Need Urgent Help!!!Can HIV positive person get PR ?

[Farah611818]

I know quite a lot about this area and have advised others in the past.

An HIV positive person can obtain a PR visa, but it can be challenging and it will increase the amount of time to process your application.

Your Panel Physician (formerly "Designated Medical Practitioner") should have drawn blood for an HIV-1 RNA test ("viral load") and a CD-4 test (a specific type of white blood cell used for cell mediated pathogenic response). Those results will then be forwarded to Immigration Medical Service. Their decision may be predicated, at least in part, on the province in which you will be landing. For example, if you plan on landing in BC, while they will go through all the process in the end because BC provides 100% coverage for the drugs unless your wife is not expected to require them for most of the next 10 years she will likely be declared inadmissible, though I can provide you with some information that you can use to argue against this decision.

Drug coverage varies by province, though, so a complete analysis cannot be done without that information.

Normally, what IMS will do next is send a sealed letter to you to take to the Panel Physicial (DMP). Normally this will ask for additional information and whether or not you will require treatment in the next 5-10 years. What this means is that you need to be looking for a sympathetic doctor now. Ideally, you want one that can either say definitively or probably that she will not require treatment within that time period. Not every doctor will say that, so you may wish to consult with more than one.

If after reviewing the additional medical information they determine she will require medication in the 10 year time period, they will advise you that she is "probably" medically inadmissible. This is done by way of a fairness letter. You will have 60 days to respond to the fairness letter.

You may challenge the finding of the medical condition, e.g., she had a "false positive". This is actually quite likely. The doctor may tell you the test is 99.6% accurate, but will not advise you that the positive predictive value (PPV) is much lower than that, because the prevalence of the condition is very low in the general population.

You may challenge the medical officer's estimate of costs. This is an area in which I can provide you with guidance, particularly if you can present a particular treatment regimen to her doctor and have the doctor agree that it is a viable treatment model - this is because one approved treatment is now made up of generic medications that have much lower cost and thus do not exceed the excessive demand cost threshold.

You may provide a plan to mitigate costs. This can include insurance plans, NGOs that will pay for treatment, and health savings plans.

If you do receive or expect to receive a fairness letter, I would strongly suggest you engage an attorney to assist you. I can recommend someone who specializes in HIV medical inadmissibility cases and can point out a handful of other attorneys specializing in medical inadmissibility. A well formulated response to the fairness letter potentially will overcome the initial inadmissibility conclusion and ultimately lead to a successful conclusion. In addition, it will set the stage for a successful challenge to a negative decision.

If you are refused, you may challenge the refusal in Federal Court. That will require you have an attorney. CIC's track record in medical admissibility cases for FSW applications is not good - they lose about 75% of such cases according to my own review of case law. If you are interested, look up the following four decisions: Sapru, Rashid, Companioni and Ortiz at canlii.org. These are all on-point cases with respect to medical inadmissibility and the last two are specific to HIV (CIC lost both of those cases).

If you need more information, feel free to ask (I won't hand out attorney names in public, but will send them privately.) You don't have 10 posts yet, so you won't be able to send PMs.

Does the medical admissibility come after PPR?

 

[scylla]

Does the medical admissibility come after PPR?

Most often it comes before PPR.

 

[Dee2018]

Hello computergeek

I have looked through the forum and read lots of your comments.
I have come across the same situation receiving the fairness letter.

In this letter they are staying that my medications are too expensive (Triumeq $14,989 per year) and they need to know if I have a plan to reduce that cost (allowed $6,450). I talked to my family and HIV doctors as well as social workers and they all are trying to come up with a cheaper option for my treatment. I am a very stable patient. CD4 880 and see my specialist once in 6 months. They were talking about generic drugs yesterday but still searching an option for me (have time to respond until July 18th)

I was diagnosed with HIV in Canada while I was here as a student and now I am in the process of getting my PR after graduating from university here in BC.

Social worker contacted me today and advised to consult with a lawyer (he may help all of them to come up with a better wording form this response). I really hope that my case is not hopeless. If you have a good lawyer who can consult me with this regards, I would appreciate that a lot.

Thanks a lot. Looking forward to hear back from you

Please what was the final decision from cic ?

 

[Dee2018]

Hi James,

Thanks for checking. I'm still waiting for CIC's reply. How's your application?

Hi Juan , how is your application, have you received the final decision

 

[Dee2018]

Has anybody in this thread been diagnosed Hiv+ got PR approval ? Please share

 

[canuck78]

Has anybody in this thread been diagnosed Hiv+ got PR approval ? Please share

Not HIV+ myself but yes it is possible to get PR. It will all depend on the cost of your current treatment. Given many medications are now available in generic form it is easier than it used to be. Be prepared to receive a procedural fairness letter and have to provide a breakdown of your yearly medical costs. If you can prove that they will be under $6600/year and you won't place an excessive demand on the Canadian medical system you should be able to get PR if the rest of your application also raises no issues. Best of luck.

 

[Dee2018]

Not HIV+ myself but yes it is possible to get PR. It will all depend on the cost of your current treatment. Given many medications are now available in generic form it is easier than it used to be. Be prepared to receive a procedural fairness letter and have to provide a breakdown of your yearly medical costs. If you can prove that they will be under $6600/year and you won't place an excessive demand on the Canadian medical system you should be able to get PR if the rest of your application also raises no issues. Best of luck.

I just went for additional tests so i dont know my medication costs yet , however i currently live and work in ontario , i have an employer group insurance which covers 80% of drug costs, what do u think?

 

[canuck78]

I just went for additional tests so i dont know my medication costs yet , however i currently live and work in ontario , i have an employer group insurance which covers 80% of drug costs, what do u think?

You extended health are not a factor in your PR application. You will have to show the the cost without any benefit plan of your medication, doctor visits and tests are less than $6600/year. Although you have a benefit plan there is no guarantee that you will always have one so you can't use a benefit plan as a reason you will not place excessive demand on the Canadian healthcare system. It sounds like you are in the process of figuring out your treatment plan but you will have to research the costs once you have established a regimen.

 

[Dee2018]

You extended health are not a factor in your PR application. You will have to show the the cost without any benefit plan of your medication, doctor visits and tests are less than $6600/year. Although you have a benefit plan there is no guarantee that you will always have one so you can't use a benefit plan as a reason you will not place excessive demand on the Canadian healthcare system. It sounds like you are in the process of figuring out your treatment plan but you will have to research the costs once you have established a regimen.

Okay...how do you know benefit plans are not considered in PR application, i will be happy if you can send me a link to the source of information, also what if the treatment plan is above the threshold, what are the ways to mitigate the cost , thanks for the help .

 

[canuck78]

Okay...how do you know benefit plans are not considered in PR application, i will be happy if you can send me a link to the source of information, also what if the treatment plan is above the threshold, what are the ways to mitigate the cost , thanks for the help .

Benefit plans are not considered because you are entitled to all provincial health care programs if you become a PR. There is not way to enforce that you pay for medication privately. Search medically inadmissible for PR on this forum and Google and you will get tons of info.

 

[Dee2018]

Does anyone knows how long it could take for hiv+ cases to be resolved with immigration

 

[ravi_singh]

Hello everyone, I followed this read. As per the new changes, the costs of medical treatments under government plans have been increased to 3 fold, that is, the cost amounts to around 22,500 CND. Has anyone who is HIV positive applied since and got through the visa procedure or immigration?

 

[Dee2018]

Hello everyone, I followed this read. As per the new changes, the costs of medical treatments under government plans have been increased to 3 fold, that is, the cost amounts to around 22,500 CND. Has anyone who is HIV positive applied since and got through the visa procedure or immigration?

I got my PR despite being positive, i hope this news help you.

 

[ravi_singh]

I got my PR despite being positive, i hope this news help you.

hey, congrats!
well, I guess once you are in Canada you can always take the best legal advice from there. Do you know anyone who might have recently applied or applying for Canadian visa?

 

[Dee2018]

hey, congrats!
well, I guess once you are in Canada you can always take the best legal advice from there. Do you know anyone who might have recently applied or applying for Canadian visa?

No i dont know anyone , also i didn't use any legal advice , i thought i would need a legal help as well , no legal help and my application was approved within the set 18 months processing time