Just finished my medical and it all went smoothly although it took a good 2-2 1/2 hours all up. For Emily, who has requested a report back, here's how it went:
- Had to fill out some forms when you first arrive, then you get taken to a separate waiting room
- First I saw the nurse who took my blood, checked height, weight, eyesight etc, then back to the waiting room. The nurse said I had 'nice juicy veins' and she wished everyone's were that easy, so my tip is to drink a heap of water the day before and on the day of your medical as it makes your veins easier to draw blood from.
- Then I got called in to see the doctor, who had never heard of the Diversity Lottery before but knew how to do the medical as I think he was doing them previously for other types of visas. He said he just attended a conference last week on US immigrant medicals as they had just updated all their medical forms. One thing that I got caught out on was the consulate medical instructions say you need three photos, but he said they'd just updated the requirements to four, so I have to go and bring another photo in this week. I just checked and it still says 3 photos on the website, but he said they needed four for the new forms so make sure you bring four! I also noted on the confirmation email they said to just bring one photo, so that's obviously incorrect.
- A lot of the time was just spent filling out a bunch of forms with me that weren't even medical related including what my intended address in the US was, so make sure you bring that too.
- I had emailed my vaccination record over the day before which he had which had a lot of my vaccinations including Hep A and B abd ADT but didn't I did't have my complete record. I decided to not get the immunity blood test prior even though I knew I had had all my tests and the doctor was fine with that because I had some of the records showing I had had all the regular vaccinations throughout school, he trusted I had had the others, such as MMR and Polio for which I had no records. He also said that the flu vaccination didn't matter much, even though I had already got that one and he just asked me whether or not I had had chicken pox, which I had so he marked me off on that one too. So all up, he determined I didn't need any additional vaccinations. I think having at least part of my vaccination history was helpful as he said that some people have nothing and that's usually when they start having to doing vaccinations.
- I then just had to do a bunch of moving my arms and legs, touch toes etc and we were done.
- The total cost of the consultation was $518.76. I queried why this is different to what is on the website and she wouldn't tell me the breakdown other than to say that there are 'other tests' that are included. My receipt doesn't have a breakdown either so who knows.
- The woman at the front counter said that once the tests and x-rays were done that she would call me to pick it all up.
- I then had to take some of the documents and referral to get my X-ray at another place which was not too far away and as the medical includes the X-ray cost and they courier the X-rays and documents to the doctors, that was it!