Unvaccinated exchange student -

[Gitti]

wants to spend a year in the US.

They told her she has to get Hep B, MMR, DTaP, TB testing results or TBC. All must be up to date.

How can she best handle that situation? She is a healthy 15 yr. old.

I can only find religious exemptions for the individual states.

[amnesiac]

Who is "they"?

[KikaKika]

Is she coming to the USA through an exchange agency program?
If she is - these are very strict and ALL of the requirements need to be fullfilled.
Which country is she coming from? Do you know which state or states agency offers as placement?

If you prefer, PM me, and, yes I have some ideas, but need to hear more info first

[In Exile]

Depends on the visa etc. Waivers with USCIS don't come exactly cheap- and most Doctors will act as if there are none. They will hold your visa-paperwork "hostage" until you comply, a lot of them play that game and simply don't hand it over- especially when they know that you will miss you visa issuing date without the vaccines, it's pretty sad.

More info could be useful.

[Gitti]

This is the program she is going through.

http://google.ef.com/master/welcome/...chool.asp?ps=y

She is from Austria.

The Family went to the US embassy in Vienna and were told that there is no mandatory vaccines law in the US. But the EF program requests that she is vaccinated.

They are asking whether they can file a religious exemption?

I don't know which state she is going to be staying in. I can find out if that would help but would she be using a state exemption for that state's school?

[kiara7]

If she can get a paper signed by a doctor stating that she has all the vaccines (a list of what "she has had") - that would be the easiest thing for everyone. Program coordinators will not be checking anything with her doc.

School exemptions would depend if she is participating in a federally sponsored program or if it's private (if her parents are paying for her to come here). Sponsored by the Dept. of State, if she can - go the above route, otherwise she'll probably need to get the shots. Private, she might have more freedom, but I don't know much about that.

Good Luck!

[Gitti]

She has had NO vaccines.

ETA:

The family is paying for it privately. There are no sponsors involved.

[In Exile]

Oh my, EF...My brother (from Germany) did an exchange year in Canada and that meant a lot of paperwork. What visa is EF intending on getting? (because then she can start looking for the appropriat exemptions)

Fact is: USCIS looooooves to force vaccines onto people coming in. She better starts looking for an "Amtsarzt", that is openminded- which is hard to find in an Amtsarzt....

She might want to start at rabeneltern.org-tell her to look for the forum. She needs to ask around what Doctor is openminded when it comes to vaccines, maybe they can direct her to other AP sites where she can find out about it.

She WILL need a visa to stay for a year, that's the problem. She is going to need exemptions for both USCIS (to get the visa) AND the school. That stinks.It really depends on the visa- my brother went to Canada, so that alone is different.

It might also be a hard fight with EF, I know how they made my brother run around. They are 2 routes: Fighting your way through EF, USCIS and the school. Or find somebody that is willing to sign her "Impfausweis" despite knowing she never had vaccines.

Can she at least get a "Titerbestimmung"? That might work in her favor-or not. I had a civil surgeon here in the US that pushed HepA, Hep B, and DTP Booster onto me, talk about a reaction, that day opened my eyes.

It'll be tough. I have an Austrian friend, maybe she can call her Doctor over there (she calls her Doctor in Austria after she had an awful experience with a Doctor here-maybe that guy knows something)

[kiara7]

If she can get a paper signed by a doctor stating that she has all the vaccines (a list of what "she has had") - that would be the easiest thing for everyone.

Or find somebody that is willing to sign her "Impfausweis" despite knowing she never had vaccines.

:

I don't believe she'll have to deal with USCIS, as she'll go to the embassy with her program paperwork and they'll give her a visa, they don't check any vax stuff.

[In Exile]

Depending on the visa the embassy or consulate is going to ask for a "medical"- in order to get that medical she has has stuff to do. Again, it depends on the visa and the process. Let's hope it'll be the easier route.

Check talkaboutusa.com, the visa section and the questions on medicals alone might be quite a read....

Unfortunately everybody that comes to the US on a visa gets put through the ringer- but sometimes the organization collects the paperwork for them-but it still means dealing with the issue. My brother got the runaround with EF, lots of paperwork and the Vax booklet was one of the biggies. Nobody coming to the US is spared-even if the konsulates do the visa issueing. Normally you have to show up there with a whole bunch of things-and only if you have all things necessary you maybe get your visa. It's quite an effort.

[Gitti]

Im Exil -

Thanks for your pm.



Any other suggestions?

The family is paying for everything. No sponsors involved.