USCIS Policy Update on Medical Examination and Vaccination Records

USCIS released an updated policy manual regarding the Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record. USCIS officers use Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, to determine whether an applicant for an immigration benefit in the United States is inadmissible under the health-related grounds of inadmissibility. Under this new manual, starting from November 1, 2018, applicants will be required to submit a Form I-693 signed by a civil surgeon no more than 60 days before the filing of the underlying application for an immigration benefit. The Form will be valid for 2 years.

This is a change from the previous regulations where the Form was only valid for 1 year. Given the increase in processing time for all immigration benefits, medical records that were submitted with the original application usually expired by the time the application is adjudicated. This resulted in applicants having to complete and submit 2 medicals, which can be costly. To get around this, some applicants have taken to not submitting the medical exam with the initial application documents, rather choosing to bring the medical results with them to the green card interview to avoid having to complete 2 exams. USCIS have now made it clear that the medical exam has to be submitted along with the original application, but now it will have longer validity period to avoid expiration during the processing times. This policy update does not affect applications that have already been submitted and is currently pending. If you have already submitted a medical exam and it has expired during the processing time, a medical exam will still have to be submitted. This policy does not go into affect until November 1, and will only pertain to applications submitted after that date. To learn more about applying for immigration benefits and the Form I-693, please click here.