South African K1 Visa applicants

[Sydnialexa 3]

21 hours ago, madameMaison said:

Congratulations on your Ready Status ! 

 

Once you have your case number from the NVC you can start preparing your DS-160. Make sure you double, triple and octuple check all the answers you have filled in on your Ds-160 before confirming it. 

 

In the meantime, you can expect an email from one of the SA consulates and that email will basically contain an instruction page of all the things we've been preparing for since starting the visa process, the interview booking fee, and it will contain the doctor's information. 

 

 

It took 4 days for us to recieve our packet 3 from the embassy after the status changed to 'Ready', however, with it being holiday season and all I don't know how long it will take for you to recieve packet 3.

Do you have to get your medical done before you can schedule an your interview or can we schedule the interview first and then get the medical done? We're worried we'll have to wait so long to get an interview date if we must get the medical done first.

 

Thank you!

Edited December 19, 2018 by Sydnialexa
Typo

[madameMaison 204]

9 minutes ago, Sydnialexa said:

Do you have to get your medical done before you can schedule an your interview or can we schedule the interview first and then get the medical done? We're worried we'll have to wait so long to get an interview date if we must get the medical done first.

 

Thank you!

That's correct, you book the interview first then the medical centre will issue you a medical appointment BEFORE your interview schedule date. 

The medical centre will ask you when your interview is scheduled for.

[Sydnialexa 3]

2 minutes ago, madameMaison said:

That's correct, you book the interview first then the medical centre will issue you a medical appointment BEFORE your interview schedule date. 

The medical centre will ask you when your interview is scheduled for.

Perfect!

 

We were thinking the order had to be receive packet 3>DS160>Schedule Medical> Get Medical Done>Schedule Interview and that each step had to be complete before doing the next.

 

So we can schedule both the interview and the medical on the same day, as long as the medical is completed a couple week or so before our interview date, correct?

 

Thank you!

[madameMaison 204]

3 minutes ago, Sydnialexa said:

Perfect!

 

We were thinking the order had to be receive packet 3>DS160>Schedule Medical> Get Medical Done>Schedule Interview and that each step had to be complete before doing the next.

 

So we can schedule both the interview and the medical on the same day, as long as the medical is completed a couple week or so before our interview date, correct?

 

Thank you!

That's correct.. And you don't need packet 3 to fill in your DS-160, you just need your case number. 

[JS5220 67]

Anyone know how many days the Medical Exam takes (going to Cape Town Dr. Marcus Brauer)? I thought I read that it took 2-3 days to complete but they only scheduled my fiance for 1 day. She was wondering because she wants to do the medical on a Thursday and then fly to Johannesburg on Saturday to get ready for the interview.

 

Thanks!

[LuFlolady 881]

6 hours ago, JS5220 said:

Anyone know how many days the Medical Exam takes (going to Cape Town Dr. Marcus Brauer)? I thought I read that it took 2-3 days to complete but they only scheduled my fiance for 1 day. She was wondering because she wants to do the medical on a Thursday and then fly to Johannesburg on Saturday to get ready for the interview.

 

Thanks!

The medical takes 2 days

[Mozam 147]

@MozambiqueSoninha Looking for some input. We have basically all our documents prepared except translating. We plan to get it done after the New Year. Do you have any advice on getting the vaccine card(s) translated? Do you have experience with this?

 

We have his cartão de bebê and a vaccination card from the hospital for his updated tetanus vaccines. Is this what you are planning to use? Do you know if we need additional information. I'm afraid the vaccines won't translate well and we will have to pay for something we already have. 

[MozambiqueSoninha 50]

5 hours ago, Mozam said:

@MozambiqueSoninha Looking for some input. We have basically all our documents prepared except translating. We plan to get it done after the New Year. Do you have any advice on getting the vaccine card(s) translated? Do you have experience with this?

 

We have his cartão de bebê and a vaccination card from the hospital for his updated tetanus vaccines. Is this what you are planning to use? Do you know if we need additional information. I'm afraid the vaccines won't translate well and we will have to pay for something we already have. 

I Haven't yet translated for my step daughter but when we brought my son here who was born in Mozambique we had to have his translated for the doctors here - There are a lot of online translation services with single day turn around where you can add notes about the content of the document - I usually self translate the entire document and let them translate they way they see fit - but it gives them the gist with any local variation - Here are a list of the USCIS required vaccinations and their Portuguese equivalent. 

 

Mumps - Caxumba

Measles - Sarampo

Rubella - Rubéola 

Polio - Poliomielite

Tetnus - Tétano

Pertussis (Whooping Cough) - coqueluche

Hep B - hepatite B

Flu Vaccination - vacinação contra influenza ou gripe

 

They do seem fairly expensive at the place in Jo-burg - I want to start having her cross any missing ones off before we go 

[Tanya007 21]

Hi, has anyone received an RFE? Can someone perhaps explain what the document looks like? Was it a specific colour? We received a picture of our mail in the US. Received a document from USCIS but we are not sure if it’s an NOA2 or an RFE. The online status has not yet been updated. We are both currently in South Africa. 

Edited January 1, 2019 by Tanya007

[madameMaison 204]

1 hour ago, Tanya007 said:

Hi, has anyone received an RFE? Can someone perhaps explain what the document looks like? Was it a specific colour? We received a picture of our mail in the US. Received a document from USCIS but we are not sure if it’s an NOA2 or an RFE. The online status has not yet been updated. We are both currently in South Africa. 

Yes we had received an RFE it was a plain simple envelope with the USCIS title. 

 

Best thing to do is just ask the person at the US home to open the mail and read it for you, so you are both sure. Because both NOA2 and RFE envelopes look alike. 

[Tanya007 21]

15 minutes ago, madameMaison said:

Yes we had received an RFE it was a plain simple envelope with the USCIS title. 

 

Best thing to do is just ask the person at the US home to open the mail and read it for you, so you are both sure. Because both NOA2 and RFE envelopes look alike. 

Thank you, but the document itself? Was it on an official letterhead like the Notice of Actions are? And was the paper maybe a different colour?

 

We unfortunately don’t have anyone at home to open it up. 

 

Just curious

[madameMaison 204]

7 minutes ago, Tanya007 said:

Thank you, but the document itself? Was it on an official letterhead like the Notice of Actions are? And was the paper maybe a different colour?

 

We unfortunately don’t have anyone at home to open it up. 

 

Just curious

The document itself was just white paper, and had the official letter head of the USCIS and their address and it will have a title like Attention : RFE

 

The NOA2 letter is also just plain white paper similar as well. 

 

Everything is plain white, nothing fancy. 

 

The government logo is in colour and stamped. 

 

 

[madameMaison 204]

19 minutes ago, Tanya007 said:

Thank you, but the document itself? Was it on an official letterhead like the Notice of Actions are? And was the paper maybe a different colour?

 

We unfortunately don’t have anyone at home to open it up. 

 

Just curious

Sorry, tried looking for a picture of the document but my phone was stolen a few weeks ago so I'm not able to recover all images. However, it basically looks just like the NOA1.. Same style and format. 

 

[Mozam 147]

On 12/27/2018 at 6:53 PM, MozambiqueSoninha said:

I Haven't yet translated for my step daughter but when we brought my son here who was born in Mozambique we had to have his translated for the doctors here - There are a lot of online translation services with single day turn around where you can add notes about the content of the document - I usually self translate the entire document and let them translate they way they see fit - but it gives them the gist with any local variation - Here are a list of the USCIS required vaccinations and their Portuguese equivalent. 

 

Mumps - Caxumba

Measles - Sarampo

Rubella - Rubéola 

Polio - Poliomielite

Tetnus - Tétano

Pertussis (Whooping Cough) - coqueluche

Hep B - hepatite B

Flu Vaccination - vacinação contra influenza ou gripe

 

They do seem fairly expensive at the place in Jo-burg - I want to start having her cross any missing ones off before we go 

Do you have a translation service you recommend? 

[MozambiqueSoninha 50]

8 hours ago, Mozam said:

Do you have a translation service you recommend? 

I have used onehourtranslation.com in the past but their prices has more than doubled recently.   For my step daughter i have been using universal-translation-services.com  The web page isnt as nice or intuitive and the turn around would be a few hours instead of one hour, but I have done three documents through them so far which have all been accepted by NVC.