The 482 Visa Medical: Booking Bupa, Your HAP ID and What Is Tested

A 482 visa medical examination is booked with a HAP ID, at Bupa Medical Visa Services in Australia or at a Home Affairs panel clinic overseas, and its results stay valid for 12 months. Which tests you need depends on your country’s TB risk and your length of stay: an applicant from a higher-risk country staying 6 months or more has a medical examination, a chest x-ray from age 11 and a serum creatinine/eGFR blood test from age 15, while an applicant from a low-risk country needs none unless special circumstances apply (Home Affairs, “What health examinations you need”, updated 21 September 2026). The first step is to get the HAP ID, either upfront through My Health Declarations before lodging, or from the referral letter in ImmiAccount after the visa application is lodged.

Who needs a 482 medical?

Every 482 applicant, main and family, must meet the health requirement (Migration Regulations 1994, clause 482.217 and public interest criterion 4007; Home Affairs, Core Skills stream page), but not every applicant has to attend a medical. For a temporary visa such as the 482, Home Affairs’ page What health examinations you need sets the tests by the country’s tuberculosis (TB) risk and the length of stay:

Any country that is not on Home Affairs’ list of low-risk TB countries counts as higher risk. If you have been in Australia in the last 28 days, Home Affairs adds that time to your length of stay. A 482 stay is normally 6 months or more, so the right-hand column applies to most applicants from higher-risk countries.

Health is one of two checks every family member meets. The other is character, which applies from age 16 and is covered in the guide to the police check for a 482 visa.

Extra tests for health-care and childcare work

Home Affairs adds tests for temporary applicants in these situations, whatever the length of stay:

• Doctor, dentist, nurse or paramedic (working, studying or training, aged 15 or over): medical examination, chest x-ray, serum creatinine/eGFR, HIV test, and hepatitis B and C tests.
• Health-care, aged-care or disability-care worker from a higher-risk TB country (aged 15 or over): medical examination, chest x-ray, latent TB infection screening test and serum creatinine/eGFR.
• Anyone from a higher-risk TB country likely to enter a health-care or hospital setting: medical examination, chest x-ray from age 11 and serum creatinine/eGFR from age 15.
• Childcare worker or trainee (including preschools and creches): medical examination, chest x-ray, and serum creatinine/eGFR from age 15.
• Pregnant applicant planning to give birth in Australia: hepatitis B test.

How do you get a HAP ID?

A HAP ID is the identifier Home Affairs issues with the list of examinations you must have, and the clinic cannot find your case without it (Home Affairs, Arrange your health examinations, updated 24 September 2026). There are two routes to a HAP ID:

1. Before lodging. Use Home Affairs’ My Health Declarations service to get a HAP ID and do the examinations upfront. It works only where the visa is listed in the service and no visa application has been lodged yet.
2. After lodging. For an online application, the HAP ID is in the Referral Letter you download from ImmiAccount; for a paper application, it is in the Health Examination List letter.

Home Affairs’ Core Skills stream page lists health examinations among the things to arrange before a 482 is lodged. Results from upfront examinations are valid for 12 months from the date they were completed, so a processing delay beyond that period can mean repeating them.

How do you book the medical?

You book a 482 medical in Australia with Bupa Medical Visa Services, which Home Affairs names as its migration medical services provider, and outside Australia with a Home Affairs panel physician or approved clinic:

• In Australia: book online with Bupa Medical Visa Services. Change or cancel through Bupa’s online booking system or on 1300 794 919, quoting the HAP ID used for the booking. Book by phone on the same number if you have no internet access.
• Outside Australia: only a panel physician, a doctor or radiologist Home Affairs appoints to examine applicants at an approved clinic, can do the examinations. Home Affairs’ panel physician finder lists them by country.
• Missed timeframe: if you cannot attend within the timeframe in your Request for Health Examination letter, tell Home Affairs by attaching the details in ImmiAccount.

What does the medical cost?

The cost of a 482 medical is not published by Home Affairs. The applicant pays every cost: the examining doctor or radiologist, any special tests, investigations or treatment, any specialists and courier fees (Home Affairs, Your health examinations appointment). Outside Australia the cost varies by country and is similar to a local comprehensive examination, so Home Affairs suggests asking the clinic first. In Australia, Bupa Medical Visa Services publishes its own fees.

What is tested?

A 482 medical uses up to three standard tests, plus any extra tests your work or a pregnancy triggers:

• Medical examination: a physical examination by the panel physician or Bupa doctor, with your medical history recorded.
• Chest x-ray: taken from age 11 and reported by a radiologist.
• Serum creatinine/eGFR: a blood test, from age 15.
• Extra tests: HIV, hepatitis B and C, and latent TB infection screening, as listed above.

Results go to Home Affairs electronically through eMedical, and anyone with a HAP ID can check there whether they have been submitted.

The passport you bring must be the original; digital copies and photocopies are not accepted. In Australia, Home Affairs accepts one of these originals instead of a valid passport: a passport that expired within two years of the examination date, a current emergency or temporary travel document, an ImmiCard, or an Australian state or territory driver licence or photo identification card.

Planning to apply for permanent residence soon?

If you plan to apply for a permanent stay in the next 6 to 12 months, the panel clinic asks whether you want to be assessed for a permanent stay at the same appointment. Saying yes means more examinations, which you pay for (Home Affairs, “What health examinations you need”). For anyone aged 15 or over, the permanent set is a medical examination, chest x-ray, HIV test and serum creatinine/eGFR, whatever the country’s TB risk, plus a hepatitis B test for someone born in a country with a higher risk of hepatitis B.

When are biometrics also needed?

Biometrics are needed only when Home Affairs asks, and its request states which ones: a facial image, a scan of all 10 fingertips, or both (Home Affairs, Biometrics page, updated 24 September 2026).

• Outside Australia: at an Australian Biometrics Collection Centre run by VFS Global, by appointment, which charges a service fee; or through the Australian Immi App if Home Affairs says you are eligible.
• In Australia: by appointment only, after Home Affairs sends a letter or invitation.

The guide to biometrics for a 482 visa covers who is asked, where to go and what to bring.

Does health insurance cover the medical?

Health insurance bought to meet condition 8501 is not required to cover the visa medical. Home Affairs states that the applicant pays for the health examinations, and the minimum benefits it lists for adequate health insurance cover hospital, medical, pharmacy, prosthesis and ambulance costs, not visa health examinations. Whether a policy refunds any part of the medical is a term of that policy.

Supplementary: the document checklist, and when a health result leads to a refusal

The clinic records the results and makes a recommendation, but it does not tell you whether you meet the health requirement (Home Affairs, After your health examinations). From there:

1. The case is cleared without referral if the results show no significant condition; otherwise it goes to a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth (MOC), who can ask for more information or further examinations.
2. The MOC advises that you meet the health requirement, meet it if you sign a health undertaking, or do not meet it.
3. The 482 allows a health waiver under public interest criterion 4007. You do not apply for it: Home Affairs contacts you and asks for more information and a formal submission on why the waiver should be exercised, and it weighs the cost to the Australian community and access to services in short supply (Home Affairs, Health waivers). A waiver is never available for active TB or a condition that threatens public health.
4. If the waiver is not exercised, the visa is refused.

Home Affairs publishes no separate time from the medical to the grant; its published processing times cover the whole application. The 482 visa checklist places the medical among the worker’s other documents, and the guide to 482 visa refusal reasons covers what follows a refusal.

An Australian migration lawyer makes a 482 more likely to succeed here because, when a medical finds a significant condition, the case goes to a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth and then to the health waiver process, where Home Affairs asks for more information and a formal submission on why the waiver should be exercised, and the visa is refused if it is not.