Vaccine requirement confusion

[terence85 1]

Hi all, I'm 38 year old male from the UK who's just been scheduled a visa interview date for the IR-1 visa, and looking to arrange the medical examination before I attend the interview, which will take place Jan 2025.
When checking the vaccine requirements with my local doctor, he seemed unsure what I'll need exactly as he said the list is too generic. This has left me at square one and quite confused.

When cross referencing this link with my vaccine records, it appears I'll need the following:

- Covid

- Influenza

- Hepatitis B

- Tdap/Td (last time I had the DT/Polio booster was Apr 2000)

My question is, does anyone have recent experience with the medical examination, including which vaccines are absolutely required regardless of how young/fit you are? i.e. how case-by-case basis is the decision on each required vaccine? For instance, Hepatitis B in the UK is only recommended when travelling to a high risk country, have liver disease, HIV, or a job that puts you at risk. Is this not the case for the US?

 

Hoping someone can give me some insight so I can be as prepared as possible.

 

Thanks!

Edited November 20 by terence85

[appleblossom 2,591]

5 minutes ago, terence85 said:

Hi all, I'm 38 year old male from the UK who's just been scheduled a visa interview date for the IR-1 visa, and looking to arrange the medical examination before I attend the interview, which will take place Jan 2025.
When checking the vaccine requirements with my local doctor, he seemed unsure what I'll need exactly as he said the list is too generic. This has left me at square one and quite confused.

When cross referencing this link with my vaccine records, it appears I'll need the following:

- Covid

- Influenza

- Hepatitis B

- Tdap/Td (last time I had the DT/Polio booster was Apr 2000)

My question is, does anyone have recent experience with the medical examination, including which vaccines are absolutely required regardless of how young/fit you are? i.e. how case-by-case basis is the decision on each required vaccine? For instance, Hepatitis B in the UK is only recommended when travelling to a high risk country, have liver disease, HIV, or a job that puts you at risk. Is this not the case for the US?

 

Hoping someone can give me some insight so I can be as prepared as possible.

 

Thanks!

 

They're all mandatory, unless any are not available in the country an applicant is in (i.e. for varicella, in the UK - that's usually waived as it's not a vaccine we have). From the list you have above, you'll have to get them all unless you want to apply for a waiver. We all had to get Hep B as well. 

 

You can get them done during the medical if you want, they'll give you any that are missing then. 

Edited November 20 by appleblossom

[terence85 1]

1 minute ago, appleblossom said:

 

They're all mandatory, unless you want to apply for a waiver. We all had to get Hep B as well. 

 

You can get them done during the medical if you want, they'll give you any that are missing then. 

@appleblossom thanks for your quick response. That's good to know that you can get them during the medical, were you required to get Tdap/Td if you don't mind me asking?

[appleblossom 2,591]

7 minutes ago, terence85 said:

@appleblossom thanks for your quick response. That's good to know that you can get them during the medical, were you required to get Tdap/Td if you don't mind me asking?

 

I honestly can't remember, I know my husband and I had to have tetanus as ours were too long ago, but don't recall if it was standalone or part of that. We had to have Hep B as well, and our children had to have Hep B and Hep A (my husband and I had already had that). None of us had to have a flu jab as it was summer when we had our medicals, they only do them in the winter I believe. 

 

You'll be sent a list of the vaccines required when you book the medical, so you can either choose to have any missing done in advance or get them done there. 

 

Good luck. 

[NorthByNorthwest 352]

29 minutes ago, terence85 said:

@appleblossom thanks for your quick response. That's good to know that you can get them during the medical, were you required to get Tdap/Td if you don't mind me asking?

 

To add to this, if you think you already have one of the vaccinations but lack records, the clinic can typically do an antibody test which will serve as proof of already having taken a certain vaccine.

[Cw1977 103]

47 minutes ago, terence85 said:

Hi all, I'm 38 year old male from the UK who's just been scheduled a visa interview date for the IR-1 visa, and looking to arrange the medical examination before I attend the interview, which will take place Jan 2025.
When checking the vaccine requirements with my local doctor, he seemed unsure what I'll need exactly as he said the list is too generic. This has left me at square one and quite confused.

When cross referencing this link with my vaccine records, it appears I'll need the following:

- Covid

- Influenza

- Hepatitis B

- Tdap/Td (last time I had the DT/Polio booster was Apr 2000)

My question is, does anyone have recent experience with the medical examination, including which vaccines are absolutely required regardless of how young/fit you are? i.e. how case-by-case basis is the decision on each required vaccine? For instance, Hepatitis B in the UK is only recommended when travelling to a high risk country, have liver disease, HIV, or a job that puts you at risk. Is this not the case for the US?

 

Hoping someone can give me some insight so I can be as prepared as possible.

 

Thanks!

I went through London and these were the ones I had to get (I had a blood test for chicken pox which I’d had as a kid) so didn't need that one. 
 

[appleblossom 2,591]

6 minutes ago, Cw1977 said:

I went through London and these were the ones I had to get (I had a blood test for chicken pox which I’d had as a kid) so didn't need that one. 

 

We weren't even asked about chicken pox - I had photos of my kids covered with spots all ready to go but not needed! They just checked the box off to say not required, that was it. This was 18 months ago though so maybe it's changed since. 

[Melancholic Mage 110]

2 hours ago, terence85 said:

Hi all, I'm 38 year old male from the UK who's just been scheduled a visa interview date for the IR-1 visa, and looking to arrange the medical examination before I attend the interview, which will take place Jan 2025.
When checking the vaccine requirements with my local doctor, he seemed unsure what I'll need exactly as he said the list is too generic. This has left me at square one and quite confused.

When cross referencing this link with my vaccine records, it appears I'll need the following:

- Covid

- Influenza

- Hepatitis B

- Tdap/Td (last time I had the DT/Polio booster was Apr 2000)

My question is, does anyone have recent experience with the medical examination, including which vaccines are absolutely required regardless of how young/fit you are? i.e. how case-by-case basis is the decision on each required vaccine? For instance, Hepatitis B in the UK is only recommended when travelling to a high risk country, have liver disease, HIV, or a job that puts you at risk. Is this not the case for the US?

 

Hoping someone can give me some insight so I can be as prepared as possible.

 

Thanks!

 

I compiled my entire experience of the visa medical in London here, along with vaccination requirements. The influenza jab is seasonal, so since it's around flu season you may need this as opposed to my own experience. 

 

I had to pay for Covid vaccinations at Boots, and paid for my Hepatitis vaccinations on the day to be administered. I hope this thread helps:

 

 

[terence85 1]

thanks for all the helpful replies, and @Melancholic Mage for documenting the experience. There're some really useful details here. Much appreciated  

Edited November 21 by terence85

[smilingstone 188]

9 hours ago, Cw1977 said:

I went through London and these were the ones I had to get (I had a blood test for chicken pox which I’d had as a kid) so didn't need that one. 
 

 

I got the same earlier this year aswell as covid booster. 

 

I was able to get DTP and MMR via my GP, so for free. 

 

I had my medical this week and was only missing the flu jab, so got it there for an additional £20.

 

[terence85 1]

9 minutes ago, smilingstone said:

 

I got the same earlier this year aswell as covid booster. 

 

I was able to get DTP and MMR via my GP, so for free. 

 

I had my medical this week and was only missing the flu jab, so got it there for an additional £20.

 

 

Thanks that's good to know. That's interesting re. DTP, according to CDC docs (scroll down to Table 1), DTP is only required for a child between 2 months and 6 years?

 

Edited November 21 by terence85

[terence85 1]

17 minutes ago, terence85 said:

 

Thanks that's good to know. That's interesting re. DTP, according to CDC docs (scroll down to Table 1), DTP is only required for a child between 2 months and 6 years?

 

Update: just realised that's the specific formulation and we're generally talking about Tetanus 👍

[terence85 1]

@smilingstone @Cw1977 did you guys previously receive Tetanus vaccines? I'm trying to gauge if I need it as I had the full course of DTP when I was a child and again later at the age of 14. 

Thanks!

[Cw1977 103]

1 hour ago, terence85 said:

@smilingstone @Cw1977 did you guys previously receive Tetanus vaccines? I'm trying to gauge if I need it as I had the full course of DTP when I was a child and again later at the age of 14. 

Thanks!

I had a couple of different tetanus jabs growing up as I seemed to have a habit of falling out of trees and/or scraping myself on nails climbing things!! However nothing since being in my late teens (was 45 when I did visa medical) 

 

CDC (and most heath providers) say you should have one every 10 yrs so if you’ve not had one in that window, you’ll need another. 
 

tbh out of all of them needed, this was the one I had least issue with/could see the benefit of.  Maybe I’m secretly still longing to go climb a tree again…

[terence85 1]

12 minutes ago, Cw1977 said:

I had a couple of different tetanus jabs growing up as I seemed to have a habit of falling out of trees and/or scraping myself on nails climbing things!! However nothing since being in my late teens (was 45 when I did visa medical) 

 

CDC (and most heath providers) say you should have one every 10 yrs so if you’ve not had one in that window, you’ll need another. 
 

tbh out of all of them needed, this was the one I had least issue with/could see the benefit of.  Maybe I’m secretly still longing to go climb a tree again…

 

😂 I've also fallen out of many trees, not recently though. And I agree with your comment about having least issue with this one, I think looking at CDC docs it does appear the 10 year thing is still in effect. Thanks for your response and good luck climbing trees!