Medical Exam

[trojam227 18]

I am not usually one to ask questions on here anymore being a member who has been in this process longer than I'd care to admit, but I need help.

My husband had his medical exam on friday. His interview is this coming Friday. He was drilled on his police certificate for 40 minutes and the end result was that he has to have a Psychological Evaluation before the panel physician will forward his medical results to the embassy. She wants to make sure he doesn't have a mental condition associated with harmful behavior..

How long will this hold up the denial notice from the embassy, because I can't file the waiver without the denial first! What can we expect to happen at the interview? Should my husband explain what the hold up with the medical results are all about? Does CDC have to get involved with this?

I am seriously in panic mode right now, so personal experience or knowledgeable input only please.

(and yes, I am going to contact a lawyer this week but I want some enlightenment on this subject)

Thanks, I appreciate it..

Edited June 24, 2012 by trojam227

[amykathleen2005 441]

I am not usually one to ask questions on here anymore being a member who has been in this process longer than I'd care to admit, but I need help.

My husband had his medical exam on friday. His interview is this coming Friday. He was drilled on his police certificate for 40 minutes and the end result was that he has to have a Psychological Evaluation before the panel physician will forward his medical results to the embassy. She wants to make sure he doesn't have a mental condition associated with harmful behavior..

How long will this hold up the denial notice from the embassy, because I can't file the waiver without the denial first! What can we expect to happen at the interview? Should my husband explain what the hold up with the medical results are all about? Does CDC have to get involved with this?

I am seriously in panic mode right now, so personal experience or knowledgeable input only please.

(and yes, I am going to contact a lawyer this week but I want some enlightenment on this subject)

Thanks, I appreciate it..

Does he have any previous convictions? Drug use? Arrests? I don't see why the medical exam would really care about the police certificate, they are two different things. Did he have his medical files sent from his primary physician? Was there a history of self harm or something that would trigger that?

[trojam227 18]

He has convictions from the 1980's and early 90's. No drug charges ever, 1 dui from 20 years ago, and the rest were assault & a GBH sec 20. All fist fights. He never served jail time and received either a small fine or community service. The UK makes you bring the police certificate to the medical appointment.

She did drill him about all the convictions and also asked him 3 times if he ever did drugs. He said "listen, I never did drugs, drugs were not my thing, and I don't plan on starting now at 48 years old. I hung around with a bunch of lads at the pub when I was younger and punch ups were a weekly occurence." He hasn't been in trouble in a very, very long time but they still want him to repent and rake him through the coals. Now he must have a mental problem associated with harmful behavior that happened while Regan was president!!

I am losing faith in this country by the minute! Do they realize what kind of people are already here illegally??? Try and do things the legal way and all you get is scrutiny..I am so angry at this system I could spit bullets.

[amykathleen2005 441]

He has convictions from the 1980's and early 90's. No drug charges ever, 1 dui from 20 years ago, and the rest were assault & a GBH sec 20. All fist fights. He never served jail time and received either a small fine or community service. The UK makes you bring the police certificate to the medical appointment.

She did drill him about all the convictions and also asked him 3 times if he ever did drugs. He said "listen, I never did drugs, drugs were not my thing, and I don't plan on starting now at 48 years old. I hung around with a bunch of lads at the pub when I was younger and punch ups were a weekly occurence." He hasn't been in trouble in a very, very long time but they still want him to repent and rake him through the coals. Now he must have a mental problem associated with harmful behavior that happened while Regan was president!!

I am losing faith in this country by the minute! Do they realize what kind of people are already here illegally??? Try and do things the legal way and all you get is scrutiny..I am so angry at this system I could spit bullets.

It probably was the DUI that did it then (although it is old). They are going to evaluate if he has a drinking problem. If he had more then one DUI he might need a waiver.

This thread might be of interest, http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/162251-denied-immigration-visa-now-i-601/

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

I am losing faith in this country by the minute! Do they realize what kind of people are already here illegally??? Try and do things the legal way and all you get is scrutiny..I am so angry at this system I could spit bullets.

Two years ago new Technical Instructions for Civil Suurgeons and Panel Physicians came out concerning Physical or Mental Disorders with Associated Harmful Behaviors and Substance-Related Disorders. It somewhat put the onus on the doctors to gather information from the patient to make their determination.

Around that time, Knightsbridge started requiring the police certificate. When it first started I kinda speculated that maybe people were showing up for interview without them because they didn't order in time so the Embassy was getting tricky and making them be shown to get the medicsl to make sure they would have them for the interview. Then after discovering the new Mental Health guidelines, it seemed more likely that it was a way for Knightsbridge to get a clue about possible addictions. If a police report had drug arrests, DUIs or a lot of pub brawls, it gave them a hint to ask alot more questions to meet their new responsibility of uncovering possible substance abuse issues.

Here's two links about the new guidelines and the actual instructions.

This one explains that diagnosis is based on clinical terms as defined in the DSM. That's kinda the bible to psychiatrists. I'm only famililiar with the DSM because I spent a week this year on jury duty of a repeat offender pedophile, sexual pervert, etc. Most of it was a parade of psychiatrists explaining their evaluations and reading definitions from the DSM. One classified him as a deviant over a pervert because of this or that. I don't even remember all the psych terms now but I remember the definition in the DSM was all important. So perhaps the GP at Knightsbridge is not all that up on making a judgement call on this one so is passing it off to a psychiatrist to cover his a$$. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for you. It's more like the GP sees a pattern of behavior, but he needs a psych who knows those clinical definitions to evaluate.

http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/exams/ti/faq-physical-mental-disorders-technical-instructions.html

And here's the latest version of the Technical Instructions on the topic. You'll see in there that it shifts responsibility to the Panel Physician to gather records, etc to make the determination or seek the opinion of specialists.

http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/pdf/mental-health-pp-ti.pdf

Read all of it so you know what they are probing for. It may not be as bad as you think.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Nich-Nick

[trojam227 18]

It probably was the DUI that did it then (although it is old). They are going to evaluate if he has a drinking problem. If he had more then one DUI he might need a waiver.

This thread might be of interest, http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/162251-denied-immigration-visa-now-i-601/

Thank you for pointing out this thread. Not sure what to make of all this except that we will see how the psych eval turns out. If you find anything else that might be helpful, please post!

[trojam227 18]

Two years ago new Technical Instructions for Civil Suurgeons and Panel Physicians came out concerning Physical or Mental Disorders with Associated Harmful Behaviors and Substance-Related Disorders. It somewhat put the onus on the doctors to gather information from the patient to make their determination.

Around that time, Knightsbridge started requiring the police certificate. When it first started I kinda speculated that maybe people were showing up for interview without them because they didn't order in time so the Embassy was getting tricky and making them be shown to get the medicsl to make sure they would have them for the interview. Then after discovering the new Mental Health guidelines, it seemed more likely that it was a way for Knightsbridge to get a clue about possible addictions. If a police report had drug arrests, DUIs or a lot of pub brawls, it gave them a hint to ask alot more questions to meet their new responsibility of uncovering possible substance abuse issues.

Here's two links about the new guidelines and the actual instructions.

This one explains that diagnosis is based on clinical terms as defined in the DSM. That's kinda the bible to psychiatrists. I'm only famililiar with the DSM because I spent a week this year on jury duty of a repeat offender pedophile, sexual pervert, etc. Most of it was a parade of psychiatrists explaining their evaluations and reading definitions from the DSM. One classified him as a deviant over a pervert because of this or that. I don't even remember all the psych terms now but I remember the definition in the DSM was all important. So perhaps the GP at Knightsbridge is not all that up on making a judgement call on this one so is passing it off to a psychiatrist to cover his a$$. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for you. It's more like the GP sees a pattern of behavior, but he needs a psych who knows those clinical definitions to evaluate.

http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/exams/ti/faq-physical-mental-disorders-technical-instructions.html

And here's the latest version of the Technical Instructions on the topic. You'll see in there that it shifts responsibility to the Panel Physician to gather records, etc to make the determination or seek the opinion of specialists.

http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/pdf/mental-health-pp-ti.pdf

Read all of it so you know what they are probing for. It may not be as bad as you think.

Thank You...this makes it a little clearer. Now we just have to hope that either he is not found to have had a mental disorder causing harmful behavior likely to reoccur, or that he is in remission. Another monkey wrench I wasn't expecting. So it does look like CDC will be getting the results if he has a class A or B.

Any clue where he is supposed to have the psych eval done? Does GP set it up or do we find our own doc?

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

Thank You...this makes it a little clearer. Now we just have to hope that either he is not found to have had a mental disorder causing harmful behavior likely to reoccur, or that he is in remission. Another monkey wrench I wasn't expecting. So it does look like CDC will be getting the results if he has a class A or B.

Any clue where he is supposed to have the psych eval done? Does GP set it up or do we find our own doc?

I don't know. Perhaps a call to knightsbridge to ask if they have a specific list or how exactly you are to accomplish what they need. I recall a previous case where the person was saying they had to have a private evaluation and it cost them 700 pounds. There was a woman whose SO was popping off at the Knightsbridge exam when asked how many pints he had on a typical night at the pub. He said about 10. That didn't go over as funny. His whole case was referred back to the US for a CDC evaluation and I don't know if they ever got the visa.

Your case is not about current behavior like that one, so is in a totally different ball game. Your incidents were long ago so maybe the evaluation, though a delay, might not be negative for current harmful behaviors.

[Ryan H 3,790]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to UK regional forum; topic is country specific.

[trojam227 18]

I don't know. Perhaps a call to knightsbridge to ask if they have a specific list or how exactly you are to accomplish what they need. I recall a previous case where the person was saying they had to have a private evaluation and it cost them 700 pounds. There was a woman whose SO was popping off at the Knightsbridge exam when asked how many pints he had on a typical night at the pub. He said about 10. That didn't go over as funny. His whole case was referred back to the US for a CDC evaluation and I don't know if they ever got the visa.

Your case is not about current behavior like that one, so is in a totally different ball game. Your incidents were long ago so maybe the evaluation, though a delay, might not be negative for current harmful behaviors.

OK I will call knightsbridge tmro. I think I know the case you are talking about and if it's the same one, her husband was required to do a rehabilitation program for 3 years. I think 1 year has passed already.

I think you are right that she couldn't make a mental health diagnosis with only the police report and the answers he gave her so she is passing it off to the professional. I am pretty sure he will pass the medical, but it will likely hold things up for us filing the I-601 for his convictions. We have been waiting so long for this denial just so we can move on to the next phase...doesn't seem right.

Thanks again for your input and keep me in mind if you come across anything else of relevance.

(I am a little less neurotic today so I can get a grip on this issue and just keep plugging away)