Calling all Finns! Embassy, Medical, and other experiences please?

[furc 0]

I went to have my medical done with helle because I got a time for the next day after calling, and for me it was a pleasant experience. I forgot to bring my passport with me, but that was not an issue and I could just scan and email it. Also with the vaccinations, I was missing Polio and Tetanus but he told me I could just take those from my local doctor and fax him the vaccination records after the interview. All in all it ended up costing 360 euros for the medical.

[Lynkali 163]

Just an update since I started this thread, I feel like I should close it off for the time being ...

Our interview is now done and Mikko got his visa and passport on Monday, so we're ALL DONE until POE (looking at September 13, since he gave a month's notice to his work and apartment). A huge relief and there were no hassles, just lots of questions along the way but everything worked out just fine!

For future reference, Mikko and I were both very happy with Dr. Borgström -- jolly and Swedish (but fluent in Finnish) and he seemed completely competent. He gave a copy of the vaccination form (marked complete, and notations for chicken pox and most everything else) to Mikko after the medical, and when Mikko went back a week later to pick up the medical packet, it was all ready and he got an extra copy for himself, including the xray cd, etc. Everything just fine, hopefully it will be accepted for AOS with no issues.

Interview also went fine -- the only frustration was timing, since we notified the embassy we were ready on June 25, but they scheduled the interview for a month later (July 24). Looks like people were right about July being a slow/vacation time. I also had some difficulty in emailing them, I asked a question about the I-134 and they never responded to me, even after a second inquiry, just NO response whatsoever. However, they were VERY quick at responding to Mikko every time he emailed, so I don't know if there was something wrong with my email, or if they only answer the Finnish citizen applicant or what. In the end it didn't matter, really, just a bit confusing.

And as for shipping, we contacted Victor Ek and had them come out for a quote. Mikko mostly has heavy books, a pretty large CD/DVD collection, and a few handfuls of clothing -- no furniture and no delicate items, no dishes or housewares. So they gave us a quote of 2700 Euros for shipping from Vaasa to California, which INCLUDES them boxing up everything and cleaning his apartment and getting rid of his couch/desk/bed etc that he doesn't want -- so that actually seems very reasonable to me and we accepted it. It isn't much more than I expected, and it comes with all the extra services which will make life much easier on Mikko, so I'm pretty happy.

Thanks again to everyone for all the useful advice, and I hope people further down the line find this thread useful -- feel free to add to it still if there's any more advice to offer!

Edited August 1, 2013 by Lynkali