Watch Him Go

It wasn't easy moving from a country where if you're sick they treat you (eventually) to a country whose health system runs on insurance. The most complex form of insurance I'd dealt with before moving to the US involved paying fifteen quid to a company at university who promised to reimburse me if my posters were stolen.

I flailed pathetically amidst the standard procedures for, say, registering with a doctor. I veered away from prospective dentists as though their office administrators had halitosis.
I was afraid.

I feared copays, prescription paying, paying for the wrong thing...I feared Ignorance Tax.
With the marvellous and dare I say it disbelievingly encouraging help of my good lady wife I bested all of these hurdles.

Krissa, as the petitioner for my visa (as the lingo goes) had to deal with the bulk of the bureaucratic paperwork from the US end. This meant that by the time I arrived, she was a veteran at navigating websites, deciphering jargon, interpreting instructions and carrying out regular seances in order to divine the next step in the visa process.
Krissa is a formidably capable woman, and while I read Visa Journey.com, the USCIS site, and sifted through our paperwork at home, I felt things were pretty straightforward as a result of her organisation, and I really needn't be that worried about it all.
Which is a tragic attitude to have, I apologise.

But today I think I pulled of a nifty bureaucratic coup de grace, which has me feeling rather good about coming up short in my role as 'benificiary'.

Last night I started calling around Civil Surgeons near my office. Considering that the Federal Building is around here, and there are hundreds of dusty second floor-window neon signs for 'Immigration Help' 'Visa Legal Services' in the area, it's not surprising that the sort of Doctor who specialises in the medicals and vaccinations for Green Card Applications congregate around here as well. I think my situation is pretty rare - one particular type of visa, one quirk of the system, one missing form, one box to tick. But when I started taking quotes for how much it would cost to get my UK vaccination history transferred into the US format, costs varied.
$70ish.
$125.
$175.
So I made three appointments, setting up the cheapest quote for the earliest appointment...I wasn't too sure that the quote on the phone would match up to the quote in person...and what they would actually charge when I'd managed to get across all the details was anyone's guess.

At lunchtime I set off, armed with my binder with all the relevant FAQ pages from the USCIS website printed out and highlighted, the relevant official documents (also highlighted), my passport, my Employment Authorization Card, everything...all cross-referenced with side tabs and notes in the form of post-its, a bowing homage to Krissa's fabulous and much larger-scale organization.

Which was great, because at the first place, I handed it all over and charmed the pants off the receptionist, and fifteen minutes later I walked out of the place, desired US document in my pocket, without having had to be inocculated against The Pox, all for the rather excellent price of $25.