A young British woman has revealed the shocking reason she will never be allowed to set foot in Australia.<\/p>\n
In a tearful video originally uploaded to TikTok, 23-year-old Regan Sparks declared she would \u201cnever be allowed to visit Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got really really upset yesterday and I\u2019m probably going to get upset again. I know it is superficial,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ms Sparks explained that when she first applied for a working holiday visa three years ago, she declared that she had cystic fibrosis.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t ever think it would be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, Ms Sparks was made to undertake a medical examination, which she said cost an eye-watering $945. But then the waiting started, a full 14 months worth of it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t contact them, there is no one to contact, you just have to wait,\u201d Ms Sparks said.<\/p>\n \u201cReally long story short, they rejected me because of my health. They rejected me and just said that I was going to cost them too much money to be in their healthcare system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Heartbroken with the outcome, Ms Sparks appealed the decision, saying that she would cover her own costs with her own insurance if necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery medical expense that I have, I will sign a waiver, I will pay for it. I will be the one responsible for my own care,\u201d she said. \u201cI do not need anything from your government.\u201d<\/p>\n When this appeal was rejected, Ms Sparks determinedly sent in another one with a supporting letter from her UK health team. After getting in contact with an Australian Cystic Fibrosis foundation, they also provided her with a supporting letter.<\/p>\n Ms Sparks explained that being barred from entry was at odds with the fact that CF is \u201cvery individual\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt affects everyone differently, and I myself, I manage mine very well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Like many young Brits, she had her heart set on working and travelling in Australia, but after having her second appeal rejected, she decided to apply for a standard tourist E-Visa. She was denied straight away.<\/p>\n \u201cThey asked me for another medical, which would have cost me another ($1000). I also was not in London, so I don\u2019t know where I would have gone to got that, I was in Vietnam at the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey won\u2019t let me in. I was doing research, and I found out I will basically never be allowed in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless it is a partner visa. So I\u2019d have to marry an Australian.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think it\u2019s f**king stupid. It\u2019s awful.\u201d<\/p>\n In a second video, Ms Sparks claimed her frustration was piled onto because she has a friend who has CF and is on a working holiday visa in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked her, \u2018did you declare it?\u2019 and she said \u2018yes of course\u2019, I have never felt jealousy like that,\u201d Ms Sparks said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it is just really bad luck or what. So yeah, I will never be allowed to visit Australia, unless they change their medical requirement laws.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand for a visa to live there, but the fact I am not even allowed in as a tourist, to go on holiday, is wild. Absolutely wild.<\/p>\n She went on to say that the decision was \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d and went against her own resolve to never let CF stop her from doing a \u201csingle thing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never used it as an excuse to not do something, or get somewhere, or work my way to something, to not do something that normal people do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first time in my life that I have felt hatred towards my CF. That I have ever felt different because of my illness.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first time me disability has got in the way of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Australia\u2019s immigration law, applicants must meet minimum health standards before they are granted a visa.<\/p>\n To meet this, you must not have a disease or condition that is a \u201csignificant healthcare and community service cost to the Australian community\u201d.<\/p>\n You must also not \u201cprejudice access\u201d to healthcare services that are in short supply for Australian citizens and permanent residents by placing demand on those services.<\/p>\n Ms Spark\u2019s declaration would have triggered a health examination, the results of which would have been overseen by a medical officers of the commonwealth.<\/p>\n That person then advises the department of home affairs as to whether the condition is likely to threaten public health, results in significant healthcare and community services costs or \u201cprejudice access\u201d.<\/p>\n As Ms Spark\u2019s mentioned in her video, the relevant test is: what kind of services a hypothetical person with the same kind and severity of condition would need.<\/p>\n The medical officer advises only on a person\u2019s medical situation, not on their personal circumstances.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, the MOC cannot consider whether having private health insurance or enough money to pay for treatment will impact your use of available public services,\u201d the home affairs website said.<\/p>\n The Nightly has reached out to Regan Sparks for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young British woman has revealed the shocking reason she will never be allowed to set foot in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-544233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}