Hi Everyone,

I really liked the Feb/March thread that was already started, and thought it might be nice to have one for the April interviewees too. (I have a feeling a lot of those couples will not be on-line as much as they move to the US and start settling into a new life!)

Anyway, we are still waiting on Ritesh's interview date, but were told that we could email Chennai Wednesday to get the April date...

Anyone else?

Dont worry, we will be online, alot more steps over the next few years!!!

Thanks CarolynRitesh for doing this. My fiancee has sent packet-3 to Mumbai consulate. We are waiting for packet-4. I am eagerly hoping for an april interview. I have e-mailed consulate and waiting to hear from consulate.

Hi Bengalilover!

I am not sure if this works with the Mumbai consulate, but Chennai responds pretty well to emails, and they just responded to mine today - our interview is April 3rd - WOOOO HOOOO!!! They also sent out the official packet 4 today - but by the time it arrives at our house, it will be almost the deadline to submit things to VFS, so we need to pull the Packet 4 docs from their web-site.

When did your fiance send packet 3? Ours arrived in Chennai on the 25th of Feb. If only all these consulates worked in the same way, it would be easier to give each other answers!

hi,

Just will say one thing.. God Bless You

Jigi

HI Bengalilover,

When did ur fiancee send in the PKT 3 to Mumbai?

We should keep each other posted......My husband submitted our PKT 3 @ counter (Mumbai) & are now waiting for PKT 4 as well. We are hoping for an April Interview as well!!!

---THANX Carolynritesh for starting the topic.....!!

Guys! I got email response wthis morning about my fiance interview date on April 4 at Chennai US Consulate.

Just waiting for the yellow slip from Chennai Consulate to get medical done, got all the paper work done already.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

She will be there the day after my husband! They said they sent the letter last Wednesday, but it seems to take about 10 days to get to our house in Bangalore. Is she in Chennai?

thanks!!!!!!

She is in Banglore.

10 days seems right, cause that what it took my parents to get their Packet 4.

Has she already gotten her PCC? My husband applied for his on Feb 15th and we are still waiting! It is driving us crazy as we are worried we won't have it in time to submit to VFS. The police rep. came to our home on the 20th of Feb., but since Ritesh lived in a different neighborhood in B-lore before we were married, we are worried it is hung up there now, so he is checking on that tomorrow morning. Not to mention, but he is from Delhi originally, and that is where his passport was issued. How long did your fiancee's PCC take to get?

She got her Passport and Local PCC way back in Jan. All she have left is Medical Exam.

I learned my lesson from my experience with my parents visa, when their Interview was scheduled by Chennai consulate. We had 3 weeks to get thing done and had to reschedule the interview, thats why I made my fiance get all paper work done in Jan.

Are you talking about Passport or Local PCC, cause Passport will take about 2 days but Local takes about 2-3 weeks on an average, if you know/bribe people in Police Dept, can get it done soon.

You can always submit whatever you have to VFS, pay the fee (to not loose the interview date) and take the rest with you to the interview.

Good Luck with you PCC

Carolyn, just a thought, since Ritesh grewup/lived in Delhi. he might have to get a Local PCC from Delhi too.

you might wanna findout with Chennai Consulate

Thanks kshatriya, we checked on that one a few weeks ago, and they said only the Local PCC and the Bangalore Commissioner's Office for the police stuff. Thank God!

We discovered what was keeping us from our PCC here in Bangalore this morning. Ritesh checked with the 'local local' police near his old apartment, who at first said they had not received it, but after doing some digging, it magically appeared! (Not sure if this was before or after the exchange of money...) It had been sitting in their office since Feb. 21st, and would NOT have been touched if he had not gone over in person to check on things. Aaah, India! (At least here there are actually ways to get things moving!!)

They promised to get it to the PCC office in Koramangala tomorrow morning, so hopefully we will have it in time to send in our VFS packet next week!

Remember, with Easter being next week, there will probably be some Embassy holiday days to account for in the 15-10 'prior to interview' dates for VFS.

Oh yeah, we got the yellow interview letter today!

"Are you talking about Passport or Local PCC, cause Passport will take about 2 days but Local takes about 2-3 weeks on an average, if you know/bribe people in Police Dept, can get it done soon."

He applied for the local police cert. (on Infantry Road) on Feb. 14th, and the PCC on Feb. 15th. They told him to pick up the local police cert. on Feb. 28th, the PCC office would not give any date.

The same man came to our house two days in a row - Feb. 19th for local, Feb. 20th for PCC to verify address, take signatures, etc. He told us that the PCC would be out to us in 15-20 days, so we didn't worry about it too much, still plenty of time to get everything we needed. It was when we started checking the PCC Website, and it always said: "Waiting for Police Verification" that worried us, since we knew we had it for our current residence...

Funny, every city in India is different with these certs, many say that the PCC is the fastest and easiest to get, not true for us! Maybe if Ritesh and I had been living together for the last year, it would have been a piece of cake, but since we waited until after marriage to do that, it slowed the PCC process down tremendously!

Once we actually get the PCC in our hands, I may just write a post about getting police certs in Bangalore when your Passport is from Delhi and you have lived in more than one location within the city!

My Fiance dropped all the Documents (except Medical Exam) at VFS and paid Courier Fee Rs. 365/- on 03/16 IST.

Had to show the April Interview Schedule pdf from chennai consulate website, for the drop-off at VFS Bangalore.

Still no sign of Packet-4 from Chennai Consulate.

We didn't actually get a Packet 4 from Chennai, they just put in the interview letter that we should download all the documents from the website. We just tried to submit to VFS today, but without his Passport they wouldn't let him do anything. AARGH! They did tell us that this happens all the time, and that we can submit up until the 27th of March for our April 3rd interview. I am sooooooooooooooo mad about this dam* PCC Certificate, I want to scream!!!!! It has now been 34 days that we have been waiting for it, and he has made multiple trips to the Commissioner's Office, local police stations and the PCC office.

what do you mean by the interview letter from Chennai???
My case will be reaching Chennai in a few days...
Do they schedule a date for interview and send me the interview letter with the date and time? or do I schedule it by going online and registering after paying fee to the HDFC bank..
Please tell me the process,it is little confusing for me...

Hi K3, I am not sure how the process works for a K3 interview, we are doing a CR1 interview through DCF - man that is a lot of abbreviations! I would check the Chennai Consulate web-site for clear instructions (hopefully!). A good way to interact with Chennai is to email them - we have had a lot of luck with that! (Although some of the staff do not give very clear answers, there is one who is great! Unfortunately, they do not 'sign' their emails with a name, but there is one who has a cursive font in their signature lines that is great!)

Carolyn, thats what I meaned by Packet IV, the yellow letter with interview date.

All i know is you have to sumit your douments to VFS, "No earlier than 15 working days and no less than 10 days prior to your interview", for chances of not loosing interview date. You can take the papers with you to interview but, definitely pay the courier fee at VFS to not loose interview date or delay process.

[quote name='kshatriya' date='Mar 20 2008, 01:12 AM' post='1677849']
Carolyn, thats what I meaned by Packet IV, the yellow letter with interview date.

All i know is you have to sumit your douments to VFS, "No earlier than 15 working days and no less than 10 days prior to your interview", for chances of not loosing interview date. You can take the papers with you to interview but, definitely pay the courier fee at VFS to not loose interview date or delay process.

Hmmm... that is strange - have you emailed the consulate about not receiving the yellow invite letter? I thought we had to have that to get into the consulate on interview day?

Ritesh tried to submit everything (and the rest of the paperwork was looking good according to the VFS ladies), but no go without a passport. They told him that this happens all the time, and that he has until the 27th of March to submit, no worries... But of course, I am worried! This PCC process has been a total nightmare and has not left us with any days to relax at all. Tomorrow morning, he is going back AGAIN to the Passport Office (they told him today that they DO have the police reports in the office now), and he will do a Tatkaal process for his Certificate. I just do NOT understand how you guys talk about getting that in a day or two - it will be a minimum of 5 weeks for us! He could have gotten an entirely new passport by now, and we just need the PCC!!!

Hi does anyone know how to schedule an interview for K3 visa for Chennai ? DO I call them to schedule or email them or they automatically give me a earliest date with the Packet 4 or do i schedule it from the website? Any help will be greatly appreciated..

Hi K3, it would be helpful to us in helping you if you posted your timeline!

Chennai will do all the scheduling (or perhaps it is done through the NVC?), you don't call to schedule or request dates, etc. If you would like to know earlier than what is posted, I recommend that you email them with your case number and they usually reply back pretty quickly. All the April dates have already been set and are posted on the website, they may not know the dates for May or later until pretty close to the deadline for them.

Good luck, let us know what you find out!

What is the visa fees for K1 visa applicants at Consulate?

Is it $ 131 = Rs. 5,502 or $355.00 + $45.00 = Rs. 14,910 + Rs. 1,890 ?

Hi guys,

Im not from India, but would just like to Congrats you all and Good luck..

Hey, I just checked the Chennai site, it looks like: Rs. 5, 502 - here is the link: http://chennai.usconsulate.gov/iv_fees.html

I called them this morning for clarification on the IV fees, they were very helpful, wouldn't hurt to check with them for peace of mind!

Thanks Shape, good luck to you too! (I think we are all happy to receive good wishes from ANYwhere in the world!)

You are correct Carolyn, it is $131. here is the email response I got from Chennai US Consulate.

Thanks for your inquiry.

The fee is $131 (demand draft to be taken with the exchange rate of Rs
42 per Dollar).

Visa Information Unit
American Consulate General
220, Anna Salai
Chennai 600 006
India
Phone - 91-44-28574000/28574242
Fax - 91-44- 28112020
Website - http://chennai.usconsulate.gov

Hello guys! I thank to all the people supporting VJ site. Here is my situation and solution to it. Local Office: MUMBAI.

-Applied New Delhi Feb 14 (I-130 for my husband)
-Never got Packet 3 (BMB Case #) Date: March 24. (They told us to wait for packet 3 and BMB case # for 45 days before contacting them, not true. They are just B.S ing)
-Emailed New Delhi and got a quick response that the file has already send to Mumbai on Feb 24 08.
- My husband went to Mumbai personally (Train).
- He asked for packet 3 and the counter personell said they send it on March 3rd 08. !! whatever!!!
- They gave him Packet 3 + BMB case within 2 min. He fills it out and hands them back at the counter.
- The guy tears them and give him Packet 4 along with Interview Date. end of april.

Bottom line, never rely on Indian Courier and dont wait too long for any letter from Consulates. Get on top of things and bother them if you have to. Calling Mumbai is no good lol. Takes for ever!

we have an interview for k 3 visa in april.
1. do we have to submit the documents at VFS? what if we dont?
can we just pay 365 Rs and say that i will submit the documents on the interview date?
2. WHEN WE GO TO THE VFS, do we need to show the interview letter. what if we have not got it but the consulate emailed us we have an interview ,..can i just print it and show that to them?
3. how many emails everybody is taking to show the proof of relationship? will the actually read them?
Thanks in advance

You can pay the fee and take the doc's to the interview without loosing the interview date, if you are confident that you will get the paper work done before the interview date.

You can use the appointment pdf from US consulate website, NOA2 and email from the consulate to VFS to pay the fee.

Hey Kshatriya! We are in Chennai right now, did the medical stuff yesterday, just have today to rest and mentally prepare. Tomorrow is the big day!!! Is your fiancee here yet? You guys all ready? Good luck to you and your fiancee!!

do we have to submit the originals of I-797 (NOA2) for the K3 visa interview at chennai..My spouse has the copies of both I 130 and I 129F approvals...
Is the demand draft $131 (Rs 42) same for the K3 visa???
does anyone know if Chennai sends the visa using Courier or gives the visa on the same day of interview???how long usually it takes to receive after the interview if they use courier?????
Thanks and good luck with the interviews...

Hi K3visa,

Check the link below for the current fees, and depending upon when your interview falls, check the web-site to make sure you have the exact correct amount. (The rupee rate changes at random depending upon the exchange rate at the time of the interview, so don't get a demand draft done until fairly close to the interview date.

The VFS courier system is used for passport delivery and it takes 2-5 days to get back to your address of choice. (They do NOT hand it back to you in the Consulate.)

http://chennai.usconsulate.gov/iv_fees.html

The Chennai website is a wealth of information for their process, as is the VFS website. Good luck!

Hi Carolyn, Good Luck for your interview today. Don't forget to post your expenience here, after you are done.

My fiance will be there tomorrow for here interview on 4th. thanks! for your best wishes.