I-693 woes: multiple civil surgeons, transcribing information, etc.

[shain 0]

Hi all. Newly registered but I've been browsing for months since my wife is adjusting her status based on our marriage. It's been a nightmare with endless delays which might result in her losing her job (due to delays affecting the issuing of her work authorization, but I'll save that for another post). Anyways, I want to ask some questions about the I-693 but didn't know which forum would be the best one, so I put it here. I'll try to keep it simple.

Here's the situation: My wife and I saw a civil surgeon for the I-693 medical exam. After the exam, we moved across the country. We submitted the I-130/485/693/765/864 last month in March. We got the Notice of Actions in the mail for the I-485 and I-765 (never got one for I-130... odd). My wife even got a notice for her biometrics appointment which is later this month.

Everything was fine and dandy until we got a Request for Initial Evidence for the I-693. Turns out the civil surgeon used outdated paperwork. The RFE says the I-693 we submitted was invalid for that reason and we need to submit a valid and complete I-693. It then goes on to list ways to locate civil surgeons, etc.

We called the civil surgeon and, long story short, he said we would have to go back to his office for him to issue us updated forms since my wife has to sign it in his presence. That's impossible for us to go back there (time and money issues, plus it's just impractical), so we decided to get a second medical exam in our local area.

Our question is: which parts of the medical exam need to be repeated and which ones can the 2nd civil surgeon merely transcribe over to the new I-693?

We went to a civil surgeon in our local area and explained the situation. He copied over the TB test, blood work (syphilis test), and vaccination sections since he said it wasn't necessary to administer those tests again. The only parts he performed again were the physical exam and the X-rays (her original TB test was positive and, even though we had an X-ray with the 1st civil surgeon showing a negative image, the 2nd civil surgeon said he would need to repeat the X-ray again). After probing him about his ability to copy over the results of some tests, he gave a confident confirmation saying that he "looked it up."

But, of course, we are worried so we made some calls. First we called about a dozen civil surgeons in the area and got a dozen different answers. Some said it is not permissible to transcribe over anything except the vaccination chart (basically saying a complete medical exam was necessary), others said one test or the other was permissible to be transcribed (out of the TB test and blood work test), still yet others said it was only permissible if the tests were within 90 days, another said 6 months, another said a year, etc. There is obviously no clear consensus among civil surgeons about which parts of the I-693 they have to actually administer themselves and which parts can be done by previous civil surgeons, clinics, etc. They all sounded certain in their answers but they can't all be right.

So I gave USCIS probably a dozen different calls and talked to different people each time and never got a direct response to the question. Most of them said that it was outside of USCIS jurisdiction to answer such a question, it would be at the discretion of the civil surgeon, civil surgeons should know what they are legally required to perform, etc. I finally told one woman that it's quite obvious that civil surgeons DO NOT KNOW what they are legally required to perform since I got a dozen different answers from a dozen different civil surgeons. The only clear answer I seemed to get from most of them is that it will all come down to the discretion of whoever processes the RFE with the new I-693. They also seemed to indicate with confidence that messing this up a second time would likely result in her I-485 being dismissed, so make sure we do it right (which is why I called so many civil surgeons and USCIS a bunch of times, to find out what is "RIGHT"!)

So is this what it comes down to: there's no rulebook and the paper pushers can just make any decision that settles with them at the time? It seems absurd that I'm not able to get a straight answer to a simple question: which parts of a I-693 medical exam needed to actually be administered by the civil surgeon signing the document, and which parts can be accepted from outside doctors and clinics and merely have the results transcribed over to the form? And what are the time restraints on being able to use prior test results?

So now I pose the same question to you all. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever experienced something like this or has heard about a similar situation? I've read on here posts about test results being good for 12 months, so does that mean a civil surgeon can use test results from the past year done by outside doctors and clinics? I've also read something about K-1 visa holders not having to repeat parts of the medical exam but my wife is on F1/OPT and we were married just after her OPT began after she finished her undergraduate study.

Well, I tried to make this post short and simple but couldn't, so I apologize for the long mess. As of now, we've already paid for two medical exams to be performed (the 1st complete and the 2nd more like a half exam but still expensive), and really don't want to pay for a third. Plus her OPT expires soon so we are pressed for time (which makes it inevitable that she will probably lose the wonderful job she miraculously managed to land). Should we just trust the 2nd civil surgeon and submit the new I-693 with maybe a cover letter explaining the mess? :-/