CEAC status is READY but can't book interview!

[Moosebites 3]

Hey guys! So I was super excited to see my status on CEAC's website change to READY this morning! I filled in my DS-160, scheduled my medical and started to fill in the notice of readiness form to book my interview, only to see the following text:

 

'The Immigrant Visa case number provided is not ready to schedule an appointment. If you have not received an appointment letter from the National Visa Center (NVC), you can check the status of your IV case at http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/nvc.html.'

 

The link is broken, so I can't use it to check my case. I haven't received my appointment letter from NVC or anything from London, but from what I gathered you can wait ages for those and it's ok to just start scheduling as soon as your case status is 'ready', right? If so, how come it's saying I can't schedule my interview yet? Is it just because they haven't fully added my case details on to their system yet? How long should I wait before I try to contact them about this?

 

Thanks in advance

 

[trudi 1,317]

Sometimes it takes a little while for the system to update and realize your file is in London, keep trying, it'll let you book soon

[CaptainAmerica 115]

I'm having the exact same problem, which has been incredibly frustrating. I keep coming up against additional delays since NOA2! It's weird how some people can book fine as soon as they get their case, but others are being blocked somehow. I got my READY status on Tuesday and since then it's still not working for me. I sent an email to the contact email address to highlight this issue (because I should be able to book having all the correct processes ready) and received this auto-response:

 

Thanks for your email. We are currently experiencing delays to receive data from NVC due to adverse weather conditions. This should resume shortly, at which point you will be able to register on our website. Please try again in a few days and reply back if still not possible sometime next week. The appointment time and date as stated on the letter from NVC will be kept for you, so there is no emergency.

 

I don't know if that technically applies to our cases, as if the status is READY that means it's already with the Embassy... It's really annoying, as waiting this long and then being kept waiting even further for a random technical issue continues this bizarre form of torture. 

 

Edited March 23, 2018 by CaptainAmerica

[Moosebites 3]

1 hour ago, CaptainAmerica said:

I'm having the exact same problem, which has been incredibly frustrating. I keep coming up against additional delays since NOA2! It's weird how some people can book fine as soon as they get their case, but others are being blocked somehow. I got my READY status on Tuesday and since then it's still not working for me. I sent an email to the contact email address to highlight this issue (because I should be able to book having all the correct processes ready) and received this auto-response:

 

Thanks for your email. We are currently experiencing delays to receive data from NVC due to adverse weather conditions. This should resume shortly, at which point you will be able to register on our website. Please try again in a few days and reply back if still not possible sometime next week. The appointment time and date as stated on the letter from NVC will be kept for you, so there is no emergency.

 

I don't know if that technically applies to our cases, as if the status is READY that means it's already with the Embassy... It's really annoying, as waiting this long and then being kept waiting even further for a random technical issue continues this bizarre form of torture. 

 

Hmm that's not encouraging. I wonder if it'd be better to contact the London consulate rather than NVC, because it's sort of out of NVC's hands right now, right? When did you fill in your DS-160? I did mine about 4 hours ago so I'm wondering if that's too recent for it to show up on the system. Did you receive a letter from the consulate yet, or are you still waiting for that? I'm wondering if maybe there's a box they tick somewhere on a form that says 'we have sent the package 3 letter to the applicant, so now allow them to book their interview' or something!

 

2 hours ago, trudi said:

Sometimes it takes a little while for the system to update and realize your file is in London, keep trying, it'll let you book soon

I hope you're right! Any idea how long it usually takes?

[CaptainAmerica 115]

19 minutes ago, Moosebites said:

Hmm that's not encouraging. I wonder if it'd be better to contact the London consulate rather than NVC, because it's sort of out of NVC's hands right now, right? When did you fill in your DS-160? I did mine about 4 hours ago so I'm wondering if that's too recent for it to show up on the system. Did you receive a letter from the consulate yet, or are you still waiting for that? I'm wondering if maybe there's a box they tick somewhere on a form that says 'we have sent the package 3 letter to the applicant, so now allow them to book their interview' or something!

 

I did contact the London consulate, using the email link that pops up under the 'The Immigrant Visa case number provided is not ready to schedule an appointment' message. I completed my DS-160 on Tuesday morning (I didn't want to do anything until I knew my case was In Transit). I haven't received a letter yet, nor any email or letter from NVC as others have. I'm wary that these letters we're *supposed* to get don't always show up, so I'm not keen on waiting around just to get that before I can proceed to book my interview. As we know, lots of others on this forum have been able to book their appointments as soon as NVC gives them a case number, so our issue is unfortunately annoyingly unique, and inexplicable given the discrepancy of experiences. 

 

A few others have also experienced this problem, and I used their methods in an attempt of highlighting to the consulate of what I've done already which *should* allow me to book: 

Those in that thread already had their letters and still couldn't book! Which leads me to believe that for some reason, some of our records arriving in the consulate are either entered incorrectly or glitch somehow. Therefore it added more fuel to my reasoning not to delay getting in touch whilst waiting for a letter to arrive, as that apparently doesn't change anything. 

 

It's terrible to be so close and yet so far, isn't it?! I'm hoping by next week I'll have a human response to my email which might explain the problem. 

Edited March 23, 2018 by CaptainAmerica

[Moosebites 3]

2 hours ago, CaptainAmerica said:

I did contact the London consulate, using the email link that pops up under the 'The Immigrant Visa case number provided is not ready to schedule an appointment' message. I completed my DS-160 on Tuesday morning (I didn't want to do anything until I knew my case was In Transit). I haven't received a letter yet, nor any email or letter from NVC as others have. I'm wary that these letters we're *supposed* to get don't always show up, so I'm not keen on waiting around just to get that before I can proceed to book my interview. As we know, lots of others on this forum have been able to book their appointments as soon as NVC gives them a case number, so our issue is unfortunately annoyingly unique, and inexplicable given the discrepancy of experiences. 

 

A few others have also experienced this problem, and I used their methods in an attempt of highlighting to the consulate of what I've done already which *should* allow me to book: 

Those in that thread already had their letters and still couldn't book! Which leads me to believe that for some reason, some of our records arriving in the consulate are either entered incorrectly or glitch somehow. Therefore it added more fuel to my reasoning not to delay getting in touch whilst waiting for a letter to arrive, as that apparently doesn't change anything. 

 

It's terrible to be so close and yet so far, isn't it?! I'm hoping by next week I'll have a human response to my email which might explain the problem. 

Thanks so much for the link, I've followed the advice of people in that thread and emailed them with all my screenshots to prove I'm allowed to book! 

 

Gods yes, *every* part of this process sucks . And then things like this happen, to make it suck even more. I just want to be with my fiance! Let me know if you hear anything and I'll post back if I do too. 

[Moosebites 3]

...Ok, just randomly tried again to book my interview, and it worked! Yay! I hope yours works soon too x

[CaptainAmerica 115]

2 hours ago, Moosebites said:

...Ok, just randomly tried again to book my interview, and it worked! Yay! I hope yours works soon too x

Thank you so much for telling me this!! I tried again, and it worked for me too. I wonder if that's just totally random, or anything to do with the fact that we both emailed..? I'm not entirely convinced it was just a matter of being patient, and think the emails must trigger something. It'll be interesting to see if others report this issue too, and how they resolve it. 

 

I really wish Knightsbridge had earlier appointments, as seeing the Embassy had free appointments in the first week of April is gutting! I have to wait until April 19th for medical, and that was the earliest they could offer. I hope you got an appointment that works for you?

[Moosebites 3]

10 hours ago, CaptainAmerica said:

Thank you so much for telling me this!! I tried again, and it worked for me too. I wonder if that's just totally random, or anything to do with the fact that we both emailed..? I'm not entirely convinced it was just a matter of being patient, and think the emails must trigger something. It'll be interesting to see if others report this issue too, and how they resolve it. 

 

I really wish Knightsbridge had earlier appointments, as seeing the Embassy had free appointments in the first week of April is gutting! I have to wait until April 19th for medical, and that was the earliest they could offer. I hope you got an appointment that works for you?

Yay! I'm really glad! Who knows, maybe someone saw our emails, or maybe they just updated/fixed the database. My appointment is a few days after yours, and yes I'd have loved to have gotten my interview a couple of weeks earlier (when my fiance will be visiting...). Oh well, at least it's happening!

[CaptainAmerica 115]

6 hours ago, Moosebites said:

Yay! I'm really glad! Who knows, maybe someone saw our emails, or maybe they just updated/fixed the database. My appointment is a few days after yours, and yes I'd have loved to have gotten my interview a couple of weeks earlier (when my fiance will be visiting...). Oh well, at least it's happening!

You and I seem to be in the same boat, as my fiance is also over in early April. At least he'll be with me to come to the medical, even though it would've been nicer if he could've come to the final stage at the interview instead! It's all getting very real, isn't it?  

[Moosebites 3]

1 hour ago, CaptainAmerica said:

You and I seem to be in the same boat, as my fiance is also over in early April. At least he'll be with me to come to the medical, even though it would've been nicer if he could've come to the final stage at the interview instead! It's all getting very real, isn't it?  

Yeah! I'm debating whether to book a flight for the end of May. It *should* be fine, but if something goes wrong, changing my ticket could be costly. Argh, the uncertainty is so frustrating!

[CaptainAmerica 115]

9 minutes ago, Moosebites said:

Yeah! I'm debating whether to book a flight for the end of May. It *should* be fine, but if something goes wrong, changing my ticket could be costly. Argh, the uncertainty is so frustrating!

Isn't it just?! I'd love to book a flight too but I know from experience how costly it can be to change it.  I'm planning to not book anything until I have my interview, so I can hear them tell me I'm finally approved! I estimate that roughly I *should* have my passport back within a week, so once my interview is done I can plan to book a flight within a fortnight or so. 

 

I'm telling myself a one way flight is going to be expensive regardless, so I just have to swallow that cost alongside all the other money that I'm spending on this entire visa process! 

[Moosebites 3]

5 hours ago, CaptainAmerica said:

Isn't it just?! I'd love to book a flight too but I know from experience how costly it can be to change it.  I'm planning to not book anything until I have my interview, so I can hear them tell me I'm finally approved! I estimate that roughly I *should* have my passport back within a week, so once my interview is done I can plan to book a flight within a fortnight or so. 

 

I'm telling myself a one way flight is going to be expensive regardless, so I just have to swallow that cost alongside all the other money that I'm spending on this entire visa process! 

Yeah, I'm probably going to fly with Norwegian, and it looks like their flight prices are still reasonable when you book a couple of weeks in advance

[CaptainAmerica 115]

15 hours ago, Moosebites said:

Yeah, I'm probably going to fly with Norwegian, and it looks like their flight prices are still reasonable when you book a couple of weeks in advance

That's good news! I've been flying so much with Virgin that I'm now a Gold member... The silver lining of a long distance relationship! So I'll be sticking with them for my flight, which may also be useful as they use one of the smaller terminals at LAX.