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Do I need to translate my vaccination records into English?

Key answer

Translating your vaccination records is optional but useful: only the physician at the medical exam looks at them, and USCIS receives the exam results, not your card. No notary or apostille is needed - at most a certified translation with a translation agency stamp. Practice varies by clinic: some accepted a translation without questions, others refused the booklet without a certified translation and offered an antibody test instead. The easiest route is a Russian-speaking doctor from the accredited list, or a titer test that settles the matter without paperwork.

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

  • I also have a vaccination book since we don't live in Russia. I translated my vaccinations into English, and they were accepted without questions in the new country. Now I need to provide the missing vaccinations and will request a complete list for the MMC.

  • A doctor at the medical examination will only look at your vaccinations. Notarization is not generally required, especially not for the doctor. If you want to translate, you can, but I would just find a Russian-speaking doctor and do my medical examination with them. Then you will only send the results of the medical examination to USCIS, not your medical records from Russia. If you do translate, a certified translation is needed, which means it should have the translation agency's stamp, without a notary or apostille.

  • The clinic did not want to accept the blue book without a certified translation - I had to take a blood test for antibodies, which cost $40 out of the $70 for the entire medical examination. So it all depends on the specific clinic, and the antibody test resolves the paperwork issue.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Sources

All questions on: Consulate and interviewAll questions on: Process and timelinesAll questions on: Document translations

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A reference page built from community experience, not legal advice. Requirements and practice change - verify on uscis.gov.

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