Last updated on May 18th, 2020
When I got my family here, the first thing I wanted to do was to enrol my daughter in daycare. There were two primary reasons for that: one, she would quickly assimilate into the Australian culture and two, a rather selfish one, that my wife would be free to look for a job.
Fortunately, there was a vacancy at the daycare close to my house. Plus, the fees and timings were within our expectations. More importantly, there were a few Indian educators which meant a smooth transition to the new culture for my daughter. There was only one problem – my daughter’s overseas immunisation records were not updated in the Australian public healthcare system – Medicare.
What’s The Big Deal?
I believe that immunisation is a must for every child for their good health and well-being. Apparently, not all Australians agree to that. Hence, the Australian government created “no jab no pay” policy to encourage more people to go for immunisation. If you don’t immunise your children, you won’t get any childcare benefits as well as family tax benefits. Plus, your child won’t be admitted to Day Care or school if you can’t provide an immunisation certificate.
Preparations Before Coming To Australia
If your child is born in Australia, the doctor will take care of administering proper vaccines to your child as per the well-defined schedule. However, you have a kid who is born overseas, then before moving to Australia, you should get your child’s vaccination details signed and stamped from your paediatrician. This should be one of the most important points in your Moving to Australia checklist.
Usually, a paediatrician gives a card showing the schedule of when each vaccine is due for your child. Make sure that this schedule is correctly updated with dates on which each vaccine was given. One important point – if the immunisation card is not in English, please get it translated into English by an authorised translator before moving to Australia.
Sometimes, due to bad or misaligned handwritten notes, it becomes very hard to read the card correctly. As a precaution, copy the schedule to an excel sheet or word file and fill in all the details, take a printout and get it signed and stamped by a paediatrician. As a guide, you can take a look at the immunisation schedule published by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics or the one published on Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Updating Immunisation Details In Australia
When you move to Australia, visit your local doctor, commonly known as General Practitioner(GP) here, with your child’s overseas vaccination record. You can also do the same by visiting your local council too (akin to the municipal corporation in India). He or she will then check those overseas vaccination details against Australia’s National Immunisation Program Schedule(NIPS). You can find the schedule on National Immunisation Program website.
If there are any vaccines which are missing or due, they will advise you as to when your child can have them. In my case, GP gave three vaccines to my daughter regarding Hepatitis B, Meningococcal and Measles. Thankfully vaccines for children are provided free of cost by the Australian Government, so there is no out of pocket expense to you.
Once your child is up-to-date as per NIPS, the GP will update the immunisation history with Australian Immunisation Register (AIR). AIR is the government body which maintains the immunisation database for everyone in Australia. Usually, it takes two to three weeks for the records to be updated.
An insider tip here. Give a call to both, the Australian Immunisation Register and your GP, after a couple of days of immunisation appointment and follow up on getting your child’s immunisation details updated in the database. This will usually speed up the process and help you get the statement much quicker than waiting for them to update it.
Getting Immunisation History Statement
Once your child’s records are updated in AIR’s immunisation database, you can log in to your Medicare account and download the Immunisation History statement. It is a detailed record showing when each vaccine is administered to your child and next due date.
You can provide a copy of this statement to your child’s daycare or school. The printed version of the same is also mailed to your postal address by Medicare. Make sure that your child’s details and immunisation records are correctly shown in the statement. If it is not, you may need to contact your GP to get it corrected.
In my case, the daycare administrator was kind enough to accept Indian vaccination record for my daughter and allowed her to join the daycare until the Australian version was ready. Not everyone is so lucky.
Bottom line: if you want to enrol your kids to daycare, please get their immunisation details in the Australian records as early as possible.
very well written
Thanks mate!
Hi,
Can we get the immunization record updated while the child is overseas?
Thanks!
Hi EJ,
Good question!
I don’t think you can get immunisation record updated while the kid is overseas. You need to visit GP along with your kid and his/her overseas immunisation record. Depending on the record, the GP will administer few more vaccines to your kid based on Australian Immunisation schedule.
Once your kid is fully vaccinated according to Australian standard, then only GP will enter his/her record in the Australian system.
Cheers!
Very well written I was looking for the same. I do not have a medicare card so how will I be able to get the vaccination records after its updated in AIR?
Hi Vijay,
Thanks for your comment.
If you don’t have Medicare, you can call AIR enquiries line on 1800 653 809 and request for immunisation statement. They will send it by post to your address.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Thanks a lot mate. Appreciate your effort. Keep up the good work!!
Cheers
Vijay
Hi.. thanks for sharing.. i went to the GP 4 days ago to update my kid’s vaccination and she did not tell me anything if she needs more vaccine.. she told me to wait 2 wks for the update of record.. however when i checked the schedule of australian vaccination program i noticed my child lacks 1. I called them yesterday if they updated mu child’s AIR they told me to wait for at least 2 wks or more.. im confused.. donu think i need to go tonother GP and ask regarding the lacking vqccination rather than wait for the update of my child’s record.
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for your comment.
Since you have already approached GP for updating vaccination, it’s best to just call AIR directly and ask them to update the records. Usually, that helps to quicken the process. Once the records are updated, you can see the statement and if there is any vaccine missing, it will be listed as vaccine due. Then you can follow that up with your GP. If you don’t see any update after follow up with AIR, you can then approach another GP to get it done.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Hi Harsha,
The following link is not working.
http://www.iapindia.org/page.php?id=129
By any chance do you have a sample immunization report from India which I can refer.
I’m already in Victoria but my family will join me next month, so I can ask them to get this report printed, signed and stamped from India.
One more query,
As of now, I got my individual medicard but never visited GP so far, but I’m planning to get my family here and update Medicare details and then visit GP for AIR registration.
As my kid is already 6+ age, what is your advice to get her enroll in primary school ASAP?
Also, I’m not sure whether they allow admission after January.
I will appreciate your response.
Thanks,
Bipin
Hi Bipin,
Thanks for letting me know about the broken link. Here is the updated link: Immunisation schedule by Indian Academy of Pediatrics Unfortunately, I don’t have any sample immunisation schedule. However, any format should work (even a spreadsheet) as long as it lists the vaccine name, the date it was administered and doctor’s sign and stamp.
Regarding your school admission query, the schools in Australia allow admission throughout the year so that should not be a major concern. However, I am not sure whether she will be enrolled straightaway to First grade (based on her age) or still has to go through Prep grade. I think the latter option is more probable but you can check with the school.
Good luck mate!
DO I need to take my son to GP or just records is enough?
You need to take your son to GP because if any vaccine is missing as per Australian standards, GP can administer it right away.
Plus, I don’t think GP will just update the records without seeing the kid anyway unless you have strong reason to do so.
Cheers.
Hi,
I work in a Medical Centre and have a Patient that was born in India (2 yrs old). The parents aren’t sure of the immunisations given to their child while overseas. They also do not have the little blue book, that most people receive to keep track of their child’s needles. The are sure that their child is due for more immunisations but are unsure of which ones. Please any information you could give in trying to obtain this information, would be most appreciated.
Kind Regards
Kylie Stilo
Hi Kylie,
That’s a tricky situation to be into.
I have listed two sources for the national immunisation schedule in India: one is National Immunization Schedule and the other is the list provided by Indian Academy of Paedetrics IAP Immunization Schedule
This will give an idea as to which vaccines should ideally be administered to the child. However, in addition to this, I believe the parents should call their doctor in India to confirm that all those vaccines are actually administered and nothing was missed.
Hope that helps.