I have a post planned about our visa journey,
with a step by step guide for those who find themselves in the same situation as us,
filing the same way.
But I don't want to post it yet,
because I am scared I am going to jinx us.
The side affects of visas are paranoia,
insomnia,
and stomach aches.
I will explain though why we had to go to London this time,
just to clear up some confusion,
since I am being asked a lot if we know when we are coming home yet.
One of the steps in this process,
was a medical appointment for Stephen.
When you plan on moving to a new country,
you have to get the all clear from a doctor before you can move.
I know this is at least the case for moving to the USA,
and Australia.
I am pretty sure this part is not a requirement to move to the UK
(I never had one).
Before you can get a medical appointment,
you have to wait to receive a case number,
which for us took a month.
That is why in a previous post I was so excited about getting a case number,
because it meant we could move on to the final steps.
Since we are filing directly in London,
his medical appointment had to be with the embassy approved doctor,
located in London.
(There is only one doctor's office in London that does this).
We were so lucky to get an appointment right away.
Stephen had to get blood taken,
a chest x-ray,
two vaccines (pertussis and tetanus),
and a full physical.
We expected to be in the doctor's office for hours,
but we were in and out in 40 minutes.
I was so impressed by how efficient they were.
They were also very friendly,
and the office was beautiful.
This medical does cost a small fortune,
so be prepared.
At this stage they pass along his results
(saying he is all clear)
to the embassy,
and the embassy will then issue an interview date.
We also had to send in a second set of paperwork,
saying we were ready for the interview and had all of the documents ready to go.
The interview is held in London,
and is the LAST step of this whole ordeal.
The interview date is scheduled for roughly one month after they get the clear from the medical,
and we will find out that date in about a week or so.
We are really excited,
and really anxious.
Thanks for being patient with me as I vent about this journey,
and put it all out there.
Hopefully this will help other people in the future.
We did not use an immigration lawyer for any of this,
but we did ask for a lot of help from people who have gone before us,
and I spent hours upon hours making sure I knew every single step,
so that I was always ahead of the game.
Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions.
I can't wait to share our time in Notting Hill with you this week!
I fell in love with that place,
and didn't want to leave.
*I have also been responding to more comments on
this post, and other people have been writing to other commenters as well, so be sure to check it. Just keep clicking load to see them all.