Colombia Club Part III

[kennym 275]

It is a lot more than that since the fee I paid includes the cost of the lawyer handling the waiver. The bad thing I used one of the highly recommended lawyers on all of these immigration related forums. All we can do now is hope and pray, it is all we could do anyway. If the lawyer does the job right when it comes to the waiver, ok.... but I am still praying we don't need the waiver. This all takes so long!

My fiancee is livid! The lawyer has made other typos on forms that we did notice, of course those came later or I probably would have found the errors on that letter.

Sometimes, you just wanna pound these lawyers senseless... There is no way I would let one of these forms, go out the door without checking a zillion times...

The concequences for stupid oversight is simply to much...

All the horror stories about lawyers just makes you sick...

Edited October 18, 2011 by kennym

[kali1229 6]

After reading in another thread that DOMESA was no longer used to send visas from Bogota I sent a quick email to the embassy and asked about the IR-1/CR-1s and what they need to do since the K-1s are selecting delivery points when they sign up for interviews online.. This is the response I received today:

Thank you for your inquiry.

We now provide free delivery of the approved visa to a DHL office of your choice. And, to save time on the day of the interview, we ask that you make delivery arrangements online before the interview day. To make these arrangements, please go to http://colombia.usvisa-info.com and create an account. Once you’ve created an account (make sure to use the passport number – it appears in red on the back of the front cover as well as perforated on the visa pages), you will then choose “Schedule Appointment”, then “Immigrant Visas” then “Family-Sponsored” then “Immigrant Scheduled by NVC” and then “immigrant Register for Courier – Family Sponsored. From there, you will pick the most convenient DHL location.

Sincerely,

Immigrant Visa Unit

U.S. Embassy Bogota

I just signed in and tried it.. Seemed to work but I hope they have some sort of confirmation at the interview as the IR-1/CR-1 account setup and delivery scheduling does not seem to be connected to you actual appointment..

I'm so glad you got this information! I just signed up and have chosen where to pick up passport. I chose Salitre, it's the closest one to the embassy, I believe. I hope I didn't pick the one that is the slowest/messiest/the one that loses the most amount of things. We need yelp or something similar.

[Mononoke28 134]

I personally am wondering if this new process will mess up the application for people who sent in the applications around the time my fiancee did. It was September 24th. I am wondering if she will be scheduled in the old style, or they are expecting the website to be used. December will come quick so it would not be good to sit here waiting for an interview date and find out we did not get scheduled.

I was thinking the same thing when I found out that the beneficiaries were scheduling their own appointments. It wouldn't hurt to try to to contact or email the embassy to see what they say, they might tell you to go ahead and schedule it yourself and that way you won't have to wait much longer.

Diana

[Mononoke28 134]

I mailed in the AOS and the DS230 to the NVC. I apparently forgot to send the DS2100. Actually, I wrongly thought that it wasn't necessary because I thought the BOG embassy would receive the packet and logically set up the interview. Thought it was for people applying in the country via the consular filing etc...

So, what should I do? I sent in the DS 230 about two weeks ago. Should I wait to see that they are sending the packet to BOG and fax it there? how do I know they are reviewing the DS230 and sending the packet to BOG? Should I send it to the NVC--will they hold the packet until they receive it or give me a RFE? I am a bit worried, please let me know what you think I should do.

thanks, J

As OnMyWayID said, the information regarding form DS-2100 is only for K visas, not CR/IR. Don't pay attention to what the US embassy has on their website regarding K visa information because it doesn't apply to you. Just wait until the NVC completes the case and assigns you an appointment at the embassy for the interview.

Diana

[justwaiting4her 0]

I was thinking the same thing when I found out that the beneficiaries were scheduling their own appointments. It wouldn't hurt to try to to contact or email the embassy to see what they say, they might tell you to go ahead and schedule it yourself and that way you won't have to wait much longer.

Diana

My fiancee is stubborn and she read you aren't supposed to call the IV, but I am going to try to get her to call tomorrow and find out if they scheduled an interview or if we need to do so on our own. I'll let you all know if she finds out something.

[Jo & A 0]

I had paid and scheduled the appointment online myself Saturday the 15th. I just called the Dept of State to confirm that our appointment was scheduled. The lady I spoke to was very nice, but unaware of the changes in Bogota. She did state that other embassies were set up in a similar fashion so she wasn't totally surprised. She can peak right into the embassy system and see what info the embassy has on us. She was able to confirm what emails the embassy had sent us, and what the emails contained, but did not see neither where I had paid the fee online nor the appointment that we had scheduled. She said that I should give it some time for them to enter it into the system in Bogota, and check back. I guess it makes sense that the old system that the DOS can look into isn't yet connected to the new system, or is it?

I just want to book these flights to Bogota, and have some kind of peace of mind that we do indeed have an appoinment before I do it.

[TonyS 0]

Hi all :-). Im moving to Florida soon. Any folks around the Port Saint Lucie area?

[justwaiting4her 0]

I contacted the consulate. We do have to do the online scheduling. Nobody contacted us, so if anybody else is waiting for a date to be scheduled you better make that call!

[Mononoke28 134]

I contacted the consulate. We do have to do the online scheduling. Nobody contacted us, so if anybody else is waiting for a date to be scheduled you better make that call!

Good thing you got in touch with them, we did have a feeling that they had not scheduled it.

Diana

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

I'm so glad you got this information! I just signed up and have chosen where to pick up passport. I chose Salitre, it's the closest one to the embassy, I believe. I hope I didn't pick the one that is the slowest/messiest/the one that loses the most amount of things. We need yelp or something similar.

Good deal! I went through the DHL site and they offer one day from Bogota to many locations so the time should not be too bad... I understand there is a problem for road transportation between Medellin and Bogota (so other locations in that route as well) that has added several hours to the drive time for buses for the near-term future. I'm not sure if this is going to effect the DHL schedule or not. I tried talking to them on the phone but no luck there so my wife is going to drop in on them today at the main Medellin office and see what the current expectations are and the normal wait time they have for visas (ie: they are open Saturdays but do they move packages in route on Saturdays, what holidays they observe, etc). The process is new for them in Colombia so they may not really have anything concrete as far as expectations/averages. I would not normally care down to that level but with two holidays in Colombia I did not know about when I purchased tickets (11th and 14th) and the switch to a new mail carrier I think I am cutting it a bit close!

On the bright side we don't have to fly back to Bogota to pick up the visa just to fly back to Medellin to get to the airport there to fly to Florida.. Good money savings there. I think the switch to pickup at the nearest DHL location is a very positive move - I would not have trusted DOMESA to get it to Medellin in any reasonable amount of time... and its free to boot!

Looking at my budget for this last round the airlines have taken a huge percentage (well more than half!).. seven one-way tickets and two two-way tickets through three airlines.. all during the November holiday season.. pain!

Intervew is exactly three weeks from today!

[kali1229 6]

Good deal! I went through the DHL site and they offer one day from Bogota to many locations so the time should not be too bad... I understand there is a problem for road transportation between Medellin and Bogota (so other locations in that route as well) that has added several hours to the drive time for buses for the near-term future. I'm not sure if this is going to effect the DHL schedule or not. I tried talking to them on the phone but no luck there so my wife is going to drop in on them today at the main Medellin office and see what the current expectations are and the normal wait time they have for visas (ie: they are open Saturdays but do they move packages in route on Saturdays, what holidays they observe, etc). The process is new for them in Colombia so they may not really have anything concrete as far as expectations/averages. I would not normally care down to that level but with two holidays in Colombia I did not know about when I purchased tickets (11th and 14th) and the switch to a new mail carrier I think I am cutting it a bit close!

On the bright side we don't have to fly back to Bogota to pick up the visa just to fly back to Medellin to get to the airport there to fly to Florida.. Good money savings there. I think the switch to pickup at the nearest DHL location is a very positive move - I would not have trusted DOMESA to get it to Medellin in any reasonable amount of time... and its free to boot!

Looking at my budget for this last round the airlines have taken a huge percentage (well more than half!).. seven one-way tickets and two two-way tickets through three airlines.. all during the November holiday season.. pain!

Intervew is exactly three weeks from today!

Wow. So your wife will be here on the 14th? It's crazy to think that interview time is getting so close! My husband isn't the most organized person, but he has surprised me with how well he has prepared for the interview. He has proof and paperwork that I never thought to even take! I did have another question for you though: when I chose the pickup location through the embassy website it obviously didn't have our interview date in the system, therefore, they do not know WHEN to actually mail out the passport. How will DHL know? How will we know that THEY know? I really wish they would have started this website about 4 months ago.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Wow. So your wife will be here on the 14th? It's crazy to think that interview time is getting so close! My husband isn't the most organized person, but he has surprised me with how well he has prepared for the interview. He has proof and paperwork that I never thought to even take! I did have another question for you though: when I chose the pickup location through the embassy website it obviously didn't have our interview date in the system, therefore, they do not know WHEN to actually mail out the passport. How will DHL know? How will we know that THEY know? I really wish they would have started this website about 4 months ago.

Hey there! I think I worded that badly.. The holidays are on the 11th and the 14th. The interview is on the ninth and our plane is leaving in the late afternoon on the 18th.. So the interview is on a Wednesday, that Friday is a Holiday and so is the next Monday.. Even if the embassy waits until the next Tuesday or Wednesday to ship out the Visa I think we will be OK according to the shipping times DHL has posted for other packages. I would like DHL to confirm that is how visas are handled and that the visas are not stuck into a box until it is full and then they ship the entire box.. Since these are free (to us) I am guessing that they made a cut-rate deal to the embassy so they may have altered their normal process for visas.. Probably not but with the timeline I now have I want to be sure From Medellin we are in Vegas for three days so we won't actually arrive home until the 22nd... Then leaving town (for Salt Lake City) for Thanksgiving on the 24th... Once we get started here is not much slow down until the 28th of November.

As far as when will they know when to mail it - I think the online form you fill out is not for DHL but for the embassy. You gave them your BGT number so after your husbands successful interview they will stick his visa and other materials in the big supply of DHL envelopes they have laying around and address it according to the information you entered on the website.. Most likely they type in your BGT number and it pops out the needed information... DHL probably stops by and picks up the envelopes and gets them delivered... So the question is how long do they take to put the stuff in an envelope and leave it for DHL, how long does it take DHL to pick up the pile at the embassy (everyday I would hope) and then how long does it take DHL to get them delivered after they pick them up.. If this had happened a few months ago we would would have a pretty good idea of the time frames... Guess we get to be the Guinna pigs!

.... As of today I have all the required documents (the last set being the relationship proof) complete/printed/organized so I am feeling pretty good Going to be an adventure to see if all the dominoes fall our way....

Edited October 20, 2011 by OnMyWayID

[Ken y Leidys 20]

I'm so glad you got this information! I just signed up and have chosen where to pick up passport. I chose Salitre, it's the closest one to the embassy, I believe. I hope I didn't pick the one that is the slowest/messiest/the one that loses the most amount of things. We need yelp or something similar.

Without traffic, Plaza Salitre is about 5-7 minutes from the Embassy. Good luck with everything.

[alt+3 0]

Hey,

I just posted my review on Colombian Reviews. just would like to share the experience with the "new system" which seems faster. Also the new DHL free visa delivery process seems pretty organized and faster as well.

Good luck in your process and interviews!

[Ready to do it 101]

Could you report back how long it took to get the Visa at the DHL facility you chose (assuming it's outside of Bogota) from the date of the interview.

Thanks

Hey,

I just posted my review on Colombian Reviews. just would like to share the experience with the "new system" which seems faster. Also the new DHL free visa delivery process seems pretty organized and faster as well.

Good luck in your process and interviews!