We filed our 129f for a K-1 Visa last June and were approved by the USCIS in September. The NVC assigned our petition a case number on 10-22, and on 10-24 my attorney sent in the DS-160 info and received a confirmation and barcode number.
On 11/12, the NVC sent me (the petitioner) an email letter saying that they were forwarding it on to the Consulate in Montreal. My fiance (the beneficiary) did not receive any notification of this despite the wordage in the emailed letter actually being addressed to her. (Kind of odd.)
The Montreal Consulate received it on 11/14, and on 11/15 our CEAC status changed from "In-transit" to "Ready". It also said..
"Your case is ready for you to schedule an interview at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal. If you have already scheduled an interview appointment, please prepare your documents as directed in your appointment letter and appear at the Consulate on the appointed date and time. Otherwise, please wait until you have been notified of your interview appointment. Additional information about how Immigrant Visa interview appointments are scheduled can be found at: http://nvc.state.gov/interview"
I excitedly let my immigration attorney in the U.S. know this and suggested that we send in our packet 3 ASAP so as to trigger P4. She said that the above message was simply a generic one sent to everyone, and that we must wait for an official Packet 3 notification in the mail (or email) before sending in our Packet 3 info. She cited the many DOS website pages related to K-1 Visa's that specifically give that instruction. The Montreal Consulate's own website does not specifically say one way or another. In fact, they don't seem to address the issue it at all for K-1 Visa applicants, saying only that the majority of interview appointments will be scheduled by the NVC. They never specifically mention what K-1 applicants are supposed to do.
So 11 days have now gone by since we got the "Ready" status and the quoted message above stating "Your case is ready for you to schedule an interview.." . No P3 request has arrived either by email or mailed letter. Our attorney continues to say we must wait for that before sending our P3 response. Our "Ready" status is still dated Nov 15th. There has never been any change to that. Some mention a "2nd Ready".. that hasn't happened so far. We seem to be dead in the water. Nothing is happening.
So.. any comments or suggestions? Should I overrule my immigration attorney and ask her to send in my P3 response now? She adamantly maintains that it would be the wrong course of action, though she admits in the same breath that the DOS websites that she relies on for instruction are frequently not kept updated to how things are actually done and are happening now.
Thanks for any response.