Visa Update

Yep, They're Still Pushing The Covid Jabs

In January of 2020 I began looking for an immigration or visa lawyer to help me with my husband’s case for coming to America. I had reasoned that the cost might be paid back 10 fold by savings on travel expenses, wasted time and costs associated with procuring documents, plus the fact that lawyers probably knew how to streamline cases through. I still stick by that assessment.

I never got a lawyer. I emailed five, three of whom did not reply at all, while one asked for a pretty high upfront amount, say $650 or something, to even look at the case. The last one was replied to by a paralegal who suggested that I do an emergency petition filing on my husband. I did that, on the basis of Ka’s epilepsy and the fact that my husband should not live alone. As the Covid storm gathered steam this petition was ultimately denied in late February of 2020. Then the world shut down because apparently Hell seemed like a nice place to be or something. So here we are.

I’m in a time warp where what I do tomorrow is directly determined by what happens today. Within a few short hours yesterday afternoon I went from checking out of a hotel in Bangkok, to checking bus tickets to Phuket, to checking hotels in Bangkok, to checking flights to the USA, to checking bus tickets back to Phuket. Here’s what documents they claim are needed for my husband’s visa to go to the USA.

Now the police clearance certificate didn’t look very hard, and thankfully it wasn’t. Ka was checked out and cleared in 2021 but my understanding is you need an updated copy less than one year old. I don’t understand why in this day and digital age as the human tracking and record keeping software has become so advanced that if my husband got arrested I suspect the US Embassy might know that before I do. Regardless we were pleasantly surprised when the woman at the counter informed us that the Police Clearance would be ready in two days, which is less than the 10-15 days advertised. I was thrilled and considered staying in Bangkok to pick it up. If everything was turned in on time a visa could be issued for my husband as soon as the next business day.

So we picked up Ka’s passport for his medical exam. Everything was coming down to that.

Despite signs urging everybody to wear facemasks at Bumrungrad Hospital, I’d say 25% to 30% of visitors were not. 100% of the staff wore facemasks, however. I’d already paid about $110 USD for the physician exam. They were working on scheduling for it upstairs for what felt like a few hours. I’d already told them that my husband was not Covid vaccinated and explained how I felt he should have a medical exemption to all jabs.

Finally two nurses approached us with a long form all about vaccines. “Your husband he have Covid vaccine right?” The first nurse questioned us.

“No. I email you before about this. He don’t have any vaccine.” I responded back.

“Not even one vaccine?” She questioned incredulously.

“No. I don’t think he should get any vaccine.” Ka had wisely signed something downstairs explained to him in Thai and in English to me that I could be his respresentative. “You go I go.” He’d told me. I was happy about this.

“But you only need one Covid vaccine!” The nurse said, smiling through her facemask. “Just one shot!”

Her answer bothered me. “Okay.” I said. “But that doesn’t even make sense based on the original marketing materials. I mean the only one and done shot was J&J and that was never even offered in Thailand.”

The nurse shook her head nervously. “I don’t know about that.”

I continued. “I think they discontinued it anyways. But Thailand was a mix and match country. So would this one shot be Sinovac or Sinopharm? Or would it be Astra Zeneca, or Pfizer or Moderna? What would be the batch or lot number? Some of these are pretty harmless and some look very dangerous. And for that matter would they be giving him the new shot, or the old shot?” I was thinking that if this was just a matter of procuring a jab certificate somewhere, somehow, this might not be a bad deal.

The second nurse stepped in then. I could tell they were both uncomfortable. She shot down my first idea. “Yes but he also need other vaccines.”

“I read the list there’s like 42 on there.”

“No no not everyone! Just these ones!” She handed me the paper on vaccination which circled all of the jabs his age group had listed as “recommended.” It listed DTAP, MMR, Varicella (chicken pox), Hep B (even though they give a test for this at the same visit), and Influenza.

“See I don’t think my husband should be getting any of these vaccines either. He has a medical condition called epilepsy. He shock!” I tried to show graphically with my hands clenched into fists and shaking and my mouth clenched. For those who have never seen somebody have a grand mal seizure, it is a terrifying thing to witness. All voluntary movement stops and Ka falls down with his fists clenched, his eyes rolled back into his head and foam coming from his mouth. Sometimes the white foam becomes tinged with blood as it is common for him to bite his tongue and if I have enough warning I place a thin book in his mouth to prevent this from happening. I hold his head up and time the seizure. Anything over four minutes can lead to permanent brain damage and I believe he has short term memory loss from past seizures as is common with epileptics. I’ve seen it and considered that he might not come out of one enough times that the idea of some jabs pushing his body over the edge again in that direction is an unbearable thought for me.

“I don’t shock long time!” Ka shot back defensively to both me and the two nurses.

“You had a seizure in September!’ I said exasperated. “Okay it was the first one in over two years. But I don’t want to ever see again! Do you do medical exemptions for vaccines?” I questioned the nurses.

They both seemed very nervous now. “We cannot do if your husband not have Covid vaccine.”

“That’s not what the US Embassy website says regarding the panel physicians.” I said back. “Heck it even says under their discretion they can do religious exemptions.” My feeling is those physicians would lose their license if they didn’t upsell vaccines to every single person who comes in the room.

“We don’t know what US Embassy say. But you talk with them.”

“So I cannot book an appointment for my husband’s physical exam? Because I know you do other stuff like x rays and blood tests. I was thinking maybe can do that and then if no vaccine you can say okay, he not pass because no vaccine. But he still have other exam.”

“No cannot. You talk to US Embassy.” So we’re back in Phuket today.

Now presuming my husband’s police clearance passes and no other weird lawfare out of the blue type of things were to come up, it all comes down to the vaccines. What a sham story this is. I have to apparently bypass the physical exam altogether without them, which seems to show that they have nothing to do with protecting public health whatsoever. Sure, my husband could test positive for all kinds of illegal drugs, or have tuberculosis, syphillis, hepatitis, HIV or stage 4 lung cancer which shows up his chest x-ray, or have all of the above, but if he has no Covid jab there will be no service. Obviously I don’t think he has any of those things as all are asymptomatic if he did, but apparently I like it kinky like that.

So I’m back on the square of filing an exemption letter to the US Embassy and feeling my way around it. If there seems to be substantial delays due to it, I either have a choice to abandon this visa filing wholesale while trying to find a new class of visas which do not involve a medical exam, or trying to get my husband a visa to Mexico. I’m becoming more serious about the Southern Border option. Downsides are that me habla poquito espanol while Ka speaks no Spanish at all. I am also sure border guards could detain my husband and put him through all kinds of things we don’t even know about. The border mess has facilitated all kinds of shady activities from human trafficking to drug smuggling to yes, even terrorism. Mostly they’ve made legal immigration near impossible. How would they handle an American citizen who just wants to take her Thai husband of over four years back to her Las Vegas house?

On the plus side our three dogs missed us, but are all here and appear to have been well fed by people in the area during our 2 1/2 week absence from Phuket. Somebody has blocked the main dirt road out of here with a sturdy fence grounded in cement. Although there may be small trails that motorbikes can cross on, now the only way for a car or truck to drive out of this area is through the military barracks. That is the same miltary which wants to take over the land on this back block. That’s a clear sign they’re putting pressure on again to leave the area. It doesn’t appear that anyone stayed at the bungalow other than the dogs sleeping on our bed, but brother Tee found the wheels to the motorbike and took it out along with a fan while we were gone. I think this area is winding down and I’m more than ready to leave.

How I get to the USA without my husband needing a Covid and other jabs remains the question.

Artwork for the day is a colored pencil drawing of blue whales which I originally made years ago but which became faded with mold and was recently reworked. I mailed it to BlueSpynx some weeks ago as he has been very generous with everything. I am poor at expressing gratitude to my supporters and paid subscribers but I’m trying to think of ways. Perhaps I should start painting again.

Round 3 coming soon. For now Ka has his passport back. And after an adventure in Laos, I have mine too…

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