Maybe they do not care so much about this American holiday but isn't all of Europe on holiday the entire month of July?

The only thing calling the Embassy will get me (possibly) is a confirmation that they have the petition physcially logged into the system, rather than calling the call center and burning through my alloted 8 minutes. I actually got through to the call center a few hours ago (using the "in Ukraine number), and they confirmed that the case was not logged in yet, so no interview could be scheduled. After 3 calls to the call center, 12 bucks is gone. Will now reload another 8 minutes and possibily try tomorrow.
John

Doh! Who cares if they scold you, just keep calling the Embassy every day until they tell you it is logged into their system. That's what I did.

Called the Call Center again this morning. 800 number not able to go into English. Called the "in Ukraine" number and again spoke to Thomas. He said yes, in fact our petiton was logged into the computer and we could schedule an interview. The first available date was August 19th and they had only one slot left for that day.

So, we are on for August 19th in Kiev.....

John

At least now you have a date, and can start making firm plans. Congratulations!

4-6 week lead time is very typical for Kiev... Good luck!

John,
Congratulations on your interview date! I'm sure it's going to be easy as it's been in Kiev for many of us. Good luck !
Masha

My fiancee says she caled the clinic today and they told her she can come in anytime between 9 and 12, they did not give her a time, an appointment time

I thought all of you got an appointment time when you alled the clinic to schedule your exam

An appointment time as is "loosely" defined in Ukrainian culture....

It is first come - first served. While they attempt to serve everyone who presents themselves, if you arrive at 11:00AM and the line is out the door, you may not get processed...

I agree. Your fiancee has to arrive as early as she can because, if she comes in as late as 11am (as I did), she may not be able to register before 12, and then she'll need to come back some other time. Luckily, even though I came in late, I was the last one to register (I didn't worry a lot, either; my interview hadn't been scheduled yet.) Then, it took about three hours to take all the tests. I was given my medical's result shortly after I talked to the last doctor, around 3.30pm, and got out of there.

Congrats on the Interview, John.

Quick question - you got confirmation from the 'Call Center' that you were logged into their system, right?

So, (just to confirm) - There are 2 options for determining if Petition is logged into their system?

1. Call or email the embassy
-This is free, but harder to get through, or harder to get someone to give you an answer?
(still need to call the 'Call Center' after confirmation to actually set up interview.)

2. Call the Call Center
-Easier to get through (usually) - but need to pay for the Pin, and use the Pin to call?
(can also set up the interview right away after confirmation.)

Thanks much, Sean

Option 1 (I mean calling) is easier to get through and its not harder to get someone to give you an answer. Only call the call center if you want to schedule the interview. After you confirm your case they will transfer to the call center

Sean,
sorry for the delayed response. Had not been on this thread for a while. But, to answer your questions:

Yes, you can call or email the embassy. Calling is difficult as they in about 75% of the time, do not answer the call and it goes into a voice mail system that says that they are busy and you need to call back. I figured after five rings and they did not answer, I hung up to avoid paying for the call. However, I did get through four times to a person. The first man was very nice and told me the case was not in the system. I called the next day and a woman put me on hold and after 5 minutes, I hung up. I called the following day and a man answered, he said he would check and came back on the line and told me the case was not in the system. The next day I called and a woman answered and said that they are not allowed to give that information over the phone. She said to send an email and they would answer it in 10 business days.

So, I paid $12 for a pin and called once to the call center, response was "not in system". Then I made the mistake of asking my lady to call the call center since I was having a difficult time getting through from America. Well, she/her friend called twice and had same result - not in system. But when I went to call, they had used up about 7 of the 8 minutes. They were asking questions about when/what/ etc and burned through the minutes.

I called on July 4th, not in system. I paid another $12 on the morning of the 7th, called spoke to Thomas and the case was in the system and I scheduled an interview. So, case was received somewhere around June 20th in Kiev from the NVC and it was logged into the Embassy computer system on July 7th. I did finally get a response to my email from the Embassy on July 7th stating that the case was in the system.

So, yes in answer to your second question, you can call the call center to see if the case is in the system, but you're paying $1.50 a minute plus the cost of the call to the Ukraine phone number if the 800 number does not work.

Coincidentally, my girl received the information packet from the Embassy in the mail on Tuesday, July 15th. She is up in the Carpathian mountains in Western Ukraine in a small village, so in this case, the Ukrainian Postal service did in fact deliver the package in a relatively timely fashion - about 3 weeks from when it was recevied from the NVC into Kiev.

John

Hey John, no problem on delayed response - I'm still a couple of months away from this step anyway.
Thanks much for the info - it will help when I am at this step.

Sean

Scott,

Any update on your girl's interview? I remember that she had scheduled it for today - july 18. Hope everything went well.

John

Hi John, I just got off the phone with her. All went well. She said the interview went very quickly, and she left the Embassy by noon. Woo-hoo! So, I leave in less than 2 weeks, and I will bring her back with me on August 5th! Sweet!!
- Scott

Awesome, Congratulations! You both must be very excited.

John