UK to US, looking for advice

[snow]

Hi snow,

Im an aussie / brit looking to move to the us to be with my fiancee of a year, would love some tips on your fiance visa journey! Also, how did you go with the whole healthcare system transition? Do you have any tips on moving to the crazy country?

The journey in itself wasn't very eventful :P We went to visajourney.com and followed their steps to the T, we made sure we had all of the documents and sent them out as soon as possible! I attached lots of photos, wrote on the back who I was with and when they were taken, but the most important information for them was that we have met in person before by providing flight tickets or itineraries!
After a couple of months I was sent a letter with a sheet attached that I had to fill out asap and send back, information on my medical and interview!
The interview in itself wasn't very difficult, but I was definitely nervous :P

Living here without healthcare hasn't been a problem for me yet! It's been 2 years and so far if I needed anything, I was always able to either get it over the counter, had my family send it to me or go to the minute clinic. I recently started a fulltime job which is going to provide healthcare for me, which definitely is nice and I will have to pay for it, but living without it wasn't an issue.

This country isn't as crazy as the European media makes it seem. People are insanely friendly, they all seem very interested in me and where I come from. Prices here are mostly cheaper than what I am used to, unless it is for cheese which breaks my heart because I love cheese, but I found an Aldis here so I buy it there.

The culture is different, but with support from your fiancée you will learn what is custom here and what you shouldn't be doing, it'll be tough for a while, but you'll get used to it!

[jarrybotter]

Thanks Snow! Hahaha expensive cheese! That is heartbreaking I found this really cool website called "expatistan" that lets you do cost of living comparisons between different cities and apparently New Mexicans pay more for toilet paper and shampoo than Sydneysiders for some reason. Your reply was really helpful, thanks for the advice! It was very comforting to know the healthcare isnt too scary

Just wondering what kind of things you were asked in the interview and what they assess you on in the medical?

[snow]

Thanks Snow! Hahaha expensive cheese! That is heartbreaking I found this really cool website called "expatistan" that lets you do cost of living comparisons between different cities and apparently New Mexicans pay more for toilet paper and shampoo than Sydneysiders for some reason. Your reply was really helpful, thanks for the advice! It was very comforting to know the healthcare isnt too scary

Just wondering what kind of things you were asked in the interview and what they assess you on in the medical?

They wanted to make sure I know my husband well so they asked me when his birthday was, how old he was, how we met (we met online so they wanted to make sure this was legit), when we first met, how long my visits were and what I plan to do with my studies as I was still a student at the time. The consul was really nice to me and gave me time to digest questions before I answered. We even joked that me overstaying once was in my favor (my flights were cancelled twice due to severe storms), because it showed that I wanted to stay with my fiancé!

The medical was a typical medical. They will give you shots if you need them - I haven't had them since highschool so I had to have 3, but I was scared of needles so the doctor gave me the shots after I completed the medical. I had to strip to my underwear and then he looked at everything, made sure I wasn't disabled (since I put I wasn't). It was the typical bend your knees, bend your arms, does this hurt, can you feel this, blablablabla

If you have a medical history, it's good to bring it especially if you have medical problems, but other than that, it really was just in and out within an hour.

HOWEVER, I did have to have a TB test done, because apparently that's super important. So instead of the under the skin test, they had me go to a lung specialist and they took xrays.

It was expensive, I think I payed almost 300 euro for that.