Time Necessary for K1 Medical/Embassy Visit

[john2001 0]

Hi all,

I am planning out my fiancee's travel and I have a question about timing with the K1 Visa. We are currently in the USA and waiting NOA2. (She is visiting me with a tourist visa). My question is, once her paperwork has been processed, how long does she need in her home country to do her medical exam, fingerprints, etc.. and go to the interview? Is it possible she could fly home, do the necessary things, and return to the USA within 1 week? How much time is typical?

It's not clear to me exactly what remains for her to be done and when those things are completed. Are there more things she has to complete in her home country before she will even get the Interview date? Or do they give the interview date and then she has to schedule medical stuff on her own? Please advise. Our goal is to minimize the amount of time she must spend back home. For reference her nationality is Croatian and she is being processed by the Embassy in Vienna. (She lives in Austria).

Thanks for your help,

John

[HeatDeath 431]

You might want to try asking this in the European regional forum for more specific answers, but I can tell you how it worked for me.

A few weeks after you get the NOA2, the Vienna embassy will mail a small package of forms to her Croatian address. She NEEDS someone to pick those up. Now, some consulates send forms, and some send a letter with the URL to get the forms, it varies. Either way, she will need to fill out those forms and mail or fax them back to the embassy. Some consulates/embassies want them faxed, some want them mailed, and some just want them brought to the interview, I have no idea what Vienna prefers. you're going to need to find a way to get her the contents of the Packet 3, and to follow it's instructions and get everything necessary back to the Vienna embassy.

Assuming that can be done from North America, she will probably need no more than a week in Vienna to do the immigration medical and interview. I went through the Vancouver, Canada consulate, and I was able to do my medical and interview the same day, and pick up my passport with the visa the next day. There's a good chance it will tke them longer than that, and that they will mail the passport with visa, and visa packet back to her Croatian address. She would need some way to get it, so you might want to budget 2 weeks in Europe for that.

Someone who's personally dealt with the Vienna embassy will be able to give you more concrete information about the contents of their Packet 3 and the time it takes them to prepare the visa after approval.

[john2001 0]

Wow, thanks for the helpful and in-depth response! I just checked out the Vienna Embassy website and they seem to have all the forms available there for download. The embassy wouldn't care if we mailed the documents from America would they ?

Thanks again for your help.

[HeatDeath 431]

I would email the embassy itself to confirm, but I'm pretty sure it's fine to mail in the Packet 3 forms from the US.

Vienna may be differnet, but I found, during my consulate visa application stage, that emaiing the consulate directly was the best way to get fast, authoritative answers to procedural questions regarding the visa application process. Vancouver, at least, is very good about responding promptly to precedural questions. Vienna may or may not be, as consulates and embassies seem to vary radically in this department, but it's worth a shot.

[marlea 84]

You should really check with someone who has gone through the Vienna embassy to find out what they think. My fiance is going through London, and that will require two trips to London, at least a week apart or more, and then up to a 2 week wait to get the visa from the embassy. The medical must be done at one of two possible doctor's offices in London, and it must be done at least 5 days before the interview is scheduled. After that, the interview will also be in London, and if he is approved they will keep his passport and it will be delivered to him by courier. This could be just a few days later, or it could be a few weeks. That is why it's so important to find out information specific to the embassy your are dealing with as they all function very differently. For some embassies, a week could be enough time. For others, a week will be WAY too little and someone should plan for about a month.

Edited August 20, 2010 by marlea