What took you the longest to complete?

[ColorMePanda]

Was it:
-Getting clearances
-Getting the medical
-Getting the pictures
-Copying and printing forms
-The filling out of the forms
-Organizing the forms
-Or something else which you can list

Just curious as I would like to have an idea of what generally took the longest for some people.
I think mine will be, getting the FBI request back and organizing the documents. And I am convinced that it will take me whole day to scan the whole application when that time comes.

 

[ColorMePanda]

Opinions and experiences are appreciated. If you like, please discuss how long it took you to approximately gather each thing from the moment you decided to apply.

We decided that I should immigrate to here in late September 2009 so that is when we buckled down to find past documents and started saving new ones.

I waited until I heard news back from my second extension before applying for my FBI request. I heard back from that on March 4, 2010 and mailed off the request on March 9, 2010. We are still waiting on that.

I plan on having my medical the second week of June as we hope to send ours off at the end of June or very early July before my next extension expires which is July 31, 2010. And we needed time after our wedding to organize and gather more documents. We didn't want our wedding too early for family not to be able to make it so we planned it for May 28, 2010. After that date we will buckle down with filling out the documents and organizing them.

I plan to apply for my VA state police clearance the second week of May since it doesn't take as long as the FBI request but I still want to give it enough time to arrive on time.

As of right now we are waiting on the FBI thing which we hope to get back in mid June if not sooner and I am praying that nothing goes wrong with it and they accept the prints. And I am busy making photocopies of cards, receipts, letters, mail addressed to us, support letters, and joint documents right now. Trying not to overwork with it as I will begin to stress too much about it if I work too long on it. Just trying to enjoy my engagement, planning a wedding, and warmer weather.

Please feel free to share the steps you are going through currently or did go through.
Thanks.
I am hoping this thread will help everyone get a general idea of timing as we know it is a very crucial part to the planning stages.

 

[cowtown gal]

I guess we decided to apply in 2008 but knew we couldn't move until end of 2010 so didn't do anything until late 2009 but spent some time finding the forms that we would need, etc.

We started gathering information in about September - October 2009 but it wasn't all the time, it was just the odd phone call here and there. We spent a couple of days filling out rough copies of our forms by hand and noting where we had questions/needed to figure things out or needed more information. We spent an entire Saturday filling out and printing the forms, writing our additional statements and photocopying our documents for evidence.

A couple of hours selecting photos and then getting them printed. A few hours probably digging through all our old evidence type stuff (but we are both sentimental pack-rats, so had loads). A good couple of hours with arm-ache writing on the back of all of the photos!!!!

The things that took the longest really was probably waiting for the police check certificate (2 weeks ish) and waiting for the medical appointment once we booked it (about 3-4 weeks because they moved it a couple of times).

All in all it probably took us 2-3 months from when we get our acts together and properly started it and to when we submitted everything. In fairness we would have submitted it about a week or two earlier than we did had not been around Christmas and we were worried about office holiday closures. We only did bits at a time, though so don't stress too much - you have plenty of time and make sure you enjoy your engagement and wedding planning - it's very special!!!

 

[ColorMePanda]

Thank you for sharing your good story with me.

And thank you so much. I am trying to let myself enjoy it and not stress over it too much. It is sometimes easy to let Immigration get a hold of you and forget special moments. I am trying not to let it get to me.

Just a quick question, why did it take 2-3 months? You said you filled out the forms and photocopied documents on one Saturday, that clearances took 2 weeks and medical was about a month. So just wondering why it took 2-3 months just so I will know what stages of things I need to get now and what can wait until after the wedding.

 

[AlanWales]

Longest for us was collating and filling in the forms, that took quite a few months because it was such a daunting prospect, for us, the easy part was once we sent them off.

 

[cowtown gal]

Thank you for sharing your good story with me.

And thank you so much. I am trying to let myself enjoy it and not stress over it too much. It is sometimes easy to let Immigration get a hold of you and forget special moments. I am trying not to let it get to me.

Just a quick question, why did it take 2-3 months? You said you filled out the forms and photocopied documents on one Saturday, that clearances took 2 weeks and medical was about a month. So just wondering why it took 2-3 months just so I will know what stages of things I need to get now and what can wait until after the wedding.

I don't think it took that long for any reason other than we were lazy and just did bits at a time, here and there. We had a goal to submit everything end of December 09/January 2010, so just started working on it when we could and did bits and pieces. We both working 6-7 day weeks a lot in November/December, as well, so we didn't always feel like working on it when we were at home.

I think if you really went at it and had all your information you could easily get it all done in a few days (except the clearances and medical). You could always definitely start collating the information and filling the forms, like AlanWales says, that can be quite daunting. I found choosing the photos and things quite fun, so that could be a fun thing to do after the wedding (and you'd want to include your wedding photos anyway!).

 

[whoopi83]

We decided quite quickly and then bundled everything together that we could think of then filled in the forms and sent it. Took around 3 weeks I think.

 

[G Kann]

UK police clearance took just over two weeks. What is nearly taking as long is just going over everything that I have written to make sure I have answered all questions correctly, and that I have written enough, but not too much about our relationship.

Nearly everytime I think I'm done, I come online and see someone ask a question about one of the forms, and it has me scurrying back to see if I had answered that particular question correctly.