Firm Answers: Brazil Rio K1 Medical Exam and Interview Scheduling

[Mark11 36]

All, my Brazilian fiancé and I just successfully completed the K1 interview in Rio (on Jan. 7, 2020), so I have some definitive information on scheduling the medical exams, the ASC fingerprinting, and the visa interview.  Here's what we learned (in no particular order):

1. Once you have received notice from NVC that your packet has been sent to the consulate and your CEAC status changes to "READY" (go to this website: https://ceac.state.gov/ceac/  and under IMMIGRANT, click on
   "Check My Visa Application Status", enter your RDJ number from NVC and check your status) , do NOT wait for the consulate to email you with instructions for an interview -- the email may never come (neither my fiance' nor I received an email, and the consulate would never answer my 4 emailed status requests -- so I just scheduled it).  Instead, immediately complete and submit your DS-160, and then go to the visa appointment website (https://ais.usvisa-info.com/) and pay the fee and schedule the ASC fingerprinting and the visa interview.  NOTE:  You may need to use Chrome to schedule the interview -- I was unable to complete the visa/passport delivery address form using Internet Explorer, but it worked fine when I switched to Chrome.
2. If you are doing your medical work in Rio, here is the shortest schedule/number of days in Rio you can do.  First, K1 visa interviews are only done on Tuesdays.  The medical analysis (xray, blood, urine) require a minimum of 2 business days to be reported to the doctor.  So plan to do all the medical work on Thursday (Thurs-Fri-Mon = 2 business days).  NOTE that only the xray actually requires an appointment (and an order from the doctor), the blood and urine are done at the same place on a walk-in basis.  Schedule your ASC fingerprinting and photographing on Friday or Monday.  Schedule your medical exam on Monday.  The doctor will give you a slip of paper confirming you completed the medical exam and then he will electronically transmit your results to the consulate and they will be available for your interview on Tuesday.
3. So to summarize a proven minimum schedule:

4.                  Thursday:  Xray, blood, urine

                    Friday or Monday:  ASC fingerprinting and photographing

                    Monday:  Medical exam

                    Tuesday:  Visa interview

5. Plan to stay in the Ipanema Beach or San Conrado Beach area, both of which are very close to the Leblon neighborhood (far southwest of downtown), which is where everything is located except the actual consulate.  All medical analysis, medical exam, and ASC fingerprinting are in Leblon.  The consulate is in downtown (far Northeast of Leblon).  About a $25 cab ride from the San Conrado Beach area to the consulate.  What I'm saying is this:  don't try to stay close to the consulate -- that's not where you'll be spending most of your time.

6. Time needed:  xray took about 20 minutes.  Blood and urine (same lab), took about 10 minutes.  ASC fingerprinting and photographing took about 25 minutes.  Medical exam took 25 minutes (mostly in waiting room, 10 minutes for actual exam).  Interview took about 3 hours in total.

7. Medical exam:  make sure you bring either (1) the interview email from the embassy (which we never got) or (2) the printed interview scheduling and payment receipt page that shows your RDJ number.  The medical secretary will demand to see proof of the consulate issuing your RDJ number.

8. The medical exam doctor is extremely friendly and helpful and speaks excellent English.  His secretary is, well . . . .  a little difficult.  Make sure you have all the items they request on their sheet, including the 6 tiny photographs, and proof of your RDJ number.

9. The medical exam office only accepts Brazilian Reis R$ 750-- no credit cards or dollars.  The xray, and blood/urine labs accept credit cards.

 

Good luck,

Mark

[Hilde 381]

On 1/17/2020 at 7:30 PM, Mark11 said:

All, my Brazilian fiancé and I just successfully completed the K1 interview in Rio (on Jan. 7, 2020), so I have some definitive information on scheduling the medical exams, the ASC fingerprinting, and the visa interview.  Here's what we learned (in no particular order):

1. Once you have received notice from NVC that your packet has been sent to the consulate and your CEAC status changes to "READY" (go to this website: https://ceac.state.gov/ceac/  and under IMMIGRANT, click on
   "Check My Visa Application Status", enter your RDJ number from NVC and check your status) , do NOT wait for the consulate to email you with instructions for an interview -- the email may never come (neither my fiance' nor I received an email, and the consulate would never answer my 4 emailed status requests -- so I just scheduled it).  Instead, immediately complete and submit your DS-160, and then go to the visa appointment website (https://ais.usvisa-info.com/) and pay the fee and schedule the ASC fingerprinting and the visa interview.  NOTE:  You may need to use Chrome to schedule the interview -- I was unable to complete the visa/passport delivery address form using Internet Explorer, but it worked fine when I switched to Chrome.
2. If you are doing your medical work in Rio, here is the shortest schedule/number of days in Rio you can do.  First, K1 visa interviews are only done on Tuesdays.  The medical analysis (xray, blood, urine) require a minimum of 2 business days to be reported to the doctor.  So plan to do all the medical work on Thursday (Thurs-Fri-Mon = 2 business days).  NOTE that only the xray actually requires an appointment (and an order from the doctor), the blood and urine are done at the same place on a walk-in basis.  Schedule your ASC fingerprinting and photographing on Friday or Monday.  Schedule your medical exam on Monday.  The doctor will give you a slip of paper confirming you completed the medical exam and then he will electronically transmit your results to the consulate and they will be available for your interview on Tuesday.
3. So to summarize a proven minimum schedule:

4.                  Thursday:  Xray, blood, urine

                    Friday or Monday:  ASC fingerprinting and photographing

                    Monday:  Medical exam

                    Tuesday:  Visa interview

5. Plan to stay in the Ipanema Beach or San Conrado Beach area, both of which are very close to the Leblon neighborhood (far southwest of downtown), which is where everything is located except the actual consulate.  All medical analysis, medical exam, and ASC fingerprinting are in Leblon.  The consulate is in downtown (far Northeast of Leblon).  About a $25 cab ride from the San Conrado Beach area to the consulate.  What I'm saying is this:  don't try to stay close to the consulate -- that's not where you'll be spending most of your time.

6. Time needed:  xray took about 20 minutes.  Blood and urine (same lab), took about 10 minutes.  ASC fingerprinting and photographing took about 25 minutes.  Medical exam took 25 minutes (mostly in waiting room, 10 minutes for actual exam).  Interview took about 3 hours in total.

7. Medical exam:  make sure you bring either (1) the interview email from the embassy (which we never got) or (2) the printed interview scheduling and payment receipt page that shows your RDJ number.  The medical secretary will demand to see proof of the consulate issuing your RDJ number.

8. The medical exam doctor is extremely friendly and helpful and speaks excellent English.  His secretary is, well . . . .  a little difficult.  Make sure you have all the items they request on their sheet, including the 6 tiny photographs, and proof of your RDJ number.

9. The medical exam office only accepts Brazilian Reis R$ 750-- no credit cards or dollars.  The xray, and blood/urine labs accept credit cards.

 

Good luck,

Mark

Very helpful! Thanks!

[T-Wall 1]

On 1/17/2020 at 4:30 PM, Mark11 said:

All, my Brazilian fiancé and I just successfully completed the K1 interview in Rio (on Jan. 7, 2020), so I have some definitive information on scheduling the medical exams, the ASC fingerprinting, and the visa interview.  Here's what we learned (in no particular order):

1. Once you have received notice from NVC that your packet has been sent to the consulate and your CEAC status changes to "READY" (go to this website: https://ceac.state.gov/ceac/  and under IMMIGRANT, click on
   "Check My Visa Application Status", enter your RDJ number from NVC and check your status) , do NOT wait for the consulate to email you with instructions for an interview -- the email may never come (neither my fiance' nor I received an email, and the consulate would never answer my 4 emailed status requests -- so I just scheduled it).  Instead, immediately complete and submit your DS-160, and then go to the visa appointment website (https://ais.usvisa-info.com/) and pay the fee and schedule the ASC fingerprinting and the visa interview.  NOTE:  You may need to use Chrome to schedule the interview -- I was unable to complete the visa/passport delivery address form using Internet Explorer, but it worked fine when I switched to Chrome.
2. If you are doing your medical work in Rio, here is the shortest schedule/number of days in Rio you can do.  First, K1 visa interviews are only done on Tuesdays.  The medical analysis (xray, blood, urine) require a minimum of 2 business days to be reported to the doctor.  So plan to do all the medical work on Thursday (Thurs-Fri-Mon = 2 business days).  NOTE that only the xray actually requires an appointment (and an order from the doctor), the blood and urine are done at the same place on a walk-in basis.  Schedule your ASC fingerprinting and photographing on Friday or Monday.  Schedule your medical exam on Monday.  The doctor will give you a slip of paper confirming you completed the medical exam and then he will electronically transmit your results to the consulate and they will be available for your interview on Tuesday.
3. So to summarize a proven minimum schedule:

4.                  Thursday:  Xray, blood, urine

                    Friday or Monday:  ASC fingerprinting and photographing

                    Monday:  Medical exam

                    Tuesday:  Visa interview

5. Plan to stay in the Ipanema Beach or San Conrado Beach area, both of which are very close to the Leblon neighborhood (far southwest of downtown), which is where everything is located except the actual consulate.  All medical analysis, medical exam, and ASC fingerprinting are in Leblon.  The consulate is in downtown (far Northeast of Leblon).  About a $25 cab ride from the San Conrado Beach area to the consulate.  What I'm saying is this:  don't try to stay close to the consulate -- that's not where you'll be spending most of your time.

6. Time needed:  xray took about 20 minutes.  Blood and urine (same lab), took about 10 minutes.  ASC fingerprinting and photographing took about 25 minutes.  Medical exam took 25 minutes (mostly in waiting room, 10 minutes for actual exam).  Interview took about 3 hours in total.

7. Medical exam:  make sure you bring either (1) the interview email from the embassy (which we never got) or (2) the printed interview scheduling and payment receipt page that shows your RDJ number.  The medical secretary will demand to see proof of the consulate issuing your RDJ number.

8. The medical exam doctor is extremely friendly and helpful and speaks excellent English.  His secretary is, well . . . .  a little difficult.  Make sure you have all the items they request on their sheet, including the 6 tiny photographs, and proof of your RDJ number.

9. The medical exam office only accepts Brazilian Reis R$ 750-- no credit cards or dollars.  The xray, and blood/urine labs accept credit cards.

 

Good luck,

Mark

Hi Mark, 

Thank you for the great informative post. I am going to schedule an interview soon in Rio and you answered a lot of my questions.

I have a couple more questions if you can help.

1. Did you choose to ship your visa and package to your fiance's address or pick it up at the consulate in Rio? Either way, how long did it take to receive it?

2. How did you schedule with the ASC, the lab, and the doctor? did you just call them and schedule or schedule online or walk in?

[Mark11 36]

1 hour ago, T-Wall said:

Hi Mark, 

Thank you for the great informative post. I am going to schedule an interview soon in Rio and you answered a lot of my questions.

I have a couple more questions if you can help.

1. Did you choose to ship your visa and package to your fiance's address or pick it up at the consulate in Rio? Either way, how long did it take to receive it?

2. How did you schedule with the ASC, the lab, and the doctor? did you just call them and schedule or schedule online or walk in?

T-wall, Here are answers to your questions:

 

1).  Unless you want to stay in Rio longer, I would suggest having it mailed to your house (in Brazil). I don’t know how long it actually took the consulate to print the visa and prepare the k1 entry packet, but the CEAC site didn’t change to “ISSUED” for 4 days. Then the consulate emailed my fiancé after about 7 business days and said the package had been mailed and gave her a SEDEX tracking number.  The package arrived at her house about 15 actual days after the interview. 
 

I was concerned about having such an important package being delivered in the mail (versus a courier or picking it up in person), but the consulate uses “priority” mailing with tracking, so I don’t think there’s much chance of it being lost. The whole package arrived in a big fat white rugged plastic envelope (about 12 inches long x 10 inches wide x 3 inches thick).  Inside is the passport with k1 visa on a page, and a sealed big brown packet with all the port-of-entry materials. The brown packet has a red “do-not-open” warning on it. 
 

For more information on the consulate and the actual interview, please see my consulate review on my timeline. 
 

2). Scheduling:  First you must email the doctor (they ONLY accept email) and have them email you the 1-page medical background form (simple - name, address, etc).  Fill this out on a computer (do not hand-write answers and then scan — they will not accept) and then email it back.  After they receive the form and confirm everything is correct, they will email you a stamped doctor’s order for the X-ray, urine, and blood (take this form with you when you go to the labs).  At this point, you can call the doctor’s office and schedule a time  for the medical exam. 
 

The ASC date/time is scheduled on the same website as the interview. When you are choosing your interview date/time, you will also choose your ASC date/time.  Both dates/times and addresses will be on your one-page “receipt” that appears on screen when you have completed payment. Make sure to print this page — you will need it for the interview, and if you don’t receive an interview “invitation” email from the consulate, you will need this page to prove to the doctor’s secretary that you were issued an RDJ number. 
 

Labs: Once the doctor‘s office has emailed you the order for the lab work, you can call the X-ray lab and schedule an appointment (the phone number and address are on the  form).  The blood and urine are at the same lab and do not require an appointment — just walk in and show them the doctor’s order and they will fill out the necessary forms. All results are emailed to the doctor’s office. 
 

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions. 
 

Mark

[Lájila 1]

On 1/17/2020 at 7:30 PM, Mark11 said:

All, my Brazilian fiancé and I just successfully completed the K1 interview in Rio (on Jan. 7, 2020), so I have some definitive information on scheduling the medical exams, the ASC fingerprinting, and the visa interview.  Here's what we learned (in no particular order):

1. Once you have received notice from NVC that your packet has been sent to the consulate and your CEAC status changes to "READY" (go to this website: https://ceac.state.gov/ceac/  and under IMMIGRANT, click on
   "Check My Visa Application Status", enter your RDJ number from NVC and check your status) , do NOT wait for the consulate to email you with instructions for an interview -- the email may never come (neither my fiance' nor I received an email, and the consulate would never answer my 4 emailed status requests -- so I just scheduled it).  Instead, immediately complete and submit your DS-160, and then go to the visa appointment website (https://ais.usvisa-info.com/) and pay the fee and schedule the ASC fingerprinting and the visa interview.  NOTE:  You may need to use Chrome to schedule the interview -- I was unable to complete the visa/passport delivery address form using Internet Explorer, but it worked fine when I switched to Chrome.
2. If you are doing your medical work in Rio, here is the shortest schedule/number of days in Rio you can do.  First, K1 visa interviews are only done on Tuesdays.  The medical analysis (xray, blood, urine) require a minimum of 2 business days to be reported to the doctor.  So plan to do all the medical work on Thursday (Thurs-Fri-Mon = 2 business days).  NOTE that only the xray actually requires an appointment (and an order from the doctor), the blood and urine are done at the same place on a walk-in basis.  Schedule your ASC fingerprinting and photographing on Friday or Monday.  Schedule your medical exam on Monday.  The doctor will give you a slip of paper confirming you completed the medical exam and then he will electronically transmit your results to the consulate and they will be available for your interview on Tuesday.
3. So to summarize a proven minimum schedule:

4.                  Thursday:  Xray, blood, urine

                    Friday or Monday:  ASC fingerprinting and photographing

                    Monday:  Medical exam

                    Tuesday:  Visa interview

5. Plan to stay in the Ipanema Beach or San Conrado Beach area, both of which are very close to the Leblon neighborhood (far southwest of downtown), which is where everything is located except the actual consulate.  All medical analysis, medical exam, and ASC fingerprinting are in Leblon.  The consulate is in downtown (far Northeast of Leblon).  About a $25 cab ride from the San Conrado Beach area to the consulate.  What I'm saying is this:  don't try to stay close to the consulate -- that's not where you'll be spending most of your time.

6. Time needed:  xray took about 20 minutes.  Blood and urine (same lab), took about 10 minutes.  ASC fingerprinting and photographing took about 25 minutes.  Medical exam took 25 minutes (mostly in waiting room, 10 minutes for actual exam).  Interview took about 3 hours in total.

7. Medical exam:  make sure you bring either (1) the interview email from the embassy (which we never got) or (2) the printed interview scheduling and payment receipt page that shows your RDJ number.  The medical secretary will demand to see proof of the consulate issuing your RDJ number.

8. The medical exam doctor is extremely friendly and helpful and speaks excellent English.  His secretary is, well . . . .  a little difficult.  Make sure you have all the items they request on their sheet, including the 6 tiny photographs, and proof of your RDJ number.

9. The medical exam office only accepts Brazilian Reis R$ 750-- no credit cards or dollars.  The xray, and blood/urine labs accept credit cards.

 

Good luck,

Mark

That is incredibly helpful! Thank you very much! It was just what my anxious soul needed. I received my NOA2 on jan 7, currently waiting for my RDJ and I was so worried about the logistics. I will probably come back with questions in a few weeks lol. Thanks again and best of luck to you guys! 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Lájila

[RG268 15]

Hi Mark... thanks for the information above... very helpful... Did RDJ US consulate ask for that email at the interview? 
 

thanks in advance

Edited March 16, 2020 by RG268

[Mark11 36]

Dear RG268,

 

No, we never received ANY form of communication from the consulate, and no, the consulate officer never asked for an email or any sort of proof of correspondence from the consulate.  All they wanted was the printed proof of payment of the interview fee (and of course all the other required documents).  
 

good luck

—Mark

[estenson24 0]

Hello, my fiance is on this process and 30 years old but she is wondering if she needs to do the urine exam when the papers show its only for 18-24. Did you do the urine exam ?

[Naterson 129]

Does anyone know if this timeline is still valid for us with Brazilian SOs?

@mw & rg k1 @Bh_sarah

[Bh_sarah 942]

15 minutes ago, Naterson said:

Does anyone know if this timeline is still valid for us with Brazilian SOs?

@mw & rg k1 @Bh_sarah

I'm the Brazilian fiancé and I am still haven't worked out the details but I stumbled upon this exact topic last year and I am using this as a base. I am still not certain if I will do my medical in Rio since I'm way closer to São Paulo and can get around there way more easily than in Rio, but will need to check once the time comes as I understand it's better to have your medical close to the interview due to the visa expiration date following the medical date. Guess doing everything in Rio and super close in days is a better option for those that will be flying to Rio from more distant states.

 

I don't think anything has changed when it comes to the process related above. I have some experience with having medical done for Canada and it's usually the same licensed doctors and exams, and yes, all paid in cash with not a lot of info from the embassies. I've seen someone recently asking if the interviews in April 23 were somehow changed to Wednesdays, but can't find the topic now.

Just found this with more info and it seems the doctor in Rio does things differently from the doctor in SP? 

 

Hoping @mw & rg k1 can help with more info later since they are in front of me in this process, and I will definitely share my experience too for you when my time comes!

[Naterson 129]

I'm very curious to know what you both experience with this and the timing (as well as any others going through this in Brazil). My fiancee will be traveling from Ceará, so the less trips for her the better. Also, she has a daughter that will likely have to miss school to get it all done (depending on the month).

I'll have to read up on the difference between Rio and São Paulo, that's a cool find. I think for my fiancee it would be easier to do it all in Rio.

[Bh_sarah 942]

1 minute ago, Naterson said:

I'm very curious to know what you both experience with this and the timing (as well as any others going through this in Brazil). My fiancee will be traveling from Ceará, so the less trips for her the better. Also, she has a daughter that will likely have to miss school to get it all done (depending on the month).

I'll have to read up on the difference between Rio and São Paulo, that's a cool find. I think for my fiancee it would be easier to do it all in Rio.

Oh, definitely have her do everything in Rio, it's such a long trip for her, especially with a daughter. In this case the tips above ARE gold!
There are only 3 doctors in Brazil and none in her region. I am only 1h30 away from SP, so I will research if it's better for me to have everything done there then go to Rio, but maybe it's not even worth it. I will be sure to tell my experience whenever I do get to this point!