Student Visa Application and Health Clearance?? (Need help!)

tackim · February 2018

Hi Guys, sorry hindi ko talaga magets yung step by step how to apply student visa?? yung boss ko kasi nagdirect sa school then yung school nagprocess ng coe then yung Australian embassy nagemail sakanya ng coe.. dito palang siya sa Philippines.. so whats the next step? may nagsabi sakin na dapat sa isang agent siya pumunta pero ung company nila from scratch sila ang nagpprocess from school to visa application. kaso nga yung boss ko nagdirect na sa school so may coe na siya. baka hindi siya tanggapin ng agent since meron na siya coe unless from scratch uli gagawin niya.. saan kaya ako puwede makahanap ng company na nagpprocess ng student visa? or db may online na, ano po yung website yun ba yung immiaccount? thank you for all the reply..

athelene · March 2018

Hi, for me DIY ako sa student visa application. This is the link to ImmiAccount. The student visa application form is a bit of a lengthy process, so it's okay to fill them up over several days. Pwede mo naman i-save yung application along the way so you don't lose information. Filling it up is pretty straightforward naman, as long as you have all the required information/documents.

In my case, I applied for my visa around end of January 2018, even though my classes won't start until July 2018. It's totally fine to apply so early (my visa was approved 3rd week of February)! I initially had doubts because the recommended application timeframe was 3 months before your program. I couldn't find any info online that says the maximum time to apply for your visa.

I applied for my student visa without any accompanying family members (no spouse/kids/dependents), was enrolled at the University of Sydney, and my studies are funded by a scholarship, so the information below might only apply to people with similar cases.

I cannot give you a step-by-step process of the student visa because your case might be different from mine, but I can offer you a list of information I recommend you have on hand when you start that visa application (which kind of follows the content/sequence of the visa application form):

Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE). This will be emailed to you by the school/university after paying your tuition fees/deposit. Open the PDF attachment with the email and record the CoE Code on the upper right side of the page--you need to type this in the application form.
Commonwealth Funded Student. If you are an Australian Government scholar (Australian Awards, Endeavour Scholarship), select "Yes" and prepare to upload your Scholarship Offer Letter later on. If you're paying your fees yourself, select "No" and move to the next section.
Passport. You need to input the information from the bio page in your visa application. Check if you need to renew your passport. It's recommended that it's valid until after your course ends, otherwise you'll have to renew your passport while you're in Australia and you'll have to inform DIBP to "transfer" or update your passport details in their system.
Other identity documents. This is optional, but I uploaded my birth certificate because I already had it on hand. You can upload a scan of your driver's license or marriage license.
Country of Residence details. Your address and contact details in the country where you live.
Residence in Australia details. You can fill this up if you have a place to stay (i.e. with a relative who lives in Australia); if you don't, you can leave this blank.
Authorized recipient. Click "No" if you yourself want to receive any correspondence from DIBP (like if you are applying by yourself/DIY). Pick from the other options if you have a migration or education agent who is handling your case. You might want to get your migration or education agent's contact details if you want your DIBP correspondence to be sent to them.
Non-accompanying Members of the Family Unit. You only need to fill this up if you have a spouse/children/stepchildren that will not go to Australia with you. I skipped this one because I didn't have any of those.
Other Family Members. This section is for your parents, siblings, in-laws. You will be asked to input the names, gender, birthday, and country of residence.
Genuine Temporary Entrant. The most problematic/stressful part of the student visa application, in my opinion. Apparently you need to input like a summary of your GTE letter, and it has a CHARACTER LIMIT (not word limit). This means that you have to be conscious of how many letters there are. I forgot how many characters are allowed, but I could only have about 219 words spread over 7 sentences. That should give you an idea of how little you can write in the text box. I also uploaded a GTE letter (the longer version of my GTE) later in the application.
Funding for Stay. Select the option that's most applicable to you. Since I'm studying with a scholarship, I had to input the details of the scholarship, the organization that's sponsoring my studies, and the contact person within that organization. For the organization, they only require the address. I only knew the name and position of the contact person in the organization so I typed that in; I didn't input their mobile or landline number because I didn't have it.
Health Insurance. I didn't have a health insurance policy when I applied because the Case Office handling my scholarship will arrange it for me, so I only uploaded the Scholarship Offer Letter. OSHC is a requirement, so you need to secure or arrange this before applying for your student visa. You will need the name of the insurer (i.e. BUPA Australia, Medibank Private, etc.), insurance policy number, and the start and end dates of your OSHC.
Education. Input details of your educational qualifications. You'll need to upload your transcript of records and diploma later (mine was certified).
Employment. Input details of your current or previous employment. I uploaded my one-page resume to "support" this.
Language. Input the results of your English proficiency exam and the Test Reference Number.
Country Visited. Another problematic section of the visa application. If you've traveled a lot in the past 10 years, prepare to look through all the stamps in the passport. You have to type the name of the countries you've traveled to, travel dates, and reason/purpose of travel.
Visa History. This is just an empty text box, so I listed all the visas I've ever had (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, etc.) and the corresponding year of when I was issued one).
Visits to Other Countries. This is kind of different from the "Country Visited" in the sense that it refers to countries where you lived or stayed outside the country of passport (Philippines) for over 3 consecutive months. Because I was living outside the Philippines for the past 5 years, I had to fill this up with the entry and exit dates for my country of residence.
Expect to Incur Medical Costs or Treatments. Only applicable if you have a long-term and serious illness (along the lines of cancer, heart disease, etc.). I declared that I need annual post-surgery check-up/follow-up for a cyst, even though it was a minor operation.

athelene · March 2018

After completing the last part of the application form (Character and Student Declarations, which just asks for your consent about your information and your declarations that you have not overstayed your visa, or associated with terrorists, etc.), you will be asked to upload Supporting Documents. In my case, I was asked to upload the following:

Evidence of Identity (passport and birth certificate)
Evidence of Genuine Temporary Entrance Requirement (letter statement for GTE, academic transcripts, diplomas, and resume)
Evidence of Health Insurance - Students (Scholarship Offer Letter)

If you're not sure how to attach your documents, here's a guideline:
Guidelines on Attaching Documents

You can attach or detach documents up until the time you "Submit Application." After that, you won't have any more options to add more documents to the application, so don't click that "Submit Now" button if you're not yet ready! Review your application 2-3 times before you submit so you don't miss anything.
You will be asked to pay for your Student Visa fee once you submit your application. See here to know how to pay for your visa fee.

After visa fee payment, you'll have to wait for DIBP to review your application in case they need more information from you. In my case, it took about 3 days before I received (through email) the Request for More Information, which only required my health exam.

I checked the list of Panel Physicians to start my health exam process. Here's additional info on how to Arrange for a Health Exam. On my ImmiAccount, there's an link named "View Health Assessment," which shows the status of your health exam process. You'll need to complete the Health Declarations to get your HAP ID, which you might need for your health exam.

The health exam was pretty painless and fast, in my opinion. I just did a walk-in at one of the hospitals in the country where I live, showed the Request Checklist and Details (this is an attachment in the Request for More Information email I received from DIBP) to the hospital staff and they asked me to show my passport for identification and to fill up a form. They took a photo of me, and then I went through the standard health checks (height, weight, vision, blood pressure, etc.), including a urine test and chest x-ray. After the health exam, the hospital staff said the result might come out after 2 weeks and your ImmiAccount will be updated with the status of your health exam.

The results of my medical came out in 6 normal (not business) days (a friend who did her health exam at St. Luke's BGC had her results in less than a week, 3-4 days lang ata). You'll know if you passed the health exam if the status of your View Health Assessment changes from Examination in Progress to Health Clearance Provided - No Action Required. At this point, you'll have to click the Information Provided button underneath the Application History section of View Application Status to inform DIBP that you've already cleared your health exam. From this point is the waiting time for DIBP to really process your visa application. Just wait for the golden email from DIBP (IMMI Grant Notification), which can take 21-45 days (according to the latest update on processing time by DIBP). I received my visa grant about 2 weeks from the time I clicked Information Provided.

I hope these information would somehow help you understand the student visa process!

Good luck!

avadakedavra · April 2018

@athelene Ms, question lang. Did you pass form 1221 along with your attached supporting docs? We have the same case kasi pero my boyfriend in AU told me to attach 1221 already pero I can not find where to attach it talaga sa IMMI account. Hope you will reply! Thank you!

athelene · April 2018

@avadakedavra No, I didn't upload any other forms aside from what was listed or requested. Have you already filled up your visa application form? It seems that form 1221 is similar to the visa application form already, so redundant lang ata siya. And you won't see any place to upload unless you finish filling up the application form.

avadakedavra · April 2018

@athelene yes, I have! that is my point din as they just have similar questions. In my boyfriend's case kasi the officer required it to him before releasing his visa. So when he sent this 1221, he immediately got his visa na. I checked other forums na rin, so I think it is mandatory for other visas but not for students unless advised. Thanks!

athelene · April 2018

@avadakedavra Ah I see. Well, just see what the CO asks for. Usually kung kumpleto naman ang application form mo hindi na sila hihingi ng ibang documents. Only submit what they need kasi kung may extra kang isasama na hindi nman nila hiningi baka lalo matagalan yng process.

avadakedavra · May 2018

@athelene Thanks for your help!

waiting na lang ako sa medical exam as I want to be 100% healthy before I go to St. Luke's. may ubo kasi ako ngayon.... di ko tuloy macontinue.

Anyway, nakakalito lang. which one ba is the birth registration number? is it the BReN sa baba? di ko kasi alam ibig sabihin nun kaya iba nailagay ko - yung registry number sa itaas...

athelene · May 2018

@avadakedavra I hope you get well soon! Yeah, maybe wait for the cough to go away kasi may chest x-ray part yung medical exam.

Now that you mention it... the time I applied hindi ko alam ano ibig sabihin ng BReN, so yung Local Registry Number ang inilagay ko (hindi naman ni-reject ng DHA yung birth certificate details). But upon research today, BReN pala yung Birth Registration Number, so just use that para tama hehe. So use the number at the bottom.