How long till passport (with approved visa) returned?

[emanresu 0]

My fiancee's visa was approved. I was with her at the embassy interview in Kiev, and the American lady said the application was approved and she should be getting the passport, with the pasted-in visa, back in five business days.

At least, I think she said "in five business days." She might've said "around five business days." I'm not totally sure.

Either way, it's been six or seven days now (depending on whether you count the day of the interview as the starting day for the five business days). I returned to the US because of work, and my fiancee is still waiting in Kiev. Her home town is very far from Kiev and she doesn't trust the mail, so she's waiting in Kiev in a hotel for the notice from the embassy saying to come pick up the passport. She called today and the Ukrainian lady who answered said that actually the approval of the application doesn't come until after the interview, and that review of documents, etc., can take up to several weeks.

That directly contradicts what the American lady said at the interview.

I feel like calling, but I'm not sure how productive that would be.

Can anyone shed any light on 1) whether it's possible the American interviewer's statement that the application was approved could be wrong, and 2) how long it generally takes to get the passport back after the interview?

Thanks!

[afortunada 182]

There is no guarantee when you will receive the visa - some people are approved at interview and then wait in Administrative Processing for days, weeks, sometimes even months. That's why they say to not make travel arrangements until you have the visa in hand! Unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure

[emanresu 0]

Thanks. We haven't made any travel plans, because we knew it might take a while, but when the woman said "five days," we assumed that's how long it would be. It was a US consular official saying it, after all.

So how long does it take on average?

[afortunada 182]

For your embassy, it looks like generally people receive them within 4-8 days. But, like I said, with AP you never know... There was one woman on here where everyone else in that particular country took less than a week, but she waited almost 60 days. It just depends if they see more stuff they need to look at! Unfortunately even the officers can't know for sure.

Do you have the information to track it?

[JenniferNangel 137]

For my husband we were able t track where his Passport was because the embassy couldn't give any information over the phone but every embassy and country is different

[emanresu 0]

Yeah, we have the information. It's a long story (my fiancee is Russian from Crimea, so she originally went to Moscow, and they told her to go to Kiev, where it was approved), but initially it said AP, then "in transfer" (when they transferred the docs from Moscow to Kiev), then "ready" (indication to schedule the interview), and then after the interview it went to AP again.

Apparently, according to forums my fiancee has read, no visa applications from Ukraine or Russia are ever out of AP. AP appears to be the default status.

I just don't get why the lady at the embassy said the application was approved.

[emanresu 0]

One weird thing is that the "Case Creation Date" is two days ago.

[Pitaya 2,576]

~Moved from K1 Process to K1 Progress Forum~

~Inquiry about case status~

[JenniferNangel 137]

No ap is normal for every visa process my husband was in ap for 2 weeks but we needed a cosponsor that's why it took 2 weeks. During so they just run additional background checks and it also takes time to print the visa in the Passport.

[emanresu 0]

I see.

So I guess we don't really have anything to panic about, then.

[emanresu 0]

Just following up here.

I wrote the Kiev embassy an email asking what's up, and they replied telling me that a computer glitch had resulted in the wrong status being posted, and that they had issued the visa, etc.

My fiancee picked up her passport today and should be in the US within a couple of weeks.

Thanks, everyone, for your responses.