The Great Vaccine Supplement Debate

[rebeccajo 14]

One of the things that caused me no shortage of night sweats prior to the AOS interview was Wes' vaccine supplement. I filed our papers shortly after this subject came up on VJ. I researched it and made sure he had been given the DS-3025 at his medical. And after arriving back in the states, I dutifully took him to a civil surgeon and got the I-693A completed. When we had this done, however, it was not given to me in a sealed envelope, and I thought nothing of it.

When I was putting the I-485 together, I mused to myself that the vaccine supplement was the lamest looking form I had ever seen and anybody could easily forge it. Because I felt that way personally about it, I included the receipt from the doctors office as part of the filing, along with the worksheet.

Follow what I am saying here: I included the DS-3025, the I-693A, and the payment receipt.

I think I am golden. Then I start reading on VJ about the supplement needing to be in a sealed envelope. I wait for an RFE and don't get one. I then begin to convince myself that we will get sent away from the interview with an admonishment to go collect another one.

I am even more convinced that this will happen after we get our appointment notice and it clearly states to bring the supplement to the interview in a sealed envelope.

I do want to mention to those of you who have not yet seen an appointment letter that you are instructed to bring this, that and the other thing, each query followed by the statement "IF NOT ALREADY SUBMITTED".

Well, the vaccines were never mentioned at the interview. Apparently what I did was ok.

I'm not advocating this approach, but it does add more confusion to this murky area of preparing the I-485.

[Autumnal 25]

Thanks for the information.

[kaydee457 13]

Well, as I have stated before I included a letter with my AOS application explaining that we were never given a copy of anything when my wife was given her medical and therefore one cannot be expected to "supplement" what one does not have!

We'll see if I'm RFE'd or not....If not, we'll see if the interview letter asks for the supplement specifically, and if so we'll see if we're turned away from the interview until we produce it.

Stay tuned!

[john_and_marlene 162]

Marlene's vaccination supplement was not in a sealed envelope either. I don't understand all the fuss about sealing a vaccination record that is accomplished by transcribing from vaccination records supplied by the applicant. Marlene required additional vaccinations and we had them done at the Air Force base hospital near our home (I'm retired Air Force) We supplied the civil surgeon the record from her medical in Manila and the record of the vaccinations done here and they just indicated on the supplement that she was up to date now. I really doubt we'll get an RFE for something so minor. I can see where a medical might need to be sealed to keep someone from altering those records to hide some condition, but I don't see any issue with vaccinations.

[rebeccajo 14]

Well, as I have stated before I included a letter with my AOS application explaining that we were never given a copy of anything when my wife was given her medical and therefore one cannot be expected to "supplement" what one does not have!

We'll see if I'm RFE'd or not....If not, we'll see if the interview letter asks for the supplement specifically, and if so we'll see if we're turned away from the interview until we produce it.

Stay tuned!

You may or may not get an RFE.

I can 100% guarantee you that the interview letter will ask for it. Those are stock standard forms.

[gag54611 1]

When we filed for AOS, we didn't include the supplement at all. Instead we included a letter indicating that all vaccinations had been done in the UK, as the DS-3025 would show. We also included copies of Lynne's vaccination record book.

We received no RFE and Lynne successfully passed her AOS interview last week.

Since a K-1 applicant isn't required to complete the vaccinations before arriving in the USA, I think that you only need the supplement if you haven't completed your vaccinations in your home country. Consequently, I believe that the instructions for this form are flawed.

Just my 2c

G

[rebeccajo 14]

Since a K-1 applicant isn't required to complete the vaccinations before arriving in the USA, I think that you only need the supplement if you haven't completed your vaccinations in your home country. Consequently, I believe that the instructions for this form are flawed.

Well the form isn't flawed. The appointment letter has a long list of things to bring with you to the interview, with each item followed by the statement 'if not already submitted'. The form is generic.

Here's where the confusion comes in.....

It is NOT required to have complete vaccines for a K1 to be granted, but it is a requirement for AOS that the vaccines be complete. Nobody knows what's in the mysterious medical envelope - you don't know if the doc has completed vaccine information. It is not possible for the I-693A supplement to be in the medical envelope - that form is only available to civil surgeons in the US.

Plus you don't know how your adjudicating officer at your AOS interview will interpret that information, even if it is contained in some other format. They may be satisfied without the I-693A - they may not.

It appears to be a ####### shoot, with no consistent policy from office to office.

[Widge 0]

It appears to be a ####### shoot, with no consistent policy from office to office.

All we included with our AOS filing was a copy of the "Vaccination Document Worksheet" (which I'd recieved in London) and it was never RFE'd or mentioned at the Interview. Being a "tight" Brit I refused to pay out for a civil surgeon to say what a doctor in London had already stated, until asked to do so - I never was.

AOS was done through Cleveland

[dasha 0]

My husband had no copy of his medical done for the K-1 in Turkey. He called the doctor there to find out what vaccinations he'd had there, and she told him. The closest approved doctor here for submitting the medical/vaccination forms is the director of our county health dept. We were told the only way he'd sign the vaccination supplement form is if he administered them himself and he'd do that only during a medical exam, which we didn't need because my husband's exam in Turkey had been less than one year ago. But the people at the health dept. said they do these immigration forms all the time (they, not the surgeon himself) and just stamp his name for the signature. I was wary about a stamped signature, but at that point, I was tired of the runaround and all the extra fees and all the conflicting info about the supplement I'd read here and elsewhere.

So he got the vaccines he still needed, and they filled out the supplemental form. At first they weren't going to list the previously administered vaccines (in Turkey) because we didn't have a writen record of them, just verbal. I thought, well, the govt. has his medical exam records from Turkey which include the vaccines anyway, so why do they need them listed here again anyway? (That's of course if they haven't "misplaced" his exam from Turkey...but that'd be another, and worse, problem altogether.) But in the end, they did list the previous vaccines we'd told them he'd gotten last summer, and they completed the form and stamped the director's name on the surgeon's signature line.

I asked about them sealing it in an envelope and they had no idea why I was wanting that (because they don't do the official medicals, which always need to be in the sealed envelope). They told me to go down the hall to the surgeon's office where all the official immigration medicals are done and ask them. The front desk lady there was confused why we didn't want the complete medical exam, so I explained and she said "I'd probably get another one done just in case." I said no way, but I just wanted to know if the supplemental vaccine exam needed to be in a sealed envelope. But because their office only does the full exams and they don't usually deal with the supplemental only, she wasn't sure about needing the sealed envelope for that. But she was accommodating and said she could seal it for me in the same way she usually seals the exams, just in case we needed it. She folded it into an envelope they always use: a regular business size envelope that had their return address printed on it and "DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE" in bold capped letters stamped on the front of it. Then she stamped "Utah County Health Department" 3 times along the sealed flap line so it straddled both the back of the envelope and the flap, and then she placed 3 strips of transparent tape over those stamps.

So I felt very "official" and happy to be done with that (though I was still slightly worrying about the supplement having only a stamped version of the surgeon's signature).

At our interview this past Thursday, we were not even asked for the vaccination supplement. Nothing medical was ever mentioned at all. That sealed envelope is still sitting in the briefcase with all the other documentation I brought to the interview. It was just one of many things I'd brought that I ended up not needing (to read the details of our interview, go to http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...topic=5249&hl=).

So, what's the moral of this story? There just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the medical exam and vaccination supplement...or their requirements either before or after the interview.

Best advice? Be as complete and thorough in following the instructions about them as you possibly can and bring the supplement with you to the interview (if you haven't already submitted it with the I-485). Then you'll be ready if they ask you for it. And if they don't, oh well. Better to be over- than underprepared in this situation (with the vaccination supplement or anything else on the interview checklist).

[motu 6]

Rebecca:

You are right. I too just submitted the DS3025 - Vaccination Worksheet and nothing else. As far as the wording "submit this or that IF NOT ALREADY SUBMITTED" - I interpreted it to be not applicable to our application as everything we submitted should be in their hands including the packet submitted by the doctor in the "Foreign" (Colombian) consulate. We were not RFEd and that confirmed my guess that they do not need anything else from us. We were not asked for any I693/medical etc.in the interview either. I was willing to take a chance for a delay in the Green card issuance, as my wife can't work for several more months (till she learns enough English.) So, a fast Green card is not critical to us other than for travelling outside the country this summer. So my theory is that those that get RFEd for it or asked for it during interview - have that missing from the Doctor or Consulate that originally issued the visa based on the vaccination supplement (or its equivalent.) Either that or some examiners and interviewers think it's critical (I693) and the others don't think it's critical. (From what I can rationalize the most important piece should be the support followed by proof of genuine relationship - everything else is rather insignificant as far as the main purpose of granting immigration is - just my opinion.) Good Luck

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I do want to mention to those of you who have not yet seen an appointment letter that you are instructed to bring this, that and the other thing, each query followed by the statement "IF NOT ALREADY SUBMITTED".

Well, the vaccines were never mentioned at the interview. Apparently what I did was ok.

I'm not advocating this approach, but it does add more confusion to this murky area of preparing the I-485.

You actually did it the correct way (a sealed envelope would have been better, that wasn't your fault though). This is just my opinion. There are many others out there.

[babonsi 0]

Well, just to add to what seems to be a total and absolute "####### shot": we DID submit the vaccination supplement (I-693A) in a sealed envelope with our AOS application (+ an extra copy) and also included a copy of the DS-3025 worksheet which stated that vacc. history was complete. Was that enough though? Nope, coz we still got a RFE for a COMPLETE medical exam (I-693), even though the medical I had done in Romania was less than 1 year old. That makes perfet sense, right?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Well, just to add to what seems to be a total and absolute "####### shot": we DID submit the vaccination supplement (I-693A) in a sealed envelope with our AOS application (+ an extra copy) and also included a copy of the DS-3025 worksheet which stated that vacc. history was complete. Was that enough though? Nope, coz we still got a RFE for a COMPLETE medical exam (I-693), even though the medical I had done in Romania was less than 1 year old. That makes perfet sense, right?

sigh.. It's so sad.

[raphael7546 0]

I was never asked for the supplement at my AOS interview and I never had it done either.

I did however have a copy of the letter with my shots on it from my Immigration Medical done in Vancouver for my K-1

[rebeccajo 14]

Just another point of clarification....the 'issues' over the vaccine supplement didn't seem to begin till the late summer of 2005. So those of you who AOS'd prior to that would not have had the problem.