StevenInAtlanta

@blakezero When it became clear to us that we were not going to get her visa on that trip, we contacted the Embassy help line via the online message system and requested that her passport be returned because we had already been there 3 weeks, we were running low on $$ and I was tired of extending flights and hotel accommodations. We spent easily an additional $3-5,000 while waiting. We got an actual phone call the next day from someone at the embassy that works in the immigration area and she was trying to help us, trying to get our package processed but because I could not produce my federal income tax TRANSCRIPT for the current year we could not meet the "we want that IRS transcript document also" request. Knowing that we could not produce the last minute document requested, she told us to just go by the embassy anytime, show the guard at the door her 'green sheet' and they will let her in and she could pickup her passport. And we did, and we left the Warsaw embassy and Poland the next day empty handed. I am still totally PO'd about this entire last minute while we are already here IRS transcript request and I had no way to solve the problem while I was there. The IRS has no expedite my request for a transcript option and it was not available to me online because I had filled my most current return just days before the trip. All that being said, I know exactly what you are going through and if you send them a note or if there is a number at the Israel US embassy to actually call, you can request them to return the passport and if they operate like Warsaw, she can just go pick it up right away. It is also possible that telling them you can not wait any longer and must go home MIGHT get your petition to the top of the stack and it will mysteriously get processed and hopefully approved. You are basically powerless against the embassy personnel, if they want "it", your petition will be held till they get "it".

Breakfast at "Relax" just across the street from Trattoria. Seating upstairs is best! Great pastries, casual, friendly service, comfortable. Relax na Wilczej

Samples from Trattoria Italian resturant

@RogerVA8928 I don't know if it applies to you but I believe that Poland is not currently allowing Russian citizens into the country. The embassy was no help in trying to help us determine if she could return to complete our petition and get her visa (IR1). They told us that we would have to contact the Polish government to see if it was even possible. So....the US embassy system moves petitions from Moscow to Warsaw, and because of the war, they close the door to Russian citizens. Now the rumor is that they are going to begin to resume processing of IR1 visas at the Moscow embassy...but this has not occured yet as far as I know. It may never occur, but we have fingers crossed and pray.

Hello @RogerVA8928 If you read through this thread you will find the answers to many of your questions, my wife and I recently went through this process in Warsaw and mostly due to the war in Ukraine it was a lot of extra trouble since she is a Russian citizen living in Moscow. Airline restrictions, banking sanctions, boarder policies, and timing of interview, travel, hotels and documentation are all issues you have to face. So here is what we have learned: === Q:If interviewing in Warsaw is the only acceptable option, I'm wondering how much time they give you to prepare for the trip when they schedule the interview? A: In our case, the Warsaw office got our petition and within 90 days we were contacted with the appointment date/time. It was 3 weeks in the future. The war had just started and airline sanctions made that date not workable for us. My wife needed to get her Schengen visa (from Italy) and at that time there was a long line due to the imgrant surge out and around Europe and Russia. We paid our visa service an additional fee (like $350 if I remember correctly) for an expedited service but there was still no guarantee it would come in time for the interview. As it turned out, we got it in about 2 weeks. The visa service insisted there was no guarantee how fast but we were very pleased. Q: I've heard getting the Schengen Visa can take a few weeks and once received for whichever country (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc...) it's only valid for 30 days. A: Depends on which country and how long the line is in that country. The Schengen visa we purchased was good for 1 year....if I remember correctly. It may have been 2-3 years, I'll check w/my wife. Again, we opted for the Italian visa because they offered or made available an expedite service whereas the others did not. This expedite service was offered by the visa service we used in Russia, not by the Italian government. A visa service is familiar with how things work, they have inside contacts and they have people to go stand in line for you...that is what you are paying for. Q: So hoping there is at least a 2 month window for planning purposes and not a 3-4 week window as that would not allow enough time for processing her Schengen and traveling. A: I've chattted with a number of others here that went through Warsaw. Their experience seems pretty consistant with ours, you get about 3 weeks notice. Q: If they schedule with a small window, does anyone know the rescheduling process? A: Yes, we rescheduled our appointment, moved it to the first available slot in the future. That slot was about 3 months after our initial interview date. Availability is entirely based on how many people are applying and how many people are in queue. There is a website that you use to reschedule your appointment. The process was easy, we just picked a new date online and a few days later we got a confirmation of the reschedule. Note that when we did this there was a note in the system to not reschedule untill after your appointment time had passed which I did not understand...and I ignored the note. We were still easily able to reschedule our appointment and I hope that our slot was marked available and someone else got it. Q: Can we log in to reschedule the date they provided to one maybe 6-8 weeks later or would it be months to reschedule? A: See above. You can login and reschedule, how long a wait or when the next slot is available depends on the current queue of applicants. Some important lessons learned: 1. Be certain to bring every piece of documentation that you submitted, originals. And they need to be an exact match to what you submitted. Don't get new copies or updated copies, bring the ones you submitted. They will compare the originals you bring to the images of those you submitted at the interview. If there is a difference, they will send you back to the hotel to upload images of the changed documents and you will wait (in our case) 6 additional days before they confirm the new documents have been accepted. 2. Though the instructions clearly indicated to bring your most recent IRS tax form 1040 OR your IRS tax transcript, bring both! I submitted my original 1040 for the previous year, that I had just filed and the embassy asked for the transcript also. I responded that the instructions said "OR" not "AND" but they insisted. The IRS had not fully processed my return and the transcript was not yet available online. It took an additional 6 days to work with the embassy on this item. So by that time we had been in Warsaw 2 weeks. 3. There are plenty of places to stay right near the embassy. We stayed in an AirBNB, they were great places and quite affordable. Most of them were about $100 - $130 a night. We stayed at 2 different properties run by "OompH " They set a new standard! Because of our extended stay caused by having updated documents that didn't match perfectly what was submitted, we stayed in Warsaw 3 weeks. It's a 5 minute walk to the embassy. 4. You will not be allowed in the embassy. You have to wait outside, I waited approximately 3 hours. There is no place to sit at all and they will not let you loiter in front of the embassy. You have to stand across the street or find another place to hang out. There is no coffee shop or diner near the embassy. You have to walk a bit down the street. The interview itself took only 5 minutes. The officer was very brief, asked my wife 2-3 questions, flipped hurridly through all the supporting documents we brought, like proof of income, proof of financial support for 5+ years, pictures together, email and text streams, etc....he was only interested in what had been submitted and they had to be an exact match. The rest of the documents he hardley even gave a glance...though it was quite relevant. 5. The entrance to the embassy has two service windows and a door. You take your papers and printed interview confirmation to the window first, then you get in line for the door. If you do not have your printed original appointment confirmation with the bar code on it, you are not getting in, period. We saw several people get turned away because of this. There is an official at the door that checks your papers when you enter. You can NOT take your cell phone inside. If you have a bag of any type it will be searched. Best to just not take anything. 6. Below there is a map or two of Warsaw. I have circled two resturaunts, the embassy and the red line shows the street we stayed on (Wilcza). We stayed in 3 different places, one different each week for 3 weeks. Had we known we would have been there for 3 weeks, we would have saved a little by booking the 1st place for 3 weeks. As it turns out though, we got to stay in 3 really nice places. I suggest searching out the "OompH " managed properties. They are super nice, updated, clean, and they provide coffee, cerials, a welcome basket and are very responsive if you have any needs at all. Trattoria Rucola is fantastic Italian...it's maybe the best I've had. Great service, the pistachio moose is a MUST TRY. Across the corner is Tran Tran asian...another great choice. Food prices are quite reasonable and portions are generally generous. Be sure to take your wife to Lelou jewelry store! This is fashion jewelry, not real expensive, I bought my wife the most amazing scarf there, it's one of their signature products. We walked by many times and saw it in the window, each time it was calling to us to go inside. I finally did stop and invited my wife in. It's beautiful scarf, I think her favorite now. Great memory too. 7. As far as sight seeing goes...there is a LOT to see. Near the embassy there is not much but there is shopping and plenty of places to eat. About a 10-15 minute walk is a large park you can spend all day in and if you are up for it, a 45 minute walk down the boulevard is strongly suggested to get to "Old Town Square". The Old Town is a must see, it's going to be on your list of favorite places ever visited. There is a bus, take the walk, there is so much to see along the way to Old Town. From where we stayed near the embassy, it's a straight walk, it would be really really hard to get lost. Old Town is dripping with charm, there is a photo-op at every corner, it's beautiful, food everywhere and the best shopping. Many many many gift shops filled with fine goods, not your typical Disney motif junk. The largest deposits of amber are in Poland, so there are many amber shops with beautiful pieces made of amber. You'll be amazed. There is also what you might consider "downtown". It is North and a bit west of the property we stayed at. Not even a 30 minute walk, a straight shot. Just head for the tallest building in town, you will know it when you see it. There is a very interesting mall there. Just Google Hard Rock Cafe...you'll find it.

@Lynxyonok yeah....I found it hard to believe considering the current world climate, but one can hope. Judging from just the last two years in history, it's near impossible to predict what is going to come next.

Something new just popped up on the family rumor mill radar screen. My wife has just heard that a US official just announced that IR1/immigration visa interviews are going to resume in the Moscow embassy. Has anyone heard anything at all about this or have any resources or links to share for verification or further research. I've checked the US Russian embassy website news and there wasn't anything found there, did several Google searches, nothing.

It’s a good question and I can add that it was the NVCs decision to move the case from Moscow to Warsaw because of the unrest at the US Embassy in Moscow and the suspension of visa processing so after Covid lockdown Warsaw agreed to take Russian IR1 and other petitions for processing. Neither she (the Russian and beneficiary) nor I the US citizen and petitioner have any friends or family in Warsaw.

We spent two extra weeks in Warsaw waiting for the embassy 'help desk' to respond and tell us what was happening. After 12 days we get a message insisting they ALSO want an IRS transcript which was not available to me at that time since I had filed my most recent tax form only a few weeks earlier. We only got a true response from someone not on the help desk, but actually working visa/passport at the embassy when we entered a formal request to have my wife's passport returned so we could go home. The help desk told us it had to be delivered to MailboxETC and it could take up to 3-5 business days. In reality, they will return it to you at the embassy, we picked it up the next day and were able to go home, all be it empty handed. My bottom line is that had I KNOWN in advance that a transcript was going to be REQUIRED, I could have filed earlier or worked with my local IRS office to get the transcript earlier. Though we had not seen each other in almost a year, we effectively wasted $7,000+US on a trip and came home empty handed, no visa. What's perhaps worse, is that now the Polish government is not allowing Russian tourist into the country. So if she had to go back right now I'm not even sure they will let her in the country. I asked the embassy if this was the case and their response after 4 days was that it was a matter for the Polish government and to ask them. No indication was given how they are handling any other Russian citizens that may have interviews in queue at this time. The one thing we were told is that she does not have to physically re-appear at the embassy to submit her passport to get her visa, an authorized agent (like me for example) could bring it to the embassy and then wait (again) for it to be processed, pick it up and then take it or send it to her. Apparently there is an authorized agent process and form that would have to be followed and filled out and process/approved for that to be possible. So the status on the ustraveldocs.com web site is not apparently any indication where in the process your visa petition or the processing of same actually is. The only way we were able to actually talk to embassy personnel while waiting at the hotel was to request her passport be returned so we could go home. Then we got a call from a very nice, well spoken woman that was from the embassy, she explained they needed the transcript to move forward but if it was not available, my wife could pickup her passport at the embassy the next morning showing only her 'green sheet' to the security officer at the door. Which we did, they let her in without delay that next morning, and she was in and out in maybe 10 minutes. The woman that gave her passport back to her at the embassy remembered my wife and she was the same woman that participated (assisted the embassy interview officer) during her interview which took all of less than 5 minutes and consisted of two questions: How did you meet?, how long have you known him? Months and months of planning and income document preparation, proof of a bonafide state of marriage, signed affidavits, and thousands of dollars spent...and we're initially rejected on the difference in two words AND & OR. Also note that all the documents that we have prepared and submitted have a shelf life. Depending on how long this process takes and how long it takes to nest egg another $7-10K for another trip and to what country we have to go and what the silly war is going to do next and those documents will expire. We will then have to renew them at our cost, re-submit them and then go for the visa again. #QuiteFrustrated

@Zoothie "Why do you say the certificate was valid for 1 year? NVC states 2 years since the date of issue.." Because the US Embassy told us that the (Russian) police certificate was only good for a year and it HAD to be renewed. I've learned that it frankly doesn't matter what you read, or where you read it, if the Embassy wants "it" they are going to get it or in simple terms your passport/visa is not going to get processed. And if any of your documents are going to expire anywhere near the interview date, you better get them renewed and uploaded to CEAC well BEFORE your interview at the embassy. Our experience and delay boiled down to two basic events: We did not upload the updated police certificate and birth certificate prior to the interview, even though we were instructed to bring the new transcribed and certified originals to the interview and the officer had them in his hands, he insisted we return to the hotel and upload them and wait an indeterminable amount of time for review and processing. We were asked to also upload a 2021 Federal tax return TRANSCRIPT which I did not have with me. All written instructions said "federal tax return OR transcript" and the embassy decided they wanted the official IRS transcript (required) and the federal return is apparently (optional). Arguing with the embassy officials is going to be fruitless. They have sole ownership of your documents and approval or refused power is entirely theirs. After several weeks that has become clear to my wife and I. My point is that it doesn't really matter what NVC says, what does matter is what the embassy says.

@smoothoperaytor "We've been waiting for over a year and our DQ was a few months ago. I think it'll be another year. We were asked to upload a new police report, which we did. They take about 2-4 weeks to get in her city. I'm guessing we'll need another one by the time we have our interview. The thing is, we don't know when that will be. To be "safe", we could constantly keep an active police report every 6 months, but that's silly." We ran into this problem because the war in Ukraine started and we had to delay and reschedule our interview. The original police certificate that we had previously uploaded to CEAC expired during the waiting and trying to find flights. That took about 4 months. Anyway, the lesson learned is that once you have your interview date, be sure that the police certificate will still be valid at the time of the interview. For us, the Russian certificate was good for 1 year and it had to be translated to English. We got her certificate in 2 weeks in Russia after the Covid 19 period, during the Covid 19 period we got it in like 3-4 days. My suggestion is to determine how long it is going to take to get it, and if it's not in English, get the final one obtained for the interview translated and certified AND UPLOAD IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO CEAC profile so that it is already there during the interview and of course take the original with you to the interview. Translation services was not expensive (I think we paid $150 US for all 5 needed documents) and it took only about 5-7 days total. That way the Embassy CO can not send you away like they did us to upload it then play a 2+ week waiting game for them to just push the silly accept document box.

@slavaskii "We all wish you the best, Steven. I'm certain your wife must be feeling very fortunate to have someone like you consistently on the ball." It has been a great source of strength to return to this post and read the encouragement from others that have either endured this journey or that are on the journey and that have offered their encouragement. Though I have not yet crossed the goal line with the football I feel like I am close but I know its 4th quarter and there are just seconds on the clock. I'm hoping for that hail Mary play that every sage quarterback has in his playbook. "Did you ever tell the Embassy how you wanted the passport returned? As in, either through USTravelDocs or another application? For the K-1, I recall specifically one of the last stages with signing up for the interview was detailing the document delivery information. We either had the choice of mailing to a Polish address or picking up in Warsaw/Krakow. " When we registered on the ustraveldoc.com website (which by the way is a requirement!) it was a step in the registration process for your interview to select your point of delivery. The choices were either 1 of 2 MailboxesETC or a polish address. We picked the MailboxesETC in Warsaw, (about a 20 minute drive by car from the Embassy) option of course since we have no polish address other than our AirBNB apartment home that has changed each week. "USTravelDoc's homescreen. Most certainly, it did not update when the visa was actually ready; we only knew when we got an email from the 'mailbox' pickup location." That is good to know but not reassuring that the people that run and interact with the system are actually maintaining it with the users (visa seekers) best interest in mind. I would like to think that it is a matter of work load, they are just overrun with applicants and short staffed. I'll give them that but on the other hand, I dont think its reasonable to expect someone to wait 1-3 days for a response to a critical question when they are in town for the interview only and having to potentially make extended travel plans to overstay their plan because of extended delays at the embassy processing something seemingly as simple as an updated birth certificate and police report that has been translated AND certified and sealed by the translator and presented to the Consulate Officer during the 90 second interview. This topic we discussed above. I dont believe that the CEAC and ustraveldocs.com systems are directly connected, I THINK that the US Embassy in Warsaw Poland help desk that you call (number above) is acting as an intermediator relay of information between the embassy and CEAC...or it is the Ebbassy personnel that are charged with updating the CEAC system, which they do not seem to be doing. I say this because we still have documents in CEAC system that were uploaded over 2 weeks ago that still show submitted but not 'accepted'...eventhough from the communications we are getting from support-poland@ indicate they have been reviewed. Stay tuned, the saga continues All

Hello Sir or Madam, We can see that the Dashboard for our case has changed recently and that now "Document Delivery Information" appears but there are no instructions and the link does not open another window or browser tab. It is our hope that my wife's passport and US Immigrant Visa has been successfully processed and we are awaiting further instruction on when and where to pick up her passport. We are running VERY close on time to remain in Warsaw, our scheduled flight is Thursday 15th Sept at 9PM, we must leave for the airport by approximately 6PM.

Immigrant Visas Warsaw Fri, Sep 9, 9:13 AM (3 days ago) to me Dear Madam, thank you for your correspondence. We do not have the IRS tax transcript. The tax documents submitted on August 30 include the forms 1040 and 8995. Sincerely, Immigrant Visa Unit Consular Section U.S. Embassy Warsaw /ak ======================== Steven Seale <steven.seale@gmail.com> Sep 9, 2022, 12:00 PM (3 days ago) to support-poland, Goncharova, Immigrant, me Hello, Yes, according to the official written pre-interview instructions received on 27, March 2022 (shown below in red text) the 1040 tax return that was uploaded 30 August as requested is ALSO an acceptable document for the purpose of income verification. The wording indicates either a transcript OR the most recent Federal Income Tax Return (form 1040). This is clearly explained in the written instructions received prior to the interview. Note that for the document qualification phase of our petition the previous year of 2018, form 1040 is accepted as proof of income. To our knowledge there has been no change in the official requirement for a IRS transcript only, a 1040 is apparently still acceptable and we have the written instructions that indicate this to be true. You should be assured that moving forward will be within the official guidelines. There is absolutely no inference or reference to a transcript being the only acceptable evidence. Please continue to process our visa petition unless you can provide some evidence of a recent change to the official processing guidelines indicating that a transcript is the only acceptable proof of income. ======================

@TBoneTX @JayFromTexas @FJinSD It's now Monday the 12th September 5:15PM Warsaw time. No so much as a peep from the Embassy and I sent them a message on Friday last week in response to my Wednesday inquiry about a status on my wife's visa processing. As you might recall on Wednesday I sent them a note indicating that I had previously submitted the week before the requested federal income tax form from 2021. Their response Friday morning was that they had not received the tax "transcript" requested but did confirm they received the form 1040. In my response I indicated that all the pre-interview instructions as well as the green sheet of to-do items my wife received at her interview clearly indicated "OR" I mean that a Federal Tax Return (1040) OR a tax transcript was acceptable as prof of income...that it was not an AND condition. I further detailed and forward the pre-interview instructions with that portion highlighted in red (the OR part) and said that all written communications I had received indicated that a federal tax for 1040 was acceptable as proof of income and that unless they could demonstrate to me that a tax transcript from the IRS was now part of the official immigration document requirements to please continue with the processing as I had fully complied with the previous written instructions. To that communication that I received a confirmation to, I have as of this moment not gotten a reply. This afternoon, while checking the ustraveldocs.com web site for our status, I noticed, much to my surprise that the status area that once said "Your application/passport is currently at the embassy" had been updated to "Document Delivery Instructions" ....but there are no instructions and the link does nothing. So it is possible, but I am withholding great joy that maybe the visa was processed and they are planning to get the visa to the mailboxesETC location or deliver to us the instructions to pick it up at the embassy. So...using the ustraveldocs.com feedback feature, I sent them another email. An email asking if there were further instructions pending the pickup of either her completed passport with US immigrant VISA or just her original passport. We are praying hard that it is a situation where the visa was approved and is being sent to the mailboxesETC for pickup rather than just returning her passport. If they are returning it only, then I take that as a cyber bird finger for telling them that a 1040 was sufficient for income verification based on all my written communications and instructions received. And to that I respond with "Pfffft!" Lets go Brandon! Ill post the communication streams below....

#RantWarning Just to add a little perspective on the situation my wife and I have found ourselves in: We had to fly through 2 other countries to get to Poland(Italy and Turkey), my wife had to get an Italian Schengen visa to travel to Poland at all($500), airfare alone cost initially was over $2000US, then there is hotel at approximately $1,000/wk, (going on 3rd week now so thats $3000) add food at $50-$100 a day, extra bag fees(about $350), taxi and uber fees, flight change fees (so far about $400 having to change flights now a 2nd time) and having to schlep our bags from one apartment to the next because where we are staying is not available "next week". I am away from my business now for 3 weeks and another week is on the radar, same with my wife. That is loss of income. I can't check voicemail or even get a TXT message on my US phone, my only tether to communicate is email and facebook and telegram and that is if I can get a WIFI signal and password. Even though I alerted all my banks where and when I would be traveling the fraud triggers keep catching me and trying to send me a friggin TXT to confirm the charge is valid....of course I cant get a TXT and there are no other verification options. I do compliment WellsFargo for allowing me to setup a travel profile to prevent this however Chase was worthless and they can only verify me via TXT message. We appeared at the interview fully prepared, very well documented, full DQ'd and had absolutely everything that we were instructed to bring. Proof of income, copies of letters and email communications, pictures of places we went together, travel records to visit each other over 7 years, official original documents, medical reports, everything in Russian translated to English and certified, documentarily qualified for 2 years, patiently waiting for an interview for over a year.....and the list just goes on and on. We perform an interview that quite literally took less than 5-7 minutes total, the immigration officer doesn't even so much as more that casually glance at all the documentation for less than 2 minutes and proof of a legitimate relationship and marriage (including 2 separate affidavits)...I mean EVERYTHING that we were told to bring....and after 10 days the embassy and it's triage hasn't even taken the time to 'accept' electronically the documents they told us to quickly upload so they could quickly process the visa and return the passport to my wife so we could get on down the road. Nobody that you can talk to has any power to do anything, everything is done via online form or email and a response is at best 2-3 days away. You cant go to the embassy and talk to anyone, they will send you away. You can't get an immigration officer or official on the phone, no way. So far, all that has happened is we get 3 emails requesting documents that were present at the interview, that the immigration office had in his hands, and 1 of those emails comes a week after the interview asking us to upload a document already uploaded 8 days earlier and we have nothing to show for it except a pile of expenses and brochures from this 'vacation' in Warsaw Poland. Even more frustrating is the immigration officer requests two specific documents verbally at the interview, then back at the hotel we check email and the emails dont request the same documents....so we upload all documents requested in email and verbally. Then after a week they email and ask for a document that has already been uploaded and submitted properly. ARGH! 10 days here and I don't feel one inch closer to getting any traction at all towards getting her visa and passport returned completed before the sands of the hourglass have run through. And if it doesn't happen sometime in the next 5 days, we will have to extend either another week ($1500) and ignore our mutual businesses and continue to be patient, or pack it up, request her passport be returned 2-3 days before our departure and call it a loss, and start over where ever and when ever the process demands. In the words of Ricky Bobby....little baby Jesus help us all. When this is all over I plan to write a scathing bad review of this process and find a way to get it to the director of the US Embassy program. This recent news of how they are hiring so many new people that things are getting much better and how great the new interview waiver program is at least for immigration visa's is absolute BS. All the new hires and the interview waiver program is for ag workers and foreign students. The immigration visa program and it's support system and infrastructure is poor at best at this time it seems. #RantEnded

@Simplytex ============== I'm not sure I understand this part - if you ask for the passport to be returned, then to 'resubmit' the passport once visa is approved, you have to send it from the Warsaw Mailboxes shop? ============== I asked the help desk person that same question at least three times and in different terms. The passport can not be mailed from a different country, it has to be submitted from the MailboxETC location (there are 2) in Poland and then taken to the embassy. I believe they have a daily courier that is either picking up or dropping off visas that need or that have been processed. And there is a special form that has to be used if you submit your passport via the MailboxETC method. If you dont properly use the proper form, your passport will be returned unprocessed.

@Simplytex ============== I'm not sure I understand this part - if you ask for the passport to be returned, then to 'resubmit' the passport once visa is approved, you have to send it from the Warsaw Mailboxes shop? ============== I asked the help desk person that same question at least three times and in different terms. The passport can not be mailed from a different country, it has to be submitted from the MailboxETC location (there are 2) in Poland and then taken to the embassy. I believe they have a daily courier that is either picking up or dropping off visas that need or that have been processed.

@Simplytex ============== So, if I understand your timeline correctly, you interviewed last Tuesday August 30th, on the same day uploaded the documents, and have been waiting to hear any update since then? You have now extended your stay from August 30th to today (Sept 6th) and are now considering extending it yet again to Sept 13th? If I may ask, when did you arrive in Poland? I'm just wanting to figure out if/when my wife and I get to the interview stage, how long we should allocate possibly having to stick around in Poland... I can remote work for a short time, and take vacation time, but as you said, it's not fair or reasonable to expect people to have to wait 2+weeks to get their passport back! ============== We got here on the Sunday before the interview Tuesday morning. No problems getting her on time for the interview. You have the timeline correct, we anticipated the process to take maybe 3-4 days based on others experiences with IR1 visa at this embassy, the delay created by having to submit new documents is what has screwed our timeline and I believe created the delay, that compounded with a system and human processing triage. The workload at the embassy seems pretty high and every case is different I imagine. But we should be a pretty straight forward case, together for 7 years, legally married in the USA over 5 years ago, tons of regular communications and travel together, hundreds or thousands of pictures, cards, letters and lots of money going from me to her as evidence of support capabilities. We are both educated professionals with jobs/businesses and it just seems like it should be much easier and not take several years...I mean geesh, were have been DQd for over two years and in process for over 3. It's not a system well designed for expediency. As a note, I just saw a YouTube video of one of the directors for US immigration talking about all the hiring of additional personnel and how things were returning to pre-pandemic processing levels. How the new interview waiver program was going to greatly speed things up...well if you research the details the visa interview waiver program is for agriculture workers and people seeking work and student visas...not for immigrant visas. So that interview fast track program does me/us no good whatsoever. From my perspective, the system still needs a lot of work. It shouldn't take years to process a visa, certainly not weeks to stamp a visa for a professional married couple, one of which is a born US citizen, and that has been married for 5 years and DQ'd for over 2 years...so long in fact that documents are expiring and have to be refreshed.! Pffft!

@millefleur Others have indicated that the original Moscow embassy was run efficiently and also that after entering the embassy, there was actually a room where you sat with an official for your interview, a single person. To even enter the Warsaw embassy you have to show your appointment interview confirmation page with the bar code. Without it, you are not going to get inside, period. There are two windows outside the embassy, one for immigrant visa the other non-immigrant. You show the teller at that window your confirmation page and they confirm you have an appointment for that day. They sticker your passport and give you back the confirmation page. Then you go to the door and wait for it to open, they again check your passport for the entry sticker and confirm your cell phone is turned off. It must be turned off and they check. You also can only take a standard size purse in, no backpacks or large satchels. If you have a baby stroller w/you and a children's diaper bag, they will thoroughly check that and it will be allowed inside. In the Warsaw Poland embassy, the process is different it seems, everybody initially gets a number and has a seat in the waiting area. When your number is called, you go to the first window for a pre-interview document check. Then you wait your turn for the next window where there is a stand-up interview at the window, they don't sit you down and perform an interview. Everybody goes through this same ordeal it seems. Very impersonal and matter of fact. The interview lasted all of 3-5 minutes at the most and the officer took almost no time looking at all the documents that were requested. I suspect that they are experts at reviewing the typical requested documents and that they can quickly spot any differences in what was uploaded and the original that is presented. That is what happened to us, we just didnt know that it would have probably saved us a week or more in processing time had we been asked to upload any update documents well ahead of time rather to hold them for the interview. The interview invitation letter and instructions CLEARLY indicate to bring the originals to the interview. What wasnt clear and was never indicated to us was that if (for example) it has taken them more than a year to process your case and your police certificate expires, you need to get a new one for the interview AND upload it well before the interview...and if it is still not accepted by the interview, apparently the interview officer can see that it has already been uploaded and he can accept it on the spot. Otherwise you have to return to your hotel to scan and upload it then and wait for it to be accepted before processing can resume. It's a critical and very important fact that I want everybody to know about! Also note, that if you have a document that has been accepted and that doesn't expire (like a birth certificate) there is no need to get a new one because the original isn't factory crisp and perfect. That is what my wife did, she wanted a perfect new birth certificate that was all crisp and perfectly readable and she got one, then took it to the interview and presented it to the officer, he noticed it was different than the one uploaded and that was then the requirement to upload the updated one. We didn't expect this but I had been told by others that once you have been DQ'd is not a good idea to upload any additional documents unless asked. The caveat is that if one of your documents expire or is outdated (like a police certificate or a tax form that is over a year old) then it IS a good idea to upload the new one well before the interview to give them plenty of time to 'accept' it or request something else be done. Lessons learned.....stay tuned.

================== @Boiler I have seen no end of speculation about how things work inside a Consulate and I have never come across anything definitive. My suspicion is a combination of paper files and IT system that may operate OK if the standard process works but get out of sync otherwise, in your case uploading additional documents. probably? I am inclined to believe there is very little connection between the telephone service which may be outsourced and in a totally different location and the Consulate. ================== I have been using the telephone service the last 2-3 days. For the most part the agents that man these phones can provide only information and they can only view your profile. They apparently have no edit capabilities and surely they have no power to act or make decisions on your behalf. They are on the help desk and provide only information. Though they have been helpful in telling me what to do and how, they have no power or authority. If you want to talk to a human then CURRENTLY the VRU responses are as follows: DIAL: +48 22 307 1361 2 for English 3 for immigrant visa 2 for immigrant visa 2 immigrant visa information (then listen to pre-recorded information) 5 to talk to an agent There is no electronic link between the CEAC system and the ustraveldocs.com system that Poland uses. ustraveldocs.com is a salesforce powered support system. It is for the most part a basic function system that you MUST use for the Polish/Warsaw embassy to schedule or reschedule your interview or to provide 'feedback' which in other terms is to request help/support. If you have problems with your visa or questions, feedback is the place to go. Response is 1-2 days typically. You'll get an autoresponse almost immediately and there is a log of your requests. It seems like the help desk personnel have the ability to answer questions that you place in feedback as well as forward them to the embassy for processing, resolution, whatever might be needed. This is the same path that your request takes if you simply email "support-poland@ustraveldocs.com" but your request will not appear in your traveldocs profile if you email direct from your email account. ALWAYS be sure to include your CASE NUMBER as well as the applicant name. I have become accustomed to include the name, birthdate, passport#, case#, and the UID#. The UID# is assigned you when you setup a profile in ustraveldocs.com. A profile is required to schedule/reschedule an appointment or use the feedback system, it is also required for some of the VRU phone menu selections. For example, when I called the help line to see why documents submitted over a week ago in CEAC had not been accepted yet, the help desk instructed me to fill out a feedback form and explain that the documents had been submitted and that the request was to accept them so visa processing might continue. The help desk person indicated that either the system or they could then escalate the request to the CEAC team to accept the documents in CEAC. So there is some link be it a human interface or an electronic support request forwarding system of some sort. I think that it is best to utilize the feedback feature in the ustraveldocs.com system so that your communications are stored in your profile and anyone that works your profile for issues can see them all Vs using the support-poland@ustraveldocs.com email address.

@Jorgedig of course every case is a bit different but....I have seen so many examples of others here that were in pursuit of their IR1 visa in another country and after the interview either received their visa on the spot or within days, specifically there are at least 2 examples of people from Russia that have interviewed in Warsaw in the last 60 days and one got their visa the next day at the embassy, the 2nd it was at mailboxes etc a few days later. I 3rd, had some additional documents requested and got theirs via the mailboxes delivery method within a week...the variables are apparently numerous. As an update we called the help line and I was able to actually get a human on the phone, again no estimate could be given on when it might be processed. Was told more than once there was no way to rush or expedite the visa processing and that he didn't have any way to reach out to see where it was in the process. Oddly enough, a few hours later we get an email asking us to upload a document that had previously been requested verbally by the officer during the interview but not later in writing from CEAC. However, I had already uploaded the document they were today requesting, it was already submitted and I confirmed it is in the system. Also I note that the two documents they did request and that we uploaded a week ago are also still sitting in the system with status 'submitted' but not accepted/approved like all the other documents. So the system and the requests and the people involved are connected but not in synch it seems. I find it interesting that within hours of actually contacting the help line human, that we suddenly get a response and some movement on the approval of the visa, all be it a request for a document not previously requested in writing by the system and already submitted. So.....I responded to support-poland@ustraveldocs.com with a screen shot of the CEAC control panel for our case showing the document had been submitted a week ago. So we made some movement today but still don't feel much closer because the documents requested, uploaded to the control panel and submitted have not been acknowledged or accepted....but I suspect they will sometime soon since apparently some human in the visa food change got a tap on the shoulder. Stay tuned my friends

UPDATE FROM WARSAW POLAND US EMBASSY INTERVIEW COMPLETED, VISA ISSUANCE DELAYED So we are now in Warsaw Poland, we completed the US Embassy interview last Tuesday, that was 1 week ago as I type this update. The total interview time took about 2.25 hours. Most of the time was just waiting for her number to be called once inside. The interview was scheduled for 8am, we arrived at the embassy at 7:45am there were already about 30-40 people standing in line. There was a line coordinator working the line and we were separated into two lines one for the non-immigrant visa folks, and one for immigrant visa folks. I was not needed/allowed to go inside with my wife during the interview. She was inside by 8:15. I had to wait 2+ hours on the street outside. Nowhere to sit, no coffee shop, no cafe near by. While inside she was given a number. When called she presented her documents to an immigration officer, a woman that spoke good Russian, she reviewed the documents and said 'its all in order' gave her documents back and asked her to sit down again and wait for her number. About an hour or more later she was called to the 2nd official, a man with not so good Russian. He spent less than a minute reviewing her documents and asked her two questions: 1. How did you meet your husband 2. How long have you known your husband Though she had every document requested in the instructions to be sure to bring with you, he asked her to return to the hotel and upload her updated birth certificate and police report and he indicated they would then process her visa quickly and she could pick it up at the mailboxes ETC. We went back to the hotel, scanned and uploaded the two documents within 1.5 hours. The need to do this was understandable since her original police certificate expired because of the long delay between moving her case from Moscow to Poland and the delay in obtaining an interview. The need for the birth certificate update was because my wife decided she wanted a brand new birth certificate that was in perfect condition, her original was partially not perfectly readable in the area for her birth city....so she got a new one and the officer noticed they were different so its understandable to upload the new one. LESSON LEARNED: If any of your documents expire or change, its a SUPER GOOD IDEA to upload them before your interview so that they are already in the system before your interview. Why the official couldn't just copy and upload them or put them in a folder I don't know but its not part of their process apparently. The official assured her that if she did this quickly (the upload) they would quickly process her visa and it would be available for pickup in a few days at the mailboxes etc. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.... We have extended our stay an additional week in Warsaw, and this has been expensive to change flights, get a hotel for an additional week, food, etc. It's near impossible to get anyone on the phone that can tell you anything more than to just wait. We check the CEAC web site profile several times a day for an update, nothing after a week now. No email communications from the embassy, no communications at all. The Warsaw embassy has several ways to communicate with them. This includes live online chat, Skype and web phone call. The live online chat turned out to just be a robot and I was unable to actually get my chat routed to a human. I wasted about 30 minutes repeating my wife's name, passport number, birthdate and email address to the robot only to at the end be told it was a holiday. It's Tuesday morning and not a holiday in US or Poland I got no response to the Skype message I sent even after adding the correct Skype account to my contacts, no response at all The web talk phone call just took me to the same voice response system that calling the number on the website provided Called the number on the site +48 22 307 1361 (see below) Finally got a human on the phone this morning, talked for 20-30 minutes, he answered questions and was quite patient but could not indicate how long we might have to wait...that is how much longer we will have to wait. No indication whatsoever how much longer. The problem is that obviously we need to get back to work, we do not have unlimited funds to stay in Warsaw for an indeterminate time. To compound the issue, the embassy has my wife's passport and she obviously can not leave Warsaw/board a plane without it. We can get her passport back by doing a request for it to be returned, this can take 2-3 days, and if we do that we (apparently) do not have to return for an interview, BUT she will have to submit her passport again using the correct form and the support agent told me several times that the passport can ONLY be mailed from the mailboxes ETC location in Warsaw! It can not be mailed from any other location! Are you sure I asked him several times! MY level of frustration is just off the scale, apparently you can't just walk down to the embassy and explain your situation to anyone, there is no way to expedite your request or processing, you can only get your passport back and start all over or sit and wait an unknown amount of time. If this is what happens when you have a simple immigration case where the parties have known each other for 7+ years, been married for 5+ years and appear with all original documents as requested, I can't imagine what a hard case must be like. At this point we are wondering if we can stay an additional week....and the only advice we have to offer is to be sure if any of your documents changed to upload the updated version to the CEAC site well before the interview. If they do not need to be updated, DON'T...they were already approved. There is no need to update documents that are not expired (like a police report) and that have already been accepted and approved. Any sage advice would surely be appreciated.

UPDATE FROM WARSAW POLAND US EMBASSY INTERVIEW COMPLETED, VISA ISSUANCE DELAYED So we are now in Warsaw Poland, we completed the US Embassy interview last Tuesday, that was 1 week ago as I type this update. The total interview time took about 2.25 hours. Most of the time was just waiting for her number to be called once inside. The interview was scheduled for 8am, we arrived at the embassy at 7:45am there were already about 30-40 people standing in line. There was a line coordinator working the line and we were separated into two lines one for the non-immigrant visa folks, and one for immigrant visa folks. I was not needed/allowed to go inside with my wife during the interview. She was inside by 8:15. I had to wait 2+ hours on the street outside. Nowhere to sit, no coffee shop, no cafe near by. While inside she was given a number. When called she presented her documents to an immigration officer, a woman that spoke good Russian, she reviewed the documents and said 'its all in order' gave her documents back and asked her to sit down again and wait for her number. About an hour or more later she was called to the 2nd official, a man with not so good Russian. He spent less than a minute reviewing her documents and asked her two questions: 1. How did you meet your husband 2. How long have you known your husband Though she had every document requested in the instructions to be sure to bring with you, he asked her to return to the hotel and upload her updated birth certificate and police report and he indicated they would then process her visa quickly and she could pick it up at the mailboxes ETC. We went back to the hotel, scanned and uploaded the two documents within 1.5 hours. The need to do this was understandable since her original police certificate expired because of the long delay between moving her case from Moscow to Poland and the delay in obtaining an interview. The need for the birth certificate update was because my wife decided she wanted a brand new birth certificate that was in perfect condition, her original was partially not perfectly readable in the area for her birth city....so she got a new one and the officer noticed they were different so its understandable to upload the new one. LESSON LEARNED: If any of your documents expire or change, its a SUPER GOOD IDEA to upload them before your interview so that they are already in the system before your interview. Why the official couldn't just copy and upload them or put them in a folder I don't know but its not part of their process apparently. The official assured her that if she did this quickly (the upload) they would quickly process her visa and it would be available for pickup in a few days at the mailboxes etc. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.... We have extended our stay an additional week in Warsaw, and this has been expensive to change flights, get a hotel for an additional week, food, etc. It's near impossible to get anyone on the phone that can tell you anything more than to just wait. We check the CEAC web site profile several times a day for an update, nothing after a week now. No email communications from the embassy, no communications at all. The Warsaw embassy has several ways to communicate with them. This includes live online chat, Skype and web phone call. The live online chat turned out to just be a robot and I was unable to actually get my chat routed to a human. I wasted about 30 minutes repeating my wife's name, passport number, birthdate and email address to the robot only to at the end be told it was a holiday. It's Tuesday morning and not a holiday in US or Poland I got no response to the Skype message I sent even after adding the correct Skype account to my contacts, no response at all The web talk phone call just took me to the same voice response system that calling the number on the website provided Called the number on the site +48 22 307 1361 (see below) Finally got a human on the phone this morning, talked for 20-30 minutes, he answered questions and was quite patient but could not indicate how long we might have to wait...that is how much longer we will have to wait. No indication whatsoever how much longer. The problem is that obviously we need to get back to work, we do not have unlimited funds to stay in Warsaw for an indeterminate time. To compound the issue, the embassy has my wife's passport and she obviously can not leave Warsaw/board a plane without it. We can get her passport back by doing a request for it to be returned, this can take 2-3 days, and if we do that we (apparently) do not have to return for an interview, BUT she will have to submit her passport again using the correct form and the support agent told me several times that the passport can ONLY be mailed from the mailboxes ETC location in Warsaw! It can not be mailed from any other location! Are you sure I asked him several times! MY level of frustration is just off the scale, apparently you can't just walk down to the embassy and explain your situation to anyone, there is no way to expedite your request or processing, you can only get your passport back and start all over or sit and wait an unknown amount of time. If this is what happens when you have a simple immigration case where the parties have known each other for 7+ years, been married for 5+ years and appear with all original documents as requested, I can't imagine what a hard case must be like. At this point we are wondering if we can stay an additional week....and the only advice we have to offer is to be sure if any of your documents changed to upload the updated version to the CEAC site well before the interview. If they do not need to be updated, DON'T...they were already approved. There is no need to update documents that are not expired (like a police report) and that have already been accepted and approved. Any sage advice would surely be appreciated.

@miller_Kay It's an Italian visa, it was issued for a period of 1 year.