Does anyone know how long of a wait it is in Santo Dominigo Dominican Republic for a K1 Visa Interview. I have been hearing horror stories and wanted to know if they are true. It is suppose to be almost two years. Is this true? If so is there any anticipation of it going faster any time soon, thanks for your response in advance. WJR

The horror stories are correct. 20-24 months currently is just the wait for an interview, not counting your time through the USCIS, and if you are married, the NVC. It took me 20 months total, and that was when there were just 16,000 people on the waiting list.

If you don't believe me look here:

http://www.usemb.gov.do/Consular/waiting_list.htm

or check out my message board in my signature devoted exclusively to Dominican immigration.

I did not say that I did not believe you....lol. I was just hoping that it was not true. But you still have me worried about my income and benefits. Actually you truely got me scared S!!!less about the whole thing. Especially when you said that you would wonder how I get the money to visit etc, you gave me chills as I was reading that. Do they give oyu a chance to even answer your planns or how you get the money? And if they did by some chance denie him for that is there a way I can get an appeal or do something about it? Anyways, I took a look at your picture from your last visit. Is your wife from Nagua? And I seen this restaurant you two were at, would it happen to bee in cabrera? If so, I LOVE that place, me and my fiance go there every time I am out there.

Well maybe I sound a bit harsh but now is not the time to be "nicey nicey", you want REAL advice. Trust me if they don't say it they will be thinking what I said. I don't mean to judge you but people are going to wonder, and you better have a good reason prepared. I know priorities are not always the way they should be when we are in love with someone.

You can't just "have plans to get the money", you have to HAVE the money or get someone to co-sponsor him with you. If you can't do that, you probably should rethink what you are doing.

Yes, she is from Nagua and that is Ross's Restaurant in Cabrere. Great place, great food. If you like that one you should visit Hernandez in Matanzita right outside of Nagua on the way to Samana, the food is maybe even better than Ross, but not quite the atmosphere, although it is right on the beach, that is nice.

Ok, well here is my situation, I had just received my disability after waiting three years I received a very large back pay for the wait. I used most of it to pay bills I fell behind from the three year wait. But I had put away a couple of thousand for my trips there. Also, I do have a co-sponsor. And by the time the interview comes around I will have anywhere from $2,500 - $4,500 in the bank. So how do my chances look now?

Yes that is the same place we visit frequently, I will try the one near Samana, we will actually be renting a house in Samana my next visit. Thanks for the suggestion.

Take heart k-1 visa seekers who are waiting for an appointment at the American consulate in Santo Domingo. If you check on the scheduled appointment list for January 2007 on their web-site you will find the case numbers indicate that the vast majority of the cases they are interviewing were sent to uscis in june and july of 2005. This means an approximate wait of 12 -13 months from receiving the approved petition at the consulate to the interview date. This is taking into consideration processing time at uscis and the national visa center. Though still outrageously long, this is a great improvement over the 2 year period being reported.

They are a very few k-1 cases dated to May of 2006 (I believe 5). I don't know if this indicates that they are working from both ends of the waiting list or if they are giving certain cases priority (potential spouses of dept of state employees, ha ha.)

Apparently they have either hired more staff or are giving more priority to k-1 visas. Our tax dollars at work. Maybe they heard our complaints

The latest cases received and put on the waiting list for cases which have not been scheduled an interview are from August of this year.

I'm sorry but you are not correct here. You are right that the case number reflects the June and July date, however this is the date the NVC assigned the case number and is the date the cases were sent to the Consulate in Santo Domingo. This does NOT take into account the time the case was at the USCIS service center OR the time it may have been at the NVC in the case of a marriage visa. Add about 6 months right now for the USCIS and even longer for the NVC if it's a CR1 petition. I just came through the process and it took 20 months total. We had several people with appointments in November, December, and January on my forums, and each of them is in the 22 month range. We have not noticed a difference and in fact the waitiung list has gotten larger this month. http://www.usemb.gov.do/Consular/waiting_list.htm

I do wish you were right about this.

The date used in determining the case number assigned by the nvc is the month in which the petition was approved by the uscis, not the date it was processed by the nvc.

Yes, that's true, however, the date the case is received in Santo Domingo determines it's place on the waiting list. At this point however, it wouldn't make much difference anyway. 28,000 people ahead of you is a looooong wait no matter how you slice it. I have members on my forum who are just now getting interviews after almost 2 years of waiting for an appointment and it isn't getting any better. I fail to see your point. I myself just finished the process, and it took 20 months total. I started at 16,000 on the list. Today's people are starting at 28,000.

if you knew that about the case numbers why did you say other wise, your rich in misinformation and worst case scenarios, we all know someone who took forever to process through santo domingo, and yes santo domingo is the worst for getting a k-1. I've done it before.

We all know that our wait will be long. I have had experience with k-1 visa's and other business at the consulate in santo domingo before. I know what a mess it is and what it takes to go through the process. Given the many variables and the inability of human beings to prognosicate the future I don't try to pinpoint when my visa interview will be, that would be an exercise in anxiety and futility. All I was saying is that according to the numbers assigned to the cases, the k-1 visas that are being assigned interviews in jan and feb were passing through uscis last june and july. 28000 in the waiting list, 25000 being processed each month. Do the math.

if it doesn't go according to the math because of prioritization, thats fine, if your worried about it, it won't bust my bubble

Frankly, I trust very little advise given to me in these matters, least of all yours

p.s Just came from s.d

que lo pase muy bien,

felice ano nuevo

Fine, think what you want but don't foist your misinformation on other people here. Look at the numbers and YOU do the math. You added one too many zeros to the 2500 figure, and even THAT isn't accurate. Sure, that many cases APPEAR to be processed but some are indeed duplicates and if you know anyone on or have been on that waiting list, you would know that the list is moving approx 1200 spots per month, but I forgot you know everything about the Consulate down there. I was just through the whole process myself. I run a website you obviously haven't bothered to check that gets 3 million hits per month and is dedicated ONLY to Dominican immigration. So you are saying that I and ALL my members have been waiting on an imaginary list for an imaginary time........what a piece of work. Most people on my board have been waiting over a year for their interviews, but I forgot, they are all liars.......Why do you care anyway? If you have been through this process any time in the last 2 years you would know, otherwise you went through the process prior to the summer of 2004 when the backlog appeared.

Manuel if it were 2500 cases a month my wife would have been here a long time ago. Take this most recent month the average change on that dreaded waiting list was 1300 (this was considered a good month). Just take a good look at the statistics before making any false statements....

May of 2006 I entered the waiting list in the Dominican Republic and we were at 26,400 well it is Jan. 2007 and we are at 16,900 add 6 months to that and you will see that the wait is well over 2+ years !!!! Please do not poison VJ with your MIS-INFORMATION. The DR is a nightmare. GT

I wish you were right, but you're not! We were placed on the list in July, 2005 at 26,XXX; it is now January and we are at 20,0XX, divide that by an average of 1200 spots per month and we have about 16 more months to go!

You could not be any further from the truth Manuel. I went through the process very recently and it took us 13 just for the interview (after the case was transferred to SDQ) AND we started at around 16,000 just like Tim. Members from our forum who were transferred a few months after us waited even longer for an interview.

Furthermore, I prepare the charts for our website which show the trends in interviews granted each month, and the information you are providing is grossly inaccurate at best. There are on average about 2,000 cases interviewed each month, and even then, people on the waiting list move an average 1,000 (on a good month). There is a discrepancy on these two numbers, but that is a another issue.

In short, your experience/knowledge is not reflective of what the majority are experiencing at the DR consulate. Please check your info before spreading false hopes.

Peace!

You are incorrect, yet again. The case number, i.e, SDQ2006XXXXXX, is assigned by the NVC and it is based on the date they petition is received by the NVC. If you would have read about the case number, what it means and how to decode it, you would know that USCIS has nothing to do with assigning or generating that particular number.

People beware of Manuel's claims.

Manuel, i feel really sorry for you.
When you finally realize the long wait time, it will come to you as one of the biggest shocks. And then knowing that Tim and the rest of the crew were right, well it will be like a slap in the face. But i do hope for everyone who is on the list that you are right. I really do hope so...

BUT SIR, you couldn't be any more incorrect. You shouldn't raise other's hopes with your lack of current times experience, the rest of the board here should be infuriated at your misconception and misleading comments.

So please, first go do some real research, and don't waste our time boring us with your "back in the day" stories, i know... back in the day a presidente was 12 pesos too!

Iggy
Nuff said!

I filed in February of 2006; placed on the waiting list at 26,xxx in May 2006 - as of Jan 2007 I'm still waiting on an interview. At the current rate I still have another 14 - 15 months of waiting to go.

-sigma

This guy who's advice you don't trust probably knows more about the system in DR than 99% of the lawyers out there and he has helped HUNDREDS of people go through the process prepared and come out successful. I am one of them. I also had a lawyer who DID NOT HAVE A CLUE and told me the wait for an interview would be 3 - 6 months. I WAS EDUCATING HIM through the process. When we started on the waiting list as a K-1, we were at #18,000. We were added to the list on 4/22/05 and finally had our interview on 6/2/06. That was just the wait for the interview, after the processing here. We waited 14 months for an interview. BUT NOW - the waiting list is 27,189 cases long. Yes, of course you want to be in denial about it, everyone does, because yes, it IS unbelieveable, it IS unjust, but it IS also a reality.

I am assuming you are talking about twincactus, right?

But of course, who else?

I am very sad to report that Twincactus is 100% correct in everything that he said. The wait for an interview at the consulate in Santo Domingo is very very long. I originally applied for the K1 in May of 2005. The case was approved in record time and send to the consulate in June of 2005. However, at that point the waiting began and continued and continued until October of 2006 when they finally gave us an interview. The wait total was 16 Months. However, when we started on the list it only had 18,500 people on it. The waiting list now has about 28,000 and it is continuing to grow. The fact is that it is not getting easier for people who are entering the list right now. If I entered the list at this point I would be looking at at least an addition 8 month wait.

Brace yourself because no matter what you do it is going to be a long wait.

Yes! Sorry for not making that clear.

Hi folks, Tampa Robert here, my first and last post on this forum.

I heard from some nutball (who actually thought the Cowboys were going to the Super Bowl) that on another forum (confirmed by a quick lurk-search) my good name was being associated with a poster on this thread, manualderegil. BTW-when I spoke to ~him~, he was making plane reservations to Transylvania to look for una nueva esposa, the theory being if he was gonna get a blood-sucker, he ought to go right to the source.

In any event, I am not the miscreant on this thread questioning tim/twincactus.

Manuel, Tim KNOWS the real deal with fiance/spousal visas for sankies and sankettes coming to the US from La Republica Dominicana. He could give PhD lectures on the subject. Say what you want about the boy's style, his substance is rock solid. He deserves the respect that comes with his considerable knowledge. Pay attention and learn.

And I don't have a dog in the hunt. Just offering some clarification to some folks (*cough*LaChula*cough*).

Y'all have a fine day, and I sincerely hope hearts can be mended and families brought together. Alida and I are doing well, I got back from a week in Santiago and Samana before Christmas, and will be going back down in Feb. for a couple of weeks for Carnival.



TR

Hi there!

I'm here to back up what the masses have said.....unless of course my year+ wait was a figment of my imagination.


Robert, nice to see you. We need to get together sometime.

Hey Manuel!!!
I filed my visa petition Oct. 2003
My case arrived at consulate SD Now. 2003
My visa interview date Dec. 2005
Visa denied!!!
March 2006 I filed the new petition.
Dec. 2006 I send m/o $380 visa processing fee to NVC.
Still waiting for my visa applications.
After that - consulate again, back of the line and waite, waite, waite...
Don't make an ### out of yourself, Manuel...

The wait for an interview is over a year!

So anyone not believing this will just be hit with the harsh reality once they are put on the waiting list.

My petition was received on Feb 2006.

Began at number 24XXX

I am now 11XXX

Looks like a few MORE months!

Manuel,

Do yourself a favor and read up on the "new" visa process in the DR... It took me over 13 months to do the process and that was in the beginning of the waiting list and now the waiting list top 27000. You may want to visit Tim's site and get some accurate information of what to expect with the process in the DR. We have a pretty high rate of approvals and you may benefit from other experiences. If you are already on the waiting list, Welcome to the Jungle.

AP

Layin the Smack Down!

I am on the list in SDQ too!!

Started in October 2006, 26,XXX and the new list as of Dec 31, 2006, only has us moved to 23,XXX. Do the math - it is not going to get us an interview in 3 months!!

--
Molly

Thanks for the support everybody! I didn't want people to get the idea that the provess was fast in the DR. I wish it was, but unfortunately it seems to be getting even longer.