furble

It has been quite a long time since my last post above but I felt it was important to update this thread (and I updated my timeline a bit too) since a pet peeve of mine on the internet is when people post scary stories and never update with the outcome and unfortunately I was being that person until now! Better late then never right!

So here is how the rest of the story went. We went back to Bali from Jakarta a bit disheartened and changing mindset from we are moving to the US soon to continuing to live in Bali instead, just in case this AP took a long time. I mean really we sort of had to, waiting in limbo and putting our lives on hold for this AP would have been like watching ice melt in a very cold room. So I started looking into converting my tourist visa that I kept extending into an Indonesian residency permit. Frankly I had been there for years and had already pushed the limit on those tourist visas. This was part of our frustration with the AP because we needed more information so we could make better decisions for our lives. Of course they would give us no information and perhaps but a glimmer of empathy. I only had 3 weeks left of my tourist visa at the time and should start the process to change to a residency permit if we weren't going anywhere any time soon. But of course that is a long and expensive (thousand dollar+) process that US immigration was basically making me have to guess on. This was among other decisions on long term commitments for our family that we refused to wait for these people to leave us hanging on indefinitely.

Nonetheless we did decide to at least wait 2 weeks before starting the process of changing all of our plans because we were told the soonest we were even allowed to call and check on the process was 2 weeks and this seemed fair to at least give it that 2 weeks. If when we called nothing changed then well I probably wouldn't have called again for 6 months and put it out of my mind and moved on until further notice. When the 2 week mark came up I called then and I think it was the same woman that answered the phone that claimed to have difficulty contacting me while in Jakarta to tell us that they changed their minds and we got stuck in AP. This time she said "wait, nobody called you yet? You were approved last week. You can come pickup your Visa any time." Rather than point out the obvious communication issues they have there I decided not to be stupid and just get excited that they now were saying we were approved. As soon as I was off the phone I was on the next motorbike to the AirAsia ticket office to get tickets for the next flight I could back to Jakarta. For all I know they will flip flop again. Funny originally we had considered waiting almost the full 6 months after getting the Visa before entering the US because neither of us minded staying in Bali an extra 6 months. Bali is a great place too. However, suddenly it became very important to grab our belongings and get across the border as fast as practical after the stunts they pulled. So the next morning I was back at the embassy in Jakarta, picked up her passport with Visa in it, and went back to the airport on the next plane back to Bali. A few weeks later we entered the US through Los Angeles and received the green card in the mail a few weeks after that. We have been living here ever since and still visit Bali every summer. Our daughter, now 5, is attending elementary school at the best school I could have imagined for her and I'm proud and pleased to say that earlier this month we gave birth to our next daughter .

So in the end, our AP was really only 1 week, just they overlooked calling us to tell us (for which I will withhold my snide remarks).

I do want to thank VisaJourney and all the members on here for the support throughout this process. USCIS, NVC, etc... provide you very little support or help. It's not their fault, it's a government process and they are only allowed to literally read to you from a script, and it's not a very detailed script at that. In fact if you have already read the script it is senseless to even call them. This is the only place where you can find real answers. This is a very important website and we are grateful to it and for your support.

So glad to see the good news on Dr. Punjabi.. I was hoping it'd be painless, and the phone person was his wife in a bad mood (or a permanent bad mood)..

Yea, wife is in a permanent bad mood. Can also verify that.

My Fiancee is Indonesian. And in the next few months we expect she will be getting an invitation to the US embassy in Jakarta and will be needing a medical exam.

Have read the entries listed here I still have some questions.

She is shy about having a male doctor examining her private parts. Is this actually done in Jakarta?

Should she get some of the vacinations done before hand? Should she get in touch with one of the docs even before receiving the Embassy appointment date? So as to get any vacinations out of the way in a timely fashion?

Any recommendations ?

I was there with my wife @ Dr. Punjabi's. The whole thing was pretty laid back but professional. He did not look at my wife's private parts and we even asked him if he needed to and he said not neccessary.

I wouldnt worry about the vaccinations before hand. You may end up getting her vaccinated for stuff that he wouldn't have given anyway. Better to just let the Doc decide. I recomend Punjabi.

Admin Review differs from AP in that in AR there is a second interview, and in our case we for AP so I don't know enough about AR to really comment on it.

Thanks on adding AP into the timeline. I'll update mine later on today. Agreed adding too much might be overdoing it but I still think adding an input for the time estimate that was given by the embassy would be nice as it would be meaningful to compare and see just how accurate this estimate tends to be. Perhaps not everyone gets an estimate though? We got an estimate of 2-weeks to 6 months, which is pretty broad so probably there would have to be 2 fields short estimate (2 weeks for me) and long estimate (6 months).

Might be good first to run a poll and see if others have gotten estimates and if they are commonly in this same range format.

For me it would be good to be able to evaluate the estimate because I live abroad with my wife and baby and we need to decide stuff like should move into a bigger place coz the little one is growing and if statistically it always takes 6 months or even longer than the estimate than we should move to a new place. If statistically most cases really are done withing 60-90 days like the govmnt claims (they actually claim 80% are done within 2 weeks but a quick google search sees different results) then we should wait before we do things like move or replace furniture that needs replacement, etc...

I'm a programmer myself so I realize all this might not be as easy as it sounds but here are my thoughts:

Date AP started

A way to record the "time estimate" you were given by the embassy (so we can compare how accurate these estimates are)

A way to record when something happens (ie: when the embassy or someone else contacts you for something)

A way to record when processing complete

And a way to record time from when complete to when the visa process started moving again (some people post that some website tells them AP is complete but the embassy isn't always ready to move forward right away)

That's everything I think

Just a suggestion, Administrative Processing should be added to the timeline. This way VJ members can compare and contrast their situation with other members' and see timeframes for other cases with Administrative Processing. Also given the lack of information given about Administrative Processing it would be good to allow a way for members to record common events related to Administrative Processing such as how long of a time estimate was given originally vs how long it took and other events that occur along the way, and how long after it's completed before the process continues etc... Just a thought.

Sounds about right.

BTW has your wife been to the US before? Just curious if that had anything to do with the extra processing step. Obviously I'm hoping to avoid AP, wondering if that the fact that my wife has been there twice (once with me and once for school) would be a plus. Then again, I suppose there's no way to know what exactly the agenda is behind AP.

On a side note, at least you're in Bali - not a bad place to wait it out. Was there in May on my honeymoon (I live in Thailand), what a killer spot once you avoid the heart of the tourist riff-raff (much like here). Make the best of it, I suppose.

Just a thought, logic would have it that if your wife has already been to the US and not undergone the "Administrative Process" for that Visa (or even if she has) then logically you would think it has either already been done for her or she is already in "the system" and it wouldn't be neccessary for yet another Visa. However who is to say if logic has anything to do with it.

Oh Well. .. furble.

Seem like we have the same problem now

My daughter have the same interview date with yours, Tue/ Sept 18 2012. She's got hers on 12.30 PM .

They told my daughter the visa is approved, but the problem is they need the orginal of affidavit of support ( when the first time we submit for my daughter, i already ask the officer , does my daughter need to bring the original one ? and they said " Nope" just need my copy one )

OK then ,,, the problem now is just original of affidavit of support.

We sent it by DHL on Wed / Sept 19 2012, arrived in Jakarta , Sat / Sept 22 2012.

back to Embassy Mon / Sept 24 2012.. they checked it, ,, what another problem ??? They said the signature not same !! .. My cousin as my daughter quardian show to them proof that i send it by DHL (It show everything in DHL AWB ) . but still they reject it .

All document with them now, included the AWB of DHL.

Today. / Mon Sept 24 , we re-sent the another affidavit of support ... and see what hapenned with this !!

Thats not just spend out effort , money and time . But the most important is the little poor girl can not wait anymore to be with her mom

Dont give up Furbel. ..

Regards,

Soevi

Thanks! Hey and we met your daughter and cousin. Cute kid and nice people. Sorry to hear about your situation. Your daughter and cousin were standing behind us in line outside the embassy behind the newly laid mountain of razor wire, and sat next to us inside in the waiting room.

Sounds about right.

BTW has your wife been to the US before? Just curious if that had anything to do with the extra processing step. Obviously I'm hoping to avoid AP, wondering if that the fact that my wife has been there twice (once with me and once for school) would be a plus. Then again, I suppose there's no way to know what exactly the agenda is behind AP.

On a side note, at least you're in Bali - not a bad place to wait it out. Was there in May on my honeymoon (I live in Thailand), what a killer spot once you avoid the heart of the tourist riff-raff (much like here). Make the best of it, I suppose.

Nope never been to the US. Who knows what it is. I speculate it could be because she has no last name, just a first name.

Drop me a message next time you are in Bali. You surf?

So sorry to hear that man - I can't imagine how you're feeling. An extra couple weeks would be no big deal but six months, that would be a serious setback.

Keep us posted.

Yea pretty whack. There is a great word in Indonesian that covers our trip to Jakarta. The word is "rugi" it means like if you saved your last spoonful of food or maybe ice cream, the most delicious spoonful and then just before you get it to your mouth it falls off the spoon. That's "rugi".

So now do we start buying some of the things for around the home that we decided were a waste of money previously because our time here seemed more limited? There out to be a tax exemption for certain household items and living expenses that are essentially caused by AP. We kinda need a new mattress, or maybe complete bed set. The kitchen needs some help too.

We're really sorry to hear the delay of your visa after interview.

In light of the AP situation, at least the embassy is not denying it or gave you letter section 221(g). Who knows within a couple days you will get the result instead of waiting for 60 days.

I wish 60 days was the max posisible but they told us 2 weeks to 6 months. If I knew already that it would be 60 max it would be worlds easier. I've been searching here on VJ and I find people that have been in AP for 2.5 years and still waiting. I've also found some that waited 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 2 months, 5 months and pretty much everything under the sun. It was a lot like searching for medical information on google when you have a sore throat and seeing all the scary search results and wishing you hadn't just searched for that. We've got a kid here that is an American Citizan and if this were to go on endlessly that would seem quite unfair and frankly inhumane. We just have to keep telling ourselves 2 weeks to 6 months because that's what they told us. It's so hard to get out of my mind right now I just eat and sleep it. Hopefully I can forget about it and move on until it works itself out. We live in Bali and that's pretty cool, I think a lot of people wouldn't mind living in Bali. It's really just the lack of access to friends and family especially for our little one. I feel as though she is being robbed of a huge part of her family and a lot of experiences and as a father that is very difficult for me, but realistically she is only newly 1 year old and it won't matter if she gains access to the rest of her family and other western experiences for quite a while. I also feel like my family is being robbed as well. I am 33, have lots of cousins and a sister and until 3 months ago I was the first and only member of our large family to have offspring, everyone is excited to meet her and my wife. If this process takes a few weeks it won't be that big a deal realistically, it's the whole lack of control over your life and little one's life that is F'd up.

Oh sorry to hear that they changed their mind. Hope you don't have to wait for months to get your wife visa.

Btw: would you pls share, the name of hotels you stayed in Jakarta? I don't know when am gonna go to Jakarta for interview but want to make a plan. Thx in advance.

Hotels were

1. First the Aryaduta Jakarta as was recommended to us by the Embassy. Stars there for the medical part of our trip. It's a 5 Star hotel and it's nice and has three restaurants and the room is very big and carpeted which was great for my little one who is just learning to walk (we have no carpet at home in Bali). The price was cheap, like 600k a night (compared to lesser star hotels it was only 100k more so worth it). But here were the problems why we didn't go back: Room was cheap but everything else was really expensive. A can of coke was around 50k at the pool. The restaurants were good but also couldn't eat for two people for less than 300k+ each time which is a lot for Indonesia. We stayed for 2 nights, ate lunch and dinner there both and charged them to the room and for 2 nights when we left our bill was 2.5jt even though the room was 600k. The pool was very nice but closed at 8pm. there was no easy to talk to food or anything (other than the embassy) outside the hotel which is why we were stuck eating there. And lastly there were more mosquitoes in this hotel than in the rice field in the village. The hotel is built next to a river that no longer flows but fills with trash and breeds mosquitoes. It was wild how many mosquitoes were on the bottom floors where the restaurants and pool was. The room was mosquito free. Another nice thing about it though was the room safe was more than adequate to contain your entire mountain of documents you may be bringing with you.

2. The second hotel was the Ibis Tamarin. It's a 3 Star hotel as we booked it online with Agoda using my iPhone and what little Internet we could find in the village. For a 3 star it was very nice. Deserves another star! Booked it on Agoda because it was like 400k+ a night and when I tried to book it directly from the hotel they wanted 1.2jt a night (crazy). Stayed there 5 nights for $450USD from Agoda. Hotel was very nice, I'd stay there again for sure. Pool was nice and open 24 hours. Food was not that good and overpriced but the hotel is located near a street full of every kind of street food you could ask for plus it's close to every major mall, lots of restaurants and Jln Jaksa all in walking distance so plenty of cheap food to be found and things to do other than sit in the hotel. There was also a 7-11 adjacent to the hotel. Hotel only had mosquitoes downstairs at night and a typical amount of them. The room was very nice and modern (much like the hotel), but very small and no carpet for little one. There was no safe box in the room but there is a safety deposit box downstairs at the front desk that works the same as a safety deposit box in a bank in the US if you know what that's like (2 keys and a locked drawer). This hotel wasn't as close to the embassy but still really close. Only 5-10 minutes max by bajai or Taxi which turned out to be a really good thing since the embassy had riots out front which I think stretched all the way to the Hotel Aryaduta.

I would recomend to stay in the 2nd hotel, the Ibis Tamarin the whole time if you can. Problem is with Ibis you have to book online to get the right price and at that you can't do open ended. We started at Aryaduta because they let us just come and stay for an undetermined period of time without the need for a specific reservation and if we made changes there were no change or cancelation fees. At Ibis you have to know how long you are staying and if you are wrong book online again. It's also worth noting that there are 2 Ibis hotels almost next to each other on that street. The correct one is the Tamarin as it is bigger and the one with the pool.

Thanks everyone for your updates and information on this. I apologize for not keeping up with this thread but I was concerned that some protester would read about us and be waiting for us to make an example or something since it was me, my wife and our 1 year old baby together. Wasn't worth the risk all be it far fetched.

Anyway for the update I made an entire post out of it. It's really an incredible story that I wouldn't believe it it didn't happen to me. It's posted here at VJ, here's the link: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/390276-visa-approved-pickup-in-3-days-but-next-day-changed-to-administrative-process-wait-2-weeks-to-6-months/

That's right, you read the title correctly. We went to the embassy (me, my wife & our baby), interview was all of 2 minutes, they asked my wife how I proposed, how many months pregnant she was when I proposed and where we are gonna stay in the US. Guy said "Excellent, come back on Friday (3 days) and pickup your passport with the Visa." Gave us that ticket stub thing with a stamp on it for the date we can come saying "either you or a representative can come pickup your passport with the Visa anytime after the stamped date and specified time window." Sounded good. Happy to be done with this arduous process. But then wait...

Better I tell the story from the beginning now so you can get the whole picture. I know it's long but it's an incredible story and worth the read:

This story starts about 6 weeks earlier when we first got our interview date. I realized that the interview date had a timing conflict with my Visa to stay with my wife and baby in Indonesia and that our interview date would need to be changed if possible. The woman on the phone at the embassy was very helpful and kind. Honestly she has always been as helpful as she can be and kind every time we have spoken with her. She totally understood our need to change the date with the baby so we could both come (baby still breastfeeds and who was gonna look after it while my wife was busy with the interview?). She told us that she could totally change our date to something that worked for us, but couldn't officially do it until she got our packet from the NVC. Sounds reasonable. Well unfortunately this month in Indonesia is pretty much like Christmas in the US. It is just one holiday after another so the NVC didn't get our packet till the last days of August which was now < 1 week from when we needed to leave Bali to go to Jakarta for our tentative new interview date given that we needed to be there far in advance to do the medical and wait for the results which we had been told would be 7 working days at the place we talked to, and of course we had yet to make any travel arrangements whatsoever for us and our baby since we were specifically told not to.

Meanwhile at the same time my passport is being held captive by the Indonesian immigration office in Bali because this is Bali and aside from the biggest Muslim holiday of the year which had already been holding things up (but of course understandable) the Balinese generally have a holiday for something or other every other day and it just so happened that this year on the Balinese calendar their major holidays all fell immediately following the Muslim holiday so my passport got trapped in Indonesian immigration for well over 20 days. These are not National holidays but are respectfully observed by government agencies in Bali. In fact we were supposed to leave on the first Thursday of September to go to Jakarta, but when the Indonesian immigration office managed to open again for just 1 day and I went in they told me my passport, due to all the holidays, wouldn't be ready until the following Monday. Of course now we no longer had time to get the medical done before the new interview date which also was still tentative even though the Embassy now had our package for over a week.

So seemed pretty obvious we were gonna have to go on that Monday night as soon as I got my passport back. So since I at least now had a date when I was going to get my passport back, I decided I can't sit around and wait forever for the embassy to fix our appointment, they promised they would, I knew the supposed date, just they hadn't made it official yet (and of course they told us not to make any travel arrangements until they did); so I went and bought tickets to Jakarta and booked a Hotel with an open ended reservation on the hotel. As a father I couldn't see waiting for the embassy to get this straight and then just going to the airport without tickets and without a hotel to stay in and winging it with our 1 year old in tow. I also went ahead and got our tickets to the US setup as well because I'm tired of this waiting game and nobody anywhere even being open for work (don't forget I had to wait out labor day in the US too). Fortunately we were able to reserve our tickets to the US without having to pay for them yet.

As luck would have, about an hour after I finished paying for our tickets to Jakarta, and reserving our flight to the US, I got the long awaited email from the Embassy that our appointment was officially changed to what they had promised. I knew they would do it, but didn't know when they would do it.

So Monday comes, I spend about 2 hours in Indonesian immigration picking up my passport, that's done. Go home, we have 10 hours to kill so we decide we are gonna go to the beach. On the way to the beach our 1 year old started throwing up, a lot, and not baby spit up, sick throwing up. We immediately turned around and walked back home. Since she only threw up that one bout and seemed better we decided that we would still go to Jakarta that night as long as she doesn't throw up again. If she threw up again we would go to the Doctor instead.

10pm came, time to go to the airport, baby is looking good. My wife thinks the airport is classy place so she puts on her makeup and gets all dressed up nice. On the way to the airport in the cab (which is only 5 minutes from our place) our baby starts throwing up again in the cab. A lot of throw up. All over my wife in her nice outfit she spent so long putting together.

So no we are in the airport, all 3 covered in barf (but mostly my wife and baby) and have to decide if we are going to go to Jakarta or cancel because the baby is definitely sick. Since it had been a good 8 hours since the first round of vomit we decided to continue and only cancel if they baby threw up again.

The baby never threw up again!

So we get to Jakarta at 1am, still covered in barf although we changed the baby's outfit before we got on the plane. Get to the hotel at 2am. We had contacted the other choice for the medical exam and this guy said he could do it in 3 working days so it was possible to be done in time for the interview. Sold! So we were gonna go to that guy, but to do that we had to wake up at 6am and we weren't settled into the room and ready for bed with the little one until 3am. Of course this is mainly a result of Indonesia keeping my passport for almost a month in order to extend it for a month. Also bear in mind that Jakarta is 1 hour behind Bali so although it is 3am it is really more like 4am for us.

So we wake up at 6am although it was one of those nights where we were so tired that we didn't really sleep anyway. Got to the doctor 30 minutes early. He was cool, the whole thing was done pretty efficiently, which was great because we wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep! Even better he was so cool he told us that we could come back at 4:30pm that night and pickup the results, so same day results!

We come back at 4:00pm for the results to be a little early. Still I hadn't really managed to get any good sleep so I was borderline delirious. It was then when we realized that we got there at 4:00pm on my watch, but my watch was in Bali time which is an hour later so we were actually 1 hour and 30 minutes early. Oh well, so since the office was currently closed we just basically hung out on the street waiting out the hour and a half. Well unfortunately this being Jakarta there is some pretty bad traffic, and the Doctor was driving back from South Jakarta and long story short he ended up being 2 and a half hours late. So all said and done we hung out on the street outside his office for 4 hours with our 1 year old.

When he did come it was cool. He gave us the results, all was well, she passed the medical. Time to go to the hotel and sleep, without a set wake-up time. Finally.

Now, the next day since we had nothing to do other than wait a week for the interview, we decided to go to the village where my wife is from. We were hoping that we would have the opportunity to do so but it was dependent on the medical. It's 3-6 hours in the car depending on traffic. It took 4 hours but was fun. Much of her family came and rode in the car with us. In all there were 7 of us and a lot of bags and a giant baby stroller in a 6 seat car. I've been to the village before, it's a fun place, lots of family and friends. The first time I was there 2 years ago I had a hard time communicating with them because they don't speak any english, and most of them don't speak any Indonesian but a rather ancient variation of Javanese specific to that area, however now 2 years later I am completely fluent in Indonesian and some of them speak it a little, and also it was easy for me to learn their language since I am now fluent in Indo and the structure is similar so I actually got to have long conversations with them all rather than the very primitive communications we had 2 years ago. Also this was the first time any of them got to meet our daughter, their grand daughter, niece, great granddaughter, etc..., since she was born so it was really a great time. We hadn't taken our daughter there previously because she was too young given she was born and only so far been in Bali which is cleaner. In the village we literally poop directly into the very same river that all the food comes from. This is also where all the trash is thrown. Additionally the same river is used for the rice field. (the village is in the middle of a rice field that stretches as far as you can see) so technically all the rice is grown in our poop and trash as well.

So after our week in the village was over it was time to go back to the big city. Bitter sweet to leave but it was time. Got back to the hotel late, actually a different hotel this time with a non-open-ended reservation, and went to bed. We didn't have to wake up any specific time because the next morning was the day before the interview so it was pretty great to get to have a good night's sleep in a real bed with air conditioning (though the bed in the village worked fine).

Woke up, had a nice day at the pool. Waked around. Found a Chili's restaurant outside the hotel which normally wouldn't be that exciting but was for me since it was some real American food which I hadn't seen in a looooong time. Fajita Quesadillas are just as delicious in Jakarta and it's the first time I've seen free-refills anywhere in Indonesia Before we later go back to Bali we manage to eat there three times.

Towards the evening a friend called us to see if we were ok? Apparently there were riots going on at the Embassy. There were rocks and molotov cocktails being thrown, policemen with riot shields, and a policeman got stabbed in the face. Furthermore apparently this had been going on since last week but we didn't know because we were in the village.

This of course was concerning since our interview was the next day. Apparently throughout all of this the embassy had remained open as well and conducting interviews. I'm sorry this doesn't sound like the kind of place I want to bring my 1 year old to the next day. Anyway, It was already after closing so I called the duty officer's cell phone to ask what was the situation. He said he was walking out the front door right now while he was on the phone with me and at the moment it seemed fine but I should call again in the morning.

In the morning of our interview I called and apparently there were no protests at the moment and not expecting any for that day so the same nice woman on the phone told us that we should come. In fact the impression that I got was that she expected us to come. I asked her if she were in my shoes, would she bring her 1 year old daughter to the embassy and she said yes so it looked like we were going. Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to be going and doing the interview but it wasn't worth risking our lives over. Since apparently that wasn't the case again we decided to go.

We made sure NOT to get there early. Doesn't sound like the kind of place we wanted to be standing outside for too long at. We were 15 minutes early. There were only 2 people in front of us in line and in the end maybe 5 behind us. Everyone was quite scared. They of course left us all: Women, Children, Babies & Men outside waiting on the street behind a mountain of newly laid razor wire until exactly 12:30 when the appointments started. After that we worked our way through the maze that was the embassy and found our way to the appropriate place, opened our medical at the window and took our seat and waited our turn.

We were called in about 15 minutes, my wife went into the interview room, came out 2 minutes later smiling. She said he asked her the 3 questions that I listed at the top of this story and told her "excellent" and that to come back Friday and pickup her passport with the Visa. He gave her this ticket stub looking thing with Friday's date stamped on it and a time frame to come.

So we thought that was cool. Went as we expected it to go. You never know but since we are way legit we figured it would be no big deal, just a long process which it was.

Went back to the hotel excited (got the first cab that passed by to get the heck away from there) although we were still a bit concerned about picking up the passport should riots break out again. Perhaps we wouldn't be able to? Our hotel was only reserved through Friday because we had already done the math and figured the passport would be ready that day and we could finally go back home to Bali so that is how long we had reserved the hotel through. We had however yet to buy our return plane tickets back to Bali since if that had to change it would be non-refundable, and with these riots it was anybody's guess. Called my mom, she was so happy she cried.

So the next day was quite relaxing. Next day after that we met with some friends that live in Jakarta, had a good time. Next day again after that started off very nice as well and another friend who used to live in Bali but had moved to Jakarta came to see us. Unfortunately however just as that friend arrived I got the SMS alert from the US Embassy alert system, that I had just signed up for, that all Embassies, Consulates, Posts, etc... would be closed in the entire country tomorrow (Friday) due to possible demonstrations. Apparently also we were warned that we should avoid American owned establishments such as McDonalds as well for the same reason.

So now it would seem we won't be able to pickup our passport on Friday. While annoying, totally understandable of course. Even if they were open, if there was a riot I wasn't gonna go get it. So I thought I'd call the nice woman at the embassy and ask if I could just come some time today (Thursday) and get it a day early, even if late at night, because we really wanted to get back to Bali with our baby who was notably tired of living out of hotel rooms and villages.

Unfortunately it just turned lunch time when I tried to call so I had to wait until 1pm to call again (meanwhile our friend that drove an hour to meet us is waiting on us for this call before we go out and have fun together).

Started calling at 1pm, nobody answered until 1:45pm, which of course is stressful since technically the office hours which you can even call the Immigrant Visa unit are from 1-3pm and we were almost halfway through that without anyone so much as answering the phone or even a busy signal. Instead, and you gotta love this, when nobody answers you get the following message "We are sorry but the extension your are trying to reach is currently unavailable transferring to the mailbox", then "we are sorry that mailbox is currently full transferring to an attendant", then "we are sorry no valid attendant has been specified goodbye" at which point it hangs up on you. This isn't new BTW, their phone system has been doing this for 6 weeks already as far as I know since I had been calling them regarding changing our interview appointment time. I also tried calling various other extensions at the Embassy including the American Citizen Services line, which is apparently only available from 9am to 11am, and I called the duty officer's cell phone again which apparently was no longer in service as if they changed the number or didn't pay the bill. Only person who I could get a hold of was the operator who at least appreciated how well I can speak Indonesian, as I spoke Indo to her as I could tell she was Indonesian.

So finally at 1:45pm I got the nice lady on the phone. Before I could get so far as to ask if we could pickup the passport today instead (she already recognized my voice, we have spoken a lot) she immediately said that she had been trying to call us constantly the previous day and we had not answered the phone. Of course we had no missed calls and not received any calls from them so perhaps they recorded my wife's cell phone number incorrectly or something. Moving on, apparently she had been trying to contact us since the day prior (which is 1 day after our interview in which we were told our Visa was approved) to tell us that IN FACT MY WIFE'S VISA WOULD NOT BE READY IN 3 DAYS BUT THAT FURTHER ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSING WAS NECESSARY AND IT WOULD BE 2 WEEKS TO 6 MONTHS AND THAT WE ARE ONLY SUPPOSED TO CALL TO CHECK IN EVERY 3 WEEKS. #######. This would have been better had they told us this in the first place rather than tell us we were approved already and to pickup the passport with the Visa on Friday.

So that was it, went out to the Air Asia kiosk in the mall next to our hotel bought tickets to go home the next day (Friday) in lieu of picking up our passport. We didn't get any extra letters or forms or anything from the Embassy. In fact we still have the ticket stub saying we can pickup our passport today (I am writing this from back in Bali on the Friday we were supposed to pickup our passport). All I know is what the woman told me on the phone.

Unfortunately the fun didn't stop there. Had to wake up at 6.30am the next morning to check out of the hotel and wade through the Jakarta traffic to be sure to get to our 11am flight back to Bali on time. Got to the airport with plenty of time, got all checked in efficiently, waited till boarding, got on the bus that takes you to the actual plane which kept us standing locked in the bus in front of plane for 15 minutes for some reason. Got on the plane, sat down & buckled our seat belts. Then when everybody was ready to go they announced that the plane was broken and that we all had to get off and go back inside. That we did, and waited for a little over 2 hours for a replacement plane to arrive, which eventually did take us back home to Bali, a good 10 hours after we woke up for a 1 hour and 40 minute flight.

So that's it, we are back home, empty handed (aside from the mountain of stuff we have been carrying around with us and the claim ticket to pickup our passport). Called my parents, all sad, my mom is really devastated as she feels like she is really missing out on the first years of watching her first grandchild grow up. My Grandfather, a WWII war hero already died waiting for us to come to America so he never got to meet our daughter, his first great grandchild and my Grandmother's Alzhimers is progressing and she hardly remembers that my Grandfather has died so I'm worried that by the time we get there she won't comprehend that she is meeting her great grandchild. Fortunately my mom spent a month here when our daughter was born and my dad managed to visit for a few days once too so they have at least met their granddaughter.

As for us, we are tired and extremely disappointed, but at least glad to be home in Bali. Who knows how long this Administrative Process will take but we'll hold on to that claim ticket until we can use it. It's time for us to relax, go back to going to the beach every day and surfing every day. We certainly hope the process will be fast. I had promised my family that we would be home for Thanksgiving and it's still doable. One thing is for sure though, I have about 0 interest in ever going back to Jakarta. The place was aside from being like any other big city, just a bit depressing, with riots here and there, and NOBODY smiles. A bit different from Bali. Apparently it is possible that when our passport is ready with the Visa that it can be sent via diplomatic pouch to the Consulate in Bali however that can take from 1-2 months. Depending on when that happens at this point whats the difference, and we may opt for that.

So the moral to this story is don't celebrate your Visa until you can touch it, and furthermore don't get too giddy until you cross the border in the US at which point if they decide to screw with your life further at least you get to do it with your family and in the US court system and you don't have to travel an across an entire country to go to some special place (like the Embassy even though there is a consulate or something on every major Island here) to do so.

Also as a helpful piece of information to anyone else who has a similar (if that's even possible) situation, I called the woman again because I am my wife's sponsor and I have been living in Bali for quite a long time now under various incarnations of tourist Visas and occasional < 1 month trips back to the US to be sure to keep up my domicile in the US. I simply can't keep doing this for an undetermined period of time. Aside from being a pain in my butt it's certainly frowned upon and I'm not interested in being frowned upon. So I called her again and asked if it would be a problem if I upgraded to residency status here in Indonesia (although technically I would start out as a "Temporary Resident" according to the first residency permit you get here) would that be a problem for my sponsorship of my wife and she said that it would not be a problem and that the sponsorship and everything is based on the time of application not whatever time they finish their Administrative Process. She told me this over the phone so I am certainly going to email her to get this in writing, although apparently the ticket we got in writing that said to pick up our passport on Friday with the Visa didn't mean a whole lot.

And to finish this story I did want to take a minute to at least commend the woman working in the Immigrant Visa Unit in the embassy. I don't even know her name and I'm not sure if I've even seen her face, but I've talked to her so many times and she has always been polite and treated us with dignity and respect, even though I haven't always liked what she had to say and even recently when I was being a bit indignant with her on the phone (sorry about that).

Feel free to share this story.

One thing is for shure, if we even go today we wot be showing up early. As close to exactly on time seems a better idea. The sooner they let us in the gates the better.

If anybody has any information on this or was interviewed today or yesterday please update this thread regarding the security of going to the embassy. As much as we'd love to do our interview, it ain't that important.

hallo Furble, will you give us the update ??

i have planned to go to Dr. Narain Punjabi for my medical exam

but i have to wait until i get the e-mail from the NVC

Ok here's the scoop on Dr. Narain Punjabi

Had an 8.30am appt but we showed up at 8am and were seen right away anyway since we were the only ones there at the time.

Nice and proper setup, it's a private practice run from the basement of his house. It's a very nice house in a very inpressive neighborhood.

Confirmed he used to do this for the embassy directly but decided to open his own practice which is why he is on the list along with Medikolgia

Apparently when he's not doing this his specialty is he is actually a pediatrician so the sign says above his office door.

He was very nice and very professional. Most everything was done in 5 minutes.

He gave my wife 2 shots (MMR & Chicken Pox I think)

He sent us to a local lab that was a typical lab for the blood draw and x-ray.

He was kind enough to have his personal driver take us there since our taxi had already left. We didn't ask, he offered.

Lab took about 30 minutes and the drive was maybe 10 minutes. We were back at the hotel at maybe 9.30?

Lab said they will deliver the results to him.

Although he originally said to come back the next day for the result he said we could just come back to his house/office at 5.15pm an we did so same day results!

I can't remember the fee breakdown exactly right but here is what I do remember:

We paid him 1,050,000 (like $100) and paid another 180k at the lab for their part.

His fee was 400k or so for the exam and the rest were the two shots.

He made a point to show us the bottles the shots came from so we could see they were still good and from the USA.

I highly recommend him.

hallo Furble, will you give us the update ??

i have planned to go to Dr. Narain Punjabi for my medical exam

but i have to wait until i get the e-mail from the NVC

Will let you know tomorow.

Medikaloka accepts credit card and they will call us when the report is ready for pick up. For Rp 600K at Dr. Punjabi, that's much cheaper for both medical and vaccinations.

Yea I have found Doctor fees can vary greatly here. I hope that 600k turns out to be true, sounds good to me.

I just called Dr. Punjabi's office to ask if we can pay by credit card or should I bring cash. They said must be cash and that it will cost only 600k. I asked "itu semua, sekalian?" and she said yes. So we'll see.

We are leaving for Jakarta tonight for our upcoming interview. I had planned on bringing everything we have up to the kitchen sink just in case however don't really like the idea of traveling around with every important document that we have.

So I emailed the embassy and they told me specifically that all the docs for my daughter (a US citizen born abroad already has Consular Report of Birth Abroad) are "not neccessary". So of course I would prefer not to travel around with them if they are not neccessary.

Of course also in the Interview instructions letter it says "bring originals for any documents which a copy was supplied". And copies of all of our daughter's docs (Indonesian birth cert & CRBA) were included with the I-130.

So do I trust them and not bring the stuff? We will be bringing our daughter's US Passport.

Also do I need to bring my US birth certificate? It says on our interview letter that it is not neccessary for our case but again a copy of it was provided with I-130 so in that case should I bring the original?

Most likely, Rp 800,000 limitation is for medical check up only, not including vaccination. Our medical appointment is this coming Monday, we will find out how much is the total cost for both medical and vaccination.

Which One are you going to?

They should really ada Medical stuff to the timeline So folks can list which Dr. They went to and how long for the result. This is especially important info for those of us which the embassy is not local.

I'm glad you posted this which has reminded me to update this thread.

I spoke with the embassy in Jakarta and they told me that for the Medical a 3x4 is indicated, so we went with that although we will also have one us a 5x5.

The embassy also told me that the Doctor which requested the 3x4 used to work directly in the embassy however he went off and opened his own business doing the same so sounds like he should know what he is talking about.

I could find no documentation anywhere that specifically states the medical photo size. All the docs say "bring a photo" and that's it. Also to consider is that this may be something that changes depending on the Embassy.

Yea when we called them they told us 7 business days. Surprised a little (but not too much) that they charged you 1.5+ jt as the list from the Embassy specifically says total charges not to exceed 800k. So I guess that 800k limit thing is not followed.