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Travel with PCA and Tourist Visa Advice?

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Prostate Cancer
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Posted 11/22/2019 6:21 AM (GMT 0)
Hello everyone,

This maybe off topic but since i could not find much information online on first hand information i thought i will post here. So my parents and us have planned a trip to Australia to visit my brother, who is an australian citizen. We have applied for tourist visa and my parents plan to stay for around 2.5 months whereas we would be coming back in a months time. We have all been to aussie earlier on tourist visa's without a problem. Now my parents have got a sponsor letter from my brother. Since he will turn 76 in december, a medical checkup was warranted. In the emedical form we were honest about his PCA diagnosis and mentioned that the PCA is in control and wont hamper his travel. Also, mentioned about prescription drugs he is currently on "Zytiga and prednisone". He wont be requiring any treatment/need to visit any clinic in australia. He has to go for his medical examination with a panel physician on Monday. We are getting a letter from our MO who gave us a go ahead to travel saying he is fit to travel.... We have taken out a Bupa medical insurance, but pre-existing diseases are not covered for 12 months. Hopefully, we wont face any issue in getting his tourist visa. Anyone has experience on the same? Do short stay tourist visa's get rejected due to cancer diagnosis? My brother has recently purchased his own home and it is very important for my dad to be able to live there once in his life...

Also, any other advices on travel with PCA? precautions we should take? Any other prescriptions we should be taking from our doc apart from zytiga prednisone ?

Tourist visa approval stress is another factor with dealing with Pca.
Posted 11/22/2019 3:58 PM (GMT 0)
You probably told them more than they needed to know.. You should be aware that Medicare, all forms of Medicare, will cover Emergency medical care anywhere in the world.. So it's unlikely your Dad will become a burden on the Australian healthcare system..
Posted 11/22/2019 5:54 PM (GMT 0)
You may well already be familiar with the information in the link below, but I post the link because it's the official word on visas from a subpage on the website for the Australian Embassy in the U.S. If nothing else, the Embassy's website also lists phone numbers you can call for more information.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-finder/join-family
Posted 11/23/2019 8:52 AM (GMT 0)
Fairwind, an medical test is mandated for anyone above 75 years old who applies for a tourist visa to Australia. If he was under 75 there would be no requirement for a medical and no hassle of mentioning any of this. while filling the emedical form it was a question which we had to fill in - are you currently or have you in the past 5 years been diagnosed with cancer ? If yes, we had to fill in the details and then another pop up asked about the prescription medicines he is on... so was not really an option for us not to mention it. Moreover, we would have to go through border security to take his zytiga/pred from India for the 3 months he would be in Australia along with a medical prescription from his oncologist. So we think we did the right thing by being honest. Hope the immigration authorities would not penalise us for being honest.

For sure, he won’t be a burden on the Australian healthcare system. he needs to be there for ~2.5 months only and all he needs to take is his zytiga/prednisone on which he has been for 3 months - psa is currently stable at 0.103. On an average zytiga/pred works for 12-18 months ... so that should not be a problem. Also he has already had his zometa and would only require it again once he is back from Australia. Prostate cancer is a slow growing and manageable one, I thank GOD, for it. I just hope the Australian immigration would consider these factors and grant him the visitor visa.

81gyguy, thanks a lot for the link. Yes have seen it and applied for a visitor visa and not for the other longer duration visas as my dad intends to stay there only for 2.5 months and return to India in time for his next zometa shot and to have a follow on visit with his oncologist.
Posted 11/24/2019 8:01 AM (GMT 0)
Everything I've read indicates Medicare does not cover foreign medical expenses. Medigap policy may - some do. I'm now on a Medicare advantage plan which says it does. I am not currently in treatment, so circumstances very different. Have traveled extensively since surgery. Always buy medical travel and emergency evacuation insurance because of travel in subsistance villages in Africa & Vietnam with some risk malaria, dengue, yellow fever etc. Not yet used it (knock on wood).
Seems to me your dad has a strong humanitarian case if issues come up with authorization. Worst case might there be any way to post a "bond" reserving funds for medical expenses there?

Good luck, sounds like a very important trip.

Hope we'll hear from you from Australia.

Wilderness.
Posted 11/24/2019 11:02 PM (GMT 0)
FYI - My BCBS supplement covers foreign emergency care at 80% with $250 deductible and a $50,0000 maximum amount. No idea what that means in practice.
Posted 11/25/2019 7:29 AM (GMT 0)
Wilderness,

Thanks a lot for your wishes. It is surely a very important trip for the family and we need all the luck. We would not mind getting a bond reserved for medical expenses, they would have to ask for it.

My dad's medical check up got done today, as far as the process is concerned, the results of the checkup along with all his medical files would be sent by the panel physician to the immigration department, post which the immigration usually refers the case to a specialist - that is an oncologist in this case - who will do further checks and send his report back to the immigration authorities and then we should be able to get some news regarding the visa. Will post an update here for the benefit of someone else who may later be in a similar situation.

Mumbo, we are from India so we don't have medicare - we rely on private insurance cover for India and got an overseas health cover from Bupa for our visit to Australia.
Posted 11/25/2019 1:00 PM (GMT 0)
All the bases covered then. Now it comes down to charm and persistence. You'll get him there.
Posted 11/25/2019 4:22 PM (GMT 0)
It is not true that Medicare will cover medical expenses outside of the USA. There are a few limited exceptions, but emergencies are not one.

https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/11037-Medicare-Coverage-Outside-United-Stat.pdf
Posted 12/9/2019 6:44 AM (GMT 0)
Just an update. It maybe helpful for anyone who maybe facing such a situation in the future.

We got our tourist visa granted yesterday- all of us got the standard one year visa with maximum stay up to 3 months and multiple entries permitted, however they gave my dad a single entry visa instead of a multiple entry one. Nonetheless, we are glad and thank GOD they granted the visa. smile
Posted 12/9/2019 6:32 PM (GMT 0)
Congratulations!

Please report from Australia, let us know how it is going.

Wilderness
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