Every state and DC maintains a confidential, computerized vaccination database called an Immunization Information System, or IIS. If you were vaccinated anywhere in the United States — as a child in school, at a pediatrician’s office, or at a pharmacy during a catch-up series — there is a real chance your doses are already logged in one of these systems, even if the paper card you were handed at the time is long gone. For applicants preparing Form I-693, an IIS lookup is one of the fastest, most overlooked ways to hand your civil surgeon a record that will actually be accepted, rather than showing up to your appointment with nothing but memory.
This is different from reconstructing a history from scratch or trying to get an overseas clinic to send transcripts. If any part of your vaccination history happened on U.S. soil, the registry route is usually the first thing to try — before you consider affidavits, provider-by-provider phone calls, or repeat doses.
What a State Immunization Registry Actually Is
An IIS is a state or local health department system that providers are required or strongly encouraged to report doses into every time they administer a vaccine. Over years, this builds a consolidated record that follows you across pediatricians, school clinics, pharmacies, and urgent care visits — even ones you’ve long forgotten about. Because reporting is a provider obligation rather than something you have to set up yourself, a record can exist in a registry even if you never asked for one and never received documentation at the time.
These systems are state-specific, not national. If you lived in more than one state growing up or moved partway through a vaccination series, your history may be split across more than one registry, and you may need to request records from each state separately.
Examples of How These Registries Work
The details vary state to state, but the pattern is consistent: a secure, provider-facing database with some form of individual access for the people whose data it holds.
- California — CAIR2: California’s statewide registry stores immunization data along with TB test history. California residents can pull up doses through the state’s Digital Vaccine Record portal, or contact the CAIR2 Help Desk directly for assistance locating older records.
- Washington — WAIIS: A lifetime registry covering all ages. Adults can sign up through the state’s MyIR portal to view their own immunization history, or reach the WAIIS Help Desk for records that predate online self-service.
- Massachusetts — MIIS: Reporting into MIIS is mandated by law for any provider administering vaccines in the state, which means coverage tends to be unusually thorough for anyone vaccinated there. Residents can access a digital vaccine card through the state portal.
Most states run something structurally similar, even where the acronym and portal look different. The starting point is always the same: identify the state where the vaccination happened, not necessarily the state where you live now.
How to Request Your Own Records
The process is largely the same regardless of which state’s system you’re dealing with:
- Identify the right state. Figure out every state where you may have been vaccinated, not just your current address. If you moved as a child, that could mean more than one lookup.
- Find that state’s registry contact. Each state publishes its own immunization program contact information, typically through its department of health, with a phone line, an email address, and in many cases a self-service web portal for individuals.
- Provide identifying information. Expect to supply your full legal name (including any name used at the time of vaccination), date of birth, and current address so the registry can match you to a record.
- Request the full history, not a summary. Ask for a complete printout showing vaccine names and administration dates, not just a compliance summary for school or work — a civil surgeon needs the itemized detail, not a pass/fail statement.
- Bring a printed copy to your exam. A civil surgeon generally needs an official record that clearly shows your name, date of birth, and the vaccines with their dates, produced by a clinic or a government health authority. A registry printout on official letterhead typically satisfies that standard.
Access for individuals requesting their own records is typically free of charge; the fees some clinics associate with immunization paperwork are usually charges for the provider’s staff time to compile records, not a fee levied by the registry itself. Turnaround also varies by method — a self-service online portal can return a record almost immediately, while a mailed or faxed request to a help desk can take longer, so it’s worth starting this well before your scheduled exam rather than the week of.
When the Registry Comes Up Empty
Registries are strong but not complete. Coverage improved significantly over the past two decades, so older doses — especially anything given before the early 2000s in some states — are less likely to be logged than recent ones. A registry search can also come back empty if you were vaccinated under a different name, a different spelling, or in a state that didn’t yet have a functioning system at the time.
If a registry search turns up nothing, don’t treat that as proof the vaccines never happened — it usually just means the paper trail predates electronic reporting. At that point the right move is to go back to the specific providers, school districts, or clinics you actually remember using, since their own paper archives can sometimes fill in what the state system never captured. A civil surgeon can also order titer testing to confirm immunity for doses that can’t be documented any other way, which is a separate path from records recovery entirely.
Start the Lookup Before You Book Your Exam
Because vaccination records for a green card medical exam need to be in hand at the appointment, not sourced afterward, the smartest sequence is to run your state immunization registry search first, then schedule your civil surgeon visit once you know what you’re bringing. It costs nothing to check, it often resolves gaps that would otherwise turn into an incomplete Form I-693, and for anyone with any U.S. vaccination history, it’s usually faster than any alternative path to documentation.