Question number 537 from me! LOL
I am expecting a date for an embassy interview and medical at some point, and I have no idea what to expect. Is it just to check all your paperwork or will they ask awkward questions? Not that I have anything to hide, but it does make me a little nervous as I hate being put on the spot. What about the medical. Apart from check your jabs, what else do they do? Do you get your packet (brown envelope) on the same day?
This is my experience of the interview and medical, back in March of 2001. Hope it is of some help to you
I went to the medical first. The doctor's office is easy enough to find and I queued up outside. It makes no difference whether you're first there or near the end of the line as once inside things were done alphabetically by surname. We were all taken downstairs to a waiting room, and asked to hand over our passports, medical questionnaires (they come with Packet 4), and any vaccination record we had with us. Then we were called back to the desk one by one to sign a form, pay our £85 medical fee (by cash, debit or credit card) and told to take a seat near the door. A nurse then took us in one room for a blood test, then told us to retake our seats in the waiting room.
Shortly afterwards, we were called out in groups of 4 (either all male or all female), and shown to some cubicles where we were told to remove everything from our neck down to our waist. As I was third in line out of my four, I kept my t-shirt on while I waited for my name to be called to go through for the chest x-ray, well it was just after 9am on a cold Monday morning.
Then we returned to the cubicles and waited to go in to see the doctor. The doctor in London is a very friendly person, and made me feel at ease while questioning me. I was asked to confirm my name, age and the visa I was applying for (we weren't all K1 applicants that morning). Then followed some general health questions, and I was told that I needed to have a couple of vaccinations before I adjusted status in the US. Certain types of visa require the injections before entering the US, but as a K1 applicant, I was told, I'm entitled to waive having the injections that day just so long as I could provide proof of having had them done by the time we file for AOS. For the benefit of anyone who is following the same path as myself, the vaccinations required are MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) and Td (an adult Tetanus / diphtheria). I was handed my chest x-rays in a rolled up brown envelope and told to make certain I had them in my hand luggage when I arrived in the US. As I wasn't waiting for any injections to be given, I was told that I was finished at the doctor's and that I could now proceed to the embassy (a ten minute walk away).
For my interview, I had a fair sized sports type bag with me that I'd used to hold a change of clothes as well as all my documents. I'd travelled to London the day before and stayed overnight but had to check out of the hotel early so that I had the whole day free to spend at the embassy if necessary.
Because I had a cellphone and a personal minidisc player with me, I was given the option of taking both of them out of my bag, leaving them with security, and having the rest of the bag searched; or just taking out of the bag the things I needed for the interview, and leaving the whole bag with the security desk. I opted for the latter and went upstairs for the interview with handfuls of emails & greeting cards that Beth had sent to me, along with about a dozen photographs of the two of us together.
When I got to the waiting room, I gave in my appointment letter and was told to take a seat. Then I was called back to the reception desk and asked for all of my documentation, and told to sit back down and wait again. Then I was called to an interview desk where an immigration official asked me to raise my hand and promise that the answers I was about to give were true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
I was asked to confirm my name and that of my fiancée, and that I was free to marry her. Then I was asked how we first met (on the internet), and then when we had first met in person. The officer looked over all the paperwork I had submitted, and asked me about one of my answers to the questions on the forms. Basically, I had ticked a 'yes' box where the regular answer would have been 'no'. I explained what had happened (13 years ago I tried to enter the US across the Canadian border without a visa and was turned away), and the officer said that incident was of no consequence to my application. He then said I could either sit back down and wait for the next 90 minutes, or I could leave the embassy to have some lunch and come back later. The 90 minute delay was only caused by the embassy having to wait for the results of my medical that morning.
I wasn't asked to show any of my emails, cards or photos. I even asked the officer if he wanted to see them, and he just replied that it wasn't necessary as he could see that I had them with me anyway, and he could see from the detailed answers I gave to his questions that Beth and I have a genuine relationship.
I don't know the procedures for other embassies, so I don't know how easy or difficult interviews are in other countries. Mine was relatively easy because I could answer the questions in detail, and because the guy who interviewed me was genuinely friendly. Just 10 minutes before my interview he had to interview an elderly lady who was in a wheelchair. The booths where we were interviewed had no chairs, they were at waist height and both the officer and the interviewee were standing for the interview. This guy, as soon as he saw the lady being wheeled over to him, backed away from his desk and hurried around, through the security door, to crouch down next to this lady so as to make her interview that much easier for her. He didn't have to do that, and the lady seemed really touched that she received that special treatment.
Brief medical comprising a chest x-ray; a needle to collect a tube of blood for same day testing for e.g. HIV test; and some simple questions. The questions might be limited to a vaccination history.
Be prepared to sign or initial at least one label (re HIV test etc.).
Something of a wait after the medical (you will probably have lunch) and a time by which you should report back to the Embassy to receive instructions and an envelope containing paper work (and a large envelope for your x-ray); you keep the x-ray (presumably you are expected to show it to a doctor once you have one) but you must hand the paper work to an INS officer at your port of entry - so keep it handy, don't pack it!
So, pretty much all routine, but obviously very stressful for you ahead of time, but once it is over it is over! Congratulations all round and welcome to the USA (once you arrive in the USofA that is). cool
all i can add is that its not as nerve racking as it appears. I found the enbassy interview very relaxed . All I stress is make copies copies of everything and always have extra passport photoes (side) as in USA you will be sure to need them at some point.
Best of Luck and don't be nervouse ..its pretty straight forward ...
Wow...what a great and detailed response! Thank you!. That helps a lot because I can visualize how the day might go and it makes it less stressful. It will also help me prepare for things like photocopying all documents etc. That doesn't sound too daunting. The only thing that worries me is that my immunization record is a bit of a mess too and I'm not sure which I will need done again, but it looks like they do them on the spot if they're due.
You all rock!
For the visa, you only need measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and diptheria. You can either have records of having suffered the diseases, blood test results showing immunity, or the jabs.
If you don't have any records at all, you can get the MMR and TD at the medical.
Presumably, in your line of work, you will need some kind of immunisation record too, which will have a wider requirement than for the visa (Hep B is what I am thinking of), so you should make sure you have any records from work too.