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I thought it would be useful to post a review of my appointment at Visa Medicals in London on 4th August 2023. I found it hard to find recent ones and hopefully this'll calm someone else's nerves! I waited until I had my instructions letter from the embassy before calling to book my appointment. There was a relatively short wait on the phone (better than calling my GP) and I was offered an appointment within a few days. Forgetting that I was still waiting for a letter from my GP and that it was the weekend, I had to call and reschedule for later the same week. The lady on the phone laughed when I said I got over excited. I received a confirmation email with instructions like where it is, documents to bring and booking translators (if applicable) I arrived at Bond St very early. Killed a couple hours in Leon, found Bentinck Street and had a wander. My appointment was at 11:10am, pressed the buzzer at 11:05am. The email suggests a one in, one out situation. That isn't the case and is probably left over from COVID era. I was worried I was going to be told off for buzzing 5 minutes early, no one even spoke on the intercom, they just let me in. Visa Medicals is the first door on your right when you come in. The lady on reception asked for my name and 'all the documents we asked you to bring' which threw me a bit. It's probably a good idea to have everything ready to go in one bundle, not in well organised seperate sections of a folder like I did. I think I excepted the doctor to be asking for the reports and vaccination records, not the receptionist. This is what I gave over: My passport 4 US sized visa photos (Snappy Snaps can do US sized photos, it was ~£35 for 8 photos) A copy of my ACRO police certificate A copy of the first page of the instructions letter form the embassy with my LND number and visa category Summary care record from my GP Vaccination records from my GP COVID pass from the NHS app Hep B vaccination proof Medical questionairre A letter from my GP outlining past mental health issues, treatments and current mental health status (because I ticked yes to self harm) A discharge letter form a surgery I had in 2016 (because I ticked yes to hospitalization) Note, you do not get these back (except your passport) so make copies for your own records and keep the original ACRO and embassy letter for yourself. Here's how the email words the documents required: I was sent into the waiting room with two more yes/no questionairres to fill out. The first was very basic and asked questions related to allergies, steroids/immunosuppresants and pregnancy. Anything I ticked yes to, I put a note underneath explaining why. The second was more detailed (and very confusing because yes/no swapped places). These are the questions I can remember: Have you had an injury or illness that required hospitalization? Multiple questions on different types of heart/thyroid/kidney/liver diseases Have you ever taken recreational drugs? Multiple questions about substance abuse, related conditions and criminal record due to substance abuse Have you ever had thoughts of harming yourself? Have you ever acted on those thoughts? Have you ever had thoughts of harming others? Have you ever acted on those thoughts? Current medications (I also listed non-prescribed hayfever tablets and multivitamins) Any other medical conditions that required treatment? (I put yes - vitamin D deficiency, treated via daily supplements) Someone then called me through to take a chest x-ray. No need to remove my piercings (nipple included) and sent me back to the waiting room. A few minutes later a doctor called Michaela called me through. She was extremely friendly and I felt at ease with her. We discussed some of the questions I had ticked yes to like why I had surgery and what methods I used for self harm in the past. She repeated some of the questions to me directly, particularly about drug use and harming others. She told me that the US is very keen to ask these questions due to the availability of guns and the risk of gun violence. I had an additional report on my mental health from my last counsellor, so she took that from me as all evidence is good evidence. The rest of the exam was height, weight, vision, ears and mouth. Then I was asked to undress to underwear and socks and drape a gown over my lower half whilst on the bench. Here she took my blood pressure, took a blood sample for syphillis, listened to my heart and lungs, bent my knees around to check for pain and pressed different areas of my stomach. No urine sample was taken due to my age (27) and no past STDs. I have a scoliosis in my spine, which she noticed and asked if it caused back pain (it doesn't) and that was that. She sent me back into the waiting room while a nurse checked my vaccinations. I didn't need anything done as I'd had my DTaP booster at my GP recently and I'd already had Hep B vaccinations for work reasons in the past. They can do them for you but it may be cheaper to get them done elsewhere before your appointment. I paid and was given proof of vaccinations to use when I adjust status. All in all, nothing to worry about but I am glad I was prepared! Good luck to anyone going for their medical

Hi Folks, We applied for a K-1 in October 2022, got the NOA1 and waiting for the NOA2. Back in August 2022, before applying for the K-1, we had an engagement ceremony with friends and family. We also had a small family gathering wherein we performed a Devi pooja (religious worhsip) involving a Fire ritual, to celebrate the engagement. We had submitted ample photos from the engagement ceremony in our LOIs, as well as some photos of the Devi Puja (a celebratory religious worship) involving a fire ritual in one of the Supporting Affidavits from my family members, supporting our intent to marry, and clearly mentioning that it's photos just photos from a religious extension of the Engagement celebration. Read elsewhere on these forums that any inclusion of photos involving 'Fire rituals' within the engagement proof submitted as a part of the I-129F package have the potential to be misconstrued by the CO as an 'appearance' of an informal, unregistered 'Hindu' wedding, and can be used as grounds to deny the I-129F petition by the Consular Officer, under INA 214(b). Should I be concerned? What can we do in terms of any additional proof/documents to carry to the interview, to assuage any concerns or misconstruals by the CO of the post-engagement Puja (celebratory worship service with a fire ritual) as a wedding, which it is actually NOT? Thanks in anticipation of your thoughts/opinions!

Hello - my fiancé and I are planning for his visa interview scheduled for next month and want to ensure there are no issues about his being able to demonstrate sufficient financial support. We both live in the UK and have sufficient savings on our own in the UK but as we don’t have US source income/assets have also asked my dad to fill in an I-134. Should we each also fill one in (would there be any harm in having multiples?) or sufficient to just also have all of our financial info as support under the one I-134 from my dad?

Hello all, We received our NOA2 from USCIS on March 11th 2021, on April 15th we got notification from the NVC that our case was returned to USCIS after we had sent an inquiry about our case a couple weeks prior. No information as to why it was returned to USCIS. On April 22nd 2021 USCIS received the case and the current status says "Department of State Sent Case to USCIS For Review". We immediately sent an inquiry but have not heard back. Does anyone have any idea why the case would be sent back to USCIS? Would that indicate an issue with our case? Something we did or something USCIS got wrong? We would appreciate any insight if anyone has experienced something similar. Thanks, Colin

Hi all, I wanted to make this group to post updates on everyone's AOS/EAD/AP etc. I'm personally very interested in everyone's work authorization status, if you've already received yours? My timeline is; Feb. 24 2023: AOS/EAD/AP submitted Mar. 03 2023: Rejected (used an old version of form) Mar. 04 2023: AOS Resubmitted Mar. 28 2023: RFE received May 19 2023: response to RFE submitted Waiting since.

Hi there! We finally made it, after a 2 year process it's time for the K-1 Interview! In the email received from the Malaysian Embassy, they state that original documents will be required at the interview. However, I've done a ton of searching and can't seem to find out which documents MUST be original. Could someone point me in the right direction or let me know which documents must be original? From what I've found, the only thing I see so far is that the Birth certificate must be original. Does this mean the petitioner's birth certificate (and other documents) needs to be shipped to the Beneficiary's country? I really appreciate all the help! I will be emailing these questions to the Embassy in Malaysia, however they often take quite long to respond (and often don't give the best answers) so I'm asking here as these questions have been pressing on my mind. Thank you very much for the help, it's much appreciated <3

We received our NOA2 in early May (finally!) so I decided to start getting some things ready, one of which being my ACRO police certificate. Obviously, you have to put your previous names on the application, which I did (changed my name via deed poll in 2013) but when the certificate arrived creased from being in a thin A4 envelope, it didn't state my old name. Just my current one. I've seen some recourses dotted about saying that it must show your previous names or that you need a certificate for each name. However, the official embassy site says nothing about this. I'll contact ACRO as well. Just wanted to see if anyone else had some up to date information on London's processes for old names and police certs. Thanks! Aaron

Hey everyone, me (Czech) and my partner (US born citizen) were aiming to file for K-1 sometime between this June and July this year, but after reading through a number of threads here, it seems CR-1 will be the sensible choice. We will have been together for a year by the end of July/beginning of August and I already visited them earlier this year on ESTA (stayed 80 days). Reading through the forums here, I'm becoming convinced we should have just winged it and done a round trip to Vegas, lol. My partner is visiting me in December, so the next idea is to get married then, but here's the one argument for K-1 - making the wait "shorter" by about 5-6 months by filling the I-129F now instead of getting married in December and filling the I-130 afterwards . Third option is the Utah online marriage thing, I only learnt about it today - is it actually possible to apply for a CR-1 after an online marriage, considering my partner would be connecting from the US and I from Czechia? Evidence wise, my visit to the States earlier this year and my partner's visit to the Czech Republic this December sounds okay enough? Thanks in advance and I'm sorry if the same questions have been answered elsewhere already, I tried to read through a bunch, but didn't quite find the reassurance.

A friend of mine was engaged to a man who said he applied for her a K-1Visa in October of 2022. He then backed out of the engagement. She is not sure if he actually filed an application for her. Is there anyway that she can check? The reality is that she has another person very interested in her and does not want to have an issue of two applications in the system for her. Thanks in advance.

Hi, This is our first post here, really sorry if I'm not sussing out the etiquette. We've just got our NOA2 so it's time to put my big boy boots on and sort out things my end ready for the medical and embassy! I've anticipated and understand what I need to do in regards to mental health issues in my early 20's and a diagnosis of a harmless nervous system condition in 2020 (so harmless I don't even have to take medication) BUT what I am apprehensive about is a gender affirming hormone injection given every 3 weeks by my GP. It's something I've taken for 8 years and my summary record is *filled* with injection summaries and monitoring blood tests done every few months. I want to get it all ready and sorted as early as possible but obviously I would have had more injections done in the time between getting it printed and the medical. Would it be best to add to the GP letter already being written documenting the nature of the injections, or should I aim to get my summary as last minute as possible. Thanks! Aaron P.S - If you have something negative to say regarding it being gender affirming, don't bother.

Hello all, Hope you are all doing okay. Here is the situation: My fiance an American lady, we have been able to meet one time last year and we applied for K1 and since we are afraid that we didn't front load the i129f application with enough proof it might get rejected, so we are planning that she will come to Morocco again this summer to meet and be together for 2 weeks and have a traditional morocco ceremony, because the Moroccan embassy familiar that it is important for us to do that and it is not regarded as actual marriage, and we plan to go to turkey later on this year, so we will have plenty of evidence to provide later on too. My question is, is it possible to take my fiance with me to the Casablanca embassy, because we really love each other and we don't want this to be rejected and we cannot do the IR1 visa because of some personal reasons, so maybe her being there with me it would help to show the agent that we really care for each other and establish that it is a bonavida relationship, and at least it would make them check the new evidence we have, since I know the casablanca embassy sometimes they don't care to check for evidence and might reject you. We applied using RapidVisa, so we are sure that all documents were organized and handled properly before submission. Any advice to make this a smooth process, we would appreciate it. Thank you.

Hello everyone! I'm a professional over thinker and I just realised that we sent, in the initial I-129F packet, the passport photos in the wrong size. Instead of the US version of 2x2 in we sent the European size. What are the chances we receive an RFE because of that? Thank you

Hi, I heard you can expedite K-1 visa interview if you have urgent medical reason. Is that true? Does anyone know the email I can send the expedite request to?

I am filing my AOS for my K1 visa and my son's K2, he's under 14 years old. I was only issued an alien number and he was not. When filing his I-485, do I leave his alien number blank? Or is there a way to find his? I'm seeing people say that K-2 isn't issued one??

Hello, I had my K-1 visa interview in Montreal on August 9th, 2022 and left with a 221g. I finally got the docs required and send it in via courier and the tracking number shows it was delivered on Thursday Nov 3rd. CEAC still shows as “Refused” with no updates since August. I'm wondering what a realistic (and recent) idea on a timeframe would be for a decision to be made. Wondering if I’ll be able to be with my fiancé in the USA for Christmas or if we should make alternate plans. Our son’s 2nd birthday is earlier in Dec as well. I was so hoping we could all be together by then as well but that’s probably just wishful thinking. Any insight would be helpful!

Hey everyone already waiting a year for a K-1 Visa, honestly I am kinda done with it, I think my depression kicking in.. please tell me I don’t have to wait for another year. From statistics in 5-6 months I will receive the visa. Thanks!

We are getting close to submitting our i129f package, and I'm curious how long the process time will be? If the package was submitted before may, and everything goes according to plan, how long should it take till I am able to move in with my fiance?

Hi Everyone! I'm a long-time reader and first-time poster, so I thank everyone that contributes here and makes this such a great resource for all of us! I have been self-employed for about 6 years. I have a single-member LLC that files as a Schedule C and I take a "draw" bi-weekly as my income. However, (and I know this has been discussed before) obviously from a tax reporting perspective, my accountant is incentivized to reduce the bottom line income as much as possible to mitigate taxes. So despite the fact that I pay myself every two weeks roughly the same or more, the bottom line number reported number over the last few years is often under $30,000. (Comically, I have had a W-2 employee working for me since the beginning who would have zero issue qualifying!) My question is, do I go through any effort to try to explain this or just skip to a joint-sponsor? I do also own a home that has equity... but again, my question is really about what is the path of least resistance, having a joint-sponsor or trying to walk the person through my finances? I would be happy to have the property appraised if that is simplest.

Hi! My fiancé and I are starting the K-1 process in the next month or so and are reading up on everything. We have started to fill out the I-129F form. I have had only one job and it was just a small retail job where I worked for around 2 weeks. I cannot remember what exact date I started and ended, just the months. Is this crucial, do I need to find out the exact dates, or is it okay to just give a general one? Thank you!

We are extremely concerned as the day tracker on our UCIS tracker has completely stopped and is no longer displaying the days counted. Can you please investigate and let us know if anyone has had a similar experience or if you have any insight into what might be causing this issue with the document?

Has anyone experienced difficulties extending their ESTA while their K-1 visa application is pending? Have you experienced trouble at the POE, entering with your ESTA while a K-1 visa application was pending? Obviously I'm trying to do everything the legal way but I'm afraid they'll deny me entry when I try to enter the country with my ESTA while awaiting my K-1 visa, thinking I'll secretly try to get married to my boyfriend while visiting him. I'm currently weighing the pros and cons of the K-1 and CR-1 visas because my boyfriend and I are unsure about which process will be most suitable for us. The waiting time isn't the problem honestly, but travel restrictions while applications are pending is a very big scare for both of us.

It is a mandatory to have the witness statement signed and stamped by the notary? Can we just include written statements of our witnesses with their contact info and signatures?

My fiancé lives in Brazil and we filed for the K-1 visa in March 2022. At the time, I was hopeful that the application would be accepted by December or January but the expected wait continues to increase. I feel like it’s way too late to try marrying and applying for the spousal visa so all we can do is wait. I haven’t seen her in person for 6 months but I have a trip planned for January. We are really hoping we don’t have to be apart for 6+ months again next year. Now to my question, should we even bother trying to apply for a tourist visa for her to come here while I’m working? I’ve heard that application also takes 1+ years and it can be very difficult for a Brazilian without a great job or lots of assets to receive one. We’ve even met in Cancun one time but she’s never visited the US during out two year relationship. It feels like there’s nothing we can do but wait and it’s becoming more and more difficult. Does anyone have any suggestions for her to come here while we wait for the K-1 visa?

My fiance is arriving next week on a K-1 visa. I have been trying to purchase health insurance for her. I am self employed and use the VA for my medical needs, so I don't have a policy I can add her to. This last week, I have contacted several health insurance companies to get quotes and see if I can purchase a policy for my fiance. All companies have turned me down. They have stated that they can only do policies for citizens or permanent residents. They have all referred me to the government exchange for more information. I am not trying to purchase anything through an exchange, I would simply like to purchase a private health care plan, but it seems all the companies I have interacted with only go through the exchange. The agents I spoke with also stated thye wouldn't be able to sell insurance even if she were a citizen because of the enrollment period. They stated to qualify for an exception, she must already have valid insurance. Given the length of time until a green card would be received, I think there must be a better option. I have not been able to find anything that would forbid someone arriving on a K-1 visa from buying health insurance from the searches I have done. Is there anyone who can provide anymore information on this topic? I'm sure we're not the first people in this situation and there must be some company or health plan for those in our situation.

Hi everyone. So on our official papers and required documents for the I-129f there’s no mistakes but we added declaration letters from us both where 2 dates are different from each other. I wrote March 26th, 2021. He wrote May 26th, 2021. And I wrote we went to the usa on November 10th and he did on November 15th. We didn’t notice this small mistake until later on but we have strong proof of bona fide relationship. I also have proof that we actually met on March 26th with train ticket+Airbnb booking. And that we left to the usa on November 15th with flight tickets from both of us and on my I-94 it has the entry date nov16. I’m just very scared it will be denied cuz of this and I don’t want to have wasted over a year if it ends up getting denied. But I also don’t want to wake up a sleeping dog and cause more hassle for us in case they don’t believe it was a typo even with the evidence. I hear people saying you shouldn’t sent in more unless they ask. What should I do? Ps. We have called USCIS before and the lady said this wouldn’t be a problem but we could sent up paperwork to the address about the mistake if we really wanted to. But I’m worried this could push back our petition and we are already quite a bit in the process. I just don’t want to get denied cuz of this, I’m ready to receive a RFE for this since I have enough evidence to back things up but I’d rather avoid that. Should I inter file the documents rn and correct my mistake?