What does the U S Immigration Medical Examination include?

The US Immigration Medical Examination verifies the applicant’s status of good health and whether he can be admitted into the USA on citizenship or not, on medical grounds. The examination will also verify and monitor medical conditions that need adequate follow up after the applicant takes up permanent residence.

What all are included in the US Medical Examination?

The Immigration Medical includes the following kinds of tests:

PHYSICAL: Every applicant is required to go through a complete physical examination (this includes complete disrobing) and an evaluation of the applicant’s mental health.

TUBERCULOSIS CHECK: All applicants, who are of two years of age and more are required to go through a test that checks for the presence of tuberculosis. This is done through conducting a Tuberculin skin test, or TST.

SEROLOGIC (BLOOD) TEST: Every applicant, who is of 15 years of more has to go through a serological blood test, which checks for HIV and for syphilis. If the Civil Surgeon suspects the possibility of any infection in an applicant who is less than 15 years he can instruct him or her to go in for the serological blood test too. It is required by Civil Surgeons and Panel Doctors to walk the applicant through an HIV pre-test counseling session before the test is administrated. If the applicant is found to have HIV infection then he or she must be given post-test counseling by the Civil Surgeon.

VACCINATION CHECK: Every applicant has to declare that they are up to speed with all that is required in vaccinations for Immigration reasons. The list of vaccinations is determined by USA Public Health officials.

In our next post we shall take a look at who needs to go through a medical examination. Keep watching this space!