Obtaining your US citizenship is not an easy journey, and understandably there are many hoops you will have to jump through, yet each part of the process is an important milestone in accomplishing your dreams and becoming an American citizen. For instance, in order to be considered eligible for naturalization, one must undergo an immigration exam, or more simply stated: a medical exam.
Can I Fail the Immigration Exam?
A physical health exam is one of the first tasks anyone who has recently immigrated must undergo. You must visit a certified and government approved health facility in order for your results to be considered valid. The biggest fear people commonly have is ‘passing’ the immigration exam, but it’s not really a pass or fail type thing. Most illnesses are curable, and therefore if you do test positive for a certain disorder you must simply go through the recovery process in order to secure future citizenship. There are a few instances where a Class A medical condition (a classification of disease or disorder that threatens the greater public) can hamper your chances for legal residency, but these are not all that common. For curable health problems, the health exam can be retaken after issues have been resolved.
Arrive At Your Exam Prepared
It feels better going anywhere when you know what to expect. When you arrive at your physical health exam, be sure you have previously undergone all required vaccinations and have the paperwork with you to prove it, also bring along a government-issued identification card.
If you plan to set up the immigration exam before taking care of our government paperwork, be sure that it all gets done within one year. If more than one-year lapses after your immigration exam, the government will no longer accept it and you will have to repeat the physical, an expense you can easily avoid by keeping tabs on time.
TB Tests: PPD VS. Tspot Tests
For anyone over the age of 2, a test for Tuberculosis will be required during your physical. TB Tests used to involve the injection of PPD under the skin in order to generate a reaction. The long-winded process required more than one visit to your physician, and even if the first test was positive the results remained unclear, and thus a costly chest x-ray was required for clarification. Thankfully we have done away with the old and tired TB tests. We now use Tspot to sample someone for Tuberculosis; Tspot is one blood test that needs no verification from a chest x-ray. If your blood sample does test positive for TB, we are required by law to report it to the Health Department, at which point treatment will become mandatory.
Money On Your Mind? Immigration Exam Costs
Who pays for the immigration exams you might be wondering, and how much does the average visit cost? Since insurance can’t be used, patients are required to pay with either cash or credit card for the total amount of $250. For those who have not obtained their current vaccine records, costs will increase, ranging from $400- $600.
Urgent Medical Center specifically deals with the immigration exam I-693 form.
