nica

Love that quote!!

Congratulations, GoingCrazy2012, mrsbinns & kozah I'm glad May went well for so many people!

Out of the 93% how many took the time out to return to the forum to share their experience with us? How many of them actually stop by to say a hearty thank you to any member who always help them hung in there. that is what i would like to know. i think the figures to this is worth taking a look at don't you think?

I can't say I blame the people who, after months and months of stress and agony, just want to leave all this behind them. But of course we're all very lucky that some stay behind to offer their advice!

My husband just got his visa from the courier today! It only took 315 days from sending the I-130 to getting the visa. I'm so relieved it's finally over!

Just nine more days until he's finally here for good.

guys im joining this theard now

i have interview on may 30 at 8:30 am

just yesterday they told me about the interview date

good luck to all of us )))

Welcome!

Amanda&Elvio: April 30 (APPROVED!)

dimples: May 3 (APPROVED!)

DanHill13: May 4 (APPROVED!)

StephanieM: May 4 (APPROVED!)

Matt & Rocio: May 7 (APPROVED!)

Peter D: May 8 (APPROVED!)

cheekyerica: May 9 (APPROVED!)

Divs: May 9 (APPROVED!)

July15: May 9 (AP)

BerryNRocco: May 10 (AP)

Peaksy: May 11 (APPROVED!)

Alaska2012: May 16 (APPROVED!)

ny123: May 16 (APPROVED!)

RiaB: May 17 (APPROVED!)

nica: May 21 (APPROVED!)

Amrita&Terry: May 21 (APPROVED!)

Trav&Shell: May 22 (APPROVED!)

Chrissy&Mark: May 22 (APPROVED!)

diani0626: May 23 (APPROVED!)

GoingCrazy2012: May 30

mrsbinns: May 30

kozah: May 30

APPROVED!!!!

:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:

Congrats!!!!

Amanda&Elvio: April 30 (APPROVED!)

dimples: May 3 (APPROVED!)

DanHill13: May 4 (APPROVED!)

StephanieM: May 4 (APPROVED!)

Matt & Rocio: May 7 (APPROVED!)

Peter D: May 8 (APPROVED!)

cheekyerica: May 9 (APPROVED!)

Divs: May 9 (APPROVED!)

July15: May 9 (AP)

BerryNRocco: May 10 (AP)

Peaksy: May 11 (APPROVED!)

Alaska2012: May 16 (APPROVED!)

ny123: May 16 (APPROVED!)

RiaB: May 17 (APPROVED!)

nica: May 21 (APPROVED!)

Amrita&Terry: May 21 (APPROVED!)

Trav&Shell: May 22 (APPROVED!)

Chrissy&Mark: May 22 (APPROVED!)

diani0626: May 23 (APPROVED!)

GoingCrazy2012: May 30

mrsbinns: May 30

Only two more to go! Good luck to GoingCrazy2012 & mrsbinns

Wohoo!!! Congratulations nica on your Visa Approval! Extremely well done you deserved it

THIS WEEK

nica: May 21 (APPROVED!)

Amrita&Terry: May 21

Trav&Shell: May 22

Chrissy&Mark: May 22

diani0626: May 23

NEXT WEEK

GoingCrazy2012: May 30

mrsbinns: May 30

Thank you so much! It's been a tough few weeks

Best of luck to you and all those with interviews coming up this week and next!

APPROVED!!!

It happened just like yours, Peter... they didn't have the medical results with the file, but the officer went to get them, so there were no problems there. I guess the wait was gruesome (showed up early for an appointment scheduled at 8am, and didn't call me with the results until 11am) and they asked tons of questions, but they didn't ask to see any of the forms or proof of relationship he had brought.

I'm so relieved! He's going to get to come be with me for our anniversary after all

I'm glad your husband is alright. I don't think you need to worry about the interview too much, I had mine last week and although the embassy had my medical results they didn't know they had them (they hadn't been placed with my file) so the interview was carried out on the basis of them not having received the medical results yet. They didn't say it was a rejection pending the medical, they said everything was fine and when they had the medical results I would have my visa in around 10 days. As long as Knightsbridge have said they are fine and are forwarding the results you shouldn't have a problem. If there were any further issues with the results they would let you know.

I hope this helps to relieve some stress, I'm sure there won't be any issues but I will keep my fingers crossed for you

That's really comforting to hear... especially since you only had to wait four days to get your visa! Obviously I still hope the medical results are together with the file at the interview, but if not, I hope our process goes like yours!

Cuz frankly registering your case on the uscis.gov website just makes you nuts its like playin a stare down contest and they ain't movin.

No kidding... our case on USCIS STILL says "Initial Review".

Nica, I don't really know how this works in your country, but I'd still like to take an educated guess here. The day I went for my medicals, there was a young man who was asked to undergo a series of investigations. His interview was coming up the next week, but he was informed that the test results would take six weeks before they became available. He was told to go ahead with the interview and that the hospital would send the medical results to the consulate directly once it was available. Upon further inquiry, what I learned is that you do not get a visa rejection for not having your medical results available. If the interview goes well, your visa will get approved but kept on hold and you'll be issued a slip asking you to submit the medical reports when available. Of course, them holding your visa until the results come would mean that you'd have to reschedule your ticket, but on the brighter side, lemme just tell you that not having medicals with you will not result in an auto rejection of visa. Keep the faith, keep your chin up, and be confident. Hope this li'l piece of info helps. Good luck!!!

You're right, but I think it just depends on what you call it... the consular officer calls it a rejection, but you're right, unless something else goes wrong, they're willing to approve the visa once they receive the clean medical results. The problem, again, is that even if they receive the medical results one day late, that doesn't mean we'll get the visa approved one day late! After they get the medical results, it could be days or weeks before they approve the visa. So I'm really just hoping they're there in time!

What happened? Maybe someone out here can help ease your mind...many people have hiccups with the medical.

The doctor, for some strange reason, thought there might be something wrong health-wise. So they required him to get a bunch of medical tests done (some of which take a minimum of 6 weeks to get the results back through NHS!). But by paying a bunch of money to get the tests done privately, he was able to get them done on Tuesday (nothing's actually wrong, thank goodness).

Knightsbridge said the medical results would be sent out in time for the interview, but we're still pretty on edge about the whole deal, because we know that if the medical results don't arrive on time, we're looking at an automatic rejection, and even if they receive the medical results the following day, they may not process that paperwork and produce the actual visa for days or weeks. I also don't know if the interviewer will ask him questions about this phantom medical condition the doctor imagined he had.

In the meantime, he had all these plans for wrapping up his life in preparation for moving here, but didn't get them done because we spent three solid weeks being terrified of the possibility that he might have a serious medical condition that would take months to adequately diagnose (thanks for that, Knightsbridge doctors). So depending on how this interview goes, he'll be trying to quit his job, sell all his belongings, say goodbye to family, and move out of his flat in a very short period of time... which is the best-case scenario. It's all very unpleasant.

I guess now I'm gun-shy. I want to feel optimistic, but I'm having trouble, given how the process has gone so far.

I'm really nervous, you guys

The medical didn't go well, and now I'm not totally convinced the interview will go smoothly. Although I know we shouldn't have bought a plane ticket, we bought one for our first wedding anniversary, so we could see each other on that day. Now I feel sick to my stomach thinking it might not happen. It's been 308 days since we started this... it doesn't even feel real.

My honest advice is for you to just forget about the whole thing for a while. My husband has his interview in London on Monday, but it's been 10 months since we started this process, and so far we have had NO delays of any kind (no RFEs, nothing lost in the mail, etc). I hope yours goes faster, but you're going to drive yourself insane if you're already freaking out pre-NOA1. You'll get the NOA1 soon, but I would assume there's nothing you need to do for at least 4-5 months.

It's a matter of adjusting your expectations... other than trying to get my documents together for the NVC stage, I tried not to think about it for the first few months! Best of luck to you!

Well, it looks like he'll have all the tests done by Monday (since we're going the private route), so we're just waiting to see if the test results will be done in time to fax them to the consulate doctor in time to send the results to the consulate in time for the interview. It's going to be a stressful couple of weeks!

Cathy, do you remember offhand how long it took Knightsbridge to pass on the medical results to the consulate? For some reason I've been assuming we should figure that process takes at least two days, but I could be wrong!

Knightsbridge always asks for more information from the family GP if it's something they can't sum up in one appointment whether it's cancer, ulcers, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression or anything one takes regular medication for. I personally don't think they do any "approving". They just report the medical facts, sometimes with further info from a GP who sees you more often. They don't sign their name to it until they've gotten the facts. Even if you had TB and syphillis, they would send the report and let the embassy decide.

I'm not trying to argue with your advice, just trying to understand more fully. If the doctor passes on a diagnosis, rather than a "you passed the medical" notice, then you're probably right about delaying the interview. The reason I was assuming they gave a "you passed the medical" notice to the consulate, though, was that it seems a bit odd to expect that all the consular officers will understand enough about medicine to be able to interpret whether the results mean a person will or won't be a burden on the US healthcare system.

For example, if someone showed me that Person A has a back problem, I don't think I would really be able to tell the difference, based on the diagnosis, between the kind of back problem that requires a person to do stretches every morning versus the kind of back problem that requires a person to have multiple back surgeries. It also seems like it's not in the interests of the consular officer to expect you (as the interviewee) to explain to them what the doctor's diagnosis means, since you have a vested interest in downplaying the problem so you can get the visa. So that's why I'm a little confused about what the exchange is between the consular clinic and the consular officer.

Will they need convincing? I don't know. I don't know the condition or results. You don't know the results, so how are you sure it is nothing?

Because I don't want to think my husband is seriously ill? Either way, I know it's not communicable.

They are looking to see if he will be a burnden on the american health care system. My daughter has cystic fibrosis and I was super worried about that. I printed out out health insurance and a letter stating her pre exsisting condition was covered for the embassy here in Australia but they weren't interested at all, in fact they didn't even ask about it!

Yeah, that's the ironic thing about all of this! I get the impression that if we had known ahead of time that there was some health issue, we would just have provided documentation to the clinic and nobody would have cared. But since it's a potential problem that hasn't been properly diagnosed, it's mucking up the immigration process. The frustrating thing is that he had a recent physical, but nothing worrying came up at all. So either the consular clinic is much more in-depth than the GP at NHS, or we got a crazy doctor at the clinic.

We're trying to see if we can get the tests done faster through private healthcare so we don't have to worry so much about the interview... but not sure how ridiculously expensive that might be!

I agree with everything Cathy said. Eventually they will send a medical report after they have gathered all the extra information. Then the embassy will decide admissability based on the report. Any convincing would be done to the embassy.

Why don't you reschedule your interview for after the tests? You won't get an approval without a medical report so the interview wouldn't really get you any further along. After you know the results and they are at the embassy, then you are face to face to discuss with the decision maker. You surely won't get any contact with him later by calling or emailing. Pick a date to ask for. If you don't have medical results by then, schedule a third time. I know somebody who put his interview off at least 4 times.

Do you really think there will be a process of trying to convince the consular officer, even after they've received the medical results, okayed by the consulate physicians?

If so, then I can see the point of delaying the interview. But if it turns out that once the physicians are convinced, then the consular officer checks off a box saying the medical is approved with no further questions, in which case I guess it seems like it won't matter whether we do the interview now or later. Does that make sense?

So the medical didn't go well. The doctor found something that concerned her, and so my husband's having to go through a bunch more tests through his GP. If they come up clean, the doctor said he'll be approved. If not, he'll have to be sent to some specialists. It all seems fairly ridiculous to me given that it's some kind of cardiovascular issue, and not at all communicable, so I'm guessing the concern is whether he'll be able to afford to treat a possible health condition after he gets here.

So this all sounds okay (I'm fairly convinced the tests will be clean), but one of the tests will take six weeks through NHS, so we won't know the diagnosis until well after the interview. So I assume we're looking at an immediate rejection at the interview, but am I right in thinking that once they receive good news from the doctors, the consulate will go ahead and approve the visa? Or will he have to go to another interview?

Also, should he bring anything health-related to the interview itself? For example, I'm planning to buy health insurance for him here... would it sway anything if he were to bring proof of the US health insurance to the interview?

I guess I'm trying to understand the chain of command... would we be better off to try to convince the doctor that he'll have US health insurance, or the interviewer? Or do neither of them actually care?

Any advice is much appreciated! It's been an awful week.

APPROVED!!

Wow, congrats!! And good luck to Divs & StephanieM!

My husband's going for his medical tomorrow morning... it's not quite as exciting as the interview, but it feels like progress!

It took us 7.5 months to get through CSC... no RFEs.

I don't know if it helped, but it made me feel better to call the offices of my congressman and senators. They will each have a staff member who addresses immigration issues, and they can actually call CSC and speak to someone there who knows what's going on. After I called, we got approval within two weeks. That could have just been a coincidence though!

Can't wait to be in your guys' shoes... still almost a month until our interview

Most of the time I'm distracted by being in grad school, but some nights (like tonight) I'm just so lonely. I'm so tired of waiting.

It's getting closer! Less than a month for our interview

What are you guys gonna do when your spouses finally get here? Any big plans?

It's not illegal to look for work on a non-immigrant visa. Please provide a citation for your conclusion that it is.

I can't prove a negative that it is not illegal to look for work on a non-immigrant visa because Congress does not often make laws saying things are not illegal. Generally, Congress makes laws saying certain acts are illegal.

For example; There is no US law that either permits or prohibit dual citizenship. Since the law is silent, US citizens can have dual citizenship. As far as the US is concern, US citizens with other citizens are only US citizens and are treated as such.

Similarly, if the US has no laws on whether a visitor visa holder is permitted or prohibited from looking for a job. Since the law is silent, a visitor visa holder can look for a job. The law is very clear that the visitor cannot work. There is nothing about looking for a job.

At the POE, a non-immigrant visa holder who disclose that he/she is coming to look for permanent employment is unlikely to be admitted because the burden to prove not having an immigrant intent is on the visitor. Looking for a permanent job is in conflict with the notion of no immigrant intent. However, once the person is admitted, there is no law that say he/she cannot talk to potential employers.

My interpretation of what you're saying here is that as long as you tell the POE officer that you're not looking for work, it's fine to look for work while on a tourist visa. Somehow that seems unlikely...

The great thing is in another month or so we'll be able to look back on this entire process and smile!!! On the other hand, I think Nica just stated what everyone including myself actually felt....simply how unfair this entire process is. We are all here trying to accomplish the same goals, and we use these forums to help one another get through the tough moments in this process. If the shoe were on the other foot I am sure you would feel the same way...so lets get back to being civil as we wait out the last few days to get our SO here!

Well... I don't know if I'll ever look back on this entire process and smile. BUT I'm looking forward to the point at which I no longer think about it at all because my husband's here with me! It's coming soon for all of us.