Can't Find K1 Appt at Sierra Leone Consulate

[favobee 5]

My fiance is working from and applying for a K1 visa in Freetown, Sierra Leone (but he is from a nearby West African country). The application is at the last stage--the Embassy has received it, and he just needs to schedule his interview. My fiance had been able to schedule his B2 visa interview through the same consulate last year without a problem, just that it was about 4 months from when we scheduled it. So we were expecting that the appointment we found might be a few months out, and we would have to wait. What we didn't see coming was to get to the appointment page and see a message that "Currently, there are no appointments available for the selected location."

 

We submitted the DS-160 on April 8 immediately after learning the case had been forwarded, and have been checking the appointments page several times daily since then. I was able to contact the consulate and was advised that they usually post new appointments at the beginning of the month, so since April 30 we have been checking the page much more frequently, several times every hour. At one point since then, I did notice that the AVITS website displayed the message "This application is currently undergoing updates and is temporarily unavailable. Please check back later." It did this several times.  There was also a period where the appointment page was loading too slowly for me to access it, and I tried logging out and back in. I wondered if this might be when appointments were being added, but when I was able to access the page again, it displayed the same "no appointments available" message. It's hard to believe that maintenance message and lapse in loading (which happened early on the morning of April 30, Freetown time) was due to new appointments coming online and getting booked so fast.

 

I'm aware that this problem is not new, and that many people have had to try at it a lot longer than us before they found an appointment, so we understand these things take time. But like with the DS-160, it is just challenging enough that we are starting to ask ourselves, "Are we doing this right, or are we missing something?" Any thoughts or tips welcome!

 

Feb ??, 2024 | Received B2 visa & visited the US in summer 2024

Sept 11, 2024 | I-129f application received by USCIS

Feb 10, 2025 | Case approved and sent to NVC

Mar 24, 2025 | Case completed NVC processing

Apr 8, 2025 | NVC sent case to Embassy in Freetown, SL

Apr 17, 2025 | Embassy in Freetown, SL confirmed receipt of our case

[TBoneTX 46,904]

Welcome to the forum!  Your thread is moved to the Embassy/Consulate forum, to be among similar threads.   

 

Scheduling an interview is typically a giant challenge, regardless of where in the world.  Because of your ongoing situation, see this link.  I suggest that you e-mail the consulate (put the beneficiary's "A" number in the Subject line) to learn what's going on and gain some insights.  Let us know what they say.  Wishing you the best of luck.

 

https://www.visajourney.com/consulates/index.php?ctry=Sierra Leone&cty=Freetown

[favobee 5]

10 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Welcome to the forum!  Your thread is moved to the Embassy/Consulate forum, to be among similar threads.   

 

Scheduling an interview is typically a giant challenge, regardless of where in the world.  Because of your ongoing situation, see this link.  I suggest that you e-mail the consulate (put the beneficiary's "A" number in the Subject line) to learn what's going on and gain some insights.  Let us know what they say.  Wishing you the best of luck.

 

https://www.visajourney.com/consulates/index.php?ctry=Sierra Leone&cty=Freetown

Thank you for the suggestion! I have sent them a message through their portal. Will share if/when I hear back. Fingers crossed...

[Kay mama 0]

On 5/2/2025 at 7:45 AM, favobee said:

Thank you for the suggestion! I have sent them a message through their portal. Will share if/when I hear back. Fingers crossed...

Hello, me too am going through the same thing. I’m unable to schedule a k1 visa interview. Please 🙏 update me please 

[TBoneTX 46,904]

2 hours ago, Kay mama said:

Hello, me too am going through the same thing. I’m unable to schedule a k1 visa interview. Please 🙏 update me please 

Welcome to the forum!  Your unanswered duplicate thread has been removed; we post just once on a single topic, and this existing thread is the best to get good answers intact in one place.   

 

You can try the same process as recommended above.  You and favobee can post your respective experiences here for the benefit of others.

[favobee 5]

Here are some pages where I have found contact info that I have tried: 

• https://www.usvisaappt.com/visa/page?country=SL&apiPageName=locationsHours&locale=en
• https://sl.usembassy.gov/visas/
• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAFVuWFgfcYN8YrwXxJMeLUdK-C7HuAr9N0GIfIXXeLfRpYw/viewform?pli=1&pli=1

Most of them say there is help available for questions about booking an appointment, but really they just reshare the basic instructions for how booking an appointment should work 🫠 I haven't seen any mention of appointment shortages.

 

I don't know if being the "squeaky wheel" is the right approach, but I'm hoping if they get sick enough of hearing from me while we're stuck in this apparent backlog, they might be able to do something to address the backlog for everyone's sake. Maybe just wishful thinking! 😅

Edited Tuesday at 03:10 AM by favobee

[TBoneTX 46,904]

53 minutes ago, favobee said:

being the "squeaky wheel" is the right approach

This!  ^^  You often must.

 

Read the portion about my [censored] consular experience here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/410945-k-1-journey-completed/

Aw, heck -- read the whole thing.   

[favobee 5]

13 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

This!  ^^  You often must.

 

Read the portion about my [censored] consular experience here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/410945-k-1-journey-completed/

Aw, heck -- read the whole thing.   

Oof da (as we say in MN), thank you for sharing about your journey, and congratulations! Reading stories like yours is an encouraging snapshot of what we hope for our future, and also a reminder that we're not alone in this frustrating chapter. 😖 This cannot be over soon enough. Someone's gonna be hearing from me tomorrow. 😆

[favobee 5]

6 hours ago, Kay mama said:

Please 🙏 update me please 

Something that might be helpful for your planning... We had a friend who has his interview recently (so the appointments do exist!) His interview was successful 🎉 and was given a date to return to pick up his passport with the Visa. When he returned to the consulate, on the date that the consulate had told him, he was told that his passport was not ready yet. 🫠 Somebody else who came at the same time was told the same thing, and just from overhearing, our friend had the sense that it was not the first time that dude had been told to come back.

Our takeaway, having a date to pick up the visa is not the same thing as having the visa in hand.

If it hadn't happened to someone I know, I might not have believed it. Just, yuck.

[TBoneTX 46,904]

14 minutes ago, favobee said:

having a date to pick up the visa is not the same thing as having the visa in hand.

A very wise realization!  Count on nothing until the visa is in your hands.

26 minutes ago, favobee said:

Oof da (as we say in MN)

Q:  Why doesn't Iowa* slide into Missouri?

A:  Because Minnesota sucks.   

          *grew up there