Warsaw Interviews and How To Even Get There In Time?!

[SnowColdIce 15]

@P3ACHY Could you share more info on how long it took for them to schedule your interview after you were DQd from NVC and how far along they scheduled it?

Me and my wife are currently in the NVC stage, and we are frankly a bit nervous about the whole thing. Which Visa to get, and how much time do we have basically. It's stressful for sure.

Edited April 6 by SnowColdIce

[SnowColdIce 15]

Also @Pirozhok I saw you had some experience with the whole Visa process for Hungary. How did you approached the whole thing? Do they check if you cancelled any of the refundable tickets in customs or at any other moment? How thorough was your "vacation plan"? Or do you only need tickets and Hotels?

[P3ACHY 30]

8 hours ago, SnowColdIce said:

@P3ACHY Could you share more info on how long it took for them to schedule your interview after you were DQd from NVC and how far along they scheduled it?

Me and my wife are currently in the NVC stage, and we are frankly a bit nervous about the whole thing. Which Visa to get, and how much time do we have basically. It's stressful for sure.

 

Our interview hasn't been scheduled yet.

Our timeline won't be helpful because NVC put is in Yerevan instead of Warsaw. But from telegram groups, I've seen the estimate is 1-4 months for Warsaw from DQ to interview letter.

Also here is the link for Schengen visa information from the Hungarian embassy in Moscow - https://moscow.mfa.gov.hu/rus/page/poluchenie-viz

It says in the extra information that they want a maximum 1 page description of the places/events you plan to visit.

[SnowColdIce 15]

9 hours ago, P3ACHY said:

 

Our interview hasn't been scheduled yet.

Our timeline won't be helpful because NVC put is in Yerevan instead of Warsaw. But from telegram groups, I've seen the estimate is 1-4 months for Warsaw from DQ to interview letter.

Also here is the link for Schengen visa information from the Hungarian embassy in Moscow - https://moscow.mfa.gov.hu/rus/page/poluchenie-viz

It says in the extra information that they want a maximum 1 page description of the places/events you plan to visit.

 Oh wow really, so it's taking THAT long for them to schedule interviews for Warsaw. If you don't mind, which Telegram groups are you referring to? I sadly don't have any of those.

Were you put in Yerevan randomly? Or did you request it? My wife likes Warsaw ONLY for the fact that they don't require COVID vaccination for Russian citizens, not sure if Yerevan has the same policy for Russian Citizens.

[Pirozhok 30]

19 hours ago, SnowColdIce said:

Also @Pirozhok I saw you had some experience with the whole Visa process for Hungary. How did you approached the whole thing? Do they check if you cancelled any of the refundable tickets in customs or at any other moment? How thorough was your "vacation plan"? Or do you only need tickets and Hotels?

 

I booked one-way flights all around, for obvious reasons. Our plan was 1 night in Budapest, then a couple weeks in Poland to start. I booked 1 night in Budapest at a hotel near the airport and a refundable 14 days at a place closer to some touristy stuff. If asked, the plan was to say we'd recover from the travel near the airport, the move to our longer-term hotel after a good night's rest. We got familiar with a handful of Budapest tourist stops in case we had to give more detailed plans (and would have visited them on our way home had the process gone more smoothly). Nobody ever asked for more detail than "vacation in Budapest."

 

I'd also booked a hotel in Warsaw for the same 14 days. It was also refundable, in case things didn't go as planned, but I think that's less necessary since that can be booked after the Schengen is issued. As soon as we got through passport checks in Hungary, I canceled the return flights to get those refunds started. I booked a FlixBus from Budapest to Warsaw, mostly because she was nervous about not being allowed to board a flight. Again, probably wasn't necessary, but it was a pretty drive.

 

Because of a lengthy AP, we wound up extending our stays in Warsaw to 6 weeks for me and 8 weeks for her (I had to get back for the start of classes). When we returned, she flew home without going back through Hungary.

 

As far as I'm aware, nobody questioned the canceled return flights, canceled Budapest hotel, or her flying back home from Poland instead of Hungary. The bookings we did refund were included in the visa application, but never looked at by anyone after that.

[P3ACHY 30]

13 hours ago, SnowColdIce said:

 Oh wow really, so it's taking THAT long for them to schedule interviews for Warsaw. If you don't mind, which Telegram groups are you referring to? I sadly don't have any of those.

Were you put in Yerevan randomly? Or did you request it? My wife likes Warsaw ONLY for the fact that they don't require COVID vaccination for Russian citizens, not sure if Yerevan has the same policy for Russian Citizens.

 

1-4 months isn't too bad. It's probably considered pretty fast when compared to other embassies. Feel free to PM me and I can send you the links to the telegram groups.

 

It wasn't random, just unexpected. We were living temporarily in Yerevan when we sent in the I-130. I thought they would switch us to Warsaw after we completed the DS-260 with updated addresses. I even messaged them about it, that my husband wasn't in Yerevan anymore and didn't have residency. But they told us they weren't going to switch us.

 

I don't think any of the embassies require COVID vaccines anymore. At least that's the news from the state department this month.

[SnowColdIce 15]

@Pirozhok@P3ACHY Thank you so much for the detailed info! Maybe a question that has been answered before here. I am already at the NVC stage and just got the account. I just paid the fees and I am getting ready for the Affidavit of Support, any idea if the I-864EZ is enough? (I qualify). I feel like most people would qualify for that one, but I rarely see it mentioned. What did you guys choose?

[SnowColdIce 15]

Additionally, my taxes for the 2024 year have not yet been received by the IRS thus I do not have a Tax Transcript (yet) for 2024, could I submit W-2s together with 1040 instead? (Now that I am reading more, it seems that I can, just wanted to confirm)

Edited April 10 by SnowColdIce

[P3ACHY 30]

@SnowColdIce I'm sure the I-864EZ is enough if you qualify and provide your W-2s and 2024 1040.

 

I didn't qualify for the EZ form because I'm self employed and get multiple 1099s. I also gave them the previous 3 years transcripts, and had to send 6 months of bank statements. I think they like to see your earnings consistency too, if you qualified also for the past 3 years then it can't hurt to include those transcripts too!

Pirozhok did K1, they don't need to fill out I-864.

[Pirozhok 30]

On 4/10/2025 at 12:10 AM, P3ACHY said:

Pirozhok did K1, they don't need to fill out I-864.

 

Correct. I did do an I-134 for financial support though. Based on attorney recommendation, I waited until filing and did the transcripts rather than W-2s. It took a while for the new one to become available though. I was a few days away from using current year's W-2 + last year's transcript.

[PG0305 4]

Not sure if you've already found an answer but my wife and I were able to get a Schengen visa from Spain this summer and then travel onward to Poland in a fairly straightforward way. She'd had several Schengen visas prior and was able to apply for a Spain Schengen visa after finding a Telegram channel with a bot that sends alerts when interviews are available. I booked everything with refundable tickets in case things didn't work out which was expensive but we ended up having a very nice trip. Poland/Warsaw was surprisingly a great place to visit!

[harvardiv 5]

I think my question is the same one.  So how exactly are people handling it, when getting an interview in Poland, and at the same time needing the Schengen Visa?