I am looking to get the visa process finished as quick as possible, as would love to be with my love.

The US are pretty fussy with vaccinations. Has anyone managed to get a Hep-B on the day of the examination in Knightsbridge, this is the only immunisation that seems it might take some time to get on NHS.

Has anyone had any jabs in Knightsbridge? I am a few short and wonder if they were helpful or if it slowed up prceedings significantly.

Thanks, Ed.

I was missing one and had it done at my local Surgery.

They used to do them, and charge, but there are plenty of places to get them done if you are going to pay, or get them done here.

I had hep b and my second MMR (again...apparently didn't get the whole thing the first time or something) at knightsbridge for an extra 70 quid and she said I could get it done on NHS but I was afraid of waiting times - Also she said she wouldn't send on my medical results to the embassy untill I'd had it done, so I'd had to find where to get it, wait and then send her the proof and then she would have to pass it on....sounded like too much hassle. I just had it done there.

Had the second shot done over here, due for the 3rd shot soon!

I'd save yourself a little $ and go to your GP before your visa medical (if at all possible).

Its perfectly acceptable to have the jabs at the medical - its just more expensive. Doesn't matter a hoot timeline wise where you have them done, so long as you either have proof of having it done (before your visa medical) or have it done at Knightsbridge.

I only had them done there cause I had a time crunch and didnt want to hold things up for myself

I don't blame you at all flutter95! My fiance is going to go to his GP, but I've told him if Knightsbridge bickers with him at all over what his GP documents, just take the vaccinations there and be done with it.

For K-1 you don't need the Hep-B if you are over 19.

Must have changed it, you never needed the jabs for the K1, just for AOS.

Yeah they've been a bit funny with the last few people to go through. Technically you don't need jabs for K-1, but they seem to be insisting on it now.

*holds hands up* Have no idea why, of course.

they made me do it

But I'm not one to argue, I don't care...one more jab!

Just out of curiousity - is there any particular form that his GP has to fill out to prove that he's had said vaccinations?

I know packet 3 contains a medical questionnaire, but I assumed that was what he would take with him to Knightsbridge (and not what his GP would have to use).

Mine just gave me a crappy-looking printout from the record on their computer, updated about 30 seconds previously with the vaccinations I'd just been given. It was a very unofficial, unimpressive-looking dodgy-photocopy-quality thing, but it seemed to do the trick at the medical. So no, I don't think there's any form he can take take to his GP, but they should be able to print the record out easily enough if he asks.

I made an appointment to see the Practice Nurse. She gave me any vaccinations that were due and then tapped away on the screen and produced a sheet that had all my vaccination dates on. She then stamped it with the practice stamp and signed it.

My son didn't have his vaccinations on the system at the GPs like mine....so they just photocopied his immunisation card which were in the paper records, rather than on their database (like mine were). Both were sufficient proof for the Knightsbridge Docs.

Thanks guys!

Mine like featherb's was the crappy piece of paper!

Does anyone know if the doctor can give you a waiver for some of the jabs if you've actually had the diseases? Bruce didn't get the MMR as a kid, but actually had measles, mumps and rubella (poor thing) as well as chicken pox. I assume that you develop antibodies to the diseases that will be detectable in the bloodstream, and his medical records would confirm that he had definitely had the diseases. Whether or not this is acceptable to the Embassy is another kettle of fish, but as he is squeamish of needles (and he already knows he has to get a tetanus jab) it would be nice to spare him a few extra holes in the arm/bum!

Hmm...I'm personally not sure however the chicken pox jab thingy isn't available in the UK anyway so they DON'T expect you to have that, but I also had chicken pox twice actually, and the nurse at the medical seemed to know that!

My fiance has had the chicken pox, too, and had a tetnus shot last year after an accident. What we don't know is if the tetnus shots in the UK are the same - meaning they do the 'tetnus diptheria' or not. He was going to ask his GP that very question.

I know he had the MMR shots, but he had them when he was little and at that time, they gave them as 3 different shots. We're not sure if that's going to 'count' or if he'll have to get it again.

Tetanus you get as a combined shot.

There is an age out for MMR, that's the only one I know.

I had the measles & rubella shots when I was little, and caught the mumps (as they weren't vaccinating kids against it for a few years in the 70s, according to the NHS website), but still had to have the MMV vaccine - I think they would have made me have it even if I'd had all three separately. Also, my vaccination records only went back about 5 years - the practice nurse said that they don't keep them forever, so... anything he had as a kid might not show up on the record anyway!

As for the chicken pox thing... at my medical, the nurse who took my vaccination record from me just asked me 'have you had chicken pox?' and filled in on the form (the one they give you a copy of for AOS...?!) that I had. As they obviously couldn't have given me the vaccine even if I had needed it, I'm guessing that just telling them verbally that you had chicken pox as a child is 'good enough' for them to fill out that you don't need the vaccine. We shall see...!

(Hm, that is all very garbled, hope it makes some sense!)

I had the MMR stuff when I was little but at the medical the nurse said something about only having part of the second MMR or something

So I had it again!

Remember that piece of paper to be precious featherb

Ok thanks! Probably best to prepare my fiance that he may need the MMR jab. I'm sure they'll do the same as far as asking him if he had chicken pox - he even has 2 small chicken pox scars.

Who knows what they say when they see his history - just something perhaps to ask the nurse at his doctors? I didn't think of it because I knew I had it.

It was funny my mother was saying "But you had it!! I was right THERE" blah blah blah and I said yes I know but they think something is missing, its fine!

I don't actually have chicken pox scars, funny seeings as I had it twice Oh well.

How on earth did you manage to get it twice?! Poor you!

I had my mum umming and aahhing and trying to remember which jabs I'd had when (y'know, all at the age of 1 or something), she was getting really worried & going 'nowww.... I'm sure you had the whooping cough one... or maybe you didn't... yes, that's right, they didn't give it to you... or did they?' while I tried to get a word in edgeways to convince her that my visa application wasn't going to be approved or rejected based on whether or not my mum could remember exactly which (irrelevant) shots I'd had 30 years ago. Bless 'er!

Well according to the crazy doctors I had a small bout then about a year later a really bad bout....

Nasty stuff.

Thats funny about your mum!!
My mother was a little like that, she didn't agree that I hadn't had this that or the other she was SURE I'd had it...or something," wait...did you have that after all?! "

There are actually three strains of the chicken pox virus, so it does happen that people catch it more than once. It's rare, but possible. End of medical lesson.

My nephew had the chicken pox when he was maybe 4. My sister vividly remembers him in the bathtub one day, after a horrible day of scratching. He looked at her and said, 'You know, I've had a pretty good life up until now, and then I got the chicken pox.' That kills me!

Hahaha.... that is funny! Bless...

I remember when I got it - I was six. My mum & brother had it first, both at the same time, and they had it quite badly. I got a pathetically mild dose of it (just enough for a week off school) just when theirs had gone away. I remember being really itchy in my sleep and scratching away at my tummy (I still have a little scar there now!) - I can remember it even though I wasn't really awake.... then my dad came to wake me up for school, and I remember him yelling down the stairs at my mum: 'great! another poxy cow in the house!'

Then I got to spend the next few days lazing on the sofa and watching TV, which was great, because apart from a bit of itchiness, I felt fine. Unfortunately on about day 3, my afternoon's viewing (my mum must have been upstairs ironing or something) consisted of a BBC2 documentary about smallpox, and about how it had been wiped out... by the end of the programme I had convinced myself that this was what I had and was really scared.

Oh... thank you for the science lesson, Mags! Is shingles one of those strains? I just have this vague recollection of it being told it's A Good Thing if you get chickenpox when you're a kid, so you don't get shingles later... or something. Although thinking about it, I remember someone I used to work with who got shingles at the age of about 40, and was very cross 'cos she was sure she'd had chicken pox, and therefore must have been lied to... hmm.

Excuse my rambling.

No Shingles is a reactivation of the varicella zoster virus (chickenpox). So in theory, you can catch chickenpox three times and STILL get an outbreak of Shingles at some point...

The actual Chickenpox virus can remain dormant for decades. When reactivated, the virus spreads down peripheral nerve fibres and produces intense pain. They are most common on the torso, but can also appear on the face or other parts of the body.

Outbreaks occur for many reasons, most of which are a result of events which decrease the immune system such as ageing, severe emotional stress, severe illness or long-term use of steroids. There have been recorded cases of outbreaks occurring due to unmanaged stress or other stresses to the skin such as pinching, scratching, or biting.

<End of Medical Lesson>

Thank you, O knowledgeable and sciencey Dr. Mags!! I had noooo idea - I always thought my nice week on the sofa (nice apart from the bit where I had smallpox, that is) watching the TV whilst idly scratching the 4 or 5 spots that bothered to appear meant I was immune for life... ah well. The 'reactivated chicken pox' thing sounds highly unpleasant!

Dr. Mag's is oh so wise!

Aw shush you two!

If you must know, I'm the stereotypical science person. Always losing stuff, forgetting things, living in a world of my own, eccentric....all that jazz. Makes me interesting to live with...or so I keep telling my husband!

Oh no you sound like my husband.

Just cause your oh so clever and know this that and the other doesn't mean you CAN LEAVE YOUR DIRTY UNDIES ON THE FLOOR!!!! and expect ME to pick them up!!

Ahem, sorry

Do you write on Wikipedia, Mags or are you just paraphrasing from it?

If he wants to spare the needles, he'd have to get titres done. He could try and get his GP to do them for free but most of them won't. Otherwise lots of private clinics do them for a good price. I got mine done at the clinic at Victoria station for convenience. It took about a week for the results. I'd like to point out that I got titres because I do not agree with pumping my body with viruses I already have -- not because I'm a big girl about the jabs.

I write for it of course....

I've never left my dirty undies on your floor....

Best to get the jabs done free in englland than wait tilll you get heree and pay for them all for AOS. I was missig my MMR so instead of paying i got it done two days later at my local docs and faxed the confirmation off to the knightsbridge docs.

Thanks for the advice! Do you recall the name of the clinic in Victoria, or is it just one of those MediCentres in the station itself? I'm sure we'll try the GP route first, always worth a shot...(pun NOT intended! )

It was the Medicenter. You will point out to him that getting titres also involves needles, so he has to endure one or the other. But that is one needle for blood, rather than several if he needs more than one vaccination.

Poor thing having rubella - that is painful! When I was a baby, we never got immunised but then only girls got jabbed age 11-12 at school.

My titre results were interesting. I had extremely high readings for all of them which meant I was safely immune. The rubella was so high, the nurse said if I had gone through with an MMR it would have made me very sick.

Hye guys,

I know i'm jumping the gun as my fiance and I are only in the preparation stages of getting the I-129F together to send off, but I'm from Northern Ireland and was wondering if you can have the medical in Belfast or does everyone have to go to London? Also, do you have to go the Embassey in London or is it possible to go for your visa interview at the US Consulate in Belfast?

I know i've a while til we get to this stage, but just checking. I'm a stickler for details.

Thanks

This page on the Consulate's website says they don't issue fiance visas, they have to be done through London. And sadly everyone has to go to for the medical in London... so when the time comes, you might want to do what a few other people have done and schedule the medical for the day before the interview or something, to save on airfares and hotels! Good luck with getting the I-129F stuff together - it's so exciting once you've finally got it all sent off and know things are finally (slowly) on their way to happening!