Choosing the correct medical: visa, pre-employment or PEME

You have usually arrived here because a letter, an email or a recruiter has told you that you need a medical, and the booking page then offers a visa medical, a pre-employment medical and a PEME as if they were three names for the same hour. They are not. One answers an embassy or a sponsor, one answers a land employer about fitness to work, and one answers a seafarer company form. Booking the wrong diary is how people sit at 117a Harley Street with a passport and no employer pack, or with a seafarer form when the consulate wanted a destination certificate and a chest X-ray.

Choosing the correct medical is a paperwork problem before it is a clinical one. The clinic can only complete the papers you were asked for, so bring the letter, because the word medical is not enough.

The letter tells you which examination you need

Who issued it, and what they named, is the whole of the choice.

The letter names the examination.

Read the letter before you pick a slot. An embassy, a visa processing house or an overseas sponsor is asking a different question from a land-based HR team, and a manning agency asking for a seafarer medical is asking a third question again. Those three offices will not file one another's certificates.

If the paper names a destination country, a residence permit, a work visa or an embassy form, you are looking at a visa medical. If it names fitness to work, a company occupational form, or a pre-employment package, you are looking at a pre-employment medical. If it names a PEME, a seafarer medical or a cruise-ship medical, you are looking at a PEME. If it names ENG1, stop, because that is the UK statutory seafarer certificate and this clinic does not issue it.

A recruiter who says "just get a medical" has not chosen for you. Ask them which organisation will receive the certificate, and get that in writing. Reception can sort a booking once the letter is in front of them. They cannot invent the destination, the employer form or the seafarer pack from the word medical.

How to recognise a visa medical

You need a visa medical when the country you are moving to, or the sponsor sending you there, has asked a doctor to complete their examination so they can decide on residency, work permission or a long stay. Medical Express Clinic lists thirteen destination packages, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, China, Kuwait, Qatar, South Africa and others, with a sister visa medicals page. If your destination is not on that list, reception can still advise once the embassy form is in front of them.

The visit is one Harley Street appointment. The doctor completes the consultation and examination and arranges the on-site tests. The chest X-ray is taken at a partner radiology facility about a five-minute walk from the clinic, and that film is included in the package. The whole visit takes about an hour, Monday to Friday. Walk-in is possible, although booking is recommended.

Bring the original passport. The clinic cannot complete the medical without it, because the identity on the form has to match the document the embassy will see. Email the embassy or sponsor form after you book, so the panel can be confirmed before you arrive. Some destinations need tests beyond the listed package, and that is why the form belongs with the booking.

If the letter is about entering the United Kingdom, read it again. Some UK visa routes require a tuberculosis test at a Home Office listed clinic, and that UKVI pathway is a different appointment from a destination-country residency medical completed here. A Harley Street visa package for Saudi Arabia, China or the UAE will not substitute for a listed UKVI tuberculosis certificate. UK visa TB tests are usually taken in the country you are applying from; the certificate is valid for six months. Medical Express Clinic is not a UKVI-approved TB clinic.

How to recognise a pre-employment medical

You need a pre-employment medical when a land employer wants a fitness-to-work assessment before you start, or on a contract renewal. The clinic offers four packages, or it will work from the employer's own form if one has been issued. Candidates can book the matching package themselves. Employers can be invoiced, with account management and credit terms by arrangement.

A start-date medical for an office, a warehouse, a school or a hospital in the United Kingdom is occupational clearance, not an embassy certificate, even when the same company is later sending you abroad. The identity document can be a passport or a driving licence. The booked slot starts from 30 minutes, and runs longer if extra tests or an external investigation have been added. Report timing is confirmed when you book, because it depends on the package, the form and any specialist work.

Match the package to the written instructions you hold. If the instructions are unclear, email the form before you book rather than guessing a tier. A bespoke employer form is not a problem, but arriving without it and hoping the doctor will complete a blank is.

PEME is a separate service, from £450, with the final price confirmed from your company forms. If the letter is a seafarer pack, do not book a land pre-employment package and expect it to be converted on the day.

How to recognise a PEME

You need a PEME when a cruise or seafarer employer has sent company medical forms and asked a doctor to complete them before you join a ship. The clinic completes major employer PEME forms. It does not issue ENG1. If the letter names ENG1, you need an MCA-approved doctor on that statutory pathway, not this appointment.

Distance from a hospital is part of the question, and the medical department that will file the forms is maritime. Handing a land package, or a destination-country visa certificate, to that department will not get you on board.

Email the company forms before you come. The clinic cannot invent another employer's paperwork from memory. Bring a valid passport. Do not name a ship and hope the right pack appears. A fuller account of that examination sits on the related PEME examinations for seafarers page.

When two papers arrive together

Some people need more than one examination. A seafarer joining a ship that docks abroad may hold a company PEME and a destination visa letter. An employee being mobilised from a UK contract to a Gulf posting may hold a land pre-employment form and an embassy pack. Those are still two bookings, because completing one does not file the other.

Say so when you get in touch. Do not assume a visa chest X-ray will be accepted as the employer's film, and do not assume a PEME blood panel will satisfy an embassy that named its own tests. Each office files what it asked for.

If you are unwell, that is a fourth diary again. A new cough, fever or chest pain belongs with a GP, not with a planned occupational certificate.

Tips and tricks

• Bring the letter, the email or the PDF, not a memory of the word medical.
• Who issued it, and whether the heading says visa, fitness to work, PEME or ENG1, is enough for reception to put you in the right diary.
• For a visa medical, bring the original passport and email the embassy or sponsor form after you book.
• Put the visa deadline in that message.
• Say which listed destination you are travelling to, or that the country is not listed.
• For a pre-employment medical, match a package to the written instructions, or send the form so the clinic can confirm the tests.
• Candidates can book.
• Employers can ask to be invoiced.
• Say if a start date is close.
• For a PEME, send the company forms in advance and bring a passport.
• If the paper says ENG1, you need a different pathway.
• If you also hold a visa letter, say that too.
• Appointments run Monday to Friday at 117a Harley Street.
• Walk-in for a visa medical is possible, though a booked slot is safer.

Things to avoid

• Do not book from the word medical.
• Do not use a colleague's destination, employer or ship as a template.
• Do not bring a seafarer pack to a visa slot, a visa form to a land package, or a land package to a PEME, and expect the certificate to be converted while you wait.
• Do not treat this Harley Street visa diary as the Home Office listed clinic for a UK inbound tuberculosis test unless that is the pathway you were sent on.
• Do not come here for ENG1.
• Do not arrive for a visa medical without the original passport, or leave the embassy or employer form at home.
• Do not use these bookings as a GP appointment for a new illness, and do not assume one examination will file two offices.

If the letter in your hand is a destination-country visa medical, Medical Express Clinic completes those embassy and sponsor examinations as one Harley Street appointment, with the chest X-ray at a partner radiology facility nearby. The details sit on the visa medicals page, or you can call 020 7499 1991. Email the embassy form after you book, and bring the original passport.

Related guides: what a pre-employment medical covers and employer healthcare versus individual screening.