ello everybody,
Indeed this is a Cool Process. Friends, we (Me, Wife, 2 Kids) had a successfull Interview on this day at Chennai. Though I was not active on this forum but I have been following very closely and my thanks goes to each one you for your wishes and postings with valuable information. My special thanks to Bald Eagle, Srifx whose posting was so detailed made me to visualize the whole process and I should blame them in a way for not letting me post questions so often. I will summarize the salient points of my case and experience.
PD : July 2000
AD : May 2001
PKT 3 Mailed : July 16 2001
Interview Date : September 18th 2001
Medicals :
I did my Medicals at Lister Labs one week before hand. No appointment is needed and if you walk before 10 AM you can get the reports by 4 PM. No need to fast, you can have good break fast for the blood work and X- Ray. The correct building is #13 on Jagannathan Steet. You have to carry your Completed Medical form with a Photograph pasted, Passport, Appointment letter, Rs 600 for each person.
Dr. Mathai Thomas :
You need to carry your Passport, Lab Reports, Immunization records from US if any, one Passport size Photograph, Appointment letter and enough cash.
I would discourage any body going to this Doctor just for the simple reason that he lacks minimum commonsence and some how tries to negotiate more vaccinations even though you have them before. He may be a sincere and a strict Doctor but equally I feel he needs to be more logical, understanding and professional. And what pisses me off is the way he rags you asking for the evidence. We had all the Vaccinations for both of my kids and we took the records we got from the Pediatric Hopitals we visited. Each of this record has the previous vaccinations already administered with dates and the present Vaccine that is being administered. Despite that he says he can\'t understand from them what has been given to the kids with dates and if we can\'t provide the proof he may have to administer all of them. Here we argued saying that this is what we have and they were accepeted by the Day Cares in US and why can\'t you. He gave them back to my wife and started asking for the proof and dates of each Vaccination. Though my wife had hard time with the records, she challenged him showed all the dates and vaccinations. Finally he gave two vaccinations one each to my kids. I was expecting he being a Panel Doctor will be very well versed with all formats in US and will take some time in reading them instead depending on us to his job. When my turn came he asked about chicken Pox and I said Yes I had when I was child. Now he asks at what Age. I said may be at 6. He say no I want correct age. I re phrased my answer and said Yes exactly at 6 years. Now he says that cannot be chicken pox, it should be small pox. We are into another argument and his justification is that going by my DOB there was small pox prevalent not chicken pox at that time. I was about to lose my temper but kept cool and said I don\'t know what Pox is prevalent at that time, but I do know what I got and it is Chicken Pox. Again I have to fight for this. Now its the time for Eye exam and already its been two hours. My kids have become so restless and they started messing up his office. Still he wants to do eye exam for my 2 1/2 years old kid who just started reading alphabets and the lady who does this exam was fighting with him to make him read the letters on the screen. Finally after 2 1/2 hours we came out with a shot of MMR to me and my wife and one shot ( not MMR) each to my kids and paid Rs.2500.
TIP : If you have kids make a Summary of all the Vaccinations in seperate sheet and get that signed by your Pediatrician in US. Make an appointment at 4.30 PM so even if it gets late kids can be OK.
Interview :
My interview experience is same as others. Its just a formality to appear in person and submit the documents. We went in at 8 AM and
Indeed this is a Cool Process. Friends, we (Me, Wife, 2 Kids) had a successfull Interview on this day at Chennai. Though I was not active on this forum but I have been following very closely and my thanks goes to each one you for your wishes and postings with valuable information. My special thanks to Bald Eagle, Srifx whose posting was so detailed made me to visualize the whole process and I should blame them in a way for not letting me post questions so often. I will summarize the salient points of my case and experience.
PD : July 2000
AD : May 2001
PKT 3 Mailed : July 16 2001
Interview Date : September 18th 2001
Medicals :
I did my Medicals at Lister Labs one week before hand. No appointment is needed and if you walk before 10 AM you can get the reports by 4 PM. No need to fast, you can have good break fast for the blood work and X- Ray. The correct building is #13 on Jagannathan Steet. You have to carry your Completed Medical form with a Photograph pasted, Passport, Appointment letter, Rs 600 for each person.
Dr. Mathai Thomas :
You need to carry your Passport, Lab Reports, Immunization records from US if any, one Passport size Photograph, Appointment letter and enough cash.
I would discourage any body going to this Doctor just for the simple reason that he lacks minimum commonsence and some how tries to negotiate more vaccinations even though you have them before. He may be a sincere and a strict Doctor but equally I feel he needs to be more logical, understanding and professional. And what pisses me off is the way he rags you asking for the evidence. We had all the Vaccinations for both of my kids and we took the records we got from the Pediatric Hopitals we visited. Each of this record has the previous vaccinations already administered with dates and the present Vaccine that is being administered. Despite that he says he can\'t understand from them what has been given to the kids with dates and if we can\'t provide the proof he may have to administer all of them. Here we argued saying that this is what we have and they were accepeted by the Day Cares in US and why can\'t you. He gave them back to my wife and started asking for the proof and dates of each Vaccination. Though my wife had hard time with the records, she challenged him showed all the dates and vaccinations. Finally he gave two vaccinations one each to my kids. I was expecting he being a Panel Doctor will be very well versed with all formats in US and will take some time in reading them instead depending on us to his job. When my turn came he asked about chicken Pox and I said Yes I had when I was child. Now he asks at what Age. I said may be at 6. He say no I want correct age. I re phrased my answer and said Yes exactly at 6 years. Now he says that cannot be chicken pox, it should be small pox. We are into another argument and his justification is that going by my DOB there was small pox prevalent not chicken pox at that time. I was about to lose my temper but kept cool and said I don\'t know what Pox is prevalent at that time, but I do know what I got and it is Chicken Pox. Again I have to fight for this. Now its the time for Eye exam and already its been two hours. My kids have become so restless and they started messing up his office. Still he wants to do eye exam for my 2 1/2 years old kid who just started reading alphabets and the lady who does this exam was fighting with him to make him read the letters on the screen. Finally after 2 1/2 hours we came out with a shot of MMR to me and my wife and one shot ( not MMR) each to my kids and paid Rs.2500.
TIP : If you have kids make a Summary of all the Vaccinations in seperate sheet and get that signed by your Pediatrician in US. Make an appointment at 4.30 PM so even if it gets late kids can be OK.
Interview :
My interview experience is same as others. Its just a formality to appear in person and submit the documents. We went in at 8 AM and