K-1 Visa-Dublin Embassy

[okaygrave 1]

Hey nmr! Luckily, mine did not. We were able to contact his GP (general practitioner) from his childhood and they were able to give us directions to get his records. If I can recall correctly, because the records were at least 10+ years old, they had scanned them into a system and were able to just email us PDFs of everything they had. I don't know if it was the full set of everything, but all of the records covered what was/is needed for the medical exam and the Adjustment of Status change later (apart from him having to get the tetanus booster and varicella shots).

 

Sorry to hear about having to go through another step and hassle Hopefully you guys were able to get everything else.

[CH & JO 16]

On 7/27/2017 at 0:23 PM, nmr said:

Did any of your guys have trouble getting the vaccination records from the health serivce? The process has been unreal for us because they have NO records of his mmr.  He has had to get a blood test to verify immunity instead. 

Sorry to hear you are having trouble with that nmr. My partner's parents had a booklet the Irish Government gave out in the 1990s with all the vaccine names and a place for the GP to sign off when he received each one. He took this to the Matter and they accepted it.

 

I don't think the HSE would have many records going back but then again it would depend on the year of your partners birth and possibly the area they were living in.

 

Keep your chin up and all these little hick-ups will be laughing points in a month or two when you are together again :-)

 

[okaygrave 1]

Hey everyone!

 

This is probably a big shot in the dark, but we got back our Visa interview date and it's six weeks out but at least it is on the books. However, we have been trying to process the payment with a Debit card and it keeps saying "declined". I've called my bank (there is money) and the card is working with no issues so wondering if anyone else experienced this problem?

 

We've tried two different cards (one from U.S. and one from Ireland) now and both came back with the same problem. Not sure if someone else had this problem and they got an answer about what to do from support or not.

[nmr 0]

Oh my GOD.  6 weeks for an interview?  That is absolutely horrendous.  Not sure what payment you mean.  Are you speaking of the one that you make with the DS-160?

[okaygrave 1]

1 hour ago, nmr said:

Oh my GOD.  6 weeks for an interview?  That is absolutely horrendous.  Not sure what payment you mean.  Are you speaking of the one that you make with the DS-160?

Hey nmr! Ya, it definitely put a small dent in the spirits but at least there is now some true light at the end of the tunnel. I don't actually recall making a payment with the DS-160 but there has been so many forms, paperwork, processing that I don't remember haha.

 

After you turn in your notice of readiness they direct you to a new website to go pay for the Visa and confirm the appointment time they give you. There are only two payment options for the Visa (Debit card transaction or wire transfer). The Debit card transaction wasn't working with any of the U.S. cards I had, we finally were able to prompt one through with one of my fiance's relative's cards. The customer support was no help and my banking institution here in the U.S. was dumbfounded but luckily we worked around it. The other option, wire transfer, can only be done with a bank account in Ireland so that was going to be even more of a struggle if we couldn't get the Debit cards to work.

 

Hope all is well!

[PaddyGirl13 75]

On 7/27/2017 at 11:23 AM, nmr said:

Did any of your guys have trouble getting the vaccination records from the health serivce? The process has been unreal for us because they have NO records of his mmr.  He has had to get a blood test to verify immunity instead. 

I called the HSE when I needed my record of vaccinations, I told them my date of birth (1973) and the guy laughed and said, "nah, we'll never find those". Ended up getting the blood test and it proved I had all required vaccinations. All I needed was the tetanus as it'd been over 10yrs. 

[CH & JO 16]

Hi everyone,

 

First off okaygrave- I am very sorry that you have to wait 6 weeks. That is frustrating. Hopefully there will be a cancellation and you guys will get an appointment earlier.

 

My partner had his interview yesterday and he is 97% done. The Embassy rejected his passport because the name as it appears on his passport was not the same as the one of his birth certificate. We are working on getting him a new passport. Hopefully the Irish passport office will be quick!

 

He passed the question part and said they asked him basic stuff like how we met and what we studied in school. Also asked him how he planned on making a living once going to the US.

 

He dealt with two people at the Embassy. The first who was Irish looked through all his paperwork. They asked for no documents proving on-going relationship. The second was American and asked him the typical interview style questions.

 

All in all it was an easy process. Just a fair warning to anyone out there who may have changed their name as an adult that they do not accept the change of name process available in Ireland. Your paperwork and identity documents must reflect your name at birth.

 

Hope everyone else is doing well!

[MajaB 2]

On 8/10/2017 at 8:43 PM, PaddyGirl13 said:

I called the HSE when I needed my record of vaccinations, I told them my date of birth (1973) and the guy laughed and said, "nah, we'll never find those". Ended up getting the blood test and it proved I had all required vaccinations. All I needed was the tetanus as it'd been over 10yrs. 

What are the blood tests you had to do to prove you have the required vaccinations?  I need to get them done as well. But don't know how to ask for them.

[nmr 0]

They had no record of his mmr or chicken pox, so he asked his doctor for the blood tests to prove immunity.  The doctor emailed those results to the medical exam hospital.  The medical exam results were picked up today.  The results were ready 13 days after the medical exam.   We are submitting our notice of readiness today.  Hopefully our scheduled interview time will be reasonable. Fingers crossed.

[PaddyGirl13 75]

3 hours ago, MajaB said:

What are the blood tests you had to do to prove you have the required vaccinations?  I need to get them done as well. But don't know how to ask for them.

Ask for a "titre test" for the required vaccinations. 

[MajaB 2]

7 minutes ago, PaddyGirl13 said:

Ask for a "titre test" for the required vaccinations. 

Thanks!! This is a very helpful information.

 

I am actually surprised there aren't that many people talking about this.  

[okaygrave 1]

Hey CH & JO!

 

I'm sorry to hear about the passport ordeal. That seems really odd that his passport has to match his birth certificate, especially if there is some proof of a legal name change or something. Hopefully, they will be really quick as well and everything can be resolved soon! Thanks so much for sharing the experience and what happened at the Embassy - the insight is really helpful. 

 

I highly doubt we'll get a new date. When we went to process the payment and schedule, they didn't have our date in the system so I had to reach out and they informed me a few days later it was now there and we could schedule. The embassy doesn't seem like the flexible type and filling slots so I know now we'll just have to be patient and wait. But it's a short road now compared to the long wait before  

 

nmr - Congrats on putting in your notice of readiness! I hope you guys get an interview date that is much shorter than 6 weeks out, although I'll be jealous if you get something before us  

 

I hope everyone else is doing well!!! 

[CH & JO 16]

Hey Everyone,

 

I hope you are all well and none of your partners were affected by the recent flooding in Ireland.

 

My partner's visa got approved yesterday! Very exciting. We are waiting on DPD to come to the Embassy to pick it up. Hopefully he will have his passport back in a week's time and can fly out. We have a booking at City Hall for Thursday 31st August. In theory that should be enough time for the passport to get to him from Baile Atha Cliath.

 

I thought it might be useful to share a bit of information about the DPD/courier process that we were able to reach/inquiry about.

 

DPD does not come to the Embassy everyday. The official Embassy answer to how often they collect is every 4-5 business days. At the DPD customer service center, for security reasons they were not able to tell me which days they do collect things but the person on the phone was nice enough to say that it is on a 'logical day for collection'. I am guessing this means Friday is one of the pick up days. From the Embassy it goes to the depot in Dublin and then the main Sortation Hub in Athlone. They say they sort packages Monday-Friday and go through 50,000 a night. It is sorted based on region and then is sent onto that regions hub. For more information on where the hubs are look here: https://dpd.ie/Pickup

 

In the case of Galway the regional hub is in Ballybane Industrial Estate. My partner was able to talk to someone on the phone there. They are open till 6:30 at night which is good. And you can talk to a real live person.

 

From the central regional hub it is either 1) Brought to a pick up location 2) brought directly to the address on the package.

 

I thought this information might be helpful to some of you.

 

As always- best of luck no matter what stage you are at!

[okaygrave 1]

On 8/24/2017 at 8:49 AM, CH & JO said:

My partner's visa got approved yesterday!

Hey CH & JO! Congrats!! I'm so excited for you guys and wish you both a lifetime of love and happiness

 

Thank you so much for the additional information! This was very insightful and I can only hope for an extremely quick turn around for your fiance's passport to be back in hand and on his way over to you! 

[nmr 0]

So, here is how everything went down for us.

 

Medical exam- August 1st

Medical results ready-August 15th

Notice of Readiness sent-August 23rd

Interview appointment sent-August 24th

**Interview-August 29th**

 

My fiance just finished his interview.  He said that they asked boatloads of questions about our me, himself and our relationship including how he proposed and wedding plans.  Didn't ask to see proof of continuing relationship or any other documents. 

 

He was told that he will receive his passport back with the sealed visa in 10 days.  The visa should be opened by US pre-clearance when he comes over to the US and that he should arrive to the airport an additional 1-2 hours early for the the flight.