The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

I’m a “green card” holder — the formal term is “resident alien” — and was required, or as we now say, mandated to get some vaccines, despite coming from a first-world country with better life expectancies that the U.S..

Here’s the current version of that mandate for immigrants and resident aliens, from Chapter 9 of the USCIS Policy Manual:

A. Vaccination Requirements for Immigrants

Some vaccines are expressly required by statute. Others are required because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have determined they are in the interest of public health.^[1]

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)^[2] specifies the following vaccinations:

• Mumps, measles, rubella;
• Polio;
• Tetanus and diphtheria toxoids;^[3]
• Pertussis;
• Haemophilius influenza type B; and
• Hepatitis B.

CDC requires the following additional vaccines for immigration purposes:

• Varicella;
• Influenza;
• Pneumococcal pneumonia;
• Rotavirus;
• Hepatitis A;
• Meningococcal; and
• COVID-19.

If the applicant has not received any of the listed vaccinations and the vaccinations are age appropriate and medically appropriate, the applicant has a Class A condition and is inadmissible. Generally, all age appropriate vaccine rows of the vaccination assessment must have at least one entry before the assessment can be considered to have been properly completed. However, the COVID-19 vaccination (required as of October 1, 2021) differs in that the applicant must complete the entire vaccine series (one or two doses depending on formulation).^[4]

You’re not going to hear the anti-vax crowd complain about the mandate for immigrants and resident aliens, and you‘ve probably also figured out the reason why.