I-693 Supplement, Vaccinations, and Dr. Blau

[orangeneko 1]

My husband (two weeks tomorrow!) is now here and we're gathering up everything to do the AOS. Lots of forms, getting copies of things and the whole bit. He needs his MMR shot or blood tests showing he's resistant.

I overlooked this while preparing forms in between other stuff the last months, so the I-693 Supplement issue has hit me full on, as has all the research I've done about civil surgeons and such.

My options seem to be to either get the shot somewhere and then get a CS to sign off on the sheet for hopefully not a terrible price....or...just say screw it and pay more and take the easy way out of worrying about this. Which leads me to...

In my googling, I found Dr. Blau at http://greencardmedicalexam.com/. It's not far from where I work. I called them the other day, but am confused. They say they'll do blood tests, which may or may not be covered by insurance. Or, they can give me a prescription for the shot to pick up for them to do in office (I assume that's what she meant) or send us to a free clinic for them (!). Then they'll do the forms for us. They seem to have a $200 flat fee no matter what, but honestly, the layout of their info is confusing, and I'm not sure why they'd not just do shots there rather than sending me elsewhere.

My questions are: has anyone used him for what we need? A shot and the form? How was it? I see there are a lot of reviews on him here, but a number of them seem to be fake, which of course makes you question how honest they are.

If I did do the shot elsewhere (and I can't seem to find if it's two shots or one for sure -- conflicting info), then are there any docs in NYC that anyone has dealt with that will do the form for a decent price that any of you have seen?

[C-ma'am 684]

**Moved from K1 to AOS from family visas

[nessmj77 6]

My fiance had the MMR shot and it was a 2 dose shot which required 2 different appointments.

[KayDeeCee 4,891]

You do not need another medical exam, blood tests, etc. He can get the MMR vaccination elsewhere cheaper and bring the record of it to a civil surgeon along with his DS-3025 from his K-1 medical. You will need page 1 and the vaccination page of the I-693 filled out by the civil surgeon. You only need 1 shot in a series to file for AOS.

$200 is a lot for a vaccinations transcription. I would call around to other civil surgeons first. Check this thread as well to see if any of these are near you: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/231026-civil-surgeons-who-dont-rip-you-off/

[orangeneko 1]

I agree $200 is a lot. The reading I've done on these threads including the one you posted both makes me think ok, we can get the shot somewhere, then get a $50 dollar doc to sign it if lucky. Then I read about how most of these docs want a lot and charge large fees regardless. Part of me is willing to pay the $200 just to be done with this. But I do know that's insane.

I just made some calls. One to a travel shot doc I use, but her policies are a bit backwards with insurance. The other was to Rite Aide, and they supposedly can do the shot on insurance (we just got our new temp insurance cards today). So I guess if we can do that this week then I can have my husband start calling docs to ask what they charge. There's a few ones posted about who charged nominal fees for the forms, so if he can find one of those it'd work. I just wonder if he'll be making phone calls all tomorrow though!

BTW, Jay-Kay, I'd been wondering about that double shot/how it works thing -- but what you said makes sense. I'll have my husband get the second one when it's due, but if all they need is to know it was started, then that's perfect. We have the option of doing a blood test to see if he's immune, but maybe it's better to just get the shots and be done with it.

[Phil & Alla 26]

For chicken pox it was just as cheap to have the vaccination as the blood test would cost. Jay -Kay gave you a great thread--bottom line is CALL AROUND, we paid 40.00 for the I-693 to be transcribed, plus vaccinations that she needed (4) I called around to health department and Wallgreen's etc and all were about the same price as the C/S.

[orangeneko 1]

Not as simple as I thought at the moment....I called Rite Aid back, and the store I wanted to go to gave me bad info....and most of their NY stores seem to not offer it. Now on with their 800 number.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

We used Dr. Blau for the full medical. He sent my husband to the country health clinic for a free MMR shot and my husband brought back the proof and it was signed off on. That's issue 1.

Issue 2 is that you don't need a full medical like we did. You need to find someone to do vaccine transcription. Maybe try talking to someone else at that office or go elsewhere.

They send you to the free clinic because they are nice and helpful.

[orangeneko 1]

Thanks to all! We ended up at the Union Square Duane Reade clinic last night for the shot as it seemed to be the only choice for this at a quickie drug store clinic. I wanted to avoid them due to a really bad insurance issue with DR that dragged for an entire year not long ago thanks to the continal screwups of their 86th Street clinic people (avoid that one, terrible issues with insurance claims both times I was there!!).

I'd had a good experience with Union Square being efficient and not screwing up in the past, so I figured we'd just risk it. My husband knows nothing of the US medical system so I needed a place I could go with him after work hours is what it came down to.

All went well, though we had problems at the pharmacy as my husband wasn't showing up in the insurance system yet even though I have his temp ID card now. So that's another call to make on top of all the rest of the running around. Possibly in a few days we'd of not had that issue, but nothing we can do now.

The doc at Union Square seemed to have done these shots before for immigration, so that was a bonus. I've now left the huge doc list at home for my husband along with a printout of the one to try calling first as it might be a lucky shot. So we'll see.

I don't get why Dr. Blau doesn't offer a transcription/signature service on top of the full medicals, or shots himself. But it seems the specialists who do this seem to all push the full medicals from what I found searching.

[orangeneko 1]

I forgot to mention that they gave the MMR as a combined shot. So it was done all in one go without having to come back.