Revised Form I-693 for Medical Exams Required, Effective April 28, 2017

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a revised Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record (I-693 form). The new version of the form has been updated to better comply with the gonorrhea testing requirement implemented in August 2016. Effective April 28, 2017, the USCIS will no longer accept prior versions of form I-693.

Form I-693 and Gonorrhea Testing

Form I-693, which must be completed by a civil surgeon following a medical exam, must be submitted by most I-485 applicants who are 15 years of age or older. As of August 2016, as discussed in the MurthyDotCom NewsBrief, Change in Medical Exam Requirements Leads to RFEs (26.Sep.2017), gonorrhea has been added to the list of diseases civil surgeons must test for when completing an I-693.

The revised version of the I-693 form, with an issuance date of 02/07/17 indicated at the bottom of each page of the form, now includes a section related to gonorrhea testing.

Old Form No Longer Accepted After April 28, 2017

The previous version of the I-693 did not contain a specific section related to gonorrhea testing. Instead, physicians were instructed to annotate the results of the gonorrhea test in the remarks section of the form. The prior version of the I-693 will no longer be accepted by the USCIS, effective April 28, 2017.

Conclusion

Any applicant required to submit an I-693 to the USCIS should ensure that the civil surgeon is completing the proper version of the form. Even before April 28, 2017, the doctor should annotate the form with the required notation for all tests required by law. Even a relatively small, simple error, such as submitting an expired version of a form, can prove costly.

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