LaurenandCarl

I know I'm late to this thread, but I had a difficult time finding a civil surgeon in Connecticut who didn't insist I needed the full medical exam again, even though my medical exam results are still in date. I finally found a doctor in Stamford who will transcribe the vaccinations for me for $50 so thought I'd share their name on here and add to the existing list:

Dr. Marietta Vergara

743 Hope Street

Stamford, CT, 06907

T: 203-964-1212

CT CIVIL SURGEON (Stamford)

I have to reply to you, because you saved me a lot of money! Thank you so much for posting on here!

I got an RFE (post interview) for not having my varicella shot (I guess it was missed in London and VH wasn't listed on my vaccination document, as I had chicken pox as a child and told the doctor there that). I originally called a doctor in Bridgeport who wanted to charge $450 for a full medical (not required with K-1 if you have filed your I-485 within one year).

Called Marietta, she was great and I got in for an appointment within a couple of days. She charged $50 for the vaccination record update, and $50 for the varicella titer, and $25 for an office visit. $125 total and I was done within 20minutes.

They don't mail results, so just allow some time to come and pick everything up once the results are back and mail onto USCIS.

My fiancé just received his interview letter. He put in his form that we planned to marry on dec 19 & that's now his interview date. Is there anyway they'd give him an earlier date? Has anyone been successful at this? Any advice would be recommended. I told him to contact them & ask. I mean, it'll only delay things by two weeks, really. But he won't be here for Christmas with an interview date that late...

Some others earlier on in the year were able to get earlier interview dates, especially if their fiance lived in London. I live just outside of London and was completely unsuccessful, never received a response from my emails regarding an earlier date. I really wanted/needed one as my fiance's grandfather is really sick and now in hospital with pneumonia, but nope, they never responded.

I can imagine they're inundated with emails requesting earlier interview dates, you can certainly try and say you'd love to have him there for Christmas.

Good luck! He'll be with you soon!

I've just received confirmation of my interview date on 18th December. Unfortunately this date clashes with a trip I have planned to visit friends in Germany, for which I have already bought tickets, so I'd like to reschedule the interview.

However, I am planning to fly to New York in early January, to get married on January 8th. This is definitely my main priority, more important than the holiday. If I'm not able to get a different date before New Year, I will keep the 18th December date and cancel my holiday.

So my questions are these:

1. Is it likely that I will be able to get another date before New Year?

2. If I apply for a rescheduled date, do I have to 'give up' my current date and accept whatever new date they give me, which could be after my planned wedding date?

Thanks

Yes, you do give up your current date. I had my interview originally Nov. 6th, at first I couldn't make the date as I had a trip booked so I'd emailed the embassy to rearrange. They didn't email back but simply sent a letter in the post scheduling an interview for the 12th.

I managed to change my trip, so emailed them to say I can now make the 6th but it was too late they said they had already assigned me to the 12th and I couldn't switch back.

Only reschedule unless you absolutely have to! It took them 10 days to receive my email and send me a new letter. With Christmas/New Year you might not get a new date until the beginning of Jan.

I usually use Hotwire.com for last minute hotels in London, you can get a secret hotel in the rough area for cheap. Within central London everything is pretty much within walking distance.

I seem to be experiencing a whole new system with the London embassy!

I originally got my interview letter on Nov 20th which dated my interview for the 6th November at 8am. Today (28th) I got a new interview letter for an interview on the 12th November at 8am. Which one am I supposed to attend?

I found out my interview date through the senator that was helping us in the US so actually got it early on the 17th October. I sent an email to the embassy then to see if the interview could be brought forward and I couldn't easily make the 6th as I had something else scheduled for that day. I didn't hear anything from them so just presumed they'd ignored it. I had a stroke of luck and managed to change the conflicting appointment on the 6th, I followed up with the embassy again to say I didn't need a new interview date, but no response. And now I have a second interview date!

Have sent another email to the embassy this morning, but as per usual I'm not expecting a response!

This is my fault, I should never have even inquired! haha, Could I still attend the interview on the 6th?

Hi all, just a quick question!

I received a letter yesterday with my visa interview (November 6th at 8am)

I followed the instructions on the letter to register and pay the K Visa Fees, and after I tried to enter my Consular appointment and time for London, but it only had the appointment time slots from 9am on the drop down menu, but obviously my letter says my appointment is at 8am, I was just wondering if anyone else had just put 9am, or what else to do? I'm definitely on the immigrant part of the site.

Any answers would be great! Thank you

I was thinking exactly the same thing last night! Also we have the same interview date and time!

Ucch! This is all confusing, Someone come and shoot me. Lol! So I should leave it as it is? With the SRC number? When I did the ds 160 the ceac updated almost instantly.

Don't worry, just leave as is. If people have done different things in the past it'll be fine :-)

Can I edit the one I've submitted? I know I can but will that help?

You can edit it? I'm so confused, I can't edit mine at all and haven't been able to for previous visas. Are you sure it's been submitted?

I used the SRC number. I know Hiroshi did, too. Could that be the mess up from our side?

But it says clearly in the instructions on the DS-160 that it's the number given by USCIS:

"If you are applying for a petition-based visa, your application receipt/petition number was given to you by the Department of Homeland Security’s U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) after you filed your petition application at a USCIS Service Center. The application receipt/petition number is 13 characters long and the first three characters are letters.

That might be what's causing your delay, the LND number is 13 characters and the first three are letters.

It says on all of my paper work:

Case number: LNDxxxx....

Receipt number: SRCxxxxx.....

I would fill out a new DS-160 and send an email to the embassy apologising for the error, that may have been why it got lost in the system.

When you filled in the DS-160 online, you know where they asked for the USCIS case number...did you put the TSC number of LND number? I'm wondering if that had anything to do with it......

I put the LND number (I think!), did you use your SRC no (from TSC)? I think that's just a receipt no, not a case number

Did you send them the ds160 and readiness form before you got packet 3? Cause I did and it magically just disappeared

I did, my packet 3 didn't arrive until 3 days later, but I did wait until it was listed as ready on the system first.

Who knows what's up with them! I'm hopeful we should all receive something soon, it will never be as bad as TSC! 220 days of waiting

I'm pretty confident your interview date has been assigned, our letters are probably going through some sort of system of being printed, sent to a mail room, transferred etc etc.

Still no packet 4, I got an email like you Hiroshi! An email I sent a week ago, maybe they only respond to their emails one day of the month. It basically said we have received your medical results and necessary paperwork, and an interview will be assigned within 6 weeks.

I guess they don't have any up to date information? Doesn't make sense

Mine was updates 4 times we well. At least ONE of them has to be a letter. Not all of them can have been random misfirings inside the system, right? Haha!

Here are my CEAC updates too (Medical was on 08/10, Packet 3 received on 09/10) if you wanted to compare:

06/10 - Changed to ready, submitted DS-160 and applicant readiness form

07/10

10/10 - I think this update was the "Packet 3.5 thing", letter was dated the 10th

14/10

16/10

I have in the meantime sent 2 emails to the embassy, still no packet 4 but interview date was assigned somewhere in there!

Yeah, same for me, The postman has been and no letter. So Monday it is, If it doesn't come on Monday then I will contact the embassy.

Edit: Maybe some will have the same interview dates, That would be cool to hangout at the embassy

No letter here either, so that's good. You interview date might have already been assigned.

I hope we all have the same interview dates! Would be nice to have someone to chat to while we're waiting!

YAY! That's so exciting!!!

Our medical was same day as yours and the rest of our timeline is pretty similar.

Fingers crossed we get our letter soon!

I hope you hear soon! You never know, your interview might be sooner! At least we can all get a rough idea with similar timelines. :-)

I made a little list of people more or less in the same boat. Misery shared is misery halved, right?

Hiroshi

Jameel and Kasey

TMA

RW365

Laurenand Carl

e&z

Was informed of my interview today! No letter yet (packet 4), but the senator in the US we were in touch with informed us.

Nov 6th at 8am

Hopefully all of our letters are in the post right now!

WOw! That's a new one. And here I am waiting for packet-3. I'll take packet 2.5 as well -- -anything!!

I'm sure it's on its way! I live just outside of London, and letters from the embassy took 3-6 working days to arrive. I'm pretty sure they're being delivered by horse and cart at that rate

I received this exact document but assumed that was packet 3 as it is the only thing I have received from the embassy and it arrived very soon after my status read 'Ready' on CEAC.

Now i'm wondering what's going on?!

Maybe this is a new thing the embassy has just introduced? It seems legit and doesn't raise any alarm bells, and is actually more of a "packet". I sent them an email about it, see if they respond. Will keep you updated.

Glad i'm not the only one!

So London received my case on 10/06/2014, and I received "Packet 3" or the letter from them on 10/09/2014 to start submitting my documents. I presumed Packet 4 would be next after I'd submitted all of my documents/had the medical (Documents submitted 10/06/2014 and had medical on 10/08/2014).

This morning I received a new letter from the embassy (10/16/2014), letter was dated 10/10/2014, with three separate components:

• Letter at the front stating I can now submit my documents, with a link to the US embassy page
• A photocopy of the original I-129f with the approval stamp
• And a information leaflet "Information on the Legal Rights available to Immigrant Victims of Domestic Violence in the United States and Facts about Immigrating on a Marriage-based visa"

The letter on the front references regulation 9 FAM 41.81 PN3.2 which includes as stated:

• "One copy of the petitioner's approved Form I-129F, together with criminal background information that USCIS has gathered on the petitioner and any information that USCIS has provided regarding prior form I-129F"
• "One copy of USCIS pamphlet "Information on the legal rights available to....."

I'm not too worried, it doesn't look like anything to be concerned about, I have just never heard of people receiving the same thing. Any thoughts?

Approved !!!!! ???

Congratulationsss!!!!! Things will start moving quickly now!! :-)

Figured i'd share my medical experience on here, I didn't find that many female experiences on visajourney so will shed light on the experience for us ladies!

I went to the Bond St clinic which was relatively easy to find, and about 5-10minutes walk from Bond St station (which is open for the central line). Two ladies at the desk, the one who served me didn't even crack a smile. I was super nervous and trying to make light of the situation but she did not seem interested! You basically have to fill out a questionnaire, medical history, height and weight estimate and then I took a peak through the rest of the forms to see what the doctor would be looking for. It listed pretty much all of my body parts and then a normal/abnormal tick box.

I arrived really early, but the process began on time with my xray. The guy was so friendly, constantly making jokes and you put on this ninja type robe after taking your bra and top off. (I expected the open back hospital gowns but this felt like luxury!). After the xray the guy showed me the image and pointed out all of my organs, told me I was healthy after a good two minutes of me panicking about every cough I've ever had! I was then guided to a ladies waiting room and waited there for about 10 minutes.

The doctors app was next, it was a female doctor and she was british. She was so nice and kept talking to me the entire time to help me relax, I was a nervous wreck! I'm normally fine at a regular doctors but when the US government is involved...no way! We first went through the checklist and then she told me what would happen, she told me upfront that there would be a genital check and that it was to check for STDS (She said it was more to check for ulcers or discharge). She then took my height/weight, asked me to read the letters on the board, and then I sat down on the bed for my blood test. After that I put my bra and top back on, but took my trousers off and led down, she felt my heart rate (so high!) and checked my reflexes, felt my tummy to check my organs were all in place, and checked for a hernia. The genital check was just pulling my knickers to one side and that was it, took like two seconds, don't get yourself worked up about it. After that she took my blood pressure (I requested we did it last!), I normally have low blood pressure so for my blood pressure to actually be in the normal range was pretty shocking! haha, I was so nervous!

I didn't see what she said in the forms, but she said I was healthy and she didn't find anything (thank goodness for that!). Just need to wait 2-3 days for my blood test results and everything will be on its way to the embassy.

After that it was pay up time, I was up to date with my vaccinations (had the flu shot the day before at Tesco for £8!). £245 for that lovely experience! So glad to be done with it, but honestly handing over your credit card was the most painful bit.

So happy to see familiar names getting approved! Congrats!! Really hoping ours is approved soon, we are at 237 days and I am constantly frustrated over this. Good thing is is my fiancé is here right now but us being approved would be really good!

Very very soon!!! Fingers and toes crossed for ya for this week!!! We didn't get any notification, so definitely check USCIS every morning first thing - it's like Christmas when you see it!

Gosh I am so nervous right now, finishing my documents for my interview tomorrow I am not sure whether I have too much or not enough! I won't be able to sleep tonight.. Wish me luck

Best of luck!!!! You'll be absolutely fine :-) Just think....in 24hrs you'll be pretty much done (well the first stage anyway!)!! So excited for you!!

After waiting for 245 days, doing my routine case check on the USCIS website, I am estatic to say USCIS has approved our case and we should be received the NOA 2 in the mail soon. still in shock and tears, but so so so so so Happy!

Need to get my head straight to determine what are the next steps, I had all that sorted out a few months ago and have seem to forgotten it. no worries, I have you all to guide me as always. Thanks all for your support. Will update my timeline now.

Amazing news!!!! Biggest congrats to you both!!! Not long now!!!

Make sure to spend the next couple of days truly relaxing and recouping for the next stages!!

well guys, i got a letter from my congressman's office today. uscis states that my case was flagged and needs additional background checks. they also said they have no idea when the background checks will be completed. they stated in the letter that this is a matter of national security...

this is hilarious and complete bs. i'm 24 years old with NO record. i've never been married and have no children. i'm a college graduate and am employed full-time. this is just ridiculous. becca and i have decided to explore our options of me going up to canada. she has a lot of opportunities up there and i can work from anywhere. this has been a huge waste of time.

We were exactly in the same situation as you both, and security checks lasted for 2months. The good news is you've probably already been in security checks for a while as i figured before, so you might not have long to wait!

It's funny because it sounds like we have similar backgrounds, similar age, also a graduate, been working, no marriage/kids, no history of anything - not even a parking ticket! We'll never know why the FBI was checking us out for so long, but the good news is once you're out of that, it took 2 days before we were approved!

221 days, and we're finally approved!!

Checked USCIS half asleep 2 hrs ago and was instantly awake! haha. No idea if we received a text or notification, I think my fiance neglected to tell me last night, either that or he doesn't know yet!

But Yayyy!!