Any Finnish/American Couples?

[Ellinora 72]

Okay I sent an email to that address..... I looked up the vaccination requirements and apparently you need to have it if you had your exam within the "flu season" time period which is October 1st - March 31st and she said it was not needed. Looking over her DS-3025 with the vaccinations she has all that is needed except for the Influenza. I mean sure we will be sending it in and hoping we will not get an RFE but it would upset me greatly if we had to find a civil surgeon in the USA just to get her a silly flu shot and have to pay to have the entire I-693 form filled completely out again which will be expensive. I am unsure of what to do since well calling there will be quite expensive and I saw there was no way to contact the Doctor directly. She had no issues at POE and the report has the box checked that the vaccination requirements for the US were complete. :/ She did not have a varicella vaccine and I did not see that on the requirements. she had 2 Td shots, 2 of the DT,DTP,DTaP, 3 of the IPV shots, 2 shots of MMR, and 3 shots for the Hepatitis

Well that sucks that she made an error with the flu shot. Hopefully she wrote down that your fiance had the chicken pox (date of disease), if she was didn't get varicella shot, because I think that's required. Luckily you have that vaccination requirements complete box checked, they might not check anything else. Good luck!

[lumipallo 1]

Hey Lenny&Sanna,

I guess you can either send in the documents as they are now and hope that you won't get an RFE because of missing vaccinations. If that happens, you'll have to go and get the missing vaccinations and I think that they will put your application on hold until you've done this.

The other option is to go and get the flu shot before you send in the green card application and have them check the varicella requirements at the same time. As you may have noticed, there is no need to redo the whole medical exam again (see the instructions for the i-693 form). The problem is however to find a doctor who agrees to only give you the missing vaccinations. I called up the USCIS and asked them what exactly needs to be done if any vaccinations are missing, and they said that the doctor should fill out the first page (only parts 1 and 3) and the last page of the i-693 form in cases like these. The USCIS should have the results from the original medical examination and will look at that for everything except the missing vaccinations that you complete in the US.

Maybe you could see here if you would have any doctors close to where you live who could give you the vaccination supplement:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/231026-civil-surgeons-who-dont-rip-you-off/

I completely understand that you don't want to redo the whole medical examination, but for your own peace of mind it may be smart to make sure that no vaccinations are missing before you file for the green card.

[danica1 4]

Okay I sent an email to that address..... I looked up the vaccination requirements and apparently you need to have it if you had your exam within the "flu season" time period which is October 1st - March 31st and she said it was not needed. Looking over her DS-3025 with the vaccinations she has all that is needed except for the Influenza. I mean sure we will be sending it in and hoping we will not get an RFE but it would upset me greatly if we had to find a civil surgeon in the USA just to get her a silly flu shot and have to pay to have the entire I-693 form filled completely out again which will be expensive. I am unsure of what to do since well calling there will be quite expensive and I saw there was no way to contact the Doctor directly. She had no issues at POE and the report has the box checked that the vaccination requirements for the US were complete. :/ She did not have a varicella vaccine and I did not see that on the requirements. she had 2 Td shots, 2 of the DT,DTP,DTaP, 3 of the IPV shots, 2 shots of MMR, and 3 shots for the Hepatitis

Well I had my medical exam in November and having looked at the requirements on the CDC's site I was expecting way more vaccinations than they actually gave me. I brought up the list of requirements with one of the nurses, and she said it's more of a recommendation than a strict requirement. I ended up googling it, and if I remember correctly, the panel physician can choose the ones s/he deems appropriate given the applicant's age, health and medical history. I entered the country with no problems whatsoever, even though I had only received a tetanus booster and a polio shot, and have never gotten any additional shots for travel or any other reason. So no Hepatitis shots for example. Since I don't have to do AOS and no one is going to be looking at my vaccination records again you'd think that whatever I had when I entered would be fine for you as well. I mean definitely look into it, this could be a whole another thing for you guys, and you want to get it done right the first time. It would just seem really silly if, just because we had different visas, you'd be required to have way more shots than me.

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Just wanted to let you know we just sent in our packet today for Adjustment of Status and her EAD

[susan. 11]

Our case is moving forward as well, just received the NVC welcome letter last week in the mail. However, we never received our NOA2... Neither by email nor on paper. I guess we won't be needing it in the future, but it would have been nice to have, just in case. The NVC letter was a total surprise to us, I thought it would be a RFE from USCIS

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Our case is moving forward as well, just received the NVC welcome letter last week in the mail. However, we never received our NOA2... Neither by email nor on paper. I guess we won't be needing it in the future, but it would have been nice to have, just in case. The NVC letter was a total surprise to us, I thought it would be a RFE from USCIS

Hey there Susan, you will want to call USCIS to find out why you did not receive it and get it re-sent to you if that is the case because you WILL need a copy of that especially when you go to file for the AOS and so on.

[susan. 11]

We won't have to do AOS since we'll be getting the IR-visa and the 10-year GC right away. It is strange though that we never heard from USCIS and we thought of requesting for a copy, but according to what I've learned here we shouldn't need the NOA2 for anything along the way? Does Ellinora remember, did you need yours?

[Ellinora 72]

Our case is moving forward as well, just received the NVC welcome letter last week in the mail. However, we never received our NOA2... Neither by email nor on paper. I guess we won't be needing it in the future, but it would have been nice to have, just in case. The NVC letter was a total surprise to us, I thought it would be a RFE from USCIS

Yay! Congratulations

We won't have to do AOS since we'll be getting the IR-visa and the 10-year GC right away. It is strange though that we never heard from USCIS and we thought of requesting for a copy, but according to what I've learned here we shouldn't need the NOA2 for anything along the way? Does Ellinora remember, did you need yours?

Nope, I don't think we never needed NOA2 for anything. Have you called NVC to confirm they got your case there?

[susan. 11]

Ellinora, no we have not contacted NVC, but our case is available online and everything seems to be in order with it.

I was briefly reading about what's ahead for us, and now I have a question about the medical: Does the medical require one or two appointments at the clinic? From what I read, there are labs & x-rays, and then separately the check-up. Can all these be completed in one day? It will be a pain to arrange a visit to Helsinki on a workday even once, let alone twice...

[Ellinora 72]

Ellinora, no we have not contacted NVC, but our case is available online and everything seems to be in order with it.

I was briefly reading about what's ahead for us, and now I have a question about the medical: Does the medical require one or two appointments at the clinic? From what I read, there are labs & x-rays, and then separately the check-up. Can all these be completed in one day? It will be a pain to arrange a visit to Helsinki on a workday even once, let alone twice...

At least at Eira they did the whole thing in one day. It was just a brief visit with Borgstrom where he asked a few questions, checked a few things, checked my vaccination records and gave me referral papers to the lab and x-ray. It was like two hours and then I was done.

I had to pick up the results myself tho two weeks later and then take them with me to the interview. I hear Helle has at least previously offered a service where he takes the papers to the embassy, but I don't know if he does that anymore.

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Susan my wife had to pick hers up after 2 weeks, she arranged with the doctor to just pick the results up the same day you go for your interview...... just let them know when your interview date will be and time, then go pick them up prior to your interview.... she had no problems at all doing this. Saves money and time especially if you live far from helsinki

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Any updates on anyone else or how you are all doing in your journey? Anyone new?

[Ellinora 72]

^ I'm also curious how everyone is doing Any news, Susan?

I've been an LPR since October and have had my 10-year green card in hand since December. But my social security card is still in my maiden name I got it back in 2005 and haven't worked in the U.S since 2010, so I haven't gotten around to change it yet, since I guess I have to personally go to an social security office to do that. I couldn't get a learner's permit from MVA without it, so now I have to somehow organize a trip to an office Sucks being car-less.

[susan. 11]

No news here yet, we're still working on the AOS package. This domicile requirement is a little tricky for us, since we've both lived in Finland for the last eight years and my husband was only a student when he moved here, so he doesn't really own anything in the US (nor can we afford to purchase anything like a house or have any assets to transfer to his US account), only a bank account. But we're hoping the proof we have will be enough. We do have a co-sponsor so sponsorship is not an issue. We were also waiting for my husbands tax transcripts for a LONG time, but finally received them two weeks ago.

I'm hoping we can send our AOS & IV packages on Monday to our co-sponsor, who will then add her AOS stuff and send the whole package to NVC. So I guess it'll be many months yet until our process moves forward, NVC processing time is currently at 60 days.

Thanks for the medical check-up info, Ellinora and Lenny&Sanna! I thought it would not make any sense having to go twice, but then again, this process doesn't really fit with what one would see as rational and reasonable anyway... Overall, however, our process has been really smooth so far and none of the documents have caused any headache yet. Again I am thankful for the very functional and organised Finnish society and authorities!

[Ellinora 72]

No news here yet, we're still working on the AOS package. This domicile requirement is a little tricky for us, since we've both lived in Finland for the last eight years and my husband was only a student when he moved here, so he doesn't really own anything in the US (nor can we afford to purchase anything like a house or have any assets to transfer to his US account), only a bank account. But we're hoping the proof we have will be enough. We do have a co-sponsor so sponsorship is not an issue. We were also waiting for my husbands tax transcripts for a LONG time, but finally received them two weeks ago.

I'm hoping we can send our AOS & IV packages on Monday to our co-sponsor, who will then add her AOS stuff and send the whole package to NVC. So I guess it'll be many months yet until our process moves forward, NVC processing time is currently at 60 days.

Thanks for the medical check-up info, Ellinora and Lenny&Sanna! I thought it would not make any sense having to go twice, but then again, this process doesn't really fit with what one would see as rational and reasonable anyway... Overall, however, our process has been really smooth so far and none of the documents have caused any headache yet. Again I am thankful for the very functional and organised Finnish society and authorities!

Sounds like you have everything under control, hoping for a smooth rest of the process for you guys!

You are so right about the "rational and reasonable process" Today I went to get a new social security card (I had one with my maiden name) at one of the SSA offices and the lady at the first one sent me to the court house to get some sort of certification on my marriage certificate. I tried to explain her that this is what USCIS accepted and you guys should accept it as well. No can do she said and told us to head to the court house. So we went to the court house only to find out they don't do such certifications, just certified copies...

Husband and I decided to head to another SSA office to see if we could convince the representative there to do their job and surprisingly enough they took care of the stuff without asking for any certifications. So we drove all around the state for something we could have gotten done in an hour, if we had just gone to the other SSA office...

Anyways, I don't know if you guys got married in Finland or if you already have a social security card in your current name, but if you do need a new card, I would recommend getting an extra vaestorekisteriote from the magistrate with the words marriage certificate added to it and have them add an apostille just in case. Would maybe save you guys the gas money we spent on driving around