Getting so frustrated

[elephanzo 4]

Ideally, my fiancé and I would rather live in Australia (his country) but the cost of the visa is $7000 vs $2000 for him to come here, so we opted for him to move here. So we THOUGHT the cost for the k-1 would be $2000 for him to come here... it is SO MUCH more. Please everyone, be aware that there are many more expensive hidden costs.

That cost did not include the cost for the D-160 which was $300. Listen to this though... he filed the D-160 and attempted to pay it online and it said "payment denied" so he tried it again and it said it went through the second time. Later that day while checking his email he noticed that there were two receipts, so he was charged twice. When it said the first payment was denied, the payment went through. So he got charged the $300 twice. He emailed them explaining and they basically said tough luck and that they will not refund any money paid under any circumstances. Isn't this like illegal!?!?!

So anyways, my very patient finance let it go that they charged him an extra $300.

Next comes the medical. All health care is free in Australia. Yes, we expected to pay for a medical but they said the cost of his medical would be $600!!! $600 to have a doctor quickly evaluate him!!! THAT PRICE DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY VACCINATIONS HE WILL NEED. With the vaccines factored in to the cost, we can assume that his medical will cost closer to $1,000.

So this so far is an additional $1600 that we were not planning on paying and we haven't even gotten to the interview step yet.

We can only assume that there will be many more hidden fees as we move along in the process. What is heartbreaking about this is that if these costs keep adding up they will be close to being as expensive as the Australian visa for me to move there and we preferred to live in Australia anyways, but we went this route because we thought it was so much cheaper.

Lastly, we received his alien registration number hand written on a document and we seriously thought it was a joke how bad the person's hand writing is. We can not make out like 4 of the numbers. Can not make them out no matter how hard we try!!

We showed both of our family and friends and no one can make out this persons hand writing. Why on earth would someone not take the time to write clearly on such an important legal document? It is like they are intentionally trying to make this harder on us than it has to be. So they can't issue his medical until after we can provide them with this number but there is no phone number to wherever this document came from. His interview date is coming up. It actually came up too quickly. As soon as he filed the d-160, they issued the interview for 22 days later. He hadn't done his medical yet or his police finger prints. The police finger prints take up to 15 days and the medical says it has to be done at least 3 weeks before the interview, but they gave us the interview date for 3 weeks away. How do they expect that to work? We emailed them asking them for a later interview date and they said no. AHHHH!

[Amhara 460]

Oh wow! But have him get the vaccinations elsewhere (or not at all for K-1) and only pay the $600 for the medical exam. Wow!

[elephanzo 4]

Oh wow! But have him get the vaccinations elsewhere (or not at all for K-1) and only pay the $600 for the medical exam. Wow!

Does that mean he doesn't have to get all of his vaccinations before he comes to the US? Could he still get approved at his interview and get the vaccines at a later date? Or even in America?

[Amhara 460]

Does that mean he doesn't have to get all of his vaccinations before he comes to the US? Could he still get approved at his interview and get the vaccines at a later date? Or even in America?

Correct. If he gets then in Australia, then he will need proof of the vaccinations from that doctor. If you guys wait for him to come to the US, you will need to show proof of all vaccinations at the AOS stage. See which one is cheaper. You can wait for him to come here, get married, put him on your insurance, then have them all administered by your provider before doing AOS, but if his health care is free now, go for the Australian doctor!

"K visa applicants are encouraged to get the vaccinations required under U.S. immigration law for immigrant visa applicants. Although such vaccinations are not required for K visa issuance, they will be required when adjusting status to that of legal permanent resident following your marriage." (http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/family/fiance-k-1.html#7) Check under Medical Examination and Vaccination Requirements subheading.

Btw, what's your consulate? Your timeline says "Armenia"?

[Amhara 460]

Did you fiance call the DoS/USEM or did he contact the CGI Group, who manages ustraveldocs.com? The refund refusal is very strange...

(http://www.ustraveldocs.com/au/au-main-contactus.asp)

[elephanzo 4]

Did you fiance call the DoS/USEM or did he contact the CGI Group, who manages ustraveldocs.com? The refund refusal is very strange...

(http://www.ustraveldocs.com/au/au-main-contactus.asp)

The consulate we are dealing with is Sydney. I might have clicked something else in error. Thank you SO MUCH for your response. Now we know we can do the vaccinations by another doctor. But I am guessing the medical is still necessary before to do in his home country before the interview? That would be great if we could do the medical in the US!

He emailed support at USTraveldocs. It honestly seems illegal to me. How can you deny a refund to someone if your system double charged? It's like they purposely make their system unreliable so it charges people twice so that they can then inform the person that "we do not issues refunds." this is the message they wrote back to him.

"Thank you for writing U.S. Visa Service Desk.

Please be advised that we cannot process a refund for MRV fees. Applicants are advised to contact us if they experience issues when making payment and not pay again. The fees are not refundable.

We hope this information is helpful to you.

Please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/gss_australia to share feedback on the services we provide.

Have a pleasant day!

Regards,

US Visa Service Desk"

[Amhara 460]

No, you need to get the medical done at an approved civil surgeon abroad; however, the fiance visa fee is only $265 USD, so it's at least only $35 dollars less than what you originally thought you lost. I know it's so frustrating when you lose that big chunk of change! (We could do a LOT with that money!!)

But I really think you need to look at other available civil surgeons. I don't think they will all cost $600. In Sidney, it looks like the medical costs $390 AUD, which is $270 USD. (http://www.visajourney.com/consulates/index.php?ctry=Australia&cty=Sydney) Maybe you need a bit more research. If the closest civil surgeon is $600 USD, it may be worth a trip to another one? The most updated fees are showing in Queensland for $485 AUD, being $335 USD.

INFORMATION ON VISA JOURNEY CONSULATE REVIEW PORTAL:

(September 2015) QUEENSLAND (Dr. Ross Taylor, Anzac Square Medical Center)

Total Medical Examination (including blood tests and x-rays): $485 AUD

(Sept 2008)QUEENSLAND (Cairns Tourist & Local Medical Services)

Total: $620.00 AU

Doctor Appt: $275.00

X-Ray: $70.00

Blood Test: $200.00

Immunizations: (Hep A/C needed): $75.00

SYDNEY - Dr Joseph Waks (as of 8th Feb 2012) - TOTAL: $390.00 AUD

Medical: $275.00 AU

Blood Tests: $35.00 AU

X-Ray: $80.00 AU

Medical cost in Brisbane:

Medical $220

Blood tests $73.90

X-ray $88

Medical cost in Melbourne(March 2014)

Medical:$405.00 (including Blood tests + X-Ray)

Additional vaccination costs vary.

Postal :$7 or free local pick-up, usually in 5 business days

[KayDeeCee 4,891]

Civil surgeons are in the US. The ones conducting immigrant visa exams abroad are panel physicians.

If you don't get the required vaccinations before or at the time of the K-1 medical and have them marked off on the DS-3025, then you will have to go through the hassle of finding a civil surgeon in the US that will do only the vaccinations and not insist on a new medical that is not needed. It is an option though because the vaccinations are required for AOS and not the K-1 visa itself.

You only need certain vaccinations. They are based on age and season. You need one in a series of MMR, Tdap/TD, varicella(unless you had chickenpox already), and a flu shot(only during flu season). >http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/exams/ti/civil/vaccination-civil-technical-instructions.html#tbl1

Also, check out this post that explains a lot about what is needed for AOS > http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/551080-immunizations-ds-3025-or-i-693/

[vanessalga 8]

To OP:

1- maybe these questions would be better answered if posted in the Aussie forum

2 - Syd has just a couple of doctors that do this exam. I did mine over 1y ago and the charge was over AUD $400. Might be $600 now.

3 - he can go to a GP for the vaccines. He might get some covered by Medicare (free) but he might have to pay for the ones not covered by the health system. Even if he has to pay I suggest he takes them there. It is still cheaper than here -talking by experience

4 - if after arriving in the U.S. and getting married his AOS takes more than 1y to be approved, USCIS might request him to do another exam. The cost here varies. I had to pay $250...

5 - yes, there are loads of unexpected costs

6 - email Syd embassy with his details and ask for his A#. Also mention the duplicated fee. In my experience they respond in 24h and are very reasonable.

7 - all considered I think it will still be cheaper than the $7k in australia but yes, life in australia is better:)

[TBoneTX 43,044]

*** Country-specific thread moved from K-1 Process forum to the Australia/New Zealand regional subforum. ***

[MickAmy 26]

I am unsure where you are getting all of the unexpected fees. We are at the same stage as you are in the process and everything we knew well and truly ahead of time that we had to pay. The medical in Sydney is 430 AU, in Brisbane it is 495 AU. I know this as my fiance just set his up and called around while I was there. His finger prints and police record ran just over 100 AU, and the Visa I paid for which was 245 USD so just over 300 AU. There are no fees at the embassy, we already looked that up. He went to his local office to get a blood test for his vaccines. When they have the results back, they will know which ones he still needs. Some may be covered by the free health care at his own physician, he just has to take those vaccine records in with him to his medical. You don't need to worry about the police check or the medical being at the embassy during the interview, we have spoken with the embassy and as long as they are scheduled or done, there should not be an issue. My fiance's medical isn't until the day before his interview because we were also fast tracked and scheduled our interview just two weeks from Packet 4.

In total, our costs have only been the 1-129f which was just over 300 USD, Police records 130 AUD, VISA 245 USD, Medical 495 AUD. He may have to pay about 100 for vaccines but that's all of the costs. So we spent truly less than 2000 AUD or USD for the entire thing. The plane ticket to the US will cost the most out of the entire process.

One question I have is where did you get an Alien number from? All of our numbers needed were acquired in official documents from the USCIS and NVC. There shouldn't be anything hand written. If you don't know about the the number, just call the NVC and they will provide it to you. You should have received 3 different numbers from them. I hope this helps.

Make sure you call around for the medical prices, we called 4 different ones and not a single one quoted us over 500 unless we included immunizations. Also call the NVC to get your numbers and get on the phone with the embassy and ustraveldocs to try to sort out the money they overcharged. Worst case, your fiance should be able to contact their financial institution and get it sorted. They should be able to clearly see it was a double charge. Don't lose hope and remember to breath, you guys are nearly to the end.

[Adil & Jeanne 296]

This can get really expensive

We kept doing the things immigration asked for

1. trip to meet / visa dienied

2 trip to marry

then they wanted to see honeymoon separate from 2 months of marriage trip

then adding him to the deed to my house, insurance, things others do for citzenship and AOS

all in all it has costs over $35000 with just what immigration said to do

and i quit adding after i hit the $35000 mark/ oh, i should take off $3000 for the lawyer / as they did not say to get one / and trust me they are worthless

[Neopol 0]

I agree with MickAmy, we did so much research before we started the visa application. The ONLY thing that took us by surprise was the MRV fee, simply because that fee somehow slipped through the cracks, but $350 really isn't that much. The money hasn't been a problem compared to the US visa process (which is outdated). But yeah, the DS-160 doesn't have a fee, it's just the visa fee (like I said the MRV fee). I totally get the frustration of how unorganized this process is, but you need to read all of the fine print before you start a K-1 visa. I've seen so many people who have "broken the rules" to the point where their entire visas have been voided, simply because they weren't aware of what the rules were.

I'm generally someone who skims over the "terms and conditions," but with this visa, I have read everything ten times over just to make sure. I hope everything goes well with your visa as it comes to a close. Best of luck.

[Neopol 0]

Oh and in case anyone hasn't said it, vaccinations are required before you go to the US, because in Australia, the K-1 visa is considered an immigrant visa.

[Amhara 460]

Oh and in case anyone hasn't said it, vaccinations are required before you go to the US, because in Australia, the K-1 visa is considered an immigrant visa.

Vaccinations for the K-1 are NOT required for entry to the US. They are required for the AOS after entry.

They are NOT required for entry into the US for a K-1 visa holder. I posted the link above to cite my source.