Hello All,

Not sure where I should post this but here goes:

I talked to a rep at my congressmans office regarding getting some help on getting my husbands visa appointment scheduled. I have been complete at NVC since May 8, 2008. I sent congress office info on our case and what I was requesting a week ago in a fax. I had not heard from them so I decided to call back. First it took him awhile to find my case. I gave him my name. He says "oh are you the one with the boyfriend in Egypt?" I say "no, the one with the husband in Jamaica " Anyway he finally finds the case (apparently congress has A WHOLE LOT of cases they are reviewing right now. He looks over the info then begins to tell me what he will be able to assit with. He says he will contact the Embassy in Kingston and the NVC to ask what the hold up is in scheduling my appointment. He then goes on to say "it may be that they just dont have any visa numbers right now". I was shocked to hear this as I always thought that as a USC we dont have to wait for a number....he told me no that is not true. And that is has been changed since NVC took over from DOS after 9/11. He says that the system makes EVERYONE wait....no matter what. He says that it is usually around 9-12 months for a visa to be issued, but has been running more like 12-16 depending on the Embassy.

He gave me one Embassy as an example....Lagos in Nigeria. He said that they essentially STOPPED giving out visa numbers for awhile because their was so much fraud coming out of that embassy. He said that the embassy can stop and slow visas down as they need to to correct any in house or specific issues to their embassy. So I asked him about the wait for the visas and USC again. Again he told me that there is a wait for a number to come up. Depending on how busy the embassy is and whethere they have numbers to give out creates how fast they give out interviews. There is a number of visas per embassy per year.

Well this is all new info to me. But I guess it would make sense because obviously waiting months on end to get an interview date has to mean I am waiting for more than just a 15 minute slot to see a CO. I am essentially waiting for Kingston embassy to release more dates. I called NVC a week ago too an they told me that even though they schedule dates, they cannot do so until after the embassy releases dates to them. This is very frustrating. Now I think i am seeing why many K1 visa filers at Kingston get interviews before CR1 filers....they are not waiting for a visa number...or are they?

This sucks!!

K-1 visa applicants don't need to wait for a visa number. Don't rely on a member of Congress to hurry up the process -- they can't really interfere with the laws and regulations, although they can sometimes offer advice to you. Been there, done that -- right now, anything involving immigration into the US is a political hot potato in a big election year.

K visas and IR (immediate relative visas) are unlimited. The rep is wrong wrong wrong.

Maybe the embassy is really busy and you need to wait a little for an interview date.

But there is no limit to the number of K and IR visas that are given out.

Well I don't know cause this rep wasnt the only one to say it. The rep at USCIS said it too. I forget his name, but he's like the spokesman for USCIS. SO either we have the wrong info, or these people who work in it everyday have the worng info. Either way their explanantion makes more sense cause its just no way that there are all these thousands of visa numbers floating out there and the wait is still so long. Now granted there may be more numbers available for USC petitioners vs LPR's but I know pre 9/11 you could get a K1 visa filed to visa within 30 days. The guy told me that the backgrounds checks are more extensive now too, so I am sure that adds to the wait time....other than that something doesnt make sense.