Hepatitis B and Immigration/visa issues

General Discussion
64

Hello Dane,
Did you manage to get your student visa granted?
My situation is similar to yours as I made an application to study a master of nursing in Australia.
It was during my medicals that my HBsag came positive. The doctor requested for liver function tests and they came normal.

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65

Thankyou for your response. What was your viral load before taking medicines?

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66

Has anyone in this forum applied for permanent residency visa? Please I need a help and a guide as i wish to apply soon.
I would appreciate it, if you could direct me to a good migration agent or any information that can help me.
Thanks

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67

Hi Evans,

It might be helpful to provide where you are originally from and which country you are wanting to get permanent residency in.

Cheers,
Thomas

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69

Hi @Star505,

It is best to get appropriate advice from a licensed migration expert for your particular case, but as shown in the thread here, many people who have chronic HBV infections have been able to get visas for Australia.

Thomas

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70

Hello evans!
If you are applying for Australian permanent residency visa then please donā€™t forget to update here once you are success.

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71

Yes, i will definitely update everyone here as soon as i receive my visa outcome.

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72

Hello Everyone, I hope all of you are doing well.

I had this query about Visa restrictions for Qatar, but now it is sorted. I recently came to Qatar on Family Visit Visa for 1 month and to extend it for 3 months, I went for my medicals.

I am Hepatitis B positive but I got medically fit for the stay. Now I can extend my VISA here.

The process of medicals over here is, they took blood sample and chest X-ray. I donā€™t know what all tests they done on my sample but eventually the result came out to be the positive at my end.

Hopefully this helps other people, who are in future willing to come Qatar.

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73

Hello,
Iā€™m new to this group and I want to thank you for this humanitarian work.
I work as a Gastroenterology doctor, and I moved to Germany some time ago. During routine tests, I discovered that I have Hepatitis B with a viral load of 90,000, but after treatment with TAF for six weeks, it decreased to less than 25.
Now Iā€™m worried, can I work as a doctor in Germany?
Will I face discrimination because of my condition?
Should I inform my employer during a job interview that Iā€™m infected?
Can I keep my health information confidential?
I havenā€™t started working yet, and Iā€™m still in the process of getting my foreign credentials recognized.
Thank you.

74

I believe youā€™ll be fine but can I know why you started with TAF and TDF. My Viral load is 9022IU/ml and have 8.1kpa in my fibroscan result. My doctor wrote TAF for me but I bought TDF, is TAF more effective aside being prescribed for people with kidney problems. Iā€™m not sure I had kidney problems because I did kidney function test last year and my result is normal. Iā€™m just worried if thereā€™s a particular reason he wrote TAF for me instead of TDF. Thanks

75

Hi @Max1 ,

Welcome to the community! Itā€™s great that you are a GI and that antivirals have worked for you. Hopefully we have some members from Germany and maybe someone that works there in the medical field. If not, maybe one of our experts can refer you to some information.

I just wanted to say, ā€œHiā€ and welcome you. I hope you get the answers you are seeking.

-Paul

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76

Dear @anonymous36,

Thatā€™s so great to hear and Iā€™m glad that this wasnā€™t an impediment to your visa extension.

I am not sure but it might be good if some of our German collegues could give insight here (@LenaAllweiss, @Tassilo, @Greg).

My understanding is that both are very effective and indeed TDF is prescribed as a first line therapy here in Australia (with the option of changing to TAF if there are any side-effects or worries about kidney issues).

Cheers,
Thomas

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77

Hi @Max1 ,
working as a doctor in Germany, I would advise you to keep your health information confidential during the interview.
Before actually starting to work, you should make an appointment with the ā€œBetriebsarztā€ (Occupational Health) - to my knowledge, this is mandatory anyways. You should discuss your HBV infection with the Betriebsarzt, they will then have to decide what restrictions (if any) apply for the work you can do. They cannot, however, directly give your health information to your employer, unless you specifically allow them to (which most people donā€™t, so you wonā€™t have to worry about seeming unusual). They can only give your employer information about whether you are fit to do all of the tasks that may come up during your work, or not. If they determine that there are any restrictions, you should discuss those with the Betriebsarzt first.
Like this, you will not have to disclose all of the details to your employer.

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79

Thanks @S.N for this info, Hope this helps others as well (e.g., @Isaprank above)

TT

80

I am grateful for a forum like this it makes me feel Iā€™m not alone. I joined last year when i got my diagnosis. I was 33yrs old when i discovered i was hep b positive. It was during my health assessment to migrate to Australia as a permanent residence. I immediately met with a specialist is Nigeria that placed me on entacavir and gave me a medical report for my VISA process. I had very high viral load of over 40m with normal liver function. I faced discrimination from the IOM nurse whom i thought would know better. I was very devastated and my world shifted immediately.
But the good news is that i got my VISA after a request for another viral load test which shows a massive improvement in 3months. I am still using my medication and im booked for medical check in August.
My problem now is that. I want to study nursing in Australia. I want to know if they will allow me study nursing. I havenā€™t faced any form of discrimination here so far. But with my ambition. I want to know the possible things i will experience.

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81

Hi @Gracee,

Iā€™m really glad that you found this community last year. I donā€™t know much about visas and working in other countries having Hep B. I did find a couple of threads that may give you some info. There are many members in this community that live in Australia and some of them work in the medical profession. Also, Thomas can probably give you some info also. Till then, check out these threads and see if maybe there are some answers in them.

Good luck with your ventures in Australia!

-Paul

https://www.hepbcommunity.org/t/hepatitis-b-and-immigration-visa-issues/1679

https://www.hepbcommunity.org/t/introduction-thread-people-affected-by-hep-b/23/401

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82

Hi @gracee,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your question. There are some people in this thread who have gone through exactly what you have. I have also posted some resources

People in this thread (@Dane, @Ugyen, @eemnace0904 , @Happysang), could you please help @Gracee out with some of your experiences?

Thanks,
Thomas

83

Hi Gracee,
I am so happy for you, congratulations on getting your visa.
I was in the same situation as you. I got diagnosed in February this year during my health assessment for Australia.( I was applying to study master of nursing)
I was in shock too, but thanks to this group!
I also was discriminated by one of the IOM nurses :relieved:
I came to realize that my mum and maternal granny were hep B positive and this was a vertical transmission.
My case was deferred and forwaded to a medical officer of the commonwealth (MOC) to give an opinion)
I was asked for LFTs which came normal and viral load which was 162iu/ml.
I received a health clearance in April and now awaiting my visa.
They just need the LFTs and viral load should be less than 200 iu/ml, and the anticipated cost( if on any medications) should not exceed 40000aud during your stay in Australia.( If on PR they calculate using 10yr)

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84

Hi dear

I am happy for you. You will get you VISA soon. I went through thesame process. Got mine after a month of health Declaration.

Thanks

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85

Hey everyone and thomas.

Iā€™am very excited to share my happiness to hep. B community that i got my partnership based work visa. When i got to know that iā€™am hepatitis b positive i was devastated and very scared that i may passed it to my husband and iā€™ll never have chance to settle with him in abroad. But my husband supports me in every situation and said we should try once for visa. If it refused then we will do somthing else. Then because he wants to try every possible thing which should lead me towards himā€¦we tried and on 25th may 2023 i got my work visaā€¦and iā€™m so happyā€¦

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