When is best time to schedule your Fiancee’s Medical ?

When to schedule the K1 Fiancee’s Medical Exam?

To be granted a fiance visa, the k1 fiance is reuqired to schedule and attend a medical exam at a clinic approved by one of the US Consulates. There they test and examine to confirm that the fiance does not have any diseases that would put the public at risk or medical conditions requiring public funding to treat, has the required vaccinations, does not have a history of drug use or mental instability.

 

Most consulates recommend the fiance attend the medical exam two weeks prior to the interview as mentioned in our K1 Visa Timeline. This gives ample time for tests to be processed, x-rays developed, and all results to arrive at the consulate, despite occassional traffic jams, power outages, bad weather.

Scheduling at the Last Minute

Sometimes it is not convenient to take the medical two weeks early. Perhaps the fiance lives far away, and needs to take an expensive trip to where the consulate and clinic are. We don’t what her to spend two weeks alone in a ;hotel. The answer is to take the medical just as close to the time of the interview as possible.  The best way to organize this is by talking directly to the medical clinic for their advice. Ask: “What is the very latest appointment time they can reliably provide a medical in time for the consular interview”?.

I include contact information of the approved clinics in the custom embassy instructions I post for you at your private HomePage. Contact the clinic, with scheduling and any medical questions. The experienced staff at the clinic know best.

Scheduling Early

Sometimes, maybe because of a convenient early opportunity to be in town where the medical clinic is located, or just to satisfy a powerful urge to “get things over with as quickly as possible” your fiancee may want to schedule the k1 fiance medical exam long before the consular interview date.

Fiance Medical is ONLY valid for 6 months.

There is danger in doing so. Most consulates now view the fiancee visa medical as being valid for ONLY a MAXIMUM of 6 months and the fiance must enter the USA before the Medical is out of date.

This means the consulate will not issue the K1 fiance visa for its stated normal 6 months validity. Instead, they adjust the visa’s expiry date back earlier to match 6 months from the date of the medical. For example;  If she has the medical 2 weeks prior to the interview the K1 visa issued will be valid for 5 1/2 months. If she attends the medical 5 months early, the visa would be valid for 1 month only.

I have had a few clients, shocked to see that their visas would expire much sooner than expected, and they had to quickly and sometimes expensively rearrange their airline reservations. Moral to the story. Follow step by step instructions as I present them, following each in sequence. Do what needs to be done, WHEN it needs to be done. Shortcuts, jumping ahead, taking steps out of order  creates confusion and may lead to avoidable expenses.

by Fred Wahl
the Visa Coach