My petition was sent to Chennai consulate last week and am wondering how long would it take before they assign an interview date...

Does the consulate release monthly interview schedule on the first(of every month) or prior?

Thanks!

When we were doing the visa, Chennai Consulate used to publish (on their website) the interview dates around the 10th of each month (for the next month). But I haven't checked lately.

You should hear from the Consulate within the next week. They usually schedule an interview so that you have 6 weeks time to prepare the docs, etc. You could expect a late Dec / Early Jan interview Date.

Chennai Consulate schedules an interview immediately after receiving the packet from the NVC, but they don't inform you. They just send out Packet 4, but that might take over 2 weeks (like it did for us!). So I would suggest writing an email to the Consulate as soon as you know your case was sent there (with the NVC-given case number in the subject line, and in the body of the email including your name, beneficiary name and date of birth, and full address that you want Packet 4 sent to). We found out our interview date after emailing them. Chennai is great, they email back within hours!

I emailed them last night and they did email me back this morning..They said interview could be sometime in Jan/Feb 2008..so, radkri you are right..it may take about 6 weeks..

I'll email them in about 2 weeks to find out the actual date..

Actually, the Consulate schedules your interview date within 1 - 3 days from when it receives the package from NVC. However, I think the busy Holiday season (Dec) is perhpas the reason why you dont have a date yet. I am sure you will get that by next week.