SLEC... Only in the PI

[manilaraf 28]

Out of Stock to me means when you are somewhere in the Philippines and they say "out of stock sir" it means they don't want to get it for you........

This is when I say "Please call the manager/owner"

Clerks or low level employees tend to be drones without any initiative (taught, trained, or expected). Talk to someone with real power/control and things tend to happen. You usually need to speak to someone higher, someone who appreciates that you want to do business. Not the hourly employee who could hardly give a f@ck.

[Brassballs 47]

The restock rather quickly as I am sure USEM does not one a track record of being out of vaccines. Last month the same thing occurred for another member and when she returned a month later to catch her flight she stopped by SLEC and they completed the shot and gave her a receipt and she was on her way with shots completed. You should have no problems when you visit again.

Keep in mind the number of people that are applying for visa's. Many of us have attended our wife's interview and were amazed at the number of people being interviewed. I was told by a CO that there individual goal is to interview 150 applicants each day. Do the math. It's got to be a factory assembly line process.

That number has to be the embassy goal not individual CO quota? If individual that's one every 3 minutes with no pee or coffee breaks. That would be next to impossible to do on any given day let alone day in and day out. But if it is and even if they don't meet quota, it would be a staggering amount of people leaving the PI every year to come to the US.

If the quota were for the embassy it would still be nearly 37,500 applicants per year. Still a lot in my eyes. The visa interviews must be done on a different floor than the one I was on when applying for Cert of Legal Capacity. I didn't see nearly than many what I would consider visa applicants. Mostly US citizens requesting assistance.

[manilaraf 28]

That number has to be the embassy goal not individual CO quota? If individual that's one every 3 minutes with no pee or coffee breaks. That would be next to impossible to do on any given day let alone day in and day out. But if it is and even if they don't meet quota, it would be a staggering amount of people leaving the PI every year to come to the US.

If the quota were for the embassy it would still be nearly 37,500 applicants per year. Still a lot in my eyes. The visa interviews must be done on a different floor than the one I was on when applying for Cert of Legal Capacity. I didn't see nearly than many what I would consider visa applicants. Mostly US citizens requesting assistance.

US Citizen Services are done on the 2nd floor of the New Annex building. Visas both nonimmigrant and immigrant are done on the first.

USCS definitely does not have that many people coming in compared to the NIV and IV sections in my experience over the years dealing with USCS for I-130 filing, passport renewal, etc.

Having experienced the Immigrant and K-1 visa line when my wife interviewed I can easily believe the 150 applicants per day. From what I saw interviews tended to last anywhere from 3-5 minutes each. I'd say there were a total of 8-10 US Consular Officers interviewing that day. (Note that a lot of the grunt work is done by the prescreeners and other local support staff. You have several steps before you reach the US CO). From when we went inside (we were probably 50th in line to enter the building from the seated waiting area) at about 730am up until we left at about 1130 they were seeing people non-stop. And when we were finished, there were still people in line inside, outside in the seated/covered waiting area, as well as still in line outside the embassy walls.

From what I've read the Philippines has the 2nd busiest NIV and IV Sections in the world behind Mexico. It also has the highest number of K-1 visas processed worldwide.

Edited April 26, 2015 by manilaraf

[Greenbaum 12,258]

That number has to be the embassy goal not individual CO quota? If individual that's one every 3 minutes with no pee or coffee breaks. That would be next to impossible to do on any given day let alone day in and day out. But if it is and even if they don't meet quota, it would be a staggering amount of people leaving the PI every year to come to the US.

If the quota were for the embassy it would still be nearly 37,500 applicants per year. Still a lot in my eyes. The visa interviews must be done on a different floor than the one I was on when applying for Cert of Legal Capacity. I didn't see nearly than many what I would consider visa applicants. Mostly US citizens requesting assistance.

That is the embassy's goal for each CO because of the number of total visa's processing through USEM. See for yourself what kind of processing numbers that is done by FY for US here. Keep in mind this is only those that were issued not the sum of all total applied numbers.

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/statistics/annual-reports/report-of-the-visa-office-2014.html

[Brassballs 47]

That is the embassy's goal for each CO because of the number of total visa's processing through USEM. See for yourself what kind of processing numbers that is done by FY for US here. Keep in mind this is only those that were issued not the sum of all total applied numbers.

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/statistics/annual-reports/report-of-the-visa-office-2014.html

Well that link certainly provides a good perspective on the 'big picture' not that it makes the journey any easier.

I was surprised to see the percentage of visas issued to the Dominican Republic. What's going on there?

Also while wondering around the state dept. site, I stumbled upon the following:

http://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/policy_updates/National%20_Visa_Center_No_Longer_Collecting_Original_Civil_Documents_November_2014.pdf

Too bad this decision wasn't made earlier... Could have shortened our journey by 6 weeks or so. But good information to pass along to future members.