Past Mental Health and Drug Use Problems

[Stacyyy 23]

In the past I have had both mental health problems and problems with drug abuse. I was really worried that it might be a problem but I had a lot of help from some people on the forum and successfully received a K-1 visa with no delays. I did this all on my own without the help of an attorney, but every case and embassy are different. Some people thought I should lie, some encouraged me to tell the truth and almost everyone said to not volunteer information. I definitely agree with not volunteering information, and just answering any questions asked, but if you do plan to be honest it’s important to be able to prove that you no longer abuse drugs. I want to share my experience so that it might help someone else out.

I’ll outline a bit of my history just so you understand the context of everything I brought with me to the medical and interview.

When I was 14 I was hospitalized for 2 days for “suicidal ideation”, with no suicide attempts ever in my life, just thoughts.

I self harmed, and abused drugs from the age of 15 to 19. I am now 25.

When I was 16 I attended 10 sessions of out-patient drug counselling. The drug that I used the most was marijuana. I did experiment with some hard drugs but haven’t used hard drugs for over 5 years. I wouldn’t call the hard drug use “abuse” but the marijuana use was definitely abuse. The last time I used marijuana (or any drug) was over 2 years ago.

In the past few years I have seen 2 separate psychologists to help cope with different stressors in my life.

So this is what I brought with me to the interview:

1. An original signed letter from my family doctor, on her letterhead stating how long she’s been my doctor (only about 5 months), that I’ve been taking an anti-depressant for about a year and a half to treat anxiety and that it’s working. That I’ve been receiving counselling, and that I have produced negative drug screen results and she has not see any evidence of drug or alcohol misuse, and that she doesn’t believe me to be at risk to harm myself or others.
2. Negative drug screen results for the 3 months prior to the medical exam and interview. I obtained these by requesting them from my family doctor.
3. An original signed letter from a psychiatrist saying that he had assessed me and outlining my depression history and how’s being treated. Also including my drug use history and that it has not been a problem for 5 years. That I did engage in self harm but haven’t done it for 5 years and that I have never had a suicide attempt or been a danger to others. That my depression prognosis is good and I am at low risk of harmful behaviour to myself or others. I’ve heard that if the panel physician thinks you may still have a problem they will send you to see a psychiatrist.
4. Copies from my medical record of notes from 4 sessions by one of the psychologist I’ve seen, which were provided to my previous family doctor. They outline some of my history, how I appeared when I showed up, how I was feeling, what we worked on in the sessions, as well as how I was reacting to the strategies we talked about in previous sessions.
5. An original signed letter from an addictions counsellor outlining how many times I went to counselling at youth addictions services, to make changes to my substance abuse.
6. A copy of my file from when I was hospitalized including the discharge summary.
7. A copy of the original police certificate provided for the interview, showing that I have no criminal record.
8. Original signed character reference letters (on letterhead when appropriate) from my boss, one of my co-workers, my best friend, my mother, one of my aunt’s, another one of my aunt and uncle, another friend, my fiancé, and my fiancés parents. Some of the letters do not acknowledge that I have had drug & self harm problems, while others do. The doctor said that character references are good to have.
9. A letter that I had written outlining my history, including where it started and why, why I used and self harmed, the treatment I’ve gone through and what I’ve changed so that I can cope now, and how I cope with stress.

The interview and medical were done in Vancouver. I saw Dr. Cheema for the medical exam and he was super nice. He asked me all of the basic health questions and when I answered,”yes” to having abused drugs he looked kind of frustrated. He then asked me when the last time I used drugs was, to which I answered “over 2 years ago, and I have evidence to prove that.” I then told him what I had brought and started handing it over. The only thing that I didn’t offer was the letter I had written. He did ask me which drugs I had used but because of all of the proof I had with me that I no longer used, he didn’t think it was going to be a problem.

After showing him everything I had brought he was impressed that I was prepared and was fairly confident that I would be okay. He did send me to do another urine drug screen, which was obviously negative. The drug screen is not usually included in the medical.

My medical was approved (thank you God!) and I had the interview 3 days later at the Vancouver Embassy.

There were a couple of forms required for the interview that did mention drug abuse. They may not even be relevant now because I’ve read that they don’t used these forms for the K-1 anymore, but this is how I answered.

The DS-156K has a question on it that says, “Have you ever been afflicted with a communicable disease of public health significance or a dangerous physical or mental disorder, or ever been a drug abuser or addict?” I answered “yes,” to this question.

The DS-230 part 2 has a question that says, “Except as Otherwise Provided by Law, Aliens within the Following Classifications are Ineligible to Receive a Visa. Do Any of the Following Classes Apply to You? A. An alien who as a communicable disease of public health significance; who has failed to present documentation of having received vaccinations in accordance with U.S. law; who has or has had a physical or mental disorder that poses or is likely to pose a threat to the safety or welfare of the alien or others; or who is a drug abuser or addict.” I answered “no,” to this question. I was not asked for this form so it didn’t matter.

The first lady I talked to who goes over all of the paperwork that is required at the interview noticed that on the DS-156 I answered “yes,” to that question and she asked me which topic it applied to and if I had gone over it with the panel physician. I told her that I had, and she said, “ok,” and circled it in red.

When I talked to the second person who actually did my interview, he said, “it says here that you have a history of drug abuse, when was the last time you used?” I replied, “Over 2 years ago.” He was satisfied with that answer and went on to ask me questions relating to my relationship with my fiancé.

I was approved on the spot at the interview and receiver my visa 4 business days later.

I put a lot of work into everything that I had to gather and it took a lot of time. If I had realized sooner that they would ask me about drugs (duh!), I would have started a lot earlier and brought more drug screen results than I did.

Whether you have had treatment for mental health problems or drugs, or not, I would recommend you bring a letter from your family doctor and a letter from a psychiatrist if possible. If not, a letter from a psychologist. The doctor said the character reference letters were very important. If you did abuse drugs, even if you don’t anymore, doing some sort of counselling specifically for that may be in your favour. Negative drug screens are a good idea.

When doing research please pay attention to that date that any article or forum topic is written as it may not be relevant anymore. It used to be that if you used drugs within the last 3 years you might get a 3 year ban. That has been changed and now if you’ve used in the last year you can get a one year ban. I’ve also seen cases where people get banned for the amount of time that would make it one year since they last used drugs. For example, if you used drugs 3 months ago, you might get banned for 9 months. Keep in mind that it is all up the panel physician and the person interviewing you. If the panel physician believes that you don’t have a problem anymore than you will likely be okay when it comes time for the interview. If you are still a drug abuser you can get banned for however long they want to ban you, including a life-time ban. If you don’t abuse drugs and you can prove that then you should be fine.

Some links that helped me decipher if I was going to be okay or not are as follows:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3739.html

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3745.html

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/ineligibilities/ineligibilities_1364.html

http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/pdf/mental-health-pp-ti.pdf

http://lazarolaw.com/visa-medical-exams-and-drug-use-2/

http://www.visajourney.com/content/medical

Edited November 19, 2013 by Stacy and Andrew

[SparklePony 238]

Such a detailed and thorough post. Thanks for sharing your story, hopefully it will help someone else in the future. And major congrats on your visa!

[ricnally 258]

So glad it worked out for you!!

[Bugs 455]

Congratulations!

Chalk it up for another example of why it's best to always tell the truth.

[gwenstar 66]

Congrats! Also, I am sure this information will be useful to many people. That is awesome that you are willing to share your experience and hopefully help someone else who is going through something similar.

Best wishes!

[FAST21 0]

Amazing! no doubt you overcome those challenges in life and you're a great inspiration to others. congrats!

By the way, i just have a few questions, did the doctor put a classification on your passport when you had your medical exam? I read on one of your link the two classifications (Class A and B) on medical conditions. Also, on your interview did the consul officer brought up your past history of mental health problem and about the drug thing?

Keep up the good job!

Edited November 19, 2013 by John21

[Stacyyy 23]

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone! I really appreciate it.

Amazing! no doubt you overcome those challenges in life and you're a great inspiration to others. congrats!

By the way, i just have a few questions, did the doctor put a classification on your passport when you had your medical exam? I read on one of your link the two classifications (Class A and B) on medical conditions. Also, on your interview did the consul officer brought up your past history of mental health problem and about the drug thing?

Keep up the good job!

There was no class put on the visa. I think that the classes are just used for the doctor and interviewer's reference. The consular officer said nothing about my mental health history, only asked when the last time I used drugs was.

[ULTIMAGIRL 0]

Wow,thank you so much for posting that, it's so detailed and it's made me feel so much better.

I'm from the UK, my fiancé is in the US, he's the petitioner, but works away alot on the rigs, so I'm the one doing alot of the paperwork.

He has bi-polar disorder type one, a history of drugs convictions and charges and he is on alot of medication.

But my mum has the same thing and my grandfather had it too, so I'm used to dealing with it on a daily

basis.

I'm 26 and he's 49 so there's a fairly big age gap, but that's normality for me, I've never been with anyone my own age.

I've never had any criminal offences or anything, no drugs, no illnesses, no problems at all.

But I'm worried that they'll judge him on his past, he hasn't offended (drugs or crime) for over 10 years.

So I'm hoping that goes in his favour.

I'm just terrified that they won't let me be with him, I literally can't be without him, I have given up everything to be with him, including a career in the Royal Navy.

He is my life.

So re-capping,I'm the person looking to immigrate and he's the petitioner, I've got nothing against me, he has lots.

Oh and congratulations on getting it all done yourself, that's awesome, you sound like you put your heart and soul into it. Xxxx

[zarf76 0]

Congrats, this is very well outlined and helpful to exactly what would be needed for the interview and physical. I ask if we had done alcohol and marijuana in our past what we should mark on our ds160 when asked if we have ever been a drug addict or abuser, and the next question that stats, Have you ever violated, or engaged in a conspiracy to violate, any law relating to controlled substances?

Thank you for any support and advice

[TBoneTX 45,284]

The OP hasn't logged on to VJ since January 2015. A response is therefore unlikely.

[anniedanielle 1]

I had my medical yesterday, I'm waiting on my GP to fax over all of my mental health history. I have previously self harmed, and had suicidal thoughts but never acted upon them. My last appointment with a phsychiatrist was in Jan of this year and I was discharged on the fact I was going to the states for 9 weeks from Feb, but also my assessment at the point clearly shows my very good improvement to how I had been. I'm absolutely fine now, so my GP can send an email stating that nothing is ongoing. I have my interview next Friday however, and I am just so worried now! I was reassured heavily to keep my interview appointment, that even if the Embassy hadn't received my medical history of my mental health etc that I can be approved however I just won't be issued the visa that day, until they receive my medical records... is this true? 😰 I'm just panicking, and would like some kind of reassurance from someone or someone's experience to get a better understanding of where I currently stand on being approved or not etc. My medical and interview are both in London. Please help!