health and community service costs’ are ‘significant’ and therefore do not meet the ‘Migration Health Requirement’). Three main factors have changed the way this affects people living with hepatitis B.
The first change is in time. Previously the Department of Home Affairs would estimate the potential costs that would accrue over an applicant’s entire lifespan. Now the rules have changed to mean that the costs are now estimated for a 10-year period for those whose health condition has a ‘reasonably predictable course’, something which applies to chronic hepatitis B infections. (For temporary visa applicants, the relevant period of time for the estimate of cost is the length of the particular visa subclass.)
The second change is in cost. The price of medication used for hepatitis B treatment has decreased significantly. This decrease in medication cost means that the estimated costs of a person’s healthcare each year for the purposes of migration will, in most cases, also decrease significantly. Ten years of medication at a lower rate is much better than a lifetime of higher prices.
The third change is that the ‘significant cost threshold’ level has itself been raised, meaning that the cut-off point is now higher.
Together, these three changes now mean that applicants living with hepatitis B, including those on treatment, are unlikely to exceed the significant cost threshold based on their treatment alone. This is welcome news for many people living with chronic infection who are seeking to migrate to Australia. Previously, applicants may have been limited to applying for visas that had provision for a waiver of this health requirement to be granted. Most visas do not have these provisions. This meant there were few visa pathways available to people living with hepatitis B for obtaining permanent residency.
These changes to migration law and healthcare costs are good news for many people living with hepatitis B seeking permanent residency in Australia.* However, changes to a complex system like migration mean it can be even more difficult to navigate. The Health+Law Research Partnership, which was created to identify and eliminate legal barriers to testing and treatment for people living with hepatitis B or HIV in Australia, has interviewed a number of people as part of their Legal Needs Study, highlighting the difficulty that people living with hepatitis B face locating clear, up-to-date information on migration law and processes.
The Health+Law team has assisted AHSM Health, Australia’s peak professional body representing healthcare professionals in HIV, BBV, and sexual and reproductive health, to update their ‘Hepatitis B and Immigration‘ resource, which outlines how clinicians can support patients living with hepatitis B applying for a permanent visa. The resource identifies three significant policy changes that have improved the prospects for people living with chronic hepatitis B applying for permanent residency.
People living with hepatitis B who have not received migration advice over the past couple of years may wish to obtain updated advice as these – and other – changes to law and policy may have improved or changed visa pathway options for them. They should contact a registered migration agent or lawyer to discuss these changes and their own circumstances.
*The information contained in this blog post is general in nature and based on provisional information supplied by Health+Law. It should not be relied on as legal advice. You should talk to a registered migration agent or lawyer to obtain tailored legal advice. The information is correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change. The HIV/AIDS Legal Centre (HALC) is a specialist legal centre, which provides free advice and assistance to people living with HIV or hepatitis. Subject to eligibility requirements, HALC may be able to provide legal assistance.
Last updated 16 September 2024
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