Packet 3 Saudi (Jeddah/Mecca)

[Becca and Doody 18]

There is not much to read on VJ that's Saudi specific so I thought I'd share my finance's experience getting the medical and police clearance certificate, etc.

My fiancé is from Mekkah so the closest location for the medical is Jeddah. The only hospital that does the medical for U.S. immigrant visas is AbuZinadah Hospital (مستشفى ابو زنادة)

Jeddah - Hail Street - P.O. Box 7360 Jeddah 21462

website: www.abuzinadah-hospital.com

email: abuzinadah_hospital@yahoo.com

tel.: +966 12 651 0652.

hours: 7am-12pm and 4pm-7pm Sunday - Thursday

If you call the number one Egyptian guy will answer (speaking Arabic). My fiancé was first told he didn't need an appointment, and then later he was told he needed one. So one night close to closing time he went to the hospital wanting to set an appointment and he immediately started the medical. They took a chest x-ray, blood sample, and a stool sample (that my fiancé was very unprepared for ). The medical costs 500 Saudi Riyals for these initial tests. After finishing this in under half an hour he had to come back after 2 days for an appointment with a doctor for the physical and vaccinations which cost another 211 riyals for the vaccinations (varies depending on personal vaccination record) and 20 riyals for the service. A week later he was able to go pick up the brown envelope which should not be opened and taken to the interview as well as a copy of vaccinations and a CD with the chest x-ray to take to the U.S. for AOS.

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For the Police Clearance Certificate you will need to follow the instructions in Packet 3 to make an appointment at the nearest consulate. For Jeddah you can choose your appointment time online from what is available. My fiancé went inside and took a receipt (although the paper he needed doesn't cost anything). He was inside for about an hour. He got an ordinary piece of paper with the signature and stamp of the consular. Then he had to take this paper to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (وزارة الخرجية) back in Mecca, where he's from. A stamp and signature costs 30 riyals. Then he took the paper to the Police Station. There they were telling everybody to come back after one week. The police man told my fiancé to wait around until people were gone and they started the paper work for him and took his fingerprints (in ink). Then he was told to come back the next morning to collect the certificate. After this he took it to Aledresi Authorised Translation Office in Mecca. One page translation is 50 riyals. They put the translation in a sealed package to be taken to the embassy.

Another VJ user (Mishaal) has a very good guide on getting the Police clearance Certificate in Riyadh:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/410428-riyadh-police-clearance-certificate/#entry5933364

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After you have gotten all the required documents and paid the MRV fee you should print the DS-160 confirmation page and send it along with a copy of your passport and two 2"x2" (5 X 5 cm) American style passport photos to the American embassy in Riyadh. Their address is in Packet 3 email. This will let them know you are ready for your interview and they should schedule you a time and date. They recommend using SMSA Express to mail the documents. My fiancé send the documents by Saudi Post. I don't know if this makes any difference because it is sent to a P.O. Box. And it took 10 days (after the mail had reached the P.O. Box) before an employee of the embassy came to sign for and pick up the mail. The day after they picked up the mail our CEAC status date had changed meaning hopefully they did something with our case, although we still have not received an interview date.

My fiancé finished everything very quickly, but with the embassy I feel we're on Arab time (taking their sweet time and getting to our papers eventually INSHAALLAH).

[dreamzunlimited 16]

Thanks for Sharing.