Medical
Good day. I am Cdn, and my wife is the US Citizen. Just complted CR-1 process and now residing in USA. In regards to the medical, you just cant goto any DR to get it done. You have to goto an approved DR. You get that list in one of the packets they will send you. In regards to how long the various visas take, it all depends which service centre your application will goto, and that is decided by where the USA citizen lives!! We were lucky and were able to File through Vermont, which seems to tbe the fastest!! We started out process back in May 2004 and interview was Dec 7. For CR-1/Ir-1 Montreal is the only place in Canada that conducts those interviews!! Normally the "Fiance" visas are a bit faster, but again depends which service centre it goes through. Our CR-1 was faster than our fiance visa!! Little helpful advice--I dont know much but here is a few things I know:
1) Don't leave any blank spaces!!! Put down "None", "N/A" , "Unknown" Just dont leave a blank space!! Other wise you may get a RFE+Request further evidence, which slows downthe process!!!
2) Take your time and ensure its filled out properly, you can hand write the info in, but computer is easier to read
3) gather up required documents!! If you have had a brush with the law, actually had a criminal record at one time, you will require to be finger printed! And the RCMp has a big back log! Taking approx 5-6 months to get results back!!! So plan accordingly!! But as a Cdn Citizen, your record is clear, you wont require to be fingerprinted, just a Criminal background check, completed by localRCMP detachment. They search Canada wide!!
4) some documents are only good for 6 months once you have them, such has criminal background check!!
5) Cdn citizen wil require "long" form birth cert. Its the one with your parents names on the birth cert. You can order it from the Provinces Vita statistics dept. You can Google serach it (prov name vital statistics) Some prov take longer than others. Sask was very fast (1 week) while Ont seems to be very very slow!!
6) another great site is visajourney.com they have step by step process on the top of each topic forum!! Very easy to follow
Best of luck