AOS medical examination- my experience

[You&Me 8]

Hello Visa Journey members...

I had my medical examination for my AOS today, (I required a medical to file for my adjustment of status because it has been over a year since i had my overseas medical, in Portugal) and I wanted to share with you what happened and what I need to do next. I am writting this because I am extremely frustrated with the whole immigration process right now, and on the verge of a melt-down.

Firstly, my husband and I had to travel pretty far to get this appointment, as the doctor closest to us was going to be on vacation for the next two weeks. The doctor I saw charged 203 dollars for the medical, which i found to be a bit expensive, but we didn't have many other options.

Before coming to the US on K1 visa I had to have several vaccines ( a total of 6 different ones), and the doctor wrote them down on my vaccination booklet. The civil surgeon in Portugal signed off on my medical since I had all the required vaccines and no health problems. The civil surgeon here in the US obviously had a hard time identifying the vaccines in my booklet, as some of the names are different. When he was done checking if i had all the required vaccines he told me I still needed to take the MMR vaccines( measles and such). Now, I know these are required vaccines in Portugal for little kids, and I was almost certain I had them, but I wasn't about to argue with him on this point.

He also told me I need to have a skin test for tuberculosis, which I knew I was gonna need, but he then said the test was likely to show a false positive (because I had been vaccinated against it ??), and if it did I would have to go on a 6 month treatment for tuberculosis, even though I most likely did not have it... Does this make any sense? I obviously DO NOT want to be treated for tuberculosis when I don't have it. Can't this be dangerous even? Anyways, he suggested instead of having a regular skin test I have a test called Quantiferon TB Gold, which is supposed to be a lot more accurate.

Well, as you can imagine I started freaking out... Possibly being treated for something I don't have...for 6 months? Even though I am vaccinated against it? Wow...But worst part is I think, if that happened, I couldn't even file for the adjustment of status until I was cleared...so I would have to wait another 6 months... That's the first thing that really made me upset...

The second, which I had already mentioned...the measles vaccines... When I got home i did a little research and I found out what you call here in the US "MMR", we call "VASPR" in Portugal. So he was looking for MMR in my booklet and of course it wasn't there. But when I looked in it for VASPR, there it was... 2 vaccines, all I need. I have them already, have had them for 20 years. I do not want to pay for them again, and I do not want to take them again. But since I can't exactly go back to the doctor's office and show him what I found because it was a 4h drive just to get there, I had to find something official online. Well, after a few minutes of researching I found it on the cdc.gov website: A list with all the languages in the world, and the vaccine names in those respective language vs the names in English. I plan to fax the civil surgeon this official cdc document together with a copy of my vaccination booklet where it list the MMR vaccines, and hope he makes the connection.

But, it just frustrates me so much...why are they not prepared for these things? Why don't the civil surgeons keep this document? It astonishes me that he was so quick to assume i just did not have it and have me take it again...

Anyways, I'm not even sure why I wrote this, I'm sorry if it sounds like a rant. I needed to let it out.

Thank you for your patience

Edited June 11, 2013 by You&Me

[Haley & Kwazi 0]

I'm sorry for your frustration. With the TB skin test, request a chest x-ray with the Quantiferon test. I don't know what kind of Dr would have someone do 6 mos of treatment for TB without doing a chest X-ray to confirm... Hope this helps