AI&RL

This is great news Congrats

Now the approval pile is one less file so maybe Al422 will get their visa approved soon so we don't have to continue to listen to is rants.

Safe travels.

Thanks Greenbaum! LOL at your comment

Thank you for keeping your timeline updated. Yes it helps all of us a lot.

I understand your situtation, as i am in the same quagmire. Maybe you can approach him with something like asking him what it is you should be doing. If he suggests something counterproductive like emails and phone calls (something you may have to do later but are much too early now), tell him exactly that. Same with Congressionals. Going Congressional is certainly not off the table for me, but it is much too early for that.

Men like to be able to feel like the gladiator, but our "emeny" is behnd a brick wall, and hitting the brick wall right now will only dull our swords. Again, feels good but counterproductive.

Candy and i had a pleasant Skype chat last night. I reminded her that we are at a status quo level, not where we want to be, but at least in a position where we are not getting hurt, and if we stay there until the visa arrives, we will still not be hurt. Once it arrives and she flies here, we go up, but we will never go down or get piushed down unless we let it happen.

My main concern has been imminent cancer surgery. I was concered that I would be in a fresh post op state with nobody to take care of me here,. and then suddenly I will be called upon to drive to JFK Airport and handle luggage, none of which I could do at the time. But I saw my doctor yesterday and explained what was going on, and he said no problem waiting until she was here.

I sent you a PM with my personal email address. Feel free to give it to Lester so he can communicate directly wiith me. I will do whatever I can to help.

I wish I was in NY, or you were here in Chicago. I would gladly give you a hand. Although I am young, I have had more time in the hospital than most people three times my age. I also work in the healthcare field so I can certainly understand the pain and struggles while fighting a disease like cancer. My family has a history of cancer, and I am very hopeful that it will skip me. I must say, I dont think that will be the case, but i remain optimistic.

In which case, you have probably seen our Visa is finally shaping up. It will workout, I know it was painful for me as it would be for others. I do very well at remaining patient, but I dont do well being patient indefinitely with no timeline of anything. I know you will get your visa, and you will feel like me yesterday. Nothing in the world mattered to me other than knowing its only a matter of weeks before I will get to see my love one. Then we will be on the next leg of the journey where Im certain that it will be less time consuming and exhausting.

Hold your head up high. If you ever want to chat let me know. From one person in a fast past city(chicago), to another(NY).

take care

RL

Congrats!!!

Now 5-10 more days for delivery.

Thank you!

You know what is really interesting Hank. Is the minute it said issued.. I could already track at 2go, and within an hour I could already see that it was getting on a specific flight to CDO. That flight should have arrived at 6am Saturday PI time. Now it shows in transit again. I am assuming if 2go was open on sunday it might even be avaliable. So by the current pace i would say AI could end up having visa/passport in hand by monday.

RL

Folks please fill in your timelines. It would be so helpful to the rest of us if you did. If you notice mine is up to date and always updated within 24 hours of any change.

I agree! And I am happy to announce to my VJ family that I will be updating mine with ISSUED!!!!

Thank you all for your positive input and support through this leg of the Journey. I am hopeful that the rest will go a little more quickly, and even if it doesnt, at aleast I will be with my loved one.

Take care all!

Hey all,

Just wanted to provide my family here with an update on our case. Still no words from any of my correspondence and no progress with status change.

RL

23 days. I guess that is the new normal. Remember when it was 2 days?

Hehe. Either my case is an outlier or, this average may just go up. I was thinking maybe when they were saying 2-3 days they meant the concatenation of those values “23”.

Happy that other member got some good news. Better yet, they got a bundle of good news

If there is an update but the status did not change, that does not tell you much, but it does tell you that SOMETHING happened. The file is not sitting around gathering dust.

I know it is frustrating. We are there now too. Candy had a successful interview on May 20, and the status changed a few hours later from Ready Interview to Ready. That was three days ago, and no change since.

We accept the fact that there is nothing we can do to speed them up. We can however make more effective use of the time, So Candy will be going to the province where her family lives early next week and wait for her visa there. That way when it goes to Issued, she can return to Manila, pick it up the day it shows up at 2Go and be on the plane to New York the next day.

Frustrating? You bet. But remember when you were waiting for your NOA2? How frustrating was that? DId it seem like forever? It sure did for us. But forever got here, and now we are past that. Same for the 2 1/2 months it took to get the interview date. That forever is past history now too. Just one more forever, and it will be done. That is what Candy and I keep reminding each other. And that is what you need to remember too.

Yeah, Ai has been back in her province to spend time with her family. After a month she has become a bit stir crazy and has gone back to work. I don’t blame her, I could not just spend over a month with my family and stay sane while doing not much. hehe jk

On another note, seems the status changes twice, AM Phil time it was Ready, and PM its back to administrative processing again. Really leads me to believe they are waiting on something. Hopefully its not my employer, because they are extremely slow in responding. Took over two months for an internal employee to validate their salary with a correspondence.

I'm sure there many others here who have felt your pain and anxiousness in not receiving their visa on their timetable. I'm amazed that you are calling in the big guns (congressman) and your case is just over one month old. There are so many factors to consider but being a Kano we typically don't want it tomorrow when today will satisfy us. Relax, sit back and have some patience.

I don't know if you attended your fiancés interview but there are thousands that are trying to get one type of visa or another. That's in one day!! There are 365 days a year. So it's not unusual for them to process over 300,000+ visa's out of USEM in one year. I attended ours and walked away with an appreciation to what the USEM is getting accomplished. It's amazing that the wait isn't longer.

And of course Hank pointed out the influx of Yolanda fast track visas. We were fortunate that we passed and received our visa just before Yolanda hit so we were not effected like others, including yourself.

The fact that you have movement from week to week means it is not dead. There is something there they are verifying which is causing the delay. Even if you were told you are approved, AP can turn you down if they find something that goes against their best judgment or they will issue a 221(g) identifying additional information.

Here is some additional information on why it maybe taking longer. http://visarefusal.com/221g/

Through reading the above link I could see where the past few of my roles might be considered to fall under the "Technology Alert List" even though I didn’t work directly in the roles that cover, but more so in the roles that support from a reporting an analytics perspective. If that is the case, I could be waiting a very long time for my employer to respond. They leave a bit to be desired in the responsiveness arena.

And this is why NO ONE can say when a person will receive their visa...

After the interview the file is reviewed again, if something is spotted then they investigate that issue more, so if there are delays, normally it's because there are issues...

Yeah, I really don’t mind this process, but I think there should be a timeline unless someone is an extreme risk. Likewise I am sure they can’t divulge this info, but I’m just a rather boring business professional that has done nothing, but pay my taxes and do exactly what I am told.

Any updates on your status?

No updates since May 20th. Sitting in AP for now. Also passport still can not be tracked.

RL

Although we still don't know what is happening, it is a good sign to the extent that something is happening and your file is not sitting around gathering dust. Maybe wait a few days now to see what comes next.

Is this coincidence or did your threat to go Congressional get attention?

Yeah I am trying to figure out if its a coincidence or not. Either way, this process is very very taxing on a couple. Good thing is i certainly know my relationship is sound.

Ours says it can't be located either. Has been that way since the second ready. Makes me feel like its lost. Lol, which I'm sure its not.

Congrats to her!

Yup this is my second administrative processing after four ready statuses. I am so ready to fly now.

AI & I can definitely feel for you. This is just totally crazy, Im starting to think these statuses are far from the truth. Yesterday my status changed twice in the AM it was ready and by pm to admin processing again.

Does your passport have any update?

RL

All we are back to admin processing. So here is a recap of the statuses. And yet still no responses, or any other communications.

• 4/15/14 Interview completed with success
• 4/16/14 Status on ceac site updated to ready
• 4/21/14 Status updated to Administrative Processing
• 4/24/14 Status date updated, but still reflecting Administrative Processing
• 4/29/14 Status date updated, and status reflecting "Ready"
• 5/12/14 Status Date updated, and status updated to Adminstrative Processing
• 5/16/14 Status Date updated, and status updated to Ready
• 5/20/14 am PI time, Status date updated, and status remained Ready
• 5/20/14 pm PI time, Status date same, and status updated to Adminstrative Processing

If it makes you feel any better. Mine is now on its fourth rotation of ready. We had no 221g or anything like that. :-/

As of a few minutes ago, the VISA status was updated. However, the status is still in ready. I sure hope they get their act together soon. This is just crazy!

Good luck to you and Candy! Im sure she will breeze right through it! Im hoping that you guys will get your visa right away like the many others.

RL

I would wait a week after the email where you made the threat. No results by then, go Congressional. Use the contact section of the Senator's website for the fastest results, and make sure to cc USEM so they can see you mean business.

Tats my game plan. I am amazed. I did notice that the travel.state.gov site has refreshed the travel warning to Mindanao. That is originally where my better half is from. So I am wondering if there are some other things going on in that region that might be impacting this process as well. I know, I need to stop speculating and just being patient, but I think the speculation might be helping me.

All just an update. Status has gone back to ready on 5/16. This was right after the night before I had sent another email advising that I will be contacting my US Senator if I do not receive a status update or response to my previous emails.

As of today its still "Ready". We shall see what happens tomorrow.

RL

I used the IVReplies email address for two issues, first to make sure Candy's Hong Kong COC got there (it did) and second to ask them for the Singapore COC request letter. On the latter I got a bit aggressive with them (just a tiny bit) after they gave me a pro-forma reply to my first email and no reply to my second one. I did not push them for time but waited 2 weeks between each one.

Well to make a long story short, I told them in email 3 that if I have to send another email, it is going to my Congress Member <NAME OF MEMBER>. That seemed to work as they coughed up the Singapore letter in 2 days.

Yeah, that is actually my plan today. I was going to write a letter to a congressman to see if I can get any movement. I know people are probably thinking Im not being so patient, but someone needs to look at this process. There are many people who had there interview this past week and are already seeing issued.

RL

Is there any escalation process?

Still in AP processing. No communictions so far. Just as a question, has anyone received a response from the IVManilaReplies@state.gov? Also if my fiancee was to go to the Embassy would she be able to talk to someone in person about what is really going on? I just have this odd feeling that someone has lost her passport or something, since it doesnt provide any update whatsoever.

RL

Just another update. Has been two days and no update. Still in adminstrative processing and I have yet to recieve a response to my email

Do you remember when you got your NOA2, how those who filed 3 weeks before you did not get theirs yet and how those who filed 3 weeks after you already had theirs by then? There is some unfortunate degree of randomness to this.

I have been following post interview times with great interest since Candy's turn at bat happens in 7 days, ahd the randomness is incredible: 4 days to 4 weeks and everything in between. Sorry you got the 4 week deal. But it will come, and when it does, all the wait, including this one, will no longer matter.

Yeah Im starting to wonder if there is a trend between where our bene's reside. My soon to be lives in a very remote part of PI.

Hi AI & RL,

Have you tried checking with 2Go using the UID number found in the Appointment Letter? I tried my case number, passport number and the UID is what showed me details. However, it showed me the details of my old tourist visa that the Embassy has issued me.

My interview was last May 5 and I'm waiting for my visa. As of the moment, I know it's still too early to panic but reading all of these threads and forums on how long others are waiting for their visa makes me nervous. Me and my fiance already booked our tickets to fly out of the Philippines together. So, I'm hoping that I'll receive my visa ASAP.

I did checked with the ustraveldocs website and it gave me this status "Passport has been received from the consular section, and is currently being processed for delivery". So I'm very much hoping that the deliver of my visa as well as the visa that you and your other half is waiting for will be in our hands in no time

Its hard to say when people will get their visa's as AI422 said its from 4 days to 4 weeks. All on how you role the dice.

If your ticket is booked before 4 weeks. I would be a little concerned, but hey, dont rebook or cancel anything until right before, unless you can cancel right now with no penalties.

RL

Just un update for all of you. Still no email response, however as of today the status went back to Adminstrative Processing. So this might be the second pass where others have reported it should go to ready/issued in two days. We shall see what happens next.

Remember this is government we are talking about here. Government has 2 speeds: Slow and stop. Any business that ran as slow as the government would be out of business in a month.

So true, and is probably why many of our states are in such financial trouble. I never have problems being patient, if I know the time I am waiting for. I’m still amazed with how inconsistent the processing times are in the cases where all other variables are very similar in nature.

You'll probably get an updated reply to your email about the time you receive the visa...

LOL! Im starting to think the same, that may be their strategy. Keep prolonging the response so they dont have to answer as to what is going on. Was really hoping I could have my fiancee here by this upcoming weekend, but I dont think that will be happening. Here in IL I might just see snow again before she arrives.

Just an update on this. Recieved an email that was short and provided no info as outlined below.. So still waiting with no updates, mind you my first email was never responded to so I reforwarded after 7 days.

"We are referring your May 7, 2014 communication to our processing units for appropriate action."

RL