sachaerin76

just a few days, not long...

Congratulations! What a relief!!

We completed the petition with the London field office in July last year and and were basing all of our timings off of the 10 months you should give from start to finish so were surprised when the petition was approved in 7 working days and then we had the LND number 4 working days after that. We started to panic because we weren't planning to move until this year and were worried this approval would only be valid for a certain amount of time. We had an appointment for our son at the embassy and asked them while we were there about this and they said the petition is valid indefinitely but you need to maintain contact with the embassy if it's going to be longer than a year. She said that the DS-260 is valid for a year once completed. We paused our process in July and picked it back up at the end of December and had the visa in hand 2 weeks ago (mid-Feb). So had we just continued the process in July we would have probably had his visa in hand in late August - that would have been less than 2 month turnaround! 

I've been reading that the petition approval is taking longer right now since the embassy moved.

Apologies, yes we got my husband's visa a few days after it was issued. How's yours coming along?

We had been in AP since the 18th of January (date of our interview). I sent an email last friday through the contact form and honestly think that's what kicked it into gear. Best of luck and keep us posted!

Just to update that today my husband's visa status on CEAC has moved to Issued! So happy! Now waiting for the courier instructions. 

Checked the CEAC again today and it was updated again but still says Administrative Processing. Very strange. Again my husband called Knightsbridge Doctors to make sure the medical was all OK and sent off. They confirmed medical was approved and signed off and valid until July 10th. So the CO approved our case, they were waiting for the medical to arrive, they have the medical but still have not issued the visa. And they have my husband's passport. So baffled at what is going on. We had our interview 3 weeks ago tomorrow and are still waiting... wish I knew how long we will be waiting for. :-(

Yes it's still down.

From what I've seen from others doing a filing through the embassy in London it typically has a couple of days turnaround if missing the medical. I think we are just a case of unfortunately bad timing wit the new embassy and things not moving along as they should have. My husband has sent an email through the contact form on the Embassy's website for IV's.

My husband had his interview on January 18th and everything went fine, CO said he was approved pending receipt of his medical as they had not received it from Knightsbridge Doctors (that appointment happened on the 10th January) so he received the 221g form which is fine as we were told it was just a formality until they receive the medical and that we it would be issued in 5-10 working days.

Fast forward to today and he's still in AP, his case on CEAC hadn't been updated since the interview but was finally updated on January 30th and stayed on AP. My husband spoke to Knightsbridge Doctors on Monday and they said that his medical was in a batch that was delayed in getting to the embassy because the embassy wasn't picking them up for a little over a week after they moved but that his medical was approved and signed off and valid for 6 months from the date it took place.

Honestly, I don't understand what the hold up is as there was nothing else that was needed for our case. They've got his passport. We can't do anything for our move until it moves to Issued. Should he contact the embassy? If so, through the online form? Feel like his file has fallen into a blackhole and is just sitting on someone's desk... Any advice or words of encouragement is greatly appreciated.

1 hour ago, JenD said:

We moved to "Issued" today. I think you should go ahead and email the embassy.

I think you’re right. Will have my husband do it tonight. Definitely feel like we’ve been forgotten about. 

1 hour ago, JenD said:

Also, did Knightsbridge confirm they had sent your medical? We asked for an email when they did, because they didn't send it the first time when they said they would.

On the day of our appointment my husband called to see if they had and they said it was being bundled that day to be sent. Then when he called them on the 29th January they said that it had been sent and was signed of and valid for 6 months. They also said that even though it had been sent over the US embassy wasn’t picking them up and had created a delay for the people who interviewed on the first couple of days it was open. But they said it should be processed soon.  The ais site says he is in interview status and the ceac just says AP. 

Good luck to you! Keep me posted. I really just want to be able to book our move and flights and didn’t realize we’d be in AP for almost 2 weeks. 

We had our interview on Wednesday 18th January and are still in AP. We were approved on the day pending receipt of his medical. Spoke to Knightsbridge and they said that the Embassy is backlogged and have delays because of the move and since our interview happened on the second day they were open they weren't logging the medicals. We are desperately awaiting the status to change to Issued so we can start booking our move. Keep us posted!