Brit Abroad

The K-1 medical itself is very simple:-

1. Provide passport, photo, completed questionnaire at Reception

2. Called to see the nurse, who goes through the vaccination and childhood disease history & gives injections/boosters that you agree to on the day (if any)

3. Chest X-ray

4. Medical - height and weight check; eyesight; heart and lungs; genitalia "peek" check to confirm gender; lymph glands and blood test

5. Reception hand over your passport and the signed, completed DS-3025, while you part with your life-savings or beloved plastic friend

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Helpful additional notes on this one:-

Although Knightsbridge Doctors give you the DS-3025 (Vaccination record), this is NOT the requirement for the AoS. According to the USCIS notes you are SUPPOSED to be issued with a sealed envelope after the medical but Knightsbridge Doctors don't do this. You will need the I-693 Vaccination Supplement - Appendix A - (available from the CDC website - http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dq/pdf/ti-03/appdx-a_693vacc.pdf) and to have it completed and signed by a Civil Surgeon in the US after your arrival (for a fee, of course). List of Civil Surgeons in the US can be found at https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=of...office_type=CIV.

Knightsbridge do NOT do the TB skin test, it is the chest Xray which confirms the absence/presence of TB. The Xray is sufficient for the K-1 visa. You will be given the chest Xray film at the US Embassy if you are approved for the K-1 visa. Keep it safe, as you may need it later for your AoS interview or any required medical.

For any questions you answered Yes to on the Questionnaire, ask your GP to write a letter in advance, clarifying your current status regarding that condition. In the case of depression or depressive stages it needs to include treatment history (drugs, counselling, duration, repeated episodes) and whether self-harm or harm to others was involved. If you don't, they will write to your GP for clarification. If this happens, ask your GP to provide you with a copy of their response so you have it for your AoS interview if required.

Take any vaccination records you have to the appointment. Most GP surgeries are now computerised and offer a summary of your diagnoses and treatments for a small fee (generally £10-15). If you contact the Practice Manager then they can advise in more detail. (This is also a great record for your medical provider in the US for continuity of treatment, rather than starting from scratch and hoping you remember every childhood illness).

For those who are seeking to get their I-693 Supp completed in the US prior to AoS filing: When you contact a Civil Surgeon's office, make sure you explain that it is the I-693 Vaccination Supplement that you want signed off, not the I-693 itself (this tends to trigger the "oh, we can't complete the I-693 without a full medical" response). All it involves is the doctor transferring the details from the DS-3025 to the I-693a and signing it. If you get any further vaccinations (the Varicella is not available in the UK, and HPV isn't always provided before you leave), get details of them in writing, stamped by the medical practice involved and put a copy of it in with your I-693 Supplement (it's often referred to as an I-693a).

Really hope this helps - it's a pain in the butt trying to sort it all out when you're assembling your AoS package.

In all honesty, my advice would be to arrange to meet up with her family while they are in the States. Express your feelings about their daughter to her parents and have her affirm her feelings for you and both state your desire to marry in the future. While you are not of her religion, her parents obviously love her and want her to be happy. It's natural that they would have misgivings about a foreigner who lives in a different culture, much less a different religion. Be mature about it, show them that you are approaching this like honest, open adults - rather than trying to creep off in the night and do something you evidently know they won't approve of.

Your girlfriend is probably much closer to her family than you may believe, despite what she says. If you encourage her to run away you're storing up problems for the future - either between her and her family OR between you and her family. Is a year long engagement (official or unofficial) until she's 21 and legally free to marry you without consent (worst case scenario her parents refuse to allow it while she's a minor) such a hardship? The fact that her parents haven't married her off before she's 20 should show you that her parents have her best interests at heart.

Give her parents time to get to know you, to understand that you aren't a bad person because you are "different" to them culturally. After all, these people are potentially going to be your in-laws for the rest of their lives. Starting off a lifetime relationship with a new wife who is alienated from her family and upset because "home" has changed in more ways than distance, means you may face repercussions with an unhappy wife who can't settle to life in a new country because she romanticises her homeland or mourns the loss of her familial relationships.

At the end of the day, only you and your girlfriend know how things are between you and how much the bonds she has with family matter to her. If you end up married, hopefully it'll be for life. What's one year compared to that?