Hi. I tried calling the direct 081 number the way I read on VJ. I selected an option and when I was put through, I asked for the visa office and the woman told me that the only number I could call for visa information was the useless 899 number. I don't know what to do now -- the 899 number is completely useless and I told her that. It's like a scam number designed just to take money -- if anyone other than the US government were operating that number, no one would call it ever. I really don't know what to do now.

Does anyone have any ideas about what we can do? Now we've been waiting almost a month to hear about this interview -- whether we can have one or not -- and no one has contacted us about, as they said they would. I don't know what to do.

-- Karen

I called back a few times and FINALLY got transfered to the visa office and I spoke to a woman who was very nice and helpful. BUT she told me a few things I didn't want to hear -- 1) The interview date will be "a few months" from now. (A FEW MONTHS!?) because they're so busy this time of year and who knows when they can give us an interview date. After hearing this, I calld my fiance' up, hysterically crying. I've since calmed down, though. I hope he can get this interview before I go into menopause -- I'm 22 years old now, so do you think we have a chance at having children? lol

2) that the forms they send people -- the instructions -- aren't accurate lol. In the instruction packet, it says to fax in the DS 230 Part 1 and the checklist only, but she told me my fiance' needs to also fax in the two DS 156 and 156K forms too, which isn't written anywhere in the instructions. She also referenced an e-mail *I* had sent them, saying "Someone told us that the photograph information in the English .pdfs is outdated" and I told her "Yeah, i think that was me!"

BUT... when I asked about the IMBRA, she told me in this VERY Italian way "No no no don't worry about that" so... lol... I don't know how to interpret that except to not worry about it and hope she's right.

So... at least I spoke to someone. If I hadn't the threat of the IMBRA would still be hanging over me and I would have never known we need to fax in the two DS-156 forms too in order to get Packet 4.

OHHH dear welcome to the same nightmare we had lol. I called thousands of times back In January and believe me the 899 number is totally useless. And expensive by the way... Do u know that no other Consulate (from what I heard) has a numb like that??? They even said on tv here in Italy a long time ago. There was a guy who was trying to call to get a Tourist Visa and theytried to call in real time and they spent baout 50 ######** Euros for that call!!!
Anyway, we had the same problem when we applied for my K3 Visa. We tried to call the 899 numb every day and finally a woman gave us a normal numb: 081583834 well we tried to call this numb as well and they wouldnt give us any inf about my case! My husband got sooo mad that he cursed at them lol (soo funny). We waited and still nothing. My husband wrote them an email to know when we would get the package 3 (my I129F was approved on dec 5 2005 and it was january 4 and we hadnt heard aything yet) and that we felt like forsaken, he was a soldier in iraq and bla bla bla. The next day Naples answered with an attachment to the email: PACKAGE 3. Finally. When we finished gathering all the documents tfor the pack 3 they said to send a fax that way they would be able to schedule us an interview appointment. Well they disappeared again. My husband wrote a Senator in Ohio and they next day they sent us the package 4 through the email and the medical and interview appointment.
My advice is.....try this numb I gave u and see what happens. If nothing happens, write an email to your Senator and explain him the whole situation....with an email from him, they will answer in 2 seconds lol

Good Luck

Maria

...Ops I see that u resolved. Well good luck to your fiancee either way!!! I see that his interview date is on July 11...my Green Card interview is on July 14 in Cleveland lol
Good Luck!!!

Maria

Hi! Yeah, we resolved our issues (well... the ones related to scheduling his interview anyway, lol, the larger issue of Winning the Visa is still to be seen... ) It is ridiculous how much money they charge to just ask a simple question. And the really ridiculous part is that no one at the 899 number knows what on earth they're talking about either, so it's like flushing the money down the toilet lol. LOL! for your husband cursing at them! LOL! They're so... weird down there, it seems. My fiance' has received two phone calls from them and both times it was like:

Consular officer: PRONTO!!!
My fiance': Pronto?
Consular officer: PRONTO!!??
My fiance': Si... chi sta --
Consular officer: Vuoi lasciarmi a parlare o no!??!? Lavoro al Consulato Generale degli Stati Uniti a Napoli. SAI TU CHE ABBI UN' APPUNATMENTO CON NOI??
My fiance: (beginning to think we'd somehow mistaken the date and been scheduled for a week earlier) Ummm... si... mi hanno detto che deva andare dal dottore il 10 Luglio e all'intervista il 11.
Consular officer: Si! Bene! Allora lo sai. Non essere in ritardo. Buona serata. (click)

That happened twice lol. But it's nice of them to call.

anyway, congrats on getting your visa! I know that's a little belated, but still! And GOOD LUCK! on the 14th too! My fiance' actually packed his bags tonight (he's in Florence) and is heading down to Naples tomorrow morning. He wants to be down in time to unwind and watch the final game of the World Cup lol and since he has to be at the consulate at 8AM Monday, he's better off being there from the night before. Monday is his medical appointment and Tuesday is his Moment of Truth and hopefully by Tuesday evening I will have good news to post! If he gets this visa, I may actually dance in the streets! I think we have everything in order, but I'm still kind of worried that since he's an Albanian citizen, there might be some problems with him applying in Italy. They say there's no problem, but who knows? He IS in Italy 100% legally, however, and he's going to bring his Permesso di Soggiorno. I'm hoping that if Italy wins tomorrow, everyone in the consulate will be in a good mood on Monday and Tuesday lol.

GOOD LUCK!!! again this week!! I hope everything goes well at your interview too!

hahahhaa im sorry but that conversation made me laugh very much lol

Hi, looking at the timelines it seems like in neaples the waiting time to get an interview is between 60 and 90 days since they receive the file from NVC. Do you guys agree on that. Is that how long I have to schedule?

We've had soo much trouble with Naples already. They received our case on July 2. I called DOS, they told me that in the computer they put that Packet 3 was sent on July 6. We received it on the 19th of July, and it has been postmarked July 18th! Also, last week they responded to my email saying that before they can schedule an appointment, our case has to go through "congressionally mandated processing" and DOS told me that every case goes through this processing, and ours has been processed at the consulate on July 9th!
We're still waiting for our appointment. No idea why or what is going on....

Thanks, hope you get it soon. Keep us updated!

Good luck