Case transfer for Manila was sent to Washinton DC instead!

[appleshake82 0]

Good morning VJ'ers,

I am currently in a situation that places my K-1 visa application into a ton of delays. During my fiancee's petition for my K-1 visa, I used to live & work in Bangkok. It was our plan to take the interview in the US Embassy in Manila since I'll be going home anyway. However, inspite of my fiancee indicating clearly that we're choosing Manila as our preferred consulate, the smart people in NVC still sent it to Bangkok! When the time came that the US Embassy in Bangkok got my packet, I was already back home in the Philippines. So the next logical thing to do was to request a case transfer (through Manila) in order for Bangkok to send the packet & everything else in the Philippines.

The support people in the consular section of Manila notified me that the transfer request was made, and a few weeks later Bangkok acknowledge the transfer. However, 7 weeks already passed by and still the packet hasn't arrived yet. I wrote a lot of emails (both to Manila and Bangkok), and spent a great deal of time & money just to call the support people in Manila but still no news about it. My experience with the "support" people in the consular section of Manila was actually not very good (since most of them are very keen to send you off w/o even trying/bothering to look into your case thoroughly). However, there was this good support guy who actually helped me out and sent a follow-up request to Bangkok (in case they might not have sent it as they said they did).

Fast forward to 2 months, I called the consular section in Manila again last week to follow-up and ask if they ever caught glimpse of my packet. A support person told me that Bangkok has sent it to Washington D.C. (instead of sending it directly to Manila). She added that from Washington D.C. (I assumed it was the USCIS office there) my case will be send finally to Manila. All I know is that the transfer should be direct consulate-to-consulate, but at this point now I'm losing a bit of hope. I estimated that this will further cause a month's worth of delay again, & my fiancee was clearly affected by this unexpected situation. Does any good VJ'ers here ever had this kind of experience? Any idea or advice?

[Zharren Young 32]

OMG! I did! I was living in Bahrain in middle east when we first filed for i129F. 3 months later i decided to go back in PI. Me & my fiance did the online form to change address at USCIS even if we stated clearly on our papers that the interviewing consulate is in manila. 6 months later we got our NOA2, after 3 weeks got our case number from NVC. to my surprise and thank God i was a member of this forum as well as a pinay forum, i have noticed that our case number is different. It has MNA instead of MNL for manila. I asked my fiance to follow up from NVC and they said mine is different and special LOL and process will be faster. Still cant be of peace i asked him to call again, then we found out that its becoz MNA stands for Bahrain/Manama Consulate. We then started sending them proof of change of address thru USCIS< sent them all our info and everything else and was been calling stupid people of NVC for about 2 weeks. My now husband even got to talk to a supervisor and assured him that they will do the changes and that not to worry. 2 days later we found out that it got forwarded to Bahrain still. grrr i was so mad i could break some neck and couldnt stop swearing whoever that stupid person from NVC.

We then contacted Manama consulate and luckily they replied fast as and instructed me to send a friend of mine with a paid DHL envelop where they can put my packet and be forwarded to USEM. it was atleast 3 weeks delayed but yeah we finally got thru it and now a GC holder. Wheeeewww! So be patient and keep trying to find out where your packet now. if you have too dont hesitate giving them a call.

[appleshake82 0]

Happy New Year to you Zharren Young. Thank you very much for the reply. NVC doesn't really care where & what embassy they will send your case to (even if you specify your preferred consulate). Once the case packet left their hands, they pretty much will just direct you to the receiving consulate and ask you to initiate the transfer yourself! How convenient for them! Good for both of you that your case transfer only took 3 weeks. Mine has been delayed for almost 3 months now, and up until this moment I've been patiently waiting and calling the people in the Manila Consulate.

By the way Zharren, ours also starts with BNK. I think they won't change the case number even if you request a case transfer. That said, thank you very much once again for the reply