Jmc1

Hello, last year I sent my UK passport off for a name change. Course two days later I was offered the opportunity for a long weekend in Canada, which was annoying timing! Mine took around 3wks to be returned. Hope yours comes back soon, know it’s nerve racking being without it!

Hello, I've actually since heard back from both the doctor's surgery (it's not the same one as you went to) and the lab, following my 4th chase over a month and I'd also posted negative review online. Thankfully it appears to have been a mistake, the lab were supposed to bill less ($160) to my insurance eight months ago now, but a couple of errors at their end occurred where they billed the wrong amount, didn't send the bill within a reasonable time and lost my insurance company details. The lab are now attempting to bill my old insurance from last year, eight months after my appointment. They told me they are legally required to bill directly and not via the doctor's office. I'll update what happens next, but is sounding more positive that a resolution will be found. I don't understand why my insurance would pay for these tests (aside from rejecting their super late bill submission), but we shall see. In the meantime I have deleted my negative review, as it seems my case is out of the ordinary and they are now working to resolve it for me.

SEVEN months after this $250 second full medical, which was annoying to have to do due to USCIS error, I received a bill for additional $330 for the blood tests the clinic insisted on. I’m trying to fight it as the clinic lied and mislead me that I wouldn’t receive any other charges. But unlikely to get me anywhere. So angry. Beware of these extra unexpected costs!

Correction, the interview in London will be to get a new visa sticker in passport, then physical Green Card will be sent to him in US later. Thanks Wuozopo for the info on the MMR!

Thanks for both of your comments, very helpful. I was required to have the MMR vaccines for AOS from K1 and am in my 30s.

Yes you are right, he did mention that is his issue - he's been told that as of late last year, all O1 to green card AOS now require an interview, which is what has caused this large backlog. Which is why he has been advised to go back to UK to interview there sooner (which requires the UK medical etc). Thanks for mentioning your experience with the MMR. I'm trying use my own UK immigration experience to help him prevent any delays and getting stuck in UK with his job, home, pet etc all here, though of course my experience is via a completely different category, so don't want to worry him unnecessarily.

Cheers for your reply. MMR is on their required list. When I did my K1 I also had not had it previously due to my age in UK. So Knightsbridge did MMR 1/2 for me and then I had to follow up with MMR 2/2 when I was in US before I submitted my AOS (which caused me delays and issues having MMR 2/2 'translated' onto the USCIS form here, then getting an RFE and having to re-do my whole medical in US). So do you think that he may not need the MMR at all due to his work related path to green card, as opposed to my K1 visa path? His lawyer advised that it would be significantly quicker to get the green card by returning to UK to process it than within US. His O1 expires soon and would cost approx $6k to renew that vs getting a green card. He was advised that AOS in US from his O1 would take approx 2 years as there is a huge backlog.

My British colleague lives in US on an O1 visa. He has been advised by his lawyer that to get a green card, he will need to make a trip back to UK to get a medical done by the Knightsbridge London USCIS approved visa doctor, and then he will return a month or so later for his Green Card interview (so two return trips from US to UK, Knightsbridge had advised him to leave 2wks between the medical and interview, which is more than the 5 working days on their website). These two trips are necessary due to work commitments, as he will not be able to stay in UK for long enough to do both medical and interview in one go (although he could probably do just one trip if Knightsbridge were able to commit to sending the medical results within their usual 5x days). Our questions are… 1. He hasn’t had the required MMR vaccine, which from my experience I’ve flagged to him is done in two stages at least 28 days apart. He does not have time to have the first one now before having the second one during his medical in London. IF he has MMR 1/2 injection in London (therefore incomplete), will this cause any delay for getting his green card after the interview? Or does he need to figure out a new medical date to get MMR today in US and then have injection 2/2 during his medical in London? 2. He has lived in US for around 7 years, so will bring a letter from his US doctor stating he does not have any current medical issues. Does he also need to get a letter from his old UK doctor too (only this seems to be a new requirement for the UK medical, but I assume the wording of it being from your UK doctor is general as the majority of people attending this medical will be current UK residents)? Thank you very much!

This is exactly what I did too, except I didn’t change passport name during that trip to home country (that is extra smart!)

Hello, I filed AOS, AP, EAD from NYC in February too, feel free to check out my timeline. I have been very fortunate except one strange request to submit a full new medical again, though thankfully the worst part of that was simply the cost ($250), there were plenty of USCIS approved doctors to choose from. I recall reading a tip somewhere, that thankfully I've not yet needed, but that new info pass appointments are released at midnight. Best of luck to you.

I flew within US without any trouble whilst waiting for AP / EAD & green card to process. You must always book flights in the name of the travel document, i.e. passport name. Plus bring along a copy of your marriage certificate (showing name change) and proof of AOS in progress documents. I never actually needed to show any additional documents beyond usual passport in my maiden name, but I always had those documents just in case.

I received an RFE for my AOS asking me to get a new medical. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong (I had medical at Knightsbridge, plus updated vaccinations 'translated' in US), and whilst I was most annoyed by the situation, I decided to just re-do the full medial asap exactly as they requested. A dull way to blow $250, but it was worth it when my AOS was approved two weeks later. If I thought there was a party at fault I'd have taken that up separately.

I wish our health insurance was that cheap, we pay $1,150pm between us as though we both work, neither of us get cover via our jobs. I am also hypothyroid, so I bought over 6+ months supply of meds so I'd be safely covered until I had proper health insurance and had sorted out new doctor in US. I have blood tests every 6 months if feeling normal, or more regularity when have symptoms. We are relatively lucky it is a cheap long term disease to manage, my prescription costs $14p/m at CVS. Using my insurance plan, the regular blood test costs around $120 each time (which I pay and is out towards my yearly deductible). I really miss the NHS living here! I find the cost of living substantially higher in NYC than my life back in London, but I consider this as part of the price of moving abroad and going through immigration. You are wise to consider significant extra costs like this at this early stage for you. If will be 4+ months before someone on K1 visa can work, plus not all jobs have healthcare option anyway. Best of luck.

Cheers for the reply Wuozopo. I've re-examined the photo I took and yes I was mistaken, it's actually a sealed envelope from the US based doctor's office from my additional vaccination translation (it had the US doctor's office address stamped on it, doh!), so I submitted that, plus a copy of the vaccination bits (which also would have appeared inside the envelope too) from them. I was trying to be thorough, but I see my confusion now. Yes you are right I'd forgotten about that large white envelope that I handed over at POE, that would have contained my full medical from London, of course! So it was that packet that never reached my AOS case. I appreciate your help getting to the bottom of that. It's quite strange the way my RFE was worded though, as if I should have submitted the full medical for my AOS, whilst I had simply just added the extra vaccinations as additional to the main medical they should have expected from my POE. But never mind, I've done the second medical now, should have the docs back in a week or so. I don't really like the thought of my medical files being lost, though I bet it happens regularily!

I have received an RFE for my AOS, claiming I didn’t include full medical, which I am 100% sure I included as I took a photo of the medical report in it's sealed envelope in my packet before sending, since I couldn’t photocopy the sealed contents. I had also enclosed an additional updated vaccinations sheet ‘translated’ by a US based USCIS approved civil surgeon. The RFE specifically mentions only receiving my vaccination sheets and instructed me to get a whole new medical, which is extremely frustrating. Question - the US civil surgeon who ‘translated’ my two extra vaccinations only supplied the relevant pages (p1 to 4 and p9), is this normal for when you have only the vaccinations translated, or should they have supplied all 13x pages of the I-1693? I wonder if that could have created confusion, if that’s not the usual protocol? Other notable points: USCIS tracker app hasn’t updated to reflect this RFE Deadline for me to reply is one month, which although of course I went and got the medical as soon as physically possible, but that seems tight given the medical results turnaround and the unexpected additional cost My new full US based immigration medical cost $250 (plus they told me my insurance covered the blood work, I hope they were correct!) This medical consisted of blood test for TB, blood test for vaccinations (even though I had all proof of all my vaccinations with me they refused to use them) & urine sample. Then I saw the doctor who simply looked at me and said I didn’t look ‘high’ and that was it. I was surprised that this US based medical was so brief and simple compared to my London medical which involved bringing along proof and talking through full medical & vaccination history, body inspection and ’gender check’, chest X-ray, police certificate etc. It’s so frustrating to have paid $60 for updated vaccination ‘translation’, $250 for new medical unnecessarily, plus I can only assume that USCIS have lost my confidential original medical report, which even I haven’t seen (London don’t allow you to have a copy). This process is very trying and expensive. But onwards and upwards!