No Appointments Available! - Appointment Service is Connected to NVC?

[B&Gloria 7]

It's been a few days already that I have been trying to book an interview appointment with the US Embassy in Santiago. I was able to create an account and select the "K" visa option on the US Visa Appointment Service website but when I get to the step to pay for the $265 USD Visa Fee and schedule an appointment I don't have the option to select a date, it says "No Appointments Available" (see attached screenshot). Unfortunately it doesn't even give me an option to select a date next month, in 2 months, 3 months, etc. simply it says there is "No appointments available"! It's been a bit frustrating. I'm not gonna lie, I haven't been able to sleep well. This is stressing me. 

 

I started to do some investigating and I went on the non-immigrant US Visa Appointment Service website, then I clicked on tourist visas and it gave me the option to schedule an appointment as near next week though so I'm not sure why there is no available dates for the K1 Visa (classified as immigrant for the appointment purposes apparently). It doesn't make too much sense. Is there just 1 person handling this at the embassy? Could it be that they just don't accept that many appointments for K1? 

 

The only theory that makes sense to me at the moment is that since our petition hasn't been changed to "Ready" by the NVC that is why the website won't let me schedule an appointment. I'm not sure if these 2 things are connected but it's the only theory that makes a bit of sense to me. Can anyone confirm that these 2 things may be connected? Maybe once it changes it's status to "Ready"...magically the page will start offering a list of appointments?

 

For now I downloaded a special extension for my web browser that refreshes the page every 2 minutes and will alert me if any appointment times pop up. 

 

 

[B&Gloria 7]

[jan22 2,897]

Have you paid the fee?  You can't schedule the appointment until you do.  You're on Step 3 -- Payment.  Scheduling is Step 4.

[B&Gloria 7]

6 minutes ago, jan22 said:

Have you paid the fee?  You can't schedule the appointment until you do.  You're on Step 3 -- Payment.  Scheduling is Step 4.

The step that I'm on doesn't have any option to pay as you can see on the screen shot unless I'm missing something. After selecting where we want to pick up the visa we are taken to step 3 and there isn't any options after that. Even going to the account page and pressing "Pay Visa Fee"...we are directed to the page on my original screenshot above with no option to pay, just the message that there is no appointments available. 

Edited November 8, 2018 by B&Gloria

[jan22 2,897]

9 minutes ago, B&Gloria said:

The step that I'm on doesn't have any option to pay as you can see on the screen shot unless I'm missing something. After selecting where we want to pick up the visa we are taken to step 3 and there isn't any options after that. Even going to the account page and pressing "Pay Visa Fee"...we are directed to this page on my original screenshot. 

Did you click on the "fee information" link?  Sorry -- I'm not familiar with the specifics of Santiago's process.  I n general, you can't schedule the appointment until the fee is paid.

Edited November 8, 2018 by jan22

[B&Gloria 7]

1 minute ago, jan22 said:

Did you click on the "fee information" link?  Sorry -- I'm not familiar with the specifics of Santiago's process.

Yes I did. It opens up another window with the different costs of the different visa types. 😞

[B&Gloria 7]

4 minutes ago, jan22 said:

Did you click on the "fee information" link?  Sorry -- I'm not familiar with the specifics of Santiago's process.  I n general, you can't schedule the appointment until the fee is paid.

Interesting. In the email they sent to me they said that I could pay the Visa Fee in person at the embassy.

[jan22 2,897]

5 minutes ago, B&Gloria said:

Interesting. In the email they sent to me they said that I could pay the Visa Fee in person at the embassy.

Okay...so, what did the e-mail say about scheduling?  If you followed those instructions, it likely means all the appointments are taken and you will have to wait until more open.  K visas are processed by staff in the IV unit, so has nothing to do with what's available in the NIV unit.    Maybe someone who has done this in Santiago recently knows the secret and can help you.  Good luck!

Edited November 8, 2018 by jan22

[Jenna Ting 27]

15 hours ago, B&Gloria said:

The step that I'm on doesn't have any option to pay as you can see on the screen shot unless I'm missing something. After selecting where we want to pick up the visa we are taken to step 3 and there isn't any options after that. Even going to the account page and pressing "Pay Visa Fee"...we are directed to the page on my original screenshot above with no option to pay, just the message that there is no appointments available. 

It's better you call the service of the embassy, they'll help you find out the which way to do it right.I did have a confuse when I couldn't find out where to select the option to pay the fee

[C-ma'am 684]

*Post moved from K1 Process to Mexico, Latin and South America. The OP is at embassy stage.

 

OP- If the instructions on P3 are not clear or if you are having trouble booking your appointment, contact the embassy (there should be an email in the packet 3 instructions, don't forget to add your case number on the subject so that they get to your email sooner).

[hm139 55]

We're CR1, not K, so I can't help you with that precise part. But I can tell you two things: 1) the embassy is very responsive to email (SantiagoImmigration@state.gov), particularly if you write in a very polite, formal way and 2) they were unable to move up my husband's interview to an earlier date despite my two polite, formal requests. So I think for whatever reason the section of the embassy that does spousal/fiance interviews is very busy right now. We had 81 days between CC and interview, when the VJ average is 65. So maybe they are understaffed right now. Also, they take both American and Chilean holidays off, and there are a lot of both in the last few months of the year, so that will affect scheduling availability. But I would recommend emailing them.

[hm139 55]

So how did it go? Were you able to contact the embassy and get your appointment scheduled?

[B&Gloria 7]

On 11/11/2018 at 12:53 PM, hm139 said:

So how did it go? Were you able to contact the embassy and get your appointment scheduled?

Not so well. Our lawyer supposedly emailed the embassy on Friday, and so far no response. But I've checked the US Appointment Services website and there is still NO appointments available. Every single hour for more than a week now I've been checking. I do hope they let us book an appointment by email. This would give us at least a date and time so we can have something concrete. 

[hm139 55]

Today is a US holiday so the embassy is closed. They will hopefully reply to you tomorrow. I would leave the lawyer out of it and just email them yourself. Be patient... good luck!

[Cata&Ben 199]

Hi. I was told by someone who spoke to a person from the embassy in Colombia that the NVC sets the appoitnments for the VISA in advance. We cant select the date we would  like to choose. The person in question wanted to change her date and it was not possible.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by cloquis