I am looking at Kiev's website for the K-1 interview process and going through the flowchart. For Kiev, the Packet 3 can be downloaded off the net, which is what I did to prepare ahead of time for my fiancee's interview. Now in the VJ K-1 guide it says some doc's will be prepared and sent to the Embassy before an interview can be scheduled. Now, according to the information from Kiev (and my assumption is that each Embassy does things a little differently apparently), the Packet that is sent out instructs the beneficiary as to what docs are required and to assemble them, then call and make an appointment for the interview. Well, if I already have downloaded the Packet 3, there doesn't seem to be any reason for my fiancee to delay gathering the documents such as police report, translated birth certificate, etc. So...it seems that we could call in and schedule the medical and interview as soon as she gets the Packet 3...or even before, as long as the Embassy has received our K-1 application from DHL (and according to tracking, it is in Germany now and getting ready for the final leg to Kiev), since I've already downloaded the Packet 3 and we will be filling out the DS156 and 156K from the downloaded packet ahead of time. Anyone see any flaw in my reasoning to get the medical and interview scheduled? BTW I will be bringing all my necessary docs to my fiancee this Thursday when I fly out to Ukraine to spend a month with her.

Anybody?

Olga's gathering everything right now - so that on the great day when the info arrives at the embassy from NVC we can call to set up the appointment - rather than wait on the Ukrainian mail service to notify us. One thing you will need to complete the forms is the A#, if I recall correctly, and that isn't given until the petition hits the NVC.

Just as a further note, the Kiev embassy doesn't have a packet 3 or 4 they just have what they call an "infomation packet" which has the KEV-1 checklist. You're supposed to call when you have the information complete for the embassy - not necessarily when you have their information packet in your hand. Who knows, you might get lucky and receive an interview date in one week, like someone else did a couple months ago. I've already filled out the DS1566 and sent it to Olga as well.

You're right, I went through the Kiev US Embassy site more thoroughly and they state that since Ukrainian mail is slow and unreliable that it's okay to download the packet and start assembling the information right away when they get the application packet from NVC. My fiancee's best friend had her interview in January, she got the appointment date 1 week after she called in to schedule it. I would imagine it's fairly fast in Kiev as it does not seem like they get a ton of applicants but who knows, I could be wrong...

That's exactly what we did - scheduled interview before packet was rec'd in the mail. The packet DID finally show up, but we already had interview scheduled and all documents ready. Best of luck to you.

- tJ