Estimated Timing of US Embassy interview to visa in hand

[Matt W 16]

Ok friends, I would love to hear your experiences on interview approval to visa in hand timelines. 

 

I am hoping to go to the Philippines and accompany my fiance to her US Embassy interview in Manila. I would also love to stay with her until she gets the visa in hand to accompany her on the trip to the USA. The problem is the big unknown of how long this time window would or could be.

 

Obviously there is best case and worst case scenario here. I'm just looking for insights on the best case or average case. I am hoping we could do all of this in 2 weeks. Much more than that and I can't really stay there for that long. Then I have to pick to be there for the interview, her trip, or neither.

 

She lives in Cebu City. How does she get her passport back with the visa? My understanding is they deliver it to some shipping pickup point or something like that in Cebu City?

 

Anyone have any idea how long this process takes? Any details or your experience on this would be really helpful.

 

FYIL She is going to do her CFO in advance so she just has to run back by for the final document for it.

[Hank_ 9,173]

25 minutes ago, Matt W said:

Ok friends, I would love to hear your experiences on interview approval to visa in hand timelines. 

 

I am hoping to go to the Philippines and accompany my fiance to her US Embassy interview in Manila. I would also love to stay with her until she gets the visa in hand to accompany her on the trip to the USA. The problem is the big unknown of how long this time window would or could be.

 

Obviously there is best case and worst case scenario here. I'm just looking for insights on the best case or average case. I am hoping we could do all of this in 2 weeks. Much more than that and I can't really stay there for that long. Then I have to pick to be there for the interview, her trip, or neither.

 

She lives in Cebu City. How does she get her passport back with the visa? My understanding is they deliver it to some shipping pickup point or something like that in Cebu City?

 

Anyone have any idea how long this process takes? Any details or your experience on this would be really helpful.

 

FYIL She is going to do her CFO in advance so she just has to run back by for the final document for it.

 

You are asking the impossible      

 

After the interview it can be 2 week before the visa is actually issued, after issued it can be 5-10 business days before the visa is in hand.   2GO delivers the visa package to the designated address your fiancee listed.   << this would be close to the average scenario.

 

And with that said I know of two couples (both K-1)  just this week that the day after their interviews their CEAC status went to ISSUED, 3 days after that one of their visas was sitting at 2GO MOA (Mall of Asia).  << this would be a best case scenario.

 

The worse case scenario is where the visa application is stuck in AP for months.

 

Guide to the visa process in the Philippines:  https://www.visaconnection-philippines.com/us-embassy-usem.html

 

May I make a suggestion ..

 

Instead of attending the interview, wait to fly over until after your fiancee has visa in hand then the two of you can fly back to the states together. < this would be very helpful

Edited November 23, 2019 by Hank_

[Sarge2155 4,571]

24 minutes ago, Matt W said:

Ok friends, I would love to hear your experiences on interview approval to visa in hand timelines. 

 

I am hoping to go to the Philippines and accompany my fiance to her US Embassy interview in Manila. I would also love to stay with her until she gets the visa in hand to accompany her on the trip to the USA. The problem is the big unknown of how long this time window would or could be.

 

Obviously there is best case and worst case scenario here. I'm just looking for insights on the best case or average case. I am hoping we could do all of this in 2 weeks. Much more than that and I can't really stay there for that long. Then I have to pick to be there for the interview, her trip, or neither.

 

She lives in Cebu City. How does she get her passport back with the visa? My understanding is they deliver it to some shipping pickup point or something like that in Cebu City?

 

Anyone have any idea how long this process takes? Any details or your experience on this would be really helpful.

 

FYIL She is going to do her CFO in advance so she just has to run back by for the final document for it.

Two weeks is wishful thinking to say the least. It's  really hard to give you a definitive realistic answer as so many things can go wrong and snag you up. Maybe some others will commit to give you a better  idea, but I would say if you have deadlines to meet in your life don't depend on visa issuance, if it involves money don't  tie that to visa issuance. Only commit once the visa is in your hand. My wife had her visa delivered to SM mall there in Cebu

[Sarge2155 4,571]

1 hour ago, Hank_ said:

 

You are asking the impossible      

 

After the interview it can be 2 week before the visa is actually issued, after issued it can be 5-10 business days before the visa is in hand.   2GO delivers the visa package to the designated address your fiancee listed.   << this would be close to the average scenario.

 

And with that said I know of two couples (both K-1)  just this week that the day after their interviews their CEAC status went to ISSUED, 3 days after that one of their visas was sitting at 2GO MOA (Mall of Asia).  << this would be a best case scenario.

 

The worse case scenario is where the visa application is stuck in AP for months.

 

Guide to the visa process in the Philippines:  https://www.visaconnection-philippines.com/us-embassy-usem.html

 

May I make a suggestion ..

 

Instead of attending the interview, wait to fly over until after your fiancee has visa in hand then the two of you can fly back to the states together. < this would be very helpful

I agree totally!

[Mrs Stefano 13]

7 hours ago, Matt W said:

Ok friends, I would love to hear your experiences on interview approval to visa in hand timelines. 

 

I am hoping to go to the Philippines and accompany my fiance to her US Embassy interview in Manila. I would also love to stay with her until she gets the visa in hand to accompany her on the trip to the USA. The problem is the big unknown of how long this time window would or could be.

 

Obviously there is best case and worst case scenario here. I'm just looking for insights on the best case or average case. I am hoping we could do all of this in 2 weeks. Much more than that and I can't really stay there for that long. Then I have to pick to be there for the interview, her trip, or neither.

 

She lives in Cebu City. How does she get her passport back with the visa? My understanding is they deliver it to some shipping pickup point or something like that in Cebu City?

 

Anyone have any idea how long this process takes? Any details or your experience on this would be really helpful.

 

FYIL She is going to do her CFO in advance so she just has to run back by for the final document for it.

From Cebu here 👋🏻 

 

Once issued, her passport will be delivered via 2GO. It’s much faster if she chooses to have it PICKED UP rather than have it delivered at her home address. 
 

For the CFO GCP seminar, it would be ideal to have it done once she has her visa to avoid coming back for the CFO sticker. However, if there is still a long time waiting in between, then she can have her CFO GCP. It only takes 4 hours and should register online. 

[billding 59]

Sorry to piggyback.

 

We're filling out the profile on ustraveldocs and it's asking for a delivery address with choices of pick up and delivery. But It says on the P3 (from Greenbaum) that we need to designate a delivery address. We want to do a pick up at 2go MOA, is that an acceptable designation? Or do we have to fill in an address for delivery?

 

@Hank_ @Sarge2155 thanks 

Edited November 24, 2019 by billding

[Peter and Kat 52]

Hi! I had my CR1 interview last Monday (November 18) and my ceac status changed to Issued the same day. We chose to have my passport delivered door to door as I live in the province of Albay. I received my passport five days (November 23) after the interview. 🙂

 

I had to pick up my passport from my local 2go center though cause they were planning on delivering it on Monday since it's the weekend. My package only had my passport in it and my original PSA documents. No packet was included. 

 

Best case scenario I've seen recently is about 4 days but that's usually for deliveries within metro Manila. It's really hard to tell how long it will take cause it's on a case to case basis. Good luck! ☺️

[PWB 213]

We are interviewing on the 7th of January and I will be there on the 3rd of January to go with her to the interview.  The reason I am going to be there is simply after all this time and expense I want to be there for the last requirement.  The 134 is a 

simple document but I am not taking any chances.  We have arranged for the passport to be delivered to Mall of Asia because of general mail delivery in the Philippines.  My return flight is scheduled for the 27th of January.  If you are confident your

fiance can get through the interview without you, then you sure can save a lot of money by meeting her in country after all requirements are satisfied. There is nothing easy about this process, coordinating air travel is difficult and expensive.

[Hank_ 9,173]

7 hours ago, billding said:

Sorry to piggyback.

 

We're filling out the profile on ustraveldocs and it's asking for a delivery address with choices of pick up and delivery. But It says on the P3 (from Greenbaum) that we need to designate a delivery address. We want to do a pick up at 2go MOA, is that an acceptable designation? Or do we have to fill in an address for delivery?

 

@Hank_ @Sarge2155 thanks 

 

Yes MOA is a designated address, and is the quickest for receiving the visa BTW.       Make to use the address for 2Go MOA