DS-3025 vs I-693 Medical Examination and Vaccinations

[Kater 0]

Help!! I am sooo confused and the USCIS Customer Service is extremely ambiguous on this topic - every person I speak to gives me a different answer and ends up saying "The Office will communicate their requirements in a formal and detailed letter." This gets me nowhere...

My husband has his Adjustment of Status Interview on March 12th. They have already received and processed our I-485 application and now all we need is the interview. So we are trying to gather all the necessary documents it says to bring with us to the interview. Everything is simple and easy to understand, except there was one document listed on there as "A completed medical examination (Form I-693) and vaccination supplement in a sealed envelope (unless already submitted)" So what does this mean? He already had a medical exam in India on January 11 2008 which was recorded on a Form DS-2053/DS-3025 (AOS submission July 11 2008) and hasnt ever received any vaccinations in his life, but nobody has mentioned a word about that until 2 weeks before our interview!!!! So does he need a whole new physical in the US by an "authorized civil surgeon" - which happens to be $300. Or does he just need to be vaccinated, and turn in the vaccination supplement? And how many vaccines? which ones? Im just wondering if this is something that they will look into at the interview, or if it was a problem, they already would have sent us and RFE and postponed the interview until proof of vaccination!!!

Any help is soooo appreciated, Ive had enough with USCIS and their paperwork. We are about to say forget all this and escape to a deserted island where paper doesnt even exist!!!

Peace

Kate and Venyei

[jgm2009 0]

Help!! I am sooo confused and the USCIS Customer Service is extremely ambiguous on this topic - every person I speak to gives me a different answer and ends up saying "The Office will communicate their requirements in a formal and detailed letter." This gets me nowhere...

My husband has his Adjustment of Status Interview on March 12th. They have already received and processed our I-485 application and now all we need is the interview. So we are trying to gather all the necessary documents it says to bring with us to the interview. Everything is simple and easy to understand, except there was one document listed on there as "A completed medical examination (Form I-693) and vaccination supplement in a sealed envelope (unless already submitted)" So what does this mean? He already had a medical exam in India on January 11 2008 which was recorded on a Form DS-2053/DS-3025 (AOS submission July 11 2008) and hasnt ever received any vaccinations in his life, but nobody has mentioned a word about that until 2 weeks before our interview!!!! So does he need a whole new physical in the US by an "authorized civil surgeon" - which happens to be $300. Or does he just need to be vaccinated, and turn in the vaccination supplement? And how many vaccines? which ones? Im just wondering if this is something that they will look into at the interview, or if it was a problem, they already would have sent us and RFE and postponed the interview until proof of vaccination!!!

Any help is soooo appreciated, Ive had enough with USCIS and their paperwork. We are about to say forget all this and escape to a deserted island where paper doesnt even exist!!!

Peace

Kate and Venyei

Hi,

im in exactly the same situation. I'm not going to get it done unless they ask for it at the interview. Worst case they'l approve it pending the medical. I have my EAD so not worried about any delays at this point. Whatever you decide to do, good luck.

[ikarus 1]

So he hasn't had any vaccines since he was born?

I'm surprised this didn't come up during his k1 visa approval...

My wife and I just went thru this whole ordeal of trying to figure out what we needed, and here are relevant posts that helped us understand more of whats needed.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=142727

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=178372

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=171450

The only thing I'm not sure is the following...his medical exam was jan 11 2008; as far as I understand, as long as your medical is within one year from the time of filing, then you don't need another physical. But since your interview is after a years time, not sure if they could say...'you need a new physical cause your physical is older than a year...'

Maybe somebody else can clarify that; however, so far our experience has been that USCIS staff will tell you different things based on their experience, and most of the times, the info they give is not accurate!

NOw, if your husband doesn't have any vaccines, for sure he will need all the ones that are required, and on the previous links i posted, you could find links to where you can find those requirements....but basic ones are mmr, varicella, etc.

As far as civil surgeons---not sure what part of the country you are in, but I was in the houston area, and i called about 20 something civil surgeons; all of them were charging 220 and higher; one even had the audacity to say that he would do the physical and vaccines for 700 dollars!!!

We found one doctor who said, i do all the form for 80 dollars---medical exam , vaccines, tb, etc. But all we needed were for the vaccines to be transcribed and he said, is all or nothing. Great.

We ended up using Dr. Arnold. She charges 30 dollars for transcribng the vaccines from the 3025 form, to the 693 form. But if your hubby has no vaccines, then he needs to get them, an d it would be cheaper to get them done at a public health clinic. You could also call around all the civil surgeons in your area and find out what the prices are.

Also, as the other person said, you could wait til the interview, and they will say that your case will be approved based on you showing the vaccines only, or maybe the vaccines and new medical. Is really up to you, but you can at least get prepared now and gather all the info you need now, just in case....

Edited February 25, 2009 by ikarus

[Kater 0]

Thank you both sooo much! Its funny that I can get more help from a random website than the USCIS customer service line. But Im not surprised.

So with your help weve determined its absolutely necessary to get the vaccines - not only for AOS requirements, but also for his protection in general!! We will be comparing prices for civil surgeon (no insurance coverage) vs our personal doctor (insurance coverage?) and starting the first round of vaccines ASAP. If were lucky we can get in there in the next couple weeks before the interview...But it is extremely reassuring to know that at the interview they are able to issue the green card under the condition that we prove vaccination. Doesnt sound as bad as "denied."

And Im almost positive that the year-long expiration is concerning the period from medical exam to AOS submission, rather than medical exam to AOS Interview. But Im going to dig deeper on that!

Thanks again, you guys ROCK! Ive been given a new hope...we may not have to move to a deserted island afterall!

Kate and Venyei