There are many steps you need to take when you apply for a change in your immigration status (applying for a green card), with the medical exam at the top of the list. To meet this requirement, your exam must be performed by a doctor (civil surgeon) who is authorized by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
At Forest Urgent Care LIC and Forest Hills, our team can perform your immigration exam and fill out your I-693 form in accordance with the regulations.
While we can handle the immigration exam on our end, here’s what you should know on your end to make the process go more smoothly.
As with most other countries, the United States wants to ensure that anyone seeking to become a permanent resident is in good health and doesn’t pose a health risk to themselves or others. To that end, they’ve designed a medical exam that covers a wide range of health care concerns, from vaccinations to mental health issues.
To help move the process along, there’s much you can do to prepare for your immigration exam, starting with downloading and filling out your sections of the I-693 form, which you can find here. Each part is clearly marked as to whom should fill it out, be it yourself, your interpreter, or your preparer. Any section that says, “To be completed by the civil surgeon,” you should leave to us.
If you have any questions about whether you should fill a section out, it’s best to wait until you come to see us so that we can guide you.
Apart from filling out (and bringing) the form, you should also bring along medical records, especially those concerning your vaccination history. If you have any underlying health conditions, you should bring any pertinent documentation, as well as a list of any medications you take.
One of the primary reasons why a medical exam is required is to protect against outbreaks of diseases that have long been controlled in the US, such as tuberculosis (TB). As part of your immigration exam, we screen for TB. Based on our findings, we may also have to take a chest X-ray.
Aside from TB, we also test for other infectious diseases, such as syphilis, gonorrhea, and leprosy.
While your physical health is important, so is your mental health, and we cover any issues you may have had with certain disorders, including substance use disorders.
Once your exam is complete, we fill out the rest of your form, sign it, and seal it, at which point you may submit the completed paperwork to the USCIS. It’s extremely important that you don’t open the form again after we’ve sealed it, because then it will be sent back to you. We do supply you with a copy of your exam, so there’s no need to access the official report.
If you have any further questions about how you should prepare for your immigration exam, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our two New York locations in Forest Hills or Hunters Point, Long Island City.
