Re: Immunisation requirements for Australia

January 11, 2009

Elissa,

Contact Meryl Dorey, President of the Australian Vaccination Network

(AVN), and also a member of this list. Her email is meryl@...

and the website is

(http://www.avn.org.au/library/)

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 12:21 PM, violinist93 <violinist93@...> wrote:

> I know that there are a few people on this list who live in Australia

> and I am hoping that you can help me out. My husband and I are

> interested in relocating to Australia for a few years and want to know

> what the requirements are for vaccination for entering the country from

> the U.S. We'll have two children under the age of 5 by the time we go,

> and are mainly concerned about them (though I am not about to put that

> poison in my body either). Any websites and/or information you can

> provide - either through the list or email me privately - would be

> greatly appreciated.

>

> Thanks very much!

>

> Elissa, in MA

January 11, 2009

Hi Elissa, Meryl will be able to give you the information you need. But I am

pretty sure they recently made it mandatory for people entering the country to

have certain vaxes. As a resident here, there are no mandatory vaxes unless you

are a health care worker. Anyway, I tend to only research things that I need to

know, so that is about all I can tell you on the subject. It is only early here

in Aus, so you can expect someone more informed to reply when people get out of

bed.

Fieldman.

From: violinist93

Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 5:21 AM

Vaccinations

Subject: Immunisation requirements for Australia

I know that there are a few people on this list who live in Australia

and I am hoping that you can help me out. My husband and I are

interested in relocating to Australia for a few years and want to know

what the requirements are for vaccination for entering the country from

the U.S. We'll have two children under the age of 5 by the time we go,

and are mainly concerned about them (though I am not about to put that

poison in my body either). Any websites and/or information you can

provide - either through the list or email me privately - would be

greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much!

Elissa, in MA

January 12, 2009

HI Elissa,

Our family emigrated from the UK to Australia three years ago, and we have

never had any problems with our daughter being completely unvaccinated. The

only reason you have to provide records of immunisation here is in support

of claims for state benefits and whether you can claim those or not depends

on whether you are going to be a temporary resident or a permanent one.

Even for these benefits vaccination of children is not yet mandatory, and if

necessary you simply provide a Conscientious Objection form. (http://www

medicare.gov.au/public/files/ma_conscientious_objection_form.pdf)

As far as I know there are no vaccinations required to enter Australia from

the US - I know that the US has recently imposed this on their immigrants,

but I don't believe there is any such requirement from Australia. However,

this (http://www.health.gov.au/Internet/immunise/publishing

nsf/Content/Handbook-home) may have further information that is more

up-to-date than anything of which I'm aware.

What class of visa will you be applying for? We came here initially on a

457 - a temporary long stay business visa - and we weren't even asked if our

daughter was vaccinated. We became residents a year later and are now

Australian nationals, but her vaccination status has never been questioned.

HTH.

Sue x

-- Immunisation requirements for Australia