Since I've nothing better to do than research and bug people with questions - was wondering if anyone with a packet 3 in hand currently could confirm that their checklist still looks like this one that was uploaded and linked here in June, 2006:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...acket+questions

I suppose the quickest way to tell if they are the same is to check the form and date number on the bottom of the pages - "IV15, June 2005."

Always good to keep on top of these things and keep the collective intelligence here as fresh as possible!

Can anyone confirm?

Hi. We got our Packet 3 on 2nd March (18 days ago) and it was identical to the link you listed. I hope that helps?

Ooooooh. I'm liking this! I missed that previous thread you linked, Daisy.

I'm especially fond of Page 7, and the Public Charge provisions. Very interesting and very specific to London.

I'm also curious - after seeing the form - why so many posters are confused about whether or not to send birth certs, etc. with the checklist. It clearly states (at least twice) to save those forms for the interview.

The form is MUCH different than it was in the Summer/Fall of 2005. I think it's more clear and VERY helpful.

I got the same checklist, but it said August 2006 on the bottom.

Okay, so there are different dates on the bottom of later forms? That's interesting (as is the thought that a form stamped "June 2005" would be different from what someone saw in the summer of 2005! But come to think of it, not much is surprising in this process when it comes to levels of craziness, is it.

I'd love to see, if possible, a pinned topic where people can post links to uploaded forms - or a request to upload scans to the gallery, etc (though pdfs would be best!), along the lines of how we keep that RFE thread at the top of the K1 forum. That way we'd see any checklist changes, etc, and people could see easily where to go to demystify the mythical packet 3!

This is the same one I got last year

Daisy, some forms are shown here in VJ in the "Gallery".

Yeah, but those are dated Oct 02 - even older than the June 05 one that's the latest upload I could find.

I'd still love for anyone with packet 3 in hand to scan and upload the latest checklist.

Why? People have already stated that is the one they have IN HAND now! Not to mention you can see what's in P3 by going to the VJ UK embassy page.

Somebody very recently scanned their Packet 3 into a thread on this forum. For the life of me I cannot find it! I thought I bookmarked it, but that might be at home. I will have a more thorough look for you later!

Because if we had a high quality scan of packet 3 available to us, as soon as we know it's been mailed (better yet, as soon as we get our case number for the next step), we can print out our own damn copies of everything and jump the gun! Hello - speed up the system, no? Why wait for them to send us copies of materials that are in no way person-specific? Plus, information eases fear. Seeing everything - for real, what it looks like - generally makes people feel better about the process.



If you look at my first post, I think it's the link you're talking about having seen. I was just confirming that the link was to the most recent checklist available. We now have reports of there being a checklist with an August 2006 date on the bottom. I'd like to see it, or whatever might be newer, if it exists.

It's about proactivity, y'all! The faster we can amass all our stuff, the better. This seems like an easy way to do it.

I disagree. You are mailed your P3 when the embassy logs you in their database. You sending it first might confuse them or they might just throw it away since they haven't put you in the system yet! They also could possibly backlog you, I'm not saying definitely, but there may be favoritism. There were issues when a certain UKer emailed the embassy too often.

All you need to do now is download sample forms (& practice if it makes you feel better, as the forms are brought to interview NOT mailed in) & send off for your police certificate.

I'm not going to fear retribution from an Embassy employee. There's too much to worry about to get into urban immigration legend here.

As soon as they receive our information from NVC, we have a number assigned, correct? So long as you have that case number, there seems to be no reason why you couldn't fill out and return the forms while the set sent by the Embassy is still in the mail. Does it shave off that much time? No, probably not. But I don't believe I said it was wise to attempt to submit data before you are logged into the Embassy's system.

But honestly, what is the big deal. If you don't have the information I'm looking for, that's totally cool, no sweat. But I don't think it's a bad thing to actively seek out. It helps everyone here if we all monitor changes - even tiny ones.

And you are incorrect on the forms based on the plain language of the most recent checklist available. The FORMS they send out (the DS-xxs), are to be filled out and returned "straight away." The DOCUMENTS that you must collect that are listed on the checklist, are to be brought to the interview. The CHECKLIST itself can be mailed back either WITH the forms (if you're ready) or later on, once you have everything in your hands.

Incorrect. The packet three forms are mailed back to the embassy.

my bad, it's been awhile.


I stand by the fact that you should wait for your P3 forms though.

That's definitely not the same one I was referring to! It was earlier this year - like in January or early Febuary - I remember printing it out for Griff before he went back to the UK on 10 Feb. I'll dig around a bit more when I get home.

Easy to urge patience when your loved one is at your side.

I will opt for educated action when possible.

And regardless of when anything gets mailed it is STILL useful to see the most recent available checklist in real life, rather than what the website says. If for no other reason than I feel like seeing it.

If no one has it, no one has it.

Hey, I'm all for education & research. I've certainly done mine on this process, relied on those who've gone before, and continued to research before posting questions.

Yes, my loved one is here. But my husband & I lived apart for a year while going through the fiance visa. We lived in London together for 2 years prior to this visa process. I'm WELL AWARE of what patience is. Don't tell me I don't know patience. We went through IMBRA, which had all of us VJers on permanent hold. You're lucky you will skip that.

You've been waiting 2 months!!!, and you have a long road ahead with P3, P4, interview then AOS, I hope you find some patience before then!

I know what you mean, I have problems sometimes remembering everything correctly. Wasn't THAT long ago, but long enough.



Yup, wouldn't wish IMBRA on anyone, I had to deal with that aswell.

Um.

*raises hand to testify*

The newer P3 I am seeing, while better written and more thorough, contains NOTHING NEW IN THE WORLD to the one my husband got nearly 2 years ago. I really don't think there's much more one could learn about interview preparation and readiness from a still newer one.

If you want to ADD processing time to your case, go ahead and mail in a set of documents before you receive P3 from the consulate. NVC may assign you a case number, but the rest of the process goes like this:

- NVC sticks your file in a box.
- Box gets shipped to the London consulate.
- Box sits in consulate storeroom till the others in front of it get dealt with.
- Your file gets pulled from the box.
- It gets put on somebody's desk.
- It eventually gets logged onto the consulate system.

It's always seemed to me that P3 comes from London in a very timely manner. I'm all for using the DS etc. forms that are online, filling them out in advance in readiness for P3 to arrive, and AS SOON AS P3 arrives, fill out the checklist and - boom - ship it off straightaway.

Stopping by very very quickly (will be back later!) to say...

TD, if it would make you feel better, I can send you a photo of the August 2006 checklist I have? I would love to scan a copy and post it on here, but a) I don't have a scanner, and b ) the only copy I now have is not of the blank checklist, it's a photocopy of it once I'd filled it in. But it is pretty much identical in every way, except for a few minor changes... so to hopefully put your mind at rest (yes, I have failed in my attempts to keep off VJ this evening and work my way through some of this vast mountain of stuff I need to put on eBay, and have checked it line-by-line against that PDF of the June 2005 'version'), here they are:

1) The June 2005 one says, on page one: <i>"<b>Step Four</b> - complete and return this document checklist to us so that we know you are ready to be called for your visa interview once your application has been fully processed." </i>

My August 2006 one says: <i>"<b>Step Four</b> - complete and return this document checklist to us so that we know you are ready to be called for your visa interview once your application has been fully processed and your medical results have been received." </i>

2) The August 2006 one contains a note about visa issuance not being guaranteed (do not sell your house and give up your job until you have your visa in hand, blah blah blah)

3) The June 2005 checklist didn't contain the urls for downloading the DS-156, etc, presumably because they were included with Packet 3. The August 2006 one tells you where to find the forms, and says they 'should be completed online and downloaded'.

4) Instead of 'please complete both sides' on the instructions for the DS-230 Part 1, it says 'you only need to complete pages 1 and 2'. Presumably because they used to include a double-sided form, and now you need to download and print it out yourself...

5) The bit about the DS-157 mentions that in addition to male applicants aged between 16 and 45, female applicants aged over 16 from China/Cuba/Iran/Libya/North Korea/Russia/Sudan/Syria have to fill it in as well.

6) The instructions for Step Two say, at the end of the first sentence (about checking the boxes to show you have the documents in your possession) that you must bring them to the interview rather than send them in.

7) There's more detailed info about police certificates - telling you to check the info on the Embassy's site, and that many countries require fingerprints to process police certificates, and that the police certificate is valid for one year... and some other stuff about them not being available from some countries.

8) It now says you need two colour photographs, not three.

9) The 'evidence of support' bit now contains the url to download the I-134.



If you're dead set on being able to send back the checklist as soon as you know your LND number (an idea which definitely occurred to me - in the end I settled for having the forms filled in, printed out and ready to go, so I could fill in the checklist as soon as I got it and send it with the forms... I was too worried that by sending stuff in before I knew for a fact that the Embassy had processed my details etc, I'd just end up causing myself delays and problems - like Devilette mentioned. Call me paranoid!), you probably could just use the 2005 version - it does contain all the same items you're meant to be collecting, only they now want just two photos instead of one! I'm sorry I don't have a blank version of the checklist (even if I did, I couldn't do much with it as I don't have a scanner!) - maybe if you really want one, someone else can scan it?!

That's exactly what I did... that way I could get everything sent off ASAP, without the fear that I was going to p*ss off someone at the Embassy by sending them stuff before they'd even got round to opening the packet from the NVC with our approved petition in it, or otherwise delaying things in my haste to make them happen quicker!

I don't think one needs to worry about p*ssing them off. I think one only need be concerned about the consulate trying to match up documents to files.

I can't count on my fingers and toes the number of times I have seen London interviews delayed because of beneficiaries mailing in the forms without the checklist, etc. etc.

We mailed off P3 straightaway (BTW we sent it from the US) and we mailed it in its entirety - checklist and all forms. We had an assigned interview date in less than a month.

Maybe not, but remember how it took Vaginajourney THREE MONTHS to get an interview date? And she was banned from sending any more emails to the consulate. Who knows.....

Thanks to all with the constructive comments - they are appreciated.

And like I have said, now several times, I was never going to send anything in BEFORE I knew they had our file there.

(as for who has what kind of patience or whatever - we ALL have sh*ty waits, that much we can agree on. I'm not trying out out miss-my-man anyone.)

Grrr... my post is full of formatting 'cos I forgot to use the little buttons instead of typing html tag thingies. Ah well...

... anyway, sorry, I missed the bit about you definitely not wanting to send the checklist (etc) back before you knew they had your file - but even if you had been planning on doing that, I most certainly wasn't trying to have a go at you over it - because I was chomping at the bit wanting to get my forms to the Embassy within about 10 seconds of receiving our NOA2, pretty much! (Well, maybe not quite that enthusiastic, but not far off.... I do remember a bit of mild fretting because Packet 3 arrived on a Saturday, which meant I would have to wait allll the way until Monday to call and book a medical, and thus lose valuable, uh, seconds, by not being able to send the whole lot back on the Saturday afternoon. Oh dear!)

I think we're all crazed butineedtodoitrightnowbecauseifidon'tmyheadwillexplode people during this process, right?

Hell, buxton babe got packet 3 at 10:30am and mailed it back at like noon. THAT'S impressive!