DocZ

I need some help to figure this out. My wife had her interview at the Embassy on Friday, and it said that she should receive her visa in two weeks. However, on Monday, they sent an email saying: 

"Please proceed to the Embassy’s Immigrant Visa Special Services Window (Window 36) Mondays through Fridays (excluding U.S. and Philippine holidays) between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

You should present this letter to facilitate entry into the Embassy. Please also present this letter to the staff at Window 36 so that we may begin processing your case.

                        _X_ For oath-taking only.  " (my italics/ underline)

Is this normal? It seems like... it would have been something to do at her interview. 

My issue is that that she has to fly to get to the embassy, and we have a baby. We flew there for the medical interview. Then we booked another flight for the interview -- they canceled the interview without sufficient notice, so we could not get refund on flight or hotel. We bought another plane ticket for the interview. The next business day, she needs to return for an oath? i know that she has to return to the embassy one more time, to get a stamp on her visa after she receives the visa by courier. Can we just do the oath at that time, or are they going to delay sending the visa until she returns for the oath? We called the embassy, but they said they didn't know what the email was about, and that couldn't connect us to someone who knew about the email. 

🤗 NVC received our interview packet 8/2. They gave us our interview date 8/10 -- wow, been waiting so long, didn't expect to see that part move so quickly. WOOHOO!!

Interview date is 9/14. 😀

The NVC said they received the AOS and civil documents packet 8/2. The guy at the NVC said to call back at 2 weeks... 

I get confused on what I do and when. Am I supposed to be calling daily at this point? Waiting for an email? Checking the website? 

Congratulations! My son was born in the Philippines in November, so the process is still fresh for me. Thank goodness for Visajourney. As everyone has said, get the CRBA, US passport, and Philippines passport. I had applied for the CRBA and US passport at the same time. Wish you the best in being united in the US   It is getting close for me and my wife and son. 

I am reading the 'after the interview' section on the Immigrant Visa Process (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/interview/after-the-interview.html ), and it says: 

"Visa approval - When approved, you will be informed how and when your passport and visa will be returned to you."

How long does that generally take? I will be doing a lot of shuffling with my work schedule to make sure that I will have time off when my wife and baby arrive. (not that I have an interview date yet, but I want to make sure things are in place when we do get that interview date).

6 hours ago, Munak said:

My lawyer she knows it was down but she told me good news she said itcwilk come back to normal since nvc all cases are going to be online process no more mail paperwork she said there is going to be vetter process for everyone

I didn't realize everything was going to be online. I hope that is a good thing for everyone going forward. My paper packet sent to them will be arriving today... hope they don't wait 6 weeks, and then tell me to do it again, but online. 

53 minutes ago, PhoenixBlaque said:

That's so frustrating

Yeah. I definitely don't think it is intentional, and he really is trying to make sure that that every thing is done right. But it seems like the process is itself is draining to the point that every hiccup is painful. 

8 minutes ago, MartinyMi said:

For those of you who have attornets, what do they say about how long NVC can prevent you from proceeding with your IV applications sunce CEAC has been down starting 19 July?

How long can this go on legally?

I feel my lawyer knows the nuts and bolts of filing paperwork, knowing the details of picking fiance vs spousal, the general path of the various ways of immigrating. His heart is in the right place of helping people in the immigration process. In terms of the bigger picture -- I feel he is 6 months behind in understanding what is going on currently. He frequently states that there is 'nothing malicious' going on, that the system is just overwhelmed, and that things will continue to go on, but maybe at a slower pace. I don't think my lawyer has any insight into, or desire to dig into or understand, legal implications of some of the increased barriers, including having a website down. I haven't asked him though --he only knew the website was down when I told him. I imagine that a lot of changes are uncharted territory, and I speculate that most lawyers just react to the change, rather the higher level thinking of questioning the change. 

8 minutes ago, Munak said:

Since you have lawyer have you done ds261 just wondering or ill pay fees immediately?

No I didn't do that. It was already done. I paid both feeds at the same time. 

On 7/25/2018 at 2:00 AM, MartinyMi said:

Normally AOS and civil docs are sent in a single packet with one cover sheet. Call NVC to confirm.

On 7/25/2018 at 3:32 AM, Abies said:

Very True

On 7/25/2018 at 4:01 AM, PhoenixBlaque said:

I received my coversheet via email from the NVC. If you've received correspondence from them, you should already have it as an attachment

Thank you. That is what I sent, the cover sheet from my email. My lawyer has consistently over complicated things and given me wrong information. He told me that there are two cover sheets, with two addresses, told me to put information in the packets that is no longer required... thank goodness for visajourney! Glad to have people in the same boat, who know what is going on! 

My lawyer had said I need to go to the website to print the cover sheets for the affidavit of support, and the visa application supporting documents, that I will be sending to the NVC... and since the website has been down since Friday, that is the only thing that I have been waiting on. He told me just to wait until the website is up. 

I am assuming the cover sheets are specific to my case, and that I will need to wait until the website is back up to print it. The welcome packet sent to me has a coversheet, but only a single cover sheet, not one for each packet. There is no other way to get these cover sheets, right?

On 7/13/2018 at 1:57 PM, Saaniya said:

They must have just entered in the system .. give it some time for ur case to become active.  All the best

Thank you, yeah, I just needed to wait. It was available the next day. 

On 7/13/2018 at 2:14 PM, Abies said:

Good luck on this(fastest)part of the journey.

Thank you. 

Called NVC today, got Case Number and Invoice number. 

It took 9 weeks. 
 

I am trying to pay the fees -- I feel really dumb asking, but I don't know how to do it. I search the web, the government website says to go to : https://ceac.state.gov/IV/Login.aspx  , to login to fill out DS 261 (I have a lawyer). I am not taken to any form to choose an agent, I have a screen that shows my information. It says I can click something that say "pay now" but I have nothing that says this. Actually,, nothing is clickable. Not the 'choice of agent' , 'fees', 'iv application', at the top, or at the bottom the 'start application' or 'not paid." I tried different computers, different web browsers. I would ask my lawyer... but I get better advice here. Like, I am sure I am missing something simple, but it is not obvious to me what I need to do to actually make the payments. 

On 7/9/2018 at 4:44 PM, Mrs.D11 said:

AT NVC, it's usually by luck. If at your first call you get that answer, you should try calling again at a later time. Some agents are a lot kinder than the others. And as I've mentioned earlier, I always call 1 hour before they close as they are more accommodating. When I called at exactly my 8th week, it was the agent himself who offered to forward my case to their supervisor and when I called the next day, I got my case and invoice number. Good luck with your case!

Thank you, this put things in perspective. I called again today, and I had a nice person on the phone. He didn't think it looked like anything was done to escalate my case, so he went ahead and did it. So... yeah, the person who I talked to who said "it would eventually be escalated," who i couldn't tell if she was actually doing anything, didn't seem to do anything. Glad I called again. 

26 minutes ago, MartinyMi said:

Because once the numbers are received, it is a race to fill up 3 to 4 month waits for interview appointments. If we can get ours 2 weeks sooner, we are going for it!

It might make the difference between Thanksgiving and Xmas...

Thank you!! That definitely adds motivation 

12 minutes ago, DocZ said:

I am seeing some people mention calling NVC two times daily . Can someone explain the purpose of this -- to me, it would seem ineffectual? Waiting on hold for half an hour (which wouldn't be so bad if their jam was interrupted so frequently with a reminder that you are hold) to have a 2 minute conversation, and probably the only thing that is logged, if anything, is that you called. Are there certain phases where this would actually be more useful? Or, is it just to feel like you are doing something, even if it does nothing?

I have never worked at a call center /  this kind of bureaucracy / this kind of government work, so I don't know if constant calling does something, or does not do anything. Does anybody actually know, from actual worker experience at the NVC, if frequent calls will move a case in one way or another. 

When I am bugged frequently enough, I will do something, just to stop being bugged. But, as calls are to anonymous people answering calls, who will never get away from people asking for 'X,' I am trying to understand in what way is frequent calling beneficial?

I am seeing some people mention calling NVC two times daily . Can someone explain the purpose of this -- to me, it would seem ineffectual? Waiting on hold for half an hour (which wouldn't be so bad if their jam was interrupted so frequently with a reminder that you are hold) to have a 2 minute conversation, and probably the only thing that is logged, if anything, is that you called. Are there certain phases where this would actually be more useful? Or, is it just to feel like you are doing something, even if it does nothing?

54 minutes ago, Saaniya said:

See earlier it was 6 to 8 weeks.. but as nvc is getting thousands of cases each day they are backlogged and now its taking 8 to 10 weeks. I got my casenumber at exact 9 weeks. I had a similar talk where the guy said.. escalate or not all cases are passing 8 weeks these days and eventually u will get the case and in number sooner than later and if you still want me to escalate to my supervisor .. i will shoot an email right away.. there are 2 teams.. case creation team and supervisor team.. who so ever gets to ur nvc received date first..will create you case and assign u a number. Dont panic .. u should be getting it in less than a week. I suggest keep calling twice a day. 

There is a queue, and it will go to case creation or supervisor, who ever is less slow at that time. Good to know. Thanks!

When I first called the NVC, they told me to call back at 6 weeks. The second time I called, they said to call at 8 weeks. I called the NVC at 8 weeks, to get my case number and invoice number. They said they could not escalate it to a supervisor at that point, because it had not been at the end of the day of the 8th week, and to call the next business day. So I called again today, and again they did not have case number and invoice number. I asked them escalate to a supervisor. She said "it will eventually be escalated, and eventually go to a supervisor." I asked what she meant, like, did she mean she would send the case to be escalated today (I didn't assume a supervisor would get to it today, or that I would get a case number today, but I didn't know what she meant, I just wanted to make sure that she was doing her part to escalate it)? She said that now there are so many cases going past 8 weeks, that so many are being escalated, that she didn't know when it could be escalated. I tried to clarify, if she meant the initiation of going to a supervisor, or if she was referring to when somebody would actually look at it. She wouldn't clarify, and wouldn't give any timelines. I didn't know if that was just a vague person I talked to, or if they will soon be shifting the "call back in 8 weeks" to "call back in 10 weeks" (to be clear, my curiosity, not anything that was explicitly stated)?  

Does anybody know what escalating a case actually does, anyways? I would think that the function of escalating a case would have been for the more rare cases, that somehow got stuck beyond the expected time, or were more complicated. However, if now, everybody is getting stuck beyond the expected time... it would seem that the volume going to supervisors would be increasing dramatically.  Is the "waiting to be escalated" just a new queue we sit in, as we go from box to box, in this process. 

Ugh.

13 minutes ago, Abies said:

Presently it's taking 9-10weeks to get the welcome letter 

I should have been more specific. I meant 8 weeks, waiting to get invoice and case number. NVC received my info from USCIS on 5/11, and I have not received invoice or case number. Is that the same as the welcome letter?

--Sean

First time I called NVC, they said to call back after 6 weeks from 5/11. At 6 weeks, they said to call back at 8 weeks. Today is 8 weeks from 5/11. They had not scanned my case in today. I asked to escalate, but they said they could not, because the have until 11:45pm to do it today. I guess it is not really 8 weeks, but 8 weeks + 1 day. Would have saved me 30 minutes of waiting -- just a heads up for anyone else who thought 8 weeks meant 8 weeks. 

Following the thread. 

Still waiting for case number. It has been 7 weeks, 2 days. Hopefully soon will posting some actual action on my case. 

NVC received our info from USCIS on 5/11, so now I am waiting on NVC case number. My lawyer, who has been wrong about time lines throughout, believes that we will most likely get a case number within a week. I don't believe that, because from what I am seeing on the forums, it appears people are getting their case number around 8 weeks... but maybe I am just selectively seeing those who are getting to 8 weeks. 

For those of you that had received your NVC case number in the past two months, how many weeks did it take for you to get a case number (from when NVC received info from USCIS)? Is 8 weeks the new norm?

On 5/21/2018 at 10:59 PM, 4000mf said:

Our final review was more than critical, it was painstaking, worrying and confusing

 

It was all accurate by the time we submitted it, but the mistakes gave us a lot of cause to doubt the integrity of the packet itself, not knowing what a good one looks like.

 

We just feel like faithfully transcribing our provided information into an official document was the bare minimum we paid them for, and their inability to do that caused delays and unnecessary worry.

Thank you for posting your questions. I believe my lawyer has been misleading, and not honest about the process. He certainly delayed our process as well, as he would request documents, I would set up a meeting with him, then he would request more documents (which could have been asked previously), and the cycle repeated for months. There were also many errors in my documents (despite him receiving the correct information, already on a PDF for him). I am thankful my wife reviewed the documents carefully prior to sending it out.

I have been wanting to drop him, now that we are at the NVC. The answers you received are helpful for me, too. Thanks