Can I book my medical with the Interview Letter

[Kris & Crystal 47]

I recently got Case Complete/Documentarily Qualified at the NVC. I'm sure I remember reading a post on this very forum at some point that it was possible to book your medical without having the Interview Letter.

 

Just wanted to check if I was misremembering something? And if not what the process was? What I needed to bring or provide Knightsbridge in place of the Interview Letter?

[Richard Purves 58]

As I found out, it's best to try and book as far ahead of time as you can. It can take a couple weeks minimum for the report to get to the embassy, and it's a PITA trying to get Knightsbridge on the phone.

 

Worst Knightsbridge can do is say no. So I say go for it.

 

Which is precisely what I'll be doing Monday. Calling Knightsbridge like crazy.

[JFH 12,190]

Knightsbridge will want to see “something” from the NVC that has your LND number on it. I was told they won’t accept a verbal LND or a scribbled LND on the back of the envelope. Just something that has come from the NVC (your welcome letter, for example) that has your LND number. So that they know they have the correct person in front of them.

[JFH 12,190]

Yes, as mentioned above. Allow at least two weeks between medical and interview. Knightsbridge are not fast at sending the medical results a few miles across London to the embassy. 

[Richard Purves 58]

2 hours ago, JFH said:

Yes, as mentioned above. Allow at least two weeks between medical and interview. Knightsbridge are not fast at sending the medical results a few miles across London to the embassy. 

Well to be fair to Knightsbridge, they have to use DX courier service like everyone else.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

4 hours ago, Richard Purves said:

Well to be fair to Knightsbridge, they have to use DX courier service like everyone else.

That's something else I wish somebody currently dealing with the clinic would ask when they are there. Do you use a courier service to send the medicals? ( I love to ask questions at the source when I get the opportunity. I quiz CBP guys at the airport, for example.)

 

So, the new embassy opened mid-January 2018. They moved in on Martin Luther King holiday. All of the sudden nobody's medical was at the embassy in time for their interview. At first I attributed it to getting settled in a new building and just getting the medicals up to the IV Unit. But it continued for months and months...a year and more. It made me question whether the clinic had changed their process and used Royal Mail to save a few quid. Or did they just cut back on staff. Did they split from Knightsbridge Doctors their former affiliation? They changed website URL  and are call Visa Medicals now, where it used to be Knightsbridge Doctors. There is no mention of the two clinics any more. The other still exists as Knightsbridge. Did they split and get cheap with staff and lab and courier?

 

The previous eight years or so that I was around this forum, the medical results were at the embassy in 3 or 4 days after the appointment without fail. The blood would come back from the lab in 2-3days (sometime a weekend played into the time)  and they would finish the report and send it out same day via courier and it arrived same day at the embassy. So what happened after Jan 16, 2018 that results would not be there 9-10 days after an exam? The previous average was three days. The embassy only moved a few miles across London. It shouldn't effect a courier dispatched  that used to deliver same day.

 

 Richard, ask them their courier arrangements and what they do differently after the embassy moved. 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Wuozopo

[Richard Purves 58]

So I had my last interview a couple weeks after the new embassy opened. I was still getting paperwork for the old address at the time. That and some of the booking confusion that happened with Knightsbridge at the time (long story). However I did see the DX guys turn up at Knightsbridge while I was there.

 

There was suddenly a lot more security present at the new Embassy. No way were they letting anyone unapproved through. They claimed the South Pavilion security was like an airport: it was more unfriendly and rushed than that. Lots of armed UK police outside the main entrance and vehicle entry.

 

This was Jan 30th 2018. I'll certainly ask Knightsbridge what they're doing if I get the chance.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Richard Purves
hit send by accident.