When should I book my medical?
 

Hello, all.

I have my case number and am therefore in a position where I can go ahead and book my medical. The NVC now has mine and my husband's documents and will be reviewing them, with a current suggested processing time of 11 weeks, after which I will hopefully receive my invitation for an interview. In the meantime, can anybody advise me when I should be going about booking the medical? I appreciate that my eventual visa will be valid for six months from the date of the medical, and I understand that the medical should take place at such a time that will allow least five days between it and the interview.

Of all elements of this CR-1 journey, the medical is the only one that causes me angst due to my (openly and much discussed) past mental health issues. I will be ticking 'yes' on at least four of the thirteen questions on the medical questionnaire, and I anticipate a lot of questioning at best (I have a letter from my GP to hopefully alleviate any concern). Because of this, I am a) keen to get it over and done with; and b) wondering whether it is sensible to book the medical for sooner rather than later, to allow time to potentially gather and provide more information if it is requested of me. I'm keen to do this to potentially avoid delays later, but am also cautious to book it too early in case there is any hold-up at the NVC and the interview gets delayed.

Please could someone give me a rough idea of a recommended timeline as to when to go about organising this stuff? Should I be waiting to hear about my interview first?

Thank you.

Re: When should I book my medical?
 

It may have changed since November when I did mine but Knightsbridge would only allow appointments to be made up to the end of the next month (so someone calling Knightsbridge today could get an appointment up to the end of August but no later). And when I called they wanted to know when my interview date was before they would book the medical (although I was not asked to prove that I had an interview appointment - they took my word for it - unless they receive a list of appointments from the embassy and check your answer against the list but that does seem somewhat unethical to me).

So, let's assume 11 weeks at the NVC from now with no checklist. That's mid-October. That's when I had case complete too. My interview was December. Interviews are announced in the last week and first week of each month. So persons with case complete in October will get their appointment letter last week of October/first week of November and that will be the December appointments.

I had a fear of the medical and wanted to get it over with but you have several months yet. I called Knightsbridge when our case got to the NVC and I had my case number, etc and was told, quite bluntly, that they won't do anything until I have an interview date.

Re: When should I book my medical?
 

Thank you for this, Twinkle.

While speaking to the receptionist today, I was asked if I had my case number and, when I answered 'yes', was told "Then you can book your medical now", though I declined to do so while I'm still figuring out my timeline. I'd made it clear that I had no interview booked yet, and explained that at this stage I was merely trying to garner a suggested time to book the medical. So I imagine either things have changed since November, or it depends on who you speak to! :blink:

Seeing your timeline written out like that leads me to consider the possibility that it might be closer to the end of the year before my CR-1 is finalised. Husband and I were imagining it would probably be October(ish) that I'd be moving. But the processes you describe and the times they take make a lot of sense, so I'll keep that in mind moving forward. I think I'll wait a while before booking the medical. (Will perhaps need to consider ordering another ACRO, too. Just this morning, I created a thread, here, to state that the Knightsbridge receptionist confirmed that an ACRO can be dated within 12 months, not just 6, for it to be valid at the time of the medical. I believe you commented on a previous thread to say you believed as much, though there were still some contradictions throughout the site. Anyway, this is all a separate issue for the other thread. But perhaps I'll need to order another one after all as mine was issued in November! Probably cutting it close. We'll see what happens over the coming weeks.)

Re: When should I book my medical?
 

Let's do a little math here. Eleven months from say August 1, 2017 would make it third week or so in October that it gets to the US Embassy.

If you were hoping to be in the US for the Christmas holidays, then I would book the medical for the first or second week in November thus giving yourself a few weeks to get any additional doctor's letters/information that might be requested due to your mental health situation. The worst thing would be that if you have difficulty with getting the additional information, if requested, then you to the US a little than, say January.

Re: When should I book my medical?
 

Thank you for this, Rete. It's certainly looking to be a journey on the longer side of average for us! Fingers crossed the remainder is at least not too bumpy a road.