Medical

[Adrian_Trischa 6]

So I just did my medical at Anzac Square Medical with Dr Yates.

The practise itself is underneath Central station in the Brisbane CBD and Sofitel hotel (The bottom of the escalators at the Ann Street entrance).

They were very professional and I felt very comfortable with the Doctor.

As soon as you turn up, they will confirm that you've paid the $100 deposit and ask you for the following:

1. Passport

2. 3 x passport photos

3. SYD case number

4. Vaccination records

They will then provide you with a specimen jar to provide a urine sample. You have to go up 3 escalators and use the restrooms in the Sofitel hotel lobby.

The Doctor asked me to sign a couple of sheets, and date them using the American way (Month/Day/Year).

He then proceeded to go through my vaccination records and check off some boxes on a sheet as well as asking some generic questions such as, known diseases, history of depression, heart problems, drinking/recreational drug taking.

After this, you strip down to your underwear, he took weight/height blood pressure then listened to lungs and heart with a stethescope. After this, if your a lady, he asks you to take your bra off to examine your breasts for lumps and checks your tummy and in the general hip area for hernias (Had to do the cough thing). He did say straight up, I will ahve to examine your breasts and offered a chaperone.

After doing all this, they do the reflex test on the knees make you squat, bend over and touch your toes, wave your arms over your head and then finally an eye test! (At this point I did have clothes on so nothing untoward)

After saying, 'yup, you're all good', I fixed up the rest of the bill ($356 because I didn't need any immunisations)and then the ladies gave me directions for the blood test and x-ray. This is done on Queen street, so 2 x streets over and not a very far walk. They send these directly back to Anzac Medical.

Anzac Medical will then contact me when the results are ready to be picked up. They also offered to post it out to me for an extra $15 but I declined seeing as I work just in the Valley and it's just as easy for me to pick it up (I'll ahve to park in Sofitel or catch a train).

Hope this helps someone and gives them an idea as to what to expect!

Good luck everyone on their VJ.

[ecg19 7]

Thanks for this info- I had wondered what was involved and am glad I have a heads up on some of the more personal parts!

Congratulations on the worst parts being over! Do you have an interview date yet?

[Adrian_Trischa 6]

Thanks for this info- I had wondered what was involved and am glad I have a heads up on some of the more personal parts!

Congratulations on the worst parts being over! Do you have an interview date yet?

Hey Lovely,

I'm glad it was of some help to some people. I myself wondered as to what they do that costs so dang much!

I made small chat with the doctor, as you do when you're doing awkward medical things, and the requirements they had to meet in order to be able to do the medical was pretty stringent hence, why he could charge so much ($456)

Well, now, I'm just waiting for some documents from the fiance and the results of the medical. Once I receive these final documents, I'm able to send off my packet 3 and be advised of my interview dates (fingers crossed start of December).

How is your journey coming along?

[ecg19 7]

Hey Lovely,

I'm glad it was of some help to some people. I myself wondered as to what they do that costs so dang much!

I made small chat with the doctor, as you do when you're doing awkward medical things, and the requirements they had to meet in order to be able to do the medical was pretty stringent hence, why he could charge so much ($456)

Well, now, I'm just waiting for some documents from the fiance and the results of the medical. Once I receive these final documents, I'm able to send off my packet 3 and be advised of my interview dates (fingers crossed start of December).

How is your journey coming along?

Definitely going to diet if I have to stand in front of a guy naked! I'm in Perth now but since I have an Auckland NVC number, I'm quitting my job at Ernst & Young and heading back to NZ the end of this month. I looked up the approved doctors in Christchurch and there's only men.

I'm still waiting on my police certificate, and my husband sent me back my birth certificate that I'd left over there by mistake. We've requested an expedite at NVC since we're PCSing next year and if that happens, then things are going to happen incredibly fast. I'm pretty nervous about not having everything, but I think that the only thing that will take awhile now will be the AFP certificate. Always feels as though I'm waiting on something!

Where is your fiance based?

[SweetDelish 38]

Definitely going to diet if I have to stand in front of a guy naked! I'm in Perth now but since I have an Auckland NVC number, I'm quitting my job at Ernst & Young and heading back to NZ the end of this month. I looked up the approved doctors in Christchurch and there's only men.

I'm still waiting on my police certificate, and my husband sent me back my birth certificate that I'd left over there by mistake. We've requested an expedite at NVC since we're PCSing next year and if that happens, then things are going to happen incredibly fast. I'm pretty nervous about not having everything, but I think that the only thing that will take awhile now will be the AFP certificate. Always feels as though I'm waiting on something!

Where is your fiance based?

FYI - not every doctor gets you to strip. my doctor in Sydney just got me to take off my shoes and sweatshirt, and he sent me to a female doctor for the breast exam.

I was about to ask you where in NZ, I'm in Auckland at the moment and met one of the Auckland doctors that do the visa medicals, and she was lovely.

Where are you PCS'ing to? I'm in a similar situation to you, except we are going K1, I've been living in Australia and have just popped over to NZ for work for 4 months, NZ born and raised though, however i chose to do my interview in Sydney, at the time of filing, I didn't know I'd be in NZ, it would have been easier though!

my fiance is Army and we are PCSing to Sth Korea in May, provided I get command sponsorship of course, so we need to expedite AOS after we get married.

[riss 12]

Tas, thanks so much for posting that. It's really good having an idea of what's going to happen.

Wouldn't it be great if there was some way to organise all these topics so that people could go down a list and be able to read other people's experiences at each stage of the process? I know you can just do a search but it's so much more fiddly and I hadn't gotten round to doing that about this medical. Your post came at the perfect time for me.

Good luck with the rest of your application process!

Riss.

[ecg19 7]

FYI - not every doctor gets you to strip. my doctor in Sydney just got me to take off my shoes and sweatshirt, and he sent me to a female doctor for the breast exam.

I was about to ask you where in NZ, I'm in Auckland at the moment and met one of the Auckland doctors that do the visa medicals, and she was lovely.

Where are you PCS'ing to? I'm in a similar situation to you, except we are going K1, I've been living in Australia and have just popped over to NZ for work for 4 months, NZ born and raised though, however i chose to do my interview in Sydney, at the time of filing, I didn't know I'd be in NZ, it would have been easier though!

my fiance is Army and we are PCSing to Sth Korea in May, provided I get command sponsorship of course, so we need to expedite AOS after we get married.

Good to know - I'll be in Christchurch and the two doctors are male. I know it's a bit silly, but after reading this I'm a bit concerned about the evasiveness of the medical! I'm still in Perth for now, but will be back in NZ 1 December. I have quite a few airpoints due to all the long distance travel I've been doing - and I see all 4 Auckland approved doctors are female - so maybe I'll fly up there for my medical. Seems a bit extreme I know, but I won't be working and Auckland is a great place!

We are PCSing to Ramstein, Germany in April. FYI- you will also be able to expedite citizenship! My husband and I have done a whole lot of research on this and if your husband has PCS orders, you can apply under a special section of the naturalisation act - s 319b I believe, where if you are currently PCS'd or PCS'ing you can apply for citizenship with ZERO residency years!

We're definitely going to start the process as soon as I'm in the USA, as it will give many more job options on the base!

Keep in touch

[SweetDelish 38]

Good to know - I'll be in Christchurch and the two doctors are male. I know it's a bit silly, but after reading this I'm a bit concerned about the evasiveness of the medical! I'm still in Perth for now, but will be back in NZ 1 December. I have quite a few airpoints due to all the long distance travel I've been doing - and I see all 4 Auckland approved doctors are female - so maybe I'll fly up there for my medical. Seems a bit extreme I know, but I won't be working and Auckland is a great place!

We are PCSing to Ramstein, Germany in April. FYI- you will also be able to expedite citizenship! My husband and I have done a whole lot of research on this and if your husband has PCS orders, you can apply under a special section of the naturalisation act - s 319b I believe, where if you are currently PCS'd or PCS'ing you can apply for citizenship with ZERO residency years!

We're definitely going to start the process as soon as I'm in the USA, as it will give many more job options on the base!

Keep in touch

not silly at all, I appreciated being sent to a female doctor for the breast part of the exam, and which doctor did you get? citymed is right across the road from my office, if you are seeing Dr Donna Marshall, shes lovely, she helped me out alot in prep for my Sydney medical, I wish I had just moved it all to NZ, but I didn't want to complicate the process after I'd started.

Good to know about expediting everything else! something in this process has to go smoothly, I haven't looked too far ahead yet, I wanted to wait for the visa approval before I started all that. We were both having a panic attack the last few days about the possibility of me not getting command sponsored to Korea, even though its a very slight chance, we definitely over thought everything, David even talked to a Kiwi (Maori/German) lady at his briefing in Hawaii last week. ha! what are the chances? but she told him because of his rank and where they were going, it was highly unlikely I'd get denied.

working is the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around, I'm an IT program consultant, and not sure they need someone with my skills on base in Korea.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

I'll be honest.. the "strip naked" and take off your bra part weirds me out.. mine was NOTHING like that (in Melb). Here's my review from 2009: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/206016-australian-beneficiaries-packet-3-to-interview-date/page__view__findpost__p__3129057 I don't know why