Immunisation and immigration

[DoulaLyndsey]

We're seriously looking into immigrating from the US to the UK or Ireland sometime in the near future. We, however, have three children who are not vaxxed and we currently claim religious exemption. I'm having trouble finding information about whether or not we have to catch everyone up on immunisations before we immigrate. Does anyone know where to look that can point me in the correct direction?

[Marnica]

There are no laws governing vaccination in many countries other than the US (ie they are not compulsory) The UK is not one of them so you do not have to "catch up" on anything before moving to the UK I don't think

[Mirzam]

Vaccination is not mandatory in the UK, none are needed for entry into school. Of course they push them just as hard as they do in the US.

[Gitti]

http://www.ketezeregy.hu/oltas/de/eimpfkal.html

Neither Ireland nor the UK require any vaccines. There are no laws to get vaccines to enter school in either country.

otoh - big pHARMa is powerful and pushes all the crap they produce in every country in the world including the UK and Ireland. If you just continue to ignore their propaganda, you should have no problems.

[poppan]

If your children are dual citizens (of US-UK or US-Ireland), then looking into school requirements would suffice. If they would have to go through an actual immigration process -- i.e., apply for residency/citizenship -- then you would have to look at the actual immigration requirements. I do not know what the requirements are for UK or Ireland, but I know when my husband applied for his US residency (green card) he had to have a medical exam, and the INS (now called BCIS) had a list of immunizations that he had to have proof of (they accepted his childhood immunization card from Sweden), titers drawn for, or he had to have the shots unless the INS doctor deemed it medically inappropriate. So he had to get a couple of booster shots. I don't know if the UK or Ireland have similar policies, just sharing what the US one is.

[DoulaLyndsey]

That's definitely refreshing to hear. I had searched the NHS website for answers, but couldn't find anything about exemptions or anything, just what vaccines to get and when.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by DoulaLyndsey

That's definitely refreshing to hear. I had searched the NHS website for answers, but couldn't find anything about exemptions or anything, just what vaccines to get and when.

There is actually an exemption form for the US immigration vaccinations, so there may be one for your destination as well.