Articles of Interest

By Michael S. Cho, Esq. (info@msclaw.com)

You must undergo a medical examination when applying for lawful permanent residence through adjustment of status. This is to because the Immigration & Nationality Act states that a non-citizen may be found inadmissible to the United States due to having certain health conditions, including HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and other “communicable diseases of public health significance,” as well as having certain physical or mental illnesses which pose a “threat to the property, safety, or welfare” of the non-citizen himself, or to others.

You must have been vaccinated against “vaccine-preventable diseases,” which include mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria toxoids, pertussis, influenza type B, hepatitis B, varicella, influenza, and pneumococcal. To satisfy this requirement, you should present your prior vaccination records to the civil surgeon authorized to conduct the medical exam. You will either have to receive any missing vaccinations or be granted a waiver if it is not deemed medically or age appropriate.

The medical examination MUST be conducted by a designated civil surgeon. I always provide my clients with a list of doctors near their work or home so that they can find one who is affordable and quickly available. The medical examination results will be given to you in a sealed envelope. You MUST NOT open this envelope or it will invalidate the results. Additionally, I recommend that you ask your doctor to provide a separate client copy of the examination results. There have been cases of clients who tested positive for HIV but the civil surgeon did not advise him of the news. They were thus first informed of their HIV status during the USCIS interview, and subsequently found inadmissible.