Have you got visa or interview then?
Our case required a hardship waiver after our interview few yrs ago. When my mom got sick I had a hardship to prove and pursued the waiver. After waiver got approved, they requested the DS-5535 and now this yr in feb when we sent them an email to follow-up, they emailed us to submit updated ds-260, taxes, passport, photos, medical, police report etc now waiting...end of Aug is 3 months since they have passport