Previous foreign medical history for medical exam

[BBGG 57]

Hi everyone, I don't have much hope to find an answer here, but will still try.

 

I'm a Russian citizen applying for K1 visa in the UK where I live, have a work visa and a residence permit.

 

The UK medical exam has a relatively new requirement to provide “Summary of medical history from General Practitioner (NOT full medical records) and reports covering any medical conditions, disabilities, and prior serious illnesses you have been treated for or anything ongoing."

 

This is not about vaccination history. The vaccination records don’t seem to be such a problem, but "general" medical history is.

 

I expect that the medical exam commission will want to see my Russian medical history as well as my UK medical history as I've only lived in the UK for 3 years.

 

UK medical history does not seem to be a big problem, but Russian is not so straightforward. Russian medical care still does not have a centralized electronic database, so there is not a big chance I can obtain the relevant and usable medical history.

My only chance is to travel to my hometown in Russia (wich involves a lot of time and money), apply to “see” my medical card, and be allowed to do that in 30 days after this application. I can then show up in person and will only be allowed to take photos of my old paper medical card with unreadable handwritten notes, and then transcribe them myself and have them translated into English. Medical institutions don't issue any copies or summaries of these old handwritten medical records. So this option is really difiicult and costly thing for me to do, so I would like to avoid it. Also, the success is not at all guaranteed.

 

I'm naturally worried this can become an obstacle for me to pass the medical exam.

 

Those of you who applied in the UK while being citizens of other countries, or any applicants who applied for K1 not from their home countries, could you please share your experience/thoughts if you faced something like this?

Edited June 26, 2019 by BBGG

[SalishSea 16,737]

22 minutes ago, BBGG said:

Hi everyone, I don't have much hope to find an answer here, but will still try.

 

I'm a Russian citizen applying for K1 visa in the UK where I live, have a work visa and a residence permit.

 

The UK medical exam has a relatively new requirement to provide “Summary of medical history from General Practitioner (NOT full medical records) and reports covering any medical conditions, disabilities, and prior serious illnesses you have been treated for or anything ongoing."

 

This is not about vaccination history. The vaccination records don’t seem to be such a problem, but "general" medical history is.

 

I expect that the medical exam commission will want to see my Russian medical history as well as my UK medical history as I've only lived in the UK for 3 years.

 

UK medical history does not seem to be a big problem, but Russian is not so straightforward. Russian medical care still does not have a centralized electronic database, so there is not a big chance I can obtain the relevant and usable medical history.

My only chance is to travel to my hometown in Russia (wich involves a lot of time and money), apply to “see” my medical card, and be allowed to do that in 30 days after this application. I can then show up in person and will only be allowed to take photos of my old paper medical card with unreadable handwritten notes, and then transcribe them myself and have them translated into English. Medical institutions don't issue any copies or summaries of these old handwritten medical records. So this option is really difiicult and costly thing for me to do, so I would like to avoid it. Also, the success is not at all guaranteed.

 

I'm naturally worried this can become an obstacle for me to pass the medical exam.

 

Those of you who applied in the UK while being citizens of other countries, or any applicants who applied for K1 not from their home countries, could you please share your experience/thoughts if you faced something like this?

Honestly, I do not think you have anything to worry about. 

 

As an RN (American though), here is my take on it:  when you go to see a new provider, they take your history, either verbally or in writing.  Say you move across the country, and find a new primary care provider.  The expectation is not that you will bring a record of the appendectomy you had as a child, but rather that part of your medical history is provided to them by you and incorporated into your new record.  (If you do bring records, great, but more often than not patients do not).

 

Health care clinics and providers can and do request records, when available, but we also rely on the patient's own subjective history when it comes to documenting past illnesses and surgeries.  Obviously, if you were in active treatment for cancer in one location, and wanted to transfer care to another, that would be entirely different.

 

As long as you can provide your current UK provider with your general health history, they will be able to incorporate that with your history post-move to the UK.

 

Hope this helps, and best wishes.

Edited June 27, 2019 by Jorgedig

[payxibka 10,044]

56 minutes ago, BBGG said:

Hi everyone, I don't have much hope to find an answer here, but will still try.

 

I'm a Russian citizen applying for K1 visa in the UK where I live, have a work visa and a residence permit.

 

The UK medical exam has a relatively new requirement to provide “Summary of medical history from General Practitioner (NOT full medical records) and reports covering any medical conditions, disabilities, and prior serious illnesses you have been treated for or anything ongoing."

 

This is not about vaccination history. The vaccination records don’t seem to be such a problem, but "general" medical history is.

 

I expect that the medical exam commission will want to see my Russian medical history as well as my UK medical history as I've only lived in the UK for 3 years.

 

UK medical history does not seem to be a big problem, but Russian is not so straightforward. Russian medical care still does not have a centralized electronic database, so there is not a big chance I can obtain the relevant and usable medical history.

My only chance is to travel to my hometown in Russia (wich involves a lot of time and money), apply to “see” my medical card, and be allowed to do that in 30 days after this application. I can then show up in person and will only be allowed to take photos of my old paper medical card with unreadable handwritten notes, and then transcribe them myself and have them translated into English. Medical institutions don't issue any copies or summaries of these old handwritten medical records. So this option is really difiicult and costly thing for me to do, so I would like to avoid it. Also, the success is not at all guaranteed.

 

I'm naturally worried this can become an obstacle for me to pass the medical exam.

 

Those of you who applied in the UK while being citizens of other countries, or any applicants who applied for K1 not from their home countries, could you please share your experience/thoughts if you faced something like this?

You can't provide what you don't have.

[HRQX 4,145]

7 minutes ago, payxibka said:

You can't provide what you don't have.

Ali On The Corner /s

http://theconsulsfiles.blogspot.com/2016/09/ali-is-still-in-business.html

[BBGG 57]

Thanks everyone, I was mostly worried if something that I don't have can be an obstacle that will become a show stopper. For that case, if I fought really hard I could obtain something that would resemble Russian medical records, but I was not sure if it was worth all the trouble 

 

I've finally gotten through to the UK clinic on the phone, they assured me that if I only have 3 years of UK medical history they are fine with that and they won't need any of my previous Russian records.

[BBGG 57]

An update here after my medical (which was successfully completed today).

 

I only brought only my UK GP patient summary/care summary that have summary for 3 years of my life in the UK, and it worked. No questions about my previous (Russian) medical history were asked.