Knightsbridge (UK) Request for Further Information - Encountered issues, what is the best course of action?

[louisacookie 5]

Hi everyone,

 

I recently attended my medical exam at Knightsbridge on the 27th of March and have my visa interview upcoming on the 24th of April. I had prepared in advance following advice from VisaJourney. Everything mostly went smoothly but I have a request for further information to follow up that I've encountered problems with, I'll explain in full:

 

As I have past treatment with a therapist for low mood in my medical history (and as per recommendation from your very helpful forums and guides) I brought one of those "no harm to themselves or others" letter from my GP along with printouts of the other required documents (patient summary, relevant records, etc). Unfortunately this was not deemed to be sufficient at the medical exam so was given a letter by the physician to request further information from my GP, this being an email containing a brief medical report outlining more specific details.

"That's OK" I thought to myself, I knew this could happen but I'm sure my GP can get together an email outlining everything they need to hear soon enough. Booked an appointment with him promptly to get this sorted.

Subsequently at the appointment with my GP it was discovered there are practically no records on my treatment...perhaps why my documentation to hand was insufficient at medical exam? There was only a referral letter from my previous GP. Obviously my GP is not confident in creating a report with no details to go by so advised me to get in contact with the therapist who treated me and kindly request the information needed.

Then bad news from the therapist today...admin costs aside, it will take 14 days minimum for her to create the report and only able to guarantee that she can complete it by the 27th of April. Argh!!! This is a problem when my visa interview is booked for April 24th...  I had left almost a month's time between medical exam and visa interview as a "cushion" just in case too...

 

So I am now unsure of the best course of action. Here's where I stand: at my medical examination when given request for further information the physician understood that it can often be difficult to get the information in time ahead of the interview, suggesting that I keep my appointment date and that if time is running out to get in touch and they'll "try to sort something out" with the embassy. However I'm honestly not sure if I feel I can depend on this, might I just be better rebooking my appointment a bit later to avoid any issues and have everything prepared? Perhaps it would it be a good idea to get in touch with Knightsbridge?

I'm open to suggestions especially if anyone has had any similar experiences.

 

Thanks!

[Going through 5,671]

43 minutes ago, louisacookie said:

Then bad news from the therapist today...admin costs aside, it will take 14 days minimum for her to create the report and only able to guarantee that she can complete it by the 27th of April. Argh!!!

Phone the therapist and stress that it's for immigration purposes and tell her the date you need it by.  Perhaps that will make her move a bit quicker?

[louisacookie 5]

11 hours ago, Going through said:

Phone the therapist and stress that it's for immigration purposes and tell her the date you need it by.  Perhaps that will make her move a bit quicker?

I let her know it's for immigration purposes and that I would need to have this information off to Knightsbridge with at least a 5 day buffer before my visa interview date on April 24th, but she was only able to guarantee it by April 27th while endeavoring to finish it sooner than that. She gave 2 weeks minimum to complete it but that she wouldn't be able to start until next week, so even if she finished it within the minimum timeframe it would not be completed with enough time ahead of the interview.

With that I suppose I either keep the original interview date and see if this issue with completing my medical can be negotiated with Knightsbridge and the US Embassy OR I push the interview date back to accommodate this delay. I'm not sure which situation is more desirable, I'm having trouble finding any threads on experiencing similar issues.

 

By the way, here's what Knightsbridge are requesting to be outlined in the medical report:

 

 

Quote

 

• Diagnosis 
• Investigations - if any (not relevant as I've not had any)
• Treatment
• Duration of treatment and illness
• Any prior subsequent mental health illness (this information is responsibility of GP as they have access to my medical records, however there is none)
• Any incidents of self-harm, harm to others or suicidal attempts
• Prognosis and your opinion of current mental state (responsibility of GP as obviously I am no longer a patient of my therapist)

Could you please kindly send me further information regarding (the depressive episode) including details of any specialist care and investigations, current or previous treatment and likely prognosis (apparently this just needs to be pulled from my medical records)

 

 

 

 

My hands appear to be tied in that there is information that is not in my medical records which my GP could pull together into a report that I need to obtain from my therapist instead and that this will cause delay...so it's figuring out my best course of action.

[louisacookie 5]

Am just now realising that this should probably be in the UK specific forum, apologies!

[JFH 12,191]

*~*~*country-specific question moved to U.K. regional forum*~*~*

[louisacookie 5]

Thanks

 

I wanted to add I've read into it a bit more on the forums and now found some threads with similar experiences. Am I correct to say that I will be able to go ahead with the visa interview as normal, just that there will be a delay in approving my visa until they receive my completed medical results? That being the case then I will stick with my original interview date, sort out the request for further information as efficiently as I can and not worry about rebooking. I was only worried that I would be refused until it's completed.

I might have misunderstood here as the US Embassy states that you cannot go ahead with your interview if you haven't had your medical exam, I took from this that it would be a problem for them to not yet have received the medical results...perhaps best I get in touch with them directly.

[Emeryx 38]

4 hours ago, louisacookie said:

Thanks

 

I wanted to add I've read into it a bit more on the forums and now found some threads with similar experiences. Am I correct to say that I will be able to go ahead with the visa interview as normal, just that there will be a delay in approving my visa until they receive my completed medical results? That being the case then I will stick with my original interview date, sort out the request for further information as efficiently as I can and not worry about rebooking. I was only worried that I would be refused until it's completed.

I might have misunderstood here as the US Embassy states that you cannot go ahead with your interview if you haven't had your medical exam, I took from this that it would be a problem for them to not yet have received the medical results...perhaps best I get in touch with them directly.

Yeah, you can go ahead with your interview date as normal and they will just tell you that you've been approved but your case is just pending medical and nothing will go forward until the embassy get your medical results and then you'll see your online status change. It may be a little delay but best to get your interview out the way and done i guess. My medical wasn't at the embassy when i had my interview and i left it 5 days. It didn't take long for them to receive it at the embassy. Best to just keep checking with Knightsbridge after your interview and see if they've sent it yet. 

[louisacookie 5]

Thanks everyone for your replies, realising now I got a bit wordier than I needed here  Nerves do that...I ended up contacting the US Embassy as well to check with them and they confirmed themselves it's right to keep your interview date.

 

Just an update that everything went well at my interview and I was approved today! Said everything is in order to process and mail off my visa. I am a bit surprised about this however since my GP only sent off my report today and they can't have been that fast surely...so am chasing up Knightsbridge just to confirm what's happened and keeping an eye on the tracker status.

[louisacookie 5]

To clarify I asked if it was approved outstanding anything and that I had a RFE with my medical but was told nothing is outstanding and that they had received my medical.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

26 minutes ago, louisacookie said:

To clarify I asked if it was approved outstanding anything and that I had a RFE with my medical but was told nothing is outstanding and that they had received my medical.

I guess Knightsbridge deemed your medical sufficient after all. Your doctor already said what he knew and you were not a danger.  Anything Knightsbridge asks for is not for the embassy, but rather to cover their backsides in making a mental health judgement...even asking for the police certificate is a Knightsbridge idea. 

 

I think I would still ring the clinic and ask what date your medical went out.

 

 

[WandW 0]

Any advise you might give since hindsight is always 20/20? My fiance suffered from depression and did self harm. This was over 10 years ago. Any advice you can give to keep this from happening to him? We have been worried about this for awhile now.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

30 minutes ago, WandW said:

Any advise you might give since hindsight is always 20/20? My fiance suffered from depression and did self harm. This was over 10 years ago. Any advice you can give to keep this from happening to him? We have been worried about this for awhile now.

Take to the visa medical exactly what Knightsbridge told her to get from her doctor or medical professional. 

 

 

• Diagnosis 
• Investigations - if any (not relevant as I've not had any)
• Treatment
• Duration of treatment and illness
• Any prior subsequent mental health illness (this information is responsibility of GP as they have access to my medical records, however there is none)
• Any incidents of self-harm, harm to others or suicidal attempts
• Prognosis and your opinion of current mental state (responsibility of GP as obviously I am no longer a patient of my therapist)

Could you please kindly send me further information regarding (the depressive episode) including details of any specialist care and investigations, current or previous treatment and likely prognosis (apparently this just needs to be pulled from my medical records)

[louisacookie 5]

11 hours ago, Wuozopo said:

I guess Knightsbridge deemed your medical sufficient after all. Your doctor already said what he knew and you were not a danger.  Anything Knightsbridge asks for is not for the embassy, but rather to cover their backsides in making a mental health judgement...even asking for the police certificate is a Knightsbridge idea. 

 

I think I would still ring the clinic and ask what date your medical went out.

 

 

Yes, I definitely want to be sure what happened with Knightsbridge since it's unclear and especially when it seemed so essential to get this report to them, so I'm getting in touch with them. I'll update what happened here once I find out.

One thing I want to add is that I did email Knightsbridge the week before my interview to let them know how things were going and that the report was going to get to them soon, just not in time for the interview. They responded letting me know that I should still attend the interview as normal and to just get the report to them once it's complete. I'm left unsure if they still actually need it or if they just waived it!

 

8 hours ago, WandW said:

Any advise you might give since hindsight is always 20/20? My fiance suffered from depression and did self harm. This was over 10 years ago. Any advice you can give to keep this from happening to him? We have been worried about this for awhile now.

I would say that I think I ended up in this situation because there was almost no information on my past treatment for low mood in my medical records.

I brought my patient summary and all documents available from my medical records on any ongoing (my treatment for crohn's) or otherwise relevant (such as mental health related) treatment I've received.

As I said earlier all there was in my records on my treatment for low mood was the initial referral letter from my GP and absolutely nothing from my therapist, however following advice from visajourney I thought all I would need was a letter from my GP with his opinion on my current condition.

I'm presuming because there was absolutely nothing on how my past treatment actually went they sent me off with the list of questions to be addressed in a brief report. If you know this information is scarce in your own medical records that you'll be bringing in, perhaps you might want to request a report addressing what was asked of my own doctors.

[sremlif 51]

Hi @louisacookie thanks for keeping us updated on the progress - fingers crossed all goes well for you! 

 

I'm in a similar boat where I have "low mood, anxiety and depression" on my patient summary from 2005. It resulted in me attending counselling on the NHS for a number of weeks (I think a total of 8 weeks, if memory serves me correctly).  

 

I have an appointment with my GP next week to request a letter and will mention the points you've listed in your message above as something they'll need to answer for. 

 

I guess my only concern at this point is tracking down the NHS counsellor that I saw all those years ago. I did ask the receptionist at my surgery if they'd have contact details on file but they said they couldn't advise until they looked into my records further.

 

Have you have much trouble difficulty getting in touch with your therapist, requesting a letter, etc.?

[louisacookie 5]

On 25/04/2018 at 1:07 PM, sremlif said:

Hi @louisacookie thanks for keeping us updated on the progress - fingers crossed all goes well for you! 

 

I'm in a similar boat where I have "low mood, anxiety and depression" on my patient summary from 2005. It resulted in me attending counselling on the NHS for a number of weeks (I think a total of 8 weeks, if memory serves me correctly).  

 

I have an appointment with my GP next week to request a letter and will mention the points you've listed in your message above as something they'll need to answer for. 

 

I guess my only concern at this point is tracking down the NHS counsellor that I saw all those years ago. I did ask the receptionist at my surgery if they'd have contact details on file but they said they couldn't advise until they looked into my records further.

 

Have you have much trouble difficulty getting in touch with your therapist, requesting a letter, etc.?

I didn't have much of a problem, however it was a therapist I saw 2 years ago on private healthcare. She was still working at the same clinic so it was a matter of finding her email again and getting in touch with her. The only painful part was I got charged a fair bit for administrative processing...

 

Let us know how your appointment goes, you will hopefully find that the points I was asked to provide information for on my treatment are available in some manner in your medical records. It that's the case, you shouldn't need to hunt down your old counsellor to create a report as it will all be right there to print off to take to your medical and your GP can write a letter with a current opinion.