Medical Exam for Child

[mejms 0]

This is from the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Consulate website:

We suggest you make arrangements for your medical examination at least one or two days prior to your visa interview date. Applicants ages two (2) years to fourteen (14) years of age must undergo the medical examination at least four (4) work days prior to their visa interview date. It is recommended that children within this age range be immunized at least four (4) weeks prior to their medical examination.

I've been reading up on visa journey that 4 days are required because the tuberculosis test takes 4 days. My son (6 years old) already had his tuberculosis vaccination years ago. Are the 4 days still required for him?

Also, I was planning on getting any required vaccinations for my son the day of his medical, which I've read that most people do. So what do you make of the above 4 week requirement?

Edited August 24, 2012 by mejms

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

I'm slightly theorizing here, but I am suspecting that the 4 weeks is a reference to any other immunizations the child was going to get on any regular vaccine schedule with their doctor. In other words, you don't want to have a child recently vaccinated for MMR for school/regular physical purposes at home showing up to get additional vaccines at their immigration medical, as it can be rough on their little immune systems. I would see if you can email the consulate about this although I suspect it will be difficult to get an answer from them.

As far as the 4 days for the TB, I'm guessing there's no way out of that. I'm not sure why it's different for kids (isn't routine TB vaccination still the norm for kids in Mexico?). My husband was vaccinated as a kid but was able to get his medical results same-day including the default chest x-ray for TB. Do they not x-ray the kids? If they're doing the skin test I would assume that's silly since nearly everyone's going to test positive on that. Anyway, my point here is that I don't think having the vaccination exempts anyone because all Mexicans are supposed to be vaccinated against TB already.

Gosh, why do they have to make it so confusing...

[mejms 0]

You're absolutely right about the 4 week waiting period. My son hasn't had any vaccines recently and won't have them, so we're in the clear. He's terrified of getting shots, so I hope that the clinic doesn't play this game of requiring shots he's already had just to make a buck.

Thanks for your response!