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Law Forum

New Vaccination Requirements

by Carl Shusterman
Attorney-At-Law

Section 341 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996 imposed certain vaccination requirements on all persons seeking green cars in the U.S. These requirement apply to persons seeking to adjust their status to permanent residence in the U.S. as well as to those who apply for immigrant visas to enter the U.S.

Required Vaccinations

The law requires that would-be immigrants be vaccinated against the following diseases:
  1. Mumps

  2. Measles

  3. Rubella ("German measles")

  4. Polio

  5. Tetanus and diphtheria toxoids

  6. Pertussis

  7. Influenza type b

  8. Varicella

  9. Pnemococcal

  10. Hepatitis B, and

  11. Any other "vaccine preventable" diseases that may be recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The law requires that aliens who file green card applications after September 30, 1996 submit documentation that they have received vaccinations against each of the above diseases. It is expected that, in particular, documentation of the Hepatitis B vaccine may cause problems and delays since this vaccine is unavailable in many countries and is administered in two shots given six months apart.


Waivers

The law allows an alien to apply for a waiver if:
  1. The alien later receives the vaccines that were initially missing during the examination;

  2. The panel physician determines that administering the vaccine(s) would not be medically appropriate; or

  3. Compliance with the vaccination requirement would be contrary to the alien's religious beliefs or moral convictions. To date, INS regulations implementing this final waiver ground have yet to be published.


Implementation

The reason that the new vaccination requirement has not caused major problems for green card applications is that it has only sporactically been implemented by INS, EOIR (the Immigration Courts) and the State Department.

It has been implemented in somewhat spotty fashion by the some INS offices and by some overzealous INS Trial Attorneys in Removal Proceedings. However, in an April memorandum signed by Secretary of State Madeline Albright, all immigrant visa applicants who are interviewed on or after July 1, 1997 are required to meet the vaccination requirements despite the absence of the above-referenced INS regulations.

It is instructive to note that the State Department memorandum is far from inflexible. For example, section 8 provides that "based on the CDC instructions, panel physicians will determine which vaccinations are medically appropriate for the individual applicant". The same section also states that "applicants are not required to receive a full series of vaccinations if this would delay their immigration, and can request a waiver. They are, however, urged to complete the series after their arrival in the U.S."


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