FAQs of Visa Medical Examination Services

A Visa Medical Examination is a specified health check requested by the country that you wish to visit, study, work, or emigrate to, before they complete processing your visa application.

While each country has its own specific requirements, many of them require such examinations to be done in specified clinics (such as Quality HealthCare). It is therefore important that you understand what needs to be done before attending the examination.

Generally speaking, it is a good idea to bring your passport because it is the most accepted form of ID for Visa Medical Examinations. However, certain countries do accept other forms of ID, such as the Hong Kong ID card or driving license. Please check with us before your appointment in case you are not sure.

Each country that we screen for has different requirements for the Visa Medical Examination. Feel free to contact our Visa Medical Examination hotline on 8200 8825 for details.

Quality HealthCare in Mong Kok is one of the few designated clinics in Hong Kong that are approved for carrying out Visa Medical Examinations for Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.

Meanwhile, the Quality HealthCare clinic in Admiralty is a designated centre for the UK

In addition to these 4 countries, we also have experience in doing Visa Medical Examinations for many countries, including:

• Taiwan
• South Africa
• China
• Singapore
• Belgium
• Spain
• Malta
• Dominican Republic
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Saudi Arabia

We also have experience in doing pre-entry screening for schools and colleges in many countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan.

No, rather than granting visas, the job of the Visa Medical Examination clinics is to assess your health and provide an impartial report for the immigration services to assess your visa application. The consulates, visa processing centres, and immigration departments of the specific country that you are travelling or emigrating to are responsible for approving and granting visas.

Also, we cannot guarantee how quickly your visa application will be processed. All we can do is to ensure that your information is sent to the consulates/immigration departments as quickly as possible.

This can vary greatly depending on which country you are intending to go to. The Visa Medical Examinations for some countries with fewer requirements can be done within an hour, whilst others can take up to 3 hours.

We accept credit cards, EPS, or cash in payment.

Each country can set out its specific examination requirements. While most examinations will consist of chest X-ray, urine and blood tests, individuals undergoing the Visa Medical Examination may need to receive vaccinations under certain circumstances.

For more information, please check with us before your appointment.

No. Although you may be asked to change into a gown for the examination, we will always make sure your body is not exposed unnecessarily.

No, breast examination is not done routinely on all women, regardless of their age. Rather, breast examination is only done on those women who have had breast diseases in the past or have shown signs and symptoms of breast diseases. Even if a female patient needs a breast exam, we will always ensure that she is accompanied by a female nurse during the examination.
 

*** Please bring along your breast scans or reports (if any) on the day of examination.

If you are taking any medicines on a regular or prolonged basis, we would advise you to bring them along in order to show them to the doctor. A list of the medications that you take may be required in order to complete the Visa Medical Examination process.

The test is to collect sputum that you cough up on three consecutive mornings. The sputum you produce is then sent to the laboratory and tested for the presence of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.

When accepting this test, you will need to:
1. Make sure you don’t eat or drink for 8 hours before the test.
2. If you need to drink, make sure it is only a small amount of DISTILLED water (not mineral or tap water). You should not drink anything else.
3. You should not use toothpaste or mouthwash when brushing your teeth in the morning of the days when the sputum is collected.
4. Don’t worry even if you don’t know how to produce sputum. We can use other techniques, such as inhaled steam, to help you cough up sputum.

While adult clients are welcome to be in the company of a friend or family member when coming to the clinic, many immigration departments strongly insist that no family members or friends is allowed during the examinations in order to avoid influence or interference during the examination process.
 

Moreover, we are always happy for parents or guardians to accompany any child throughout the entire medical examination. In fact, certain countries require that the parent or legal guardian must accompany any applicants under the age of 16 for the examination. In the United Kingdom, applicants under the age of 18 must be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians.

If you were treated for any form of tuberculosis, we would be grateful if you could bring along any medical reports related to your TB treatment and previous chest X-rays, as these can help to understand your health status.

The TB sputum test is divided into two parts. While the first part is the smear test that takes around one week for results to be generated, the second part is the culture test which allows any TB bacteria to grow. This is a long process that takes 8 weeks as the bacteria grow very slowly.

There are other TB tests such as skin tests and blood tests that can be used to detect TB. However, such tests cannot fully assess whether you have TB now or had TB in the past. Hence, if the immigration department wants you to have the sputum test, we cannot do these tests to replace the sputum test.

In most cases, there will be no additional fees. However, patients who have chronic diseases or some particular diseases (such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease), may be requested to undergo more tests in order to help the relevant departments assess your application.

We will always inform you of the cost of the additional tests before performing such tests on you. 

Since we understand that there are times when you need your Visa Medical Report urgently, we will always try our best to help you in those situations. However, we cannot always guarantee that your visa will be approved before the deadline.
 

If you need your Visa Medical Examination done urgently, please contact our hotline as soon as possible. Please tell our team members about your needs so that we can arrange and help you as far as possible.

Unfortunately, not all countries allow friends or family members to act as translators for you. Countries including Australia, New Zealand, and the US require that translators be used to help you communicate with our nurses and doctors. Even though the costs for the translators will incur additional fees for you, we shall try and keep the costs as low as possible.

Even if you only need to wear glasses occasionally, you should bring your glasses along on the day of the examination.

Yes, you can eat as usual, for you do not need to fast overnight before the day of the examination.