riss

That X-ray - do I need it for anything, or can I throw it out? The one that they do during the medical, of your chest?

Thanks Lainie. You are such a sweetie!

Cool, thanks Canadian_Wife and Lainie. My POE is also at LAX. I'll keep all that in mind and hopefully everything goes smoothly.

Thanks Canadian Wife! I just went over and read through a few. It sounds like it's not too much of a big deal.

One thing I'm wondering - I have a stopover at my POE for 2 hours before I have to take a connecting flight. What happens if you end up having to wait too long and can't catch the next flight? Would the airlines figure something out?

Hi everyone,

So after much delay I'm finally flying out next week. I have my yellow envelope - is there anything else special that I need to know or have? Grateful for any advice.

Riss

hey, thanks a lot for your help, stevie and vanessa. i've been a bit caught up with things and hadn't checked back in here for a little bit! packing, packing, packing. i'll probably be back in a while to ask a few more questions. based on the way things are going, it looks like i would end up having to do a second medical.

So glad to hear you had a great experience. That's wonderful! Congratulations in advance on your upcoming wedding.

Stevie, thanks for that link. It's a bit confusing, everyone else seems to have told me that it had 12 months till expiry. It might be different for K-1?

Harpa, thank you for your help. Can I just ask - I wasn't quite sure what you meant by 'it may go by the NOA date'? How would that work?

I don't know if anyone here knows what happens when you get a second medical, but it'd be great if anyone has any experience/advice. Just wondering whether I would have to have all the shots done a second time, etc., costs involved, how I might be able to minimise what needs to be done, and so on.

Thanks everyone.

Riss.

Kdude, I am pretty sure that in Melbourne you don't need a case number to book a medical. I'm a little hazy on how it worked for me now but I do remember many of us Melbournites saying that it was different here and we had been able to set up the medical without having our case number in hand. You can definitely book the appointment in advance. I had to wait around a month for my appointment and once I had the medical it took a week to get the results. I'm not sure where you are in Victoria though, so this may not apply. If you're in Melbourne, go to Dr Charles Ograklik - as far as I know he's the only one there is actually, but I could be wrong.

I suggest you do a quick search for 'Melbourne medical' or 'Victoria medical' and see what comes up, you'll probably get more useful info that way.

No, I didn't and everything was fine. I can't say I've heard of anyone else doing it either.

Oh sorry, you were saying you can't contact the Consulate without a case number? I think you probably can, the questions are generic questions after all, the answers should be the same regardless of who you are.

I'm sure you could call the doctors' offices and ask them about wait times/scheduling even without a case number. In Melbourne the doctor most of us saw didn't even need us to have case numbers to do the exam itself.

From memory my medical results were mailed out to me within a week or 10 days. Maybe it would be a good idea to email the Consulate and explain the situation, and just confirm that it's okay for your fiance to have his interview first while the medical results are still on their way. I have heard of a lot of people having to provide something after the interview and it not being a big deal. One guy had to provide a co-sponsorship letter, which he sent in by email after the interview and then the visa was issued. In my case my fiance had emailed in a letter asking for an extension of time for us to send in Packet 3, and they couldn't find it, so they said at my interview that they needed us to resend that letter before they could issue the visa. I sent it in that night when I got home and my visa was issued a couple of days later.

The consulate can postpone interview dates if need be, but when I contacted them about it, they didn't make it really easy for you to pick and choose. I had asked for a later appointment as they gave me a 9 a.m. one and I had been hoping to be able to travel by plane on the morning rather than staying overnight. They said to me that if I couldn't make it they could cancel that appointment and just send me a new one when something came up at a later timeslot - but it wasn't like there would be any negotiation or that I would get to necessarily request/select a date that worked for me.

In my case I got the email with my appointment time about a month before the appointment, so if that happens for you, it might not be too hard to schedule the medical to coincide.

Good luck sweetie! If you need to know anything else please ask. I've just finally got my email saying that they've issued my visa, yesterday. I've taken quite a few months getting everything together but it is still somewhat fresh in my mind so if I can help you along with the next steps in your process I'll be happy to.

Sorry I don't know what to do about changing his address. Maybe you can just email the consulate? They would tell you what to do, they've been fairly good with my questions, they usually respond within a couple of days. In any case nothing has ever been sent to me at my home address, except now at the very end they are going to mail my visa to me here. And they're using the express post bag that I addressed to myself and gave them, so at least in my case there has never been an occasion where they needed to know/use my address.

In my case they emailed packet 3 to my fiance (the USC) and he forwarded it to me. I had the impression I was also supposed to receive a hard copy of it but I didn't get that. It wasn't necessary anyway. Everything you need is in the email.

Actually, here's the link they'll give you, if you want to start getting prepared: http://canberra.usembassy.gov/fiance_niv_appl.html

Just a disclaimer - I assume things haven't changed and that this link isn't 'old' in some way, but I don't know that for a fact. So just make sure to read your packet 3 email when you get it, and use the links they give you there if they are different, because things do seem to change all the time.

Cool, thanks, you guys.

Hey thanks for all the replies everyone! I guess what I should have asked also is, how long do you actually spend waiting/interviewing? Austex said the whole thing took an hour - was it similar for others?

Hey everyone, does anyone know if they'll let my mum come into the building and wait with me while I'm waiting for my interview? She's coming to Sydney with me and I'd like to know if I should bring her along or just have her stay at the hotel and me go alone.

Riss

Thanks Jess & Steven, that's a great help.

Alex and Amy, I'm pretty certain the police check needs to have the fingerprinting. Mine cost about $160 in Victoria I think.

I sent my paperwork in mid-April, and my interview was scheduled for about 7 weeks after. I received the email from the consulate with the interview notice just over two weeks after sending in packet 3. (I'm doing a K-1/fiance visa.)

It used to be that people had their interviews scheduled within two weeks of sending their papers in, but towards the end of the year the wait became 2 months. Now it's a tiny bit less. If you don't want to be scheduled before July, then perhaps it is a good idea to wait a couple of weeks? You might end up getting your visa in August, but if that doesn't bother you, you're better off that way.

I'm not sure about this but I thought someone had told me you get five months to use your visa after it's approved. Initially I thought it was six but then somewhere else I was told five - now a bit confused. I have no idea whether you can ask for an extension on that - one would hope it would be possible. You could try posting again to get better answers on some of those things - sorry if I'm just making things muddier with my patchy information.

Okay, my guess about the 'sealed visa package' is that they're referring to people who have had their medical done but didn't send it in with packet 3. Would you say so? So they're asking you to bring it along with you to the interview. ??? Not that I've ever heard of anyone doing it that way! I have heard of people having their medical results sent directly to the consulate though.

Now does anyone know if I'm meant to bring my X-ray thing with me?

Thanks everyone, don't know what I'd do without you guys.

Jess&Steven, just wondering if you can tell me - the visa fee receipt, is that just the receipt that the post office gave me? Because on the ustraveldocs site it talks about going in and entering the unique seq number from that receipt to 'schedule your appointment' and so on, which I don't think I should need to do, right? I just bring the receipt with me to the appointment?

I'll print a copy of the letter I got, it sounds a bit different to what you guys are talking about. It seems to me like I'm not supposed to bring the 3kg envelope but instead I'm meant to make my profile on the ustraveldocs site - does that sound right to you from reading this? It'd all be fine and good except that the site won't let me update my profile. *sigh* I'll try emailing the consulate about that. Anyway, here's the letter.

Dear Visa Applicant,

Thank you for providing our office with documents for your final immigrant/fiancé(e) visa interview. Your appointment has been scheduled for:

XXXXXXX

Please go to Level 10 of the MLC Centre for security check in on the day of your interview and present this letter to our security guards on the day of your interview to access the Consulate.

Please ensure that the panel physician provides you with a copy of Form DS-3025, Vaccination Documentation Worksheet as part of your permanent health record. You should hand-carry this document with your sealed visa package and any other medical paperwork. If you did not receive a copy of the DS-3025 Vaccination Documentation Worksheet we can provide one for you at the time of your interview.

Immigrant visa processing times vary. There may be unexpected ineligibilities that become apparent only at the time of your interview which require additional time and processing. For this reason, you should not make any irrevocable arrangements, such as purchasing non-refundable tickets, selling your home, or quitting your job, until after your immigrant visa is actually approved and issued to you.

The following items are required before your visa can be issued. Please refer to the list below of items that will be required on the day of your interview.

(XX) PASSPORT: A passport must have at least 8 months validity beyond the issuance date of the visa.

(XX) FEES:

K Visa applicants – this is NOT payable at the Consulate, please see our website for payment instructions

(XX) 3KG PLATINUM /EXPRESS POST ENVELOPE: To be used to mail your visa to you when issued. Please be sure the envelope contains your name and the address where you would like us to mail the visa

Or;

(XX) K VISA APPLICANTS ONLY: For the return of your documents (passport and visa package, once the visa is issued), please login to http://www.ustraveldocs.com/au/index.html and create a profile. You must ensure you provide the address listed is where you wish to have the documents returned. It must be an Australian address.

Hi everyone, I'm just trying to gather together everything that I need to take to my interview. I know I need to take evidence of the relationship, i.e. some emails and some photos. And my passport. Can anyone tell me if there's more that I've missed?

I also have the instructions from the Packet 4 email, saying to bring my copy of Form DS-3025, and then it says to 'hand-carry this document with your sealed visa package and any other medical paperwork'. What are they referring to by the 'sealed visa package'? And what other medical paperwork should I bring - do I need to bring the X-ray?

Thanks for your help!

Riss