Transmission of online digital documents for the health assessment component of e-visa applications

Up to 350,000 health assessments are conducted annually for persons seeking a visa to enter Australia. Health screening is conducted by accredited panel doctors and radiologists in the visa applicant's home country. Their findings are forwarded to the appropriate government department in Australia. The move to an e-visa system, with certain visas being available via the Internet, has seen the introduction of a compatible electronic health assessment system. An online system to support health assessment processing was implemented in two stages. The first, eHealth1, has been in operation since July 2002 and the second, eHealth2, commenced in November 2003. In a pilot trial in Singapore during 2003 and 2004, 5,000 student visa applications (87%) were lodged through the eHealth2 system. The main advantage of the eHealth2 process is the rapid transmission of a digital photograph and X-ray image. This avoids the delay of sending documents and films by post. The success of the pilot has led to the expansion of eHealth2 to other electronic visa sectors, such as working holiday makers, long-stay business people and visitors. The eHealth2 system is fully operational in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.