Costa-rican Fiance

[The Littlest Hobo]

I believe my husband's medical took several hours and consisted of many, many different checks including chest x-rays for tuberculosis.

There is no harm in planning and researching ahead, because some of the official documents take a while to get, you can order them so that they will arrive just around the time of your wedding, then you can get them translated so they would be ready to send as soon as you have your wedding certificate (oh, that's something else to check - is the wedding certificate given to you immediately or do you have to wait to receive it? Some places take their sweet time!)

There's a recent thread on here about the time it takes to get the documents together and prepare the file. Some people took 2 months, so the more you familiarise yourself with everything now, the better prepared you'll be.

Just a note about translations: We read the general instructions which stated that "all docs in this list not in English or French must be translated and notarized", etc. so we got my husband's German police report translated, cost $200 or something. But we didn't notice somehow that in the country specific instructions for the Berlin VO it says "all docs not in English, French, or German"... so we could've saved time and money and hassle. So maybe for your region you don't need to get translations for all your finacée's documents. Something to check into.

Hope you are as on top of your wedding planning as you are on this Good luck!
TLH

 

[saralune]

to toby: luckly i have lots of stuff saved like convos and emails since we met, have lots of pictures too from last summer... but there r no dates on it... :-X what about that medical clearance thing, can that be done before we get married or after? couse i would think that would take a bit of time?

it really doesn't matter if the dates are on or not... amongst everything else... that s not what s going to make a huge difference...

 

[toby]

Dating the photos might make a difference, or else the instructions would not ask for them (hand-written or digital dates). For example, in our case, I made four trips to China to spend time with my (eventual) wife. If one trip to China shows I am serious about her, then four trips is a stronger demonstration. My passport pages show I made the trips, but not that I was with her during those trips. But the photos -- with dates corresponding to each trip -- DO show I was with her.

So, dates can be important. Depends on each case.

 

[garytheoiler]

so, when you guys say to get the medicals done close to the time I apply, does it have to be before I get married to her or after? also confused on this out-land in-land stuff, i know i am applying for out-land, but if that is so, is it a different app and where will I have to send both sponsorship apps and PR apps for it to be processed?

 

[marisol]

hi, regarding photos, if you want to print it with date, it is possible to see the dates on the photo as long as you set it in your camera. you just go to digital photo printing shops and ask them to print it with date..