According to DHL our K1 file arrived at the London embassy June 23 (4 days ago). I called the NVC line today & was told that London had received the electronic file but not the physical file. The lady I spoke with said that once the physical file arrives it has to go through customs, etc. before they can enter it into their system & mail out packet 3, & that it can take "weeks to months" for that to happen. Hopefully that is just our government's usual song & dance that they recite to try & keep people from calling & asking too many times.

Based on most of the timelines for other UK K1'ers it seems like the embassy usually receives the file & sends out packet 3 pretty quickly. Does anyone have an idea how long the file normally sits around before they enter it into their system? Hopefully not weeks or months... give me some good news please

Also, is the date in the timeline for "Consulate Received" supposed to be when they physically received the file, received the electronic file or keyed in data from the physical file?

I'm so confused...

Ours took less than a week. I've only heard weeks or months for the embassy in China! London tends to be pretty quick, so I'd sit tight for a bit longer before freaking out!!

Tell that to my fiancee!
Thanks for the info; based on the timelines I'm guessing she may get the packet sometime next week.

Bear in mind that the London Embassy gets busier in the summer months due to the amount of people wanting B2 visas. I wouldn't have thought it would make too much of a difference for K visas but it might add a few days or a week to the amount of time it would take in the winter months. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Oh, I hear you! I've been in your shoes. While you're waiting, it seems an eternity, and once you're together you realize the wait wasn't that bad.

Good luck! I hope P3 turns up soon!!

Isn't that so true? I remember waiting for packet 4 over the Christmas period and it seemed like it was taking an eternity. Now I can't understand what all the fuss was about!

Oh the hoops they make us jump through-I feel like a trained seal sometimes. I just wish they'd throw me another fish!

We tracked the petition/file through DHL and knew when it was delivered to the Embassy. Packet 3 arrived at the house on the 10th day after arriving at the embassy. I did call the Embassy before that and was given erroneous information. The afternoon of 5/21 they said it wasn't in the system and hadn't been mailed. The next day 5/22 when it was delivered, the postmark said it was sent 5/20. So give it a little longer. I know it seemed like an eternity at the time. Get all your documents prepared and ready to send back. You could be making your medical appointment if you plan to do that well before the interview. You just have to know your LNDxxxxx case number. The lady at the medical will ask if you have received P3 and you say "yes" and she will ask for the case number.

I have scans of the whole P3 if you're super anxious. PM me if you have any other questions because I might not remember to look at this thread again.

I think that's totally up to the interpretation of the person doing the timeline, so those dates could easily represent all of the above.

It took almost three weeks for us.

However, once in the system, the interview date only takes another day or two to be assigned.

I was told by the DOS that our delay was because we had sent it signature required. Apparently, anything other than regular mail gets put in a separate pile in the mail room, to be processed special. Wish we had known that.

Just keep calling the DOS everyday, they don't seem to mind at all. The woman who finally gave us our date was so happy for us she was giggling on the phone.

I sent an email to the embassy last Friday asking if they had received the file & if packet 3 had been sent out. Got a very nice response today telling me that they received the file & keyed our information into their system on June 26 (Thursday), & that packet 3 would be mailed to my fiancee shortly. A very quick & cordial response from the embassy- I am impressed.

I guess things can get lost in the translation between the embassy & NVC, or maybe the embassy had not keyed in the current status yet; either way all's well that ends well.

A couple of other things-I was able to call the $16 per call embassy line & get the email code without paying anything for the phone call. Also the code is only good until Friday of the week that you request the code (in other words no more than a week) so if you need to send additional emails later you will have to call for a new code.

Cheers!