Clarification on when I can schedule interview and medical

[NatO23 235]

Hi all,

 

Sorry if this is a common question... I've looked at the K1 flowchart and done some digging around to try and find this info, but I'm still unsure about when I can schedule my medical and interview, and complete my online form. I know the NVC gives us a new case number when it's receives our case after NOA2, but does that number allow me to complete my online stuff and get my appointments scheduled? Or do I have to wait until I hear from the embassy in London before I can move towards those final steps? Any more detail or clarification would be very much appreciated. 

 

Thanks!

[fishe23a 240]

Hey there - you are welcome to scan through the threads over in the London K-1 forum. It was an older forum from the fall/summer, but several users resurrected it for those of us who applied in November. You may find some of your answers over there. Long story short, you must wait for a number of steps before doing that.

 

1. You must wait for your NOA-2 - which right now it taking roughly 75-100 calendar days for uncomplicated cases from Receipt Date (for you 1/23/17) - so count 75-100 days forward from 1/23/17 and that is ROUGHLY when your case will be adjudicated (either they will send you an RFE (request for evidence) or an NOA-2 (approval).

 

2. After you receive your NOA-2, USCIS forwards the case to the NVC. You can start calling the NVC's non-immigrant visa line at 603-334-0888 from 7a-midnight EST M-F; they usually will receive your case from USCIS about two weeks after the NOA-2 date. When you call, you give them your USCIS case number (WAC17900*****) and eventually (about two weeks) they will be able to give you a LND (London embassy specific) case number, as well as a IIN (Invoice Identification Number, which will eventually be required when you are filling out the form to pay visa fees.)

 

3. Once you have the LND number, the beneficiary may use it to schedule the medical at Knightsbridge Doctors. There are other steps involved with the medical - questions can be answered at many other locations so I won't go into them. But the medical can often be scheduled as early as two weeks out from the date of receiving the LND case number. During this time you can also submit the DS-160 visa application required of all K-1 applicants. You do NOT need the letter from the embassy to schedule the medical; it's helpful if you have the letter with you when you go to the medical, but not required.

 

4. Once the NVC has the case, they appear to be taking about three business days to be completing your file and sending the case to the London embassy. It seems to take about two weeks from that date for the London embassy to receive and process both the electronic and paper portions of the application. After they have done this, you will be able to schedule the interview. You DO need to have received the letter from the embassy in order to schedule your interview. People right now whose cases are ready have been able to schedule their interviews for about 3-4 weeks in the future from there.

 

5. No matter what, you have to leave at least 5 business days between the medical and the interview so that the embassy's system has time to register all of the information from the medical exam. 

 

I've left out a LOT of the procedural steps, which you can dig for elsewhere. I just answered your question based on timeline of how it all seems to be happening, and included links to the K-1 visa page that explains things on the UK's website, and the forum for folks currently in the final waiting to schedule an interview stage in the UK. I would please ask that you read the entire forum and information from the government website before asking any quesitons; it's quite frustrating when users from VJ ask questions already answered somewhere else in the exact same forum. Not saying you have done that - but just please read through all of it (15 pages, not so long) before you ask questions that can obviously be answered just by reading the thread.

 

This link explains all of the steps you need to take for the K-1. https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fiancee-2/

 

 

[NatO23 235]

2 hours ago, fishe23a said:

Hey there - you are welcome to scan through the threads over in the London K-1 forum. It was an older forum from the fall/summer, but several users resurrected it for those of us who applied in November. You may find some of your answers over there. Long story short, you must wait for a number of steps before doing that.

 

1. You must wait for your NOA-2 - which right now it taking roughly 75-100 calendar days for uncomplicated cases from Receipt Date (for you 1/23/17) - so count 75-100 days forward from 1/23/17 and that is ROUGHLY when your case will be adjudicated (either they will send you an RFE (request for evidence) or an NOA-2 (approval).

 

2. After you receive your NOA-2, USCIS forwards the case to the NVC. You can start calling the NVC's non-immigrant visa line at 603-334-0888 from 7a-midnight EST M-F; they usually will receive your case from USCIS about two weeks after the NOA-2 date. When you call, you give them your USCIS case number (WAC17900*****) and eventually (about two weeks) they will be able to give you a LND (London embassy specific) case number, as well as a IIN (Invoice Identification Number, which will eventually be required when you are filling out the form to pay visa fees.)

 

3. Once you have the LND number, the beneficiary may use it to schedule the medical at Knightsbridge Doctors. There are other steps involved with the medical - questions can be answered at many other locations so I won't go into them. But the medical can often be scheduled as early as two weeks out from the date of receiving the LND case number. During this time you can also submit the DS-160 visa application required of all K-1 applicants. You do NOT need the letter from the embassy to schedule the medical; it's helpful if you have the letter with you when you go to the medical, but not required.

 

4. Once the NVC has the case, they appear to be taking about three business days to be completing your file and sending the case to the London embassy. It seems to take about two weeks from that date for the London embassy to receive and process both the electronic and paper portions of the application. After they have done this, you will be able to schedule the interview. You DO need to have received the letter from the embassy in order to schedule your interview. People right now whose cases are ready have been able to schedule their interviews for about 3-4 weeks in the future from there.

 

5. No matter what, you have to leave at least 5 business days between the medical and the interview so that the embassy's system has time to register all of the information from the medical exam. 

 

I've left out a LOT of the procedural steps, which you can dig for elsewhere. I just answered your question based on timeline of how it all seems to be happening, and included links to the K-1 visa page that explains things on the UK's website, and the forum for folks currently in the final waiting to schedule an interview stage in the UK. I would please ask that you read the entire forum and information from the government website before asking any quesitons; it's quite frustrating when users from VJ ask questions already answered somewhere else in the exact same forum. Not saying you have done that - but just please read through all of it (15 pages, not so long) before you ask questions that can obviously be answered just by reading the thread.

 

This link explains all of the steps you need to take for the K-1. https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/fiancee-2/

 

 

Thank you so much for this - I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that and clarify what I need to wait for each step of the way. I know I have a long way to go yet, but it's really helpful to know all of this. It was the order of the appointment bookings/letters from embassy etc that was confusing me, but this explains it perfectly. Apologies if I've asked a common question that's been answered a lot, and thanks again for your help.

[fishe23a 240]

8 hours ago, NatO23 said:

Thank you so much for this - I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that and clarify what I need to wait for each step of the way. I know I have a long way to go yet, but it's really helpful to know all of this. It was the order of the appointment bookings/letters from embassy etc that was confusing me, but this explains it perfectly. Apologies if I've asked a common question that's been answered a lot, and thanks again for your help.

 

No worries! It is certainly a common question, but also one that it's very difficult to find the answers to (hence why we all have this question...since USCIS is VERY unhelpful in this arena and there is very little on the US government website to explain the next steps. I've found being here on VJ and hunting around on other websites is where I have found the most information that I simply would never have had if I had just relied on the US govt websites!) My comments were more...just in being in some other threads, sometimes people ask a question, get a pretty good answer...then a new person asks the same question on the same thread a couple pages later when they could have read the thread. I think the links I gave are pretty good resources for those spots. I hope that your NOA-2 comes sooner than later and you're able to be on to the next steps!

[NatO23 235]

20 hours ago, fishe23a said:

No worries! It is certainly a common question, but also one that it's very difficult to find the answers to (hence why we all have this question...since USCIS is VERY unhelpful in this arena and there is very little on the US government website to explain the next steps. I've found being here on VJ and hunting around on other websites is where I have found the most information that I simply would never have had if I had just relied on the US govt websites!) My comments were more...just in being in some other threads, sometimes people ask a question, get a pretty good answer...then a new person asks the same question on the same thread a couple pages later when they could have read the thread. I think the links I gave are pretty good resources for those spots. I hope that your NOA-2 comes sooner than later and you're able to be on to the next steps!

Thanks! And good luck to you - I can see from your timeline that you're getting very close to the final stages now. That's fantastic, and it's nice to see a fellow Brit getting through the process well.