I have finally done it – I entered the US early this morning with my temporary immigrant visa stamped in to my passport. The process changed recently especially around the medical exam so I thought I’d share our experiences with the group.
On Monday 9th May we got notice that our appointment was on Monday 23rd May in London at 10:30 AM. The notice explained that the medical exam process had been outsourced to the Nuffield Hospital group and that we needed to contact them to make an appointment; arrange the medical and then bring the results to the interview.
I naively thought that I might be able to make the appointment for 8:30AM on the same Monday. I called the Nuffield early Monday AM and they told me that they were having problems accommodating visa applicants. They offered me an appointment at 8:30AM on Monday 16th 4 hours away in Birmingham. I explained that I lived in the US so I’d prefer something a little closer to the interview date. They were unable to do anything about it – they explained that this was their only available appointment and that they needed about a week to process the medical results.
To cut a long story short – mother-in-law flew over on 1 day’s notice to watch the kids and my wife and I booked our over-priced flights to London flying out on the red-eye Saturday night.
Sunday we drove to Birmingham and early Monday morning we turned up for our 8:30AM appointment. The nurse did not turn up until 9:00AM but was extremely nice and put us at ease. We went through the standard blood pressure, height and weight stuff. We gave them our inoculation paperwork from the US, (we got our inoculations up to date a few months), we also gave them one copy of our photos.
We sat around for about another 30 minutes and then we were called in to see the doctor. He asked us questions about the paperwork – inoculations, number of sexual partners, medical history etc. We were then given a head to toe checkup. Wear your best underwear because everyone is going to see it! The doctor was very nice although getting a full medical is never very pleasant I guess.
After the check-up we went down for a chest x-ray, this took about 5 minutes and they printed and check the x-rays while we stood there.
The worst was left for last – they took a blood sample. A different doctor did this and it was painless but I am such a wimp!
They said that it would take 2 days to check the blood work and then they would FedEx the results to the consulate on Thursday. I was worried about this because the paper work said that I had to take the medical results with me for the interview. They assured me that this was the normal procedure and that they always FedEx them.
On the way out I realized that I had not paid anyone – I am not usually in a hurry to part with my money but I had this vision of them not sending the results because they forgot to get the money off me! I went back to the office and after a bit of messing around they managed to get me in touch with someone that took my credit card details.
On the previous Saturday they had 21 people to process which must have been a nightmare.
So, we then sit around for a week stuck in London waiting for the appointment. This was very nice but just a bit frustrating.
Monday 23rd comes along. I’d be lying if I said that we were not nervous; we gave ourselves about 2 hours to do a 20 minutes tube ride to the consulate. When we arrived there was a line of about 50 people waiting. It was about 9:00 and we had been told that we should not show up before 10:00AM for the appointment. We found a small restaurant nearby and had a full English breakfast which took the edge off things a bit!
At about 9:40 we wandered back to the consulate. At the front of the line there were 2 guys answering questions. They were very nice and I explained that we were very early for our appointment and asked if we should wait in line anyway or come back in 20 minutes. He checked his clipboard and told us to come and stand in a different line. It was no problem that we were early and the other line had about 8 people in it who were being sent through security.
We went though security in to the building to a huge waiting room where we were given a ticket number based on the type of visa we were applying for. We were #10 and it was 9:45AM.
Note: There are bathrooms and a stall selling coffee, sandwiches and candies in the waiting room but nothing to read so bring a book!
There are 25 booths; 11 of them are facing the waiting room. I had imagined that they would be desks in semi-private areas but they were just like the DMV. We went and sat by booth 1 and noticed that the people around us were also waiting for immigrant visas. There is a board showing you who is being processed and how many are in each queue. We waited about 30 minutes until #8 and #9 were processed.
I had all of the documents that we were supposed to bring in an expanding folder. It was about 3 or 4 inches thick. Tax returns, proof of this and that, company records, copies of I94s, pay slips – you name it and I had it in my expanding folders! It weighed a ton!
Our number was called and we went to the booth. The guy was very nice; he asked for our medical records – gulp – I explained that the hospital were sending them and he said that was fine and went to get them. I was so relived when he came back with them!! We gave him the 230-part2, photos (he only took one of each not the two we expected), our original birth/marriage certificates and the police reports. I gave him the originals and copies. He also asked for a letter from my employer. I gave this to him and he noticed that the name of the company did not match my application. I explained that my company was purchased by the new company. He wanted proof of this so I gave him a copy of a press release that my lawyer had given me for exactly this eventuality. Note – That was the only thing I took from the thousand sheets in my expanding folder!!
It took about 10 minutes in total for him to get all of the paper work sorted. He asked us when we were traveling back to the US and we told him that we were booked on an 8:30PM flight the next day. He said that they could not guarantee that they’d be able to process it that quickly. He suggested that we might be able to take the packet with us but had us fill in a courier request form anyway.
We finished us with him and took a slip to the cashier’s desk to pay a $45.00 security surcharge. We then went back to wait for the next call.
We waited probably another 30 minutes and were called to another booth away from the main waiting area. The chap asked us for the receipt from the cashier and then had us both raise our right hands and swear that the information we had provided was true. We pressed our fingers on to a red box as you do when entering the US these days. He asked me about the company’s purchase and asked us where the town was that we lived in; he commented on how nice it was where we lived and then welcomed us to the US. It could not have been more pleasant and less hassle. We mentioned to him about us waiting to take the packet with us; he looked puzzled so I explained that the first guy had suggested that it was at the interviewer’s discretion as to whether they were couriered out or given in person. He laughed nicely and said that he would go and see what could be done.
When he came back he said that the results from our fingerprint scan had not come back but that they would try their best to expedite our processing and get it done by 4:00PM. He suggested talking to the courier to see when they could deliver it.
Last step was to take a form to the couriers who were based in the corner of the waiting room. She explained that the standard cost was 10.50 pounds cash only for 2 passports but that if we wanted the passports delivered sooner than 24 hours then we could pay extra. She suggested that they would call as soon as they got the passports and then tell us how much it would cost for the different options. She did point out that they had no control over how long it takes for them to get the forms from the consulate and she seemed a bit skeptical that we would get them processed that day.
It was 11:30AM when we left the building!
At 5:00PM the couriers called back to say that they had the packet and did we want them delivered the next morning. I asked if they could deliver that evening and they said that for twenty pounds they’d deliver by 9:00PM. I agreed quite happily and sure enough at 8:00PM a motorcycle courier dropped off the envelope. Inside were our passports with the new immigrant visas, copies of the inoculation records and 2 sealed envelopes that we were told not to open.
Yippee!!
Next day we flew back on the 8:30PM flight from Heathrow to Newark, we landed around 11:00PM. We got to the immigration officer and explained that we had the sealed envelopes with us. We asked for them and put them together with the passports and sent us off to a side door where an officer took the envelopes and sent us to the waiting room which was big enough for 100 people but only contained us!
We waited about 10 minutes and were called in to a room where we signed our names in little boxes and were fingerprinted. That was it – he gave us our passports back stamped with temporary visas for us both and told us to expect our green cards in a few weeks.
It took so little time that our luggage was not even on the belt when we got downstairs! We were out of the airport around 11:30PM – all green carded up!
I am guessing that I have forgotten some details but this is the gist of what happened. These boards have been such a help over the 4.5 years I have been waiting – I hope my story helps someone a little bit in return.
Good luck to you all with your processing.
On Monday 9th May we got notice that our appointment was on Monday 23rd May in London at 10:30 AM. The notice explained that the medical exam process had been outsourced to the Nuffield Hospital group and that we needed to contact them to make an appointment; arrange the medical and then bring the results to the interview.
I naively thought that I might be able to make the appointment for 8:30AM on the same Monday. I called the Nuffield early Monday AM and they told me that they were having problems accommodating visa applicants. They offered me an appointment at 8:30AM on Monday 16th 4 hours away in Birmingham. I explained that I lived in the US so I’d prefer something a little closer to the interview date. They were unable to do anything about it – they explained that this was their only available appointment and that they needed about a week to process the medical results.
To cut a long story short – mother-in-law flew over on 1 day’s notice to watch the kids and my wife and I booked our over-priced flights to London flying out on the red-eye Saturday night.
Sunday we drove to Birmingham and early Monday morning we turned up for our 8:30AM appointment. The nurse did not turn up until 9:00AM but was extremely nice and put us at ease. We went through the standard blood pressure, height and weight stuff. We gave them our inoculation paperwork from the US, (we got our inoculations up to date a few months), we also gave them one copy of our photos.
We sat around for about another 30 minutes and then we were called in to see the doctor. He asked us questions about the paperwork – inoculations, number of sexual partners, medical history etc. We were then given a head to toe checkup. Wear your best underwear because everyone is going to see it! The doctor was very nice although getting a full medical is never very pleasant I guess.
After the check-up we went down for a chest x-ray, this took about 5 minutes and they printed and check the x-rays while we stood there.
The worst was left for last – they took a blood sample. A different doctor did this and it was painless but I am such a wimp!
They said that it would take 2 days to check the blood work and then they would FedEx the results to the consulate on Thursday. I was worried about this because the paper work said that I had to take the medical results with me for the interview. They assured me that this was the normal procedure and that they always FedEx them.
On the way out I realized that I had not paid anyone – I am not usually in a hurry to part with my money but I had this vision of them not sending the results because they forgot to get the money off me! I went back to the office and after a bit of messing around they managed to get me in touch with someone that took my credit card details.
On the previous Saturday they had 21 people to process which must have been a nightmare.
So, we then sit around for a week stuck in London waiting for the appointment. This was very nice but just a bit frustrating.
Monday 23rd comes along. I’d be lying if I said that we were not nervous; we gave ourselves about 2 hours to do a 20 minutes tube ride to the consulate. When we arrived there was a line of about 50 people waiting. It was about 9:00 and we had been told that we should not show up before 10:00AM for the appointment. We found a small restaurant nearby and had a full English breakfast which took the edge off things a bit!
At about 9:40 we wandered back to the consulate. At the front of the line there were 2 guys answering questions. They were very nice and I explained that we were very early for our appointment and asked if we should wait in line anyway or come back in 20 minutes. He checked his clipboard and told us to come and stand in a different line. It was no problem that we were early and the other line had about 8 people in it who were being sent through security.
We went though security in to the building to a huge waiting room where we were given a ticket number based on the type of visa we were applying for. We were #10 and it was 9:45AM.
Note: There are bathrooms and a stall selling coffee, sandwiches and candies in the waiting room but nothing to read so bring a book!
There are 25 booths; 11 of them are facing the waiting room. I had imagined that they would be desks in semi-private areas but they were just like the DMV. We went and sat by booth 1 and noticed that the people around us were also waiting for immigrant visas. There is a board showing you who is being processed and how many are in each queue. We waited about 30 minutes until #8 and #9 were processed.
I had all of the documents that we were supposed to bring in an expanding folder. It was about 3 or 4 inches thick. Tax returns, proof of this and that, company records, copies of I94s, pay slips – you name it and I had it in my expanding folders! It weighed a ton!
Our number was called and we went to the booth. The guy was very nice; he asked for our medical records – gulp – I explained that the hospital were sending them and he said that was fine and went to get them. I was so relived when he came back with them!! We gave him the 230-part2, photos (he only took one of each not the two we expected), our original birth/marriage certificates and the police reports. I gave him the originals and copies. He also asked for a letter from my employer. I gave this to him and he noticed that the name of the company did not match my application. I explained that my company was purchased by the new company. He wanted proof of this so I gave him a copy of a press release that my lawyer had given me for exactly this eventuality. Note – That was the only thing I took from the thousand sheets in my expanding folder!!
It took about 10 minutes in total for him to get all of the paper work sorted. He asked us when we were traveling back to the US and we told him that we were booked on an 8:30PM flight the next day. He said that they could not guarantee that they’d be able to process it that quickly. He suggested that we might be able to take the packet with us but had us fill in a courier request form anyway.
We finished us with him and took a slip to the cashier’s desk to pay a $45.00 security surcharge. We then went back to wait for the next call.
We waited probably another 30 minutes and were called to another booth away from the main waiting area. The chap asked us for the receipt from the cashier and then had us both raise our right hands and swear that the information we had provided was true. We pressed our fingers on to a red box as you do when entering the US these days. He asked me about the company’s purchase and asked us where the town was that we lived in; he commented on how nice it was where we lived and then welcomed us to the US. It could not have been more pleasant and less hassle. We mentioned to him about us waiting to take the packet with us; he looked puzzled so I explained that the first guy had suggested that it was at the interviewer’s discretion as to whether they were couriered out or given in person. He laughed nicely and said that he would go and see what could be done.
When he came back he said that the results from our fingerprint scan had not come back but that they would try their best to expedite our processing and get it done by 4:00PM. He suggested talking to the courier to see when they could deliver it.
Last step was to take a form to the couriers who were based in the corner of the waiting room. She explained that the standard cost was 10.50 pounds cash only for 2 passports but that if we wanted the passports delivered sooner than 24 hours then we could pay extra. She suggested that they would call as soon as they got the passports and then tell us how much it would cost for the different options. She did point out that they had no control over how long it takes for them to get the forms from the consulate and she seemed a bit skeptical that we would get them processed that day.
It was 11:30AM when we left the building!
At 5:00PM the couriers called back to say that they had the packet and did we want them delivered the next morning. I asked if they could deliver that evening and they said that for twenty pounds they’d deliver by 9:00PM. I agreed quite happily and sure enough at 8:00PM a motorcycle courier dropped off the envelope. Inside were our passports with the new immigrant visas, copies of the inoculation records and 2 sealed envelopes that we were told not to open.
Yippee!!
Next day we flew back on the 8:30PM flight from Heathrow to Newark, we landed around 11:00PM. We got to the immigration officer and explained that we had the sealed envelopes with us. We asked for them and put them together with the passports and sent us off to a side door where an officer took the envelopes and sent us to the waiting room which was big enough for 100 people but only contained us!
We waited about 10 minutes and were called in to a room where we signed our names in little boxes and were fingerprinted. That was it – he gave us our passports back stamped with temporary visas for us both and told us to expect our green cards in a few weeks.
It took so little time that our luggage was not even on the belt when we got downstairs! We were out of the airport around 11:30PM – all green carded up!
I am guessing that I have forgotten some details but this is the gist of what happened. These boards have been such a help over the 4.5 years I have been waiting – I hope my story helps someone a little bit in return.
Good luck to you all with your processing.