The 4 Year Journey

[brightfuture78 118]

My fiancé attended her K1 visa interview on the morning of January 20th and was approved (according to the adjudicator). Her and her daughter's passports were taken and they were given pamphlets about their approval and what to do next. This was by far the easiest step in our journey.

 

If you've seen any of my previous topics, you might recall that we started the process back in 2018. Everything went pretty smoothly until we got to St. Luke's. During the medical exam, she was flagged for sputum due to some "cloudiness" on her chest x-ray. 6 1/2 weeks into waiting for the sputum culture results, she received a call from SLEC to come back. I knew what this meant... but then again, I had no idea just how bad this news was. When my fiancé got back from St. Luke's, she called me up, absolutely distraught by what they told her -  she was told that out of the 3 sputum samples she provided, 2 were clear, while the 3rd one indicated TB bacterial growth.

 

They then informed her that she would need to do 18 MONTHS of DOT. I questioned whether she misheard them, because this absolutely shocked me - the timeframe was 3x what I read others say they had to go through when found positive. Apparently, this turned out to be accurate, as they claimed she had some rare, semi-drug-resistant strain. But... she was completely asymptomatic. I just didn't know what to believe. 

 

In any case, I didn't see any path forward other than complying with the treatment. She had to relocate to Manila and show up in person at SLEC every weekday to take a cocktail of drugs that made her consistently feel ill to the point of struggling to make it back to her apartment without passing out. Her reaction to the meds were so bad on that first day, I wasn't sure she'd be able to endure the treatment... 18 months of it.

 

Strong willed as she is, she somehow got through 12 months of treatment, and then... the pandemic started. St. Luke's emailed her prescriptions and pretty much said 'good luck finding these'. They claimed they would reimburse her for the medications she had to buy out of pocket, if she presented the receipts once they re-open (liars). 

 

Eventually, in November 2020, her DOT was finally completed. During the treatment process, my fiancé was  required to submit a fresh sputum sample every 3 months - oddly, other than that one initial sample that sparked this treatment, every one of the additional samples she provided for the next 18 months were negative for TB. Either the meds were doing an excellent job, or... I'll let you do your own speculations on that.

 

After treatment was completed, SLEC cleared her for travel (with 3 months validity), but... USEM was now closed due to the pandemic. Despite explaining our situation in great detail, USEM repeatedly denied our request to expedite. Our medical results, as well as our visa fees, expired. 'Next time, wait until you can secure a K1 interview before proceeding with the medical exam' USEM said. Wow.

 

We wouldn't be able to get another K1 interview date until November 2021 - one year later. So, she went to St. Luke's again for what would technically be her 3rd medical exam, brought all her previous records of treatment and vaccination. Guess what happened...

 

Flagged for sputum. Again. Yes, I'm serious. 8 more weeks of waiting, with the possibility of being sentenced to DOT again. Honestly, if that had happened, I think that might have been the end of the line. How could I expect her to endure that again?

 

8 weeks passed, and thankfully no call this time. About 7 weeks into waiting for results, I randomly checked the USEM website and saw open interview slots for the entire later half of January 2022. Even though we weren't quite out of the woods with the sputum results, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity - I scheduled for the 20th, which was 3 days after she was scheduled to come back to SLEC for sputum results.

 

Fast forward to today - I think the nightmare may be finally over, but I'm so traumatized by the whole experience that I almost feel numb about it, like I'm still not quite sure it's safe to celebrate. Hopefully, the CFO process is stress-free.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JeanneAdil 6,253]

Congratulations on the visa approval

and so sorry u all went thru this ordeal

it will only make the time u spend together now more rewarding 

the very best to both of u 

[Adventine 3,187]

Sorry it's been so hard on you and your fiancée. Hope it gets easier going forward.

[Girandola 52]

4 hours ago, brightfuture78 said:

Fast forward to today - I think the nightmare may be finally over, but I'm so traumatized by the whole experience that I almost feel numb about it, like I'm still not quite sure it's safe to celebrate. Hopefully, the CFO process is stress-free.  

Congrats! Hopefully everything else goes smooth.

[flicks1998 1,044]

5 hours ago, brightfuture78 said:

My fiancé attended her K1 visa interview on the morning of January 20th and was approved (according to the adjudicator). Her and her daughter's passports were taken and they were given pamphlets about their approval and what to do next. This was by far the easiest step in our journey.

 

If you've seen any of my previous topics, you might recall that we started the process back in 2018. Everything went pretty smoothly until we got to St. Luke's. During the medical exam, she was flagged for sputum due to some "cloudiness" on her chest x-ray. 6 1/2 weeks into waiting for the sputum culture results, she received a call from SLEC to come back. I knew what this meant... but then again, I had no idea just how bad this news was. When my fiancé got back from St. Luke's, she called me up, absolutely distraught by what they told her -  she was told that out of the 3 sputum samples she provided, 2 were clear, while the 3rd one indicated TB bacterial growth.

 

They then informed her that she would need to do 18 MONTHS of DOT. I questioned whether she misheard them, because this absolutely shocked me - the timeframe was 3x what I read others say they had to go through when found positive. Apparently, this turned out to be accurate, as they claimed she had some rare, semi-drug-resistant strain. But... she was completely asymptomatic. I just didn't know what to believe. 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations on getting to the light at the end of the tunnel.  As bad as it sounds, I think you will find that experience providing you strength throughout your relationship.  If the two of you can survive that 4 year period, you can survive anything else.  Its an unbelievable story with a great ending that most couples would never be able to do. 

[PWB 213]

We went though the sputum protocol as well.  She failed because of the mysterious white line, completed the 8 weeks and went back to St. Lukes, failed again went through 8 more weeks.  At the completion of the second 8 weeks they said she was clear but the paperwork was lost.  The embassy tried to get her to take a 3rd test and  I wrote my State Senator and the paperwork was found and visa issued.  Once in America CDC makes you do follow-up testing because you have failed TB testing.  Results for that test were negative.  After all the Government involvement we went to a well respected Pulmonologist and he determined that she never had TB and all this mess was just poor protocol on the part of St. Lukes. So glad you had the resolve to endure this process.

[brightfuture78 118]

1 hour ago, PWB said:

We went though the sputum protocol as well.  She failed because of the mysterious white line, completed the 8 weeks and went back to St. Lukes, failed again went through 8 more weeks.  At the completion of the second 8 weeks they said she was clear but the paperwork was lost.  The embassy tried to get her to take a 3rd test and  I wrote my State Senator and the paperwork was found and visa issued.  Once in America CDC makes you do follow-up testing because you have failed TB testing.  Results for that test were negative.  After all the Government involvement we went to a well respected Pulmonologist and he determined that she never had TB and all this mess was just poor protocol on the part of St. Lukes. So glad you had the resolve to endure this process.

I'm confused by your scenario. I don't understand how your fiancé/spouse failed again after completing the 8 weeks. My understanding is if 8 weeks pass and there is no bacterial growth in the sputum samples, she would proceed to immunization and be done. I'm baffled by the "failed again" part of it. Are you saying they found TB growth in her sputum sample and made her give another sample and wait an additional 8 weeks? Even that doesn't make sense.

[Carpe Vinum 2,314]

Your family is unbreakable now. Congrats!

[PWB 213]

22 hours ago, brightfuture78 said:

I'm confused by your scenario. I don't understand how your fiancé/spouse failed again after completing the 8 weeks. My understanding is if 8 weeks pass and there is no bacterial growth in the sputum samples, she would proceed to immunization and be done. I'm baffled by the "failed again" part of it. Are you saying they found TB growth in her sputum sample and made her give another sample and wait an additional 8 weeks? Even that doesn't make sense.

Medical expired due to covid lockdown.  So new physical and new sputum testing.   

[brightfuture78 118]

30 minutes ago, PWB said:

Medical expired due to covid lockdown.  So new physical and new sputum testing.   

I see. Thanks for explaining. St. Luke's really needs to lose their contract with USEM. Too much incompetence. 

[PWB 213]

1 hour ago, brightfuture78 said:

I see. Thanks for explaining. St. Luke's really needs to lose their contract with USEM. Too much incompetence. 

The problem here is Center for Disease Control, CDC.  The same people who have  created all the confusion on Covid policy are in charge of establishing procedures for the Embassy to follow.