willingtowait4it

On 12/15/2020 at 1:24 PM, willingtowait4it said:

Yay congrats to everyone who got their dates today!!

 

I finally managed to have a full FaceTime conversation with my husband, between a hectic day for me at work and him traveling back from London. He told me a little bit about the interview process and I wanted to share that here.

 

He was at the embassy for a total of 40 minutes. He arrived 30 minutes early and waited for a while. There were two stages, first was biometrics. The woman taking his biometrics asked when he was planning to travel to the states, and he said hopefully before Christmas. She said visa processing is taking about three days after approval.

 

The second stage was the actual “interview” but it was more like a conversation. The woman asked three questions:

 

How did you meet your wife?

Why did you decide to propose?

How and where did you propose?

 

Apparently it was all very easy and casual, and she approved him after about three minutes! She told him to expect the visa in 1-2 weeks, but I think that they are just required to say that - it clearly hasn’t been taking that long lately.

 

All in all a pretty easy experience (except for the 18 months of waiting of course lol). The only documents he was asked for were passport, courier letter, and embassy appointment letter. It still doesn’t feel real that he could be here by Christmas! 

 

Congrats again to those who got interviews today! And I will be thinking good thoughts for those waiting to hear in January 🤞🏻

The email came yesterday that his courier would be delivered soon, and the courier came today with the passport and visa!! He's flying out Saturday  Very impressed with the quick turnaround!

1 hour ago, ergreenwell10 said:

Hi All,

 

First time posting here, We DQ'd 2nd October, Interview date 26th January!

 

Confirmation email came through today December 15th.

 

I have a question, the first step the NVC email tells us to do is 

 

"Step 1: Register online

Before your interview, you must register a delivery address for your passport’s return with the embassy’s online service. Registration is free. Click the “Register” button below to register."

 

On following the link and filling in the page to register a visa appointment we are getting the following error:

 

"The Immigrant Visa case number provided is not ready to schedule an appointment. If you have not received an appointment letter/email from the National Visa Center (NVC), you can check the status of your IV case at http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/nvc.html.

If you have received an appointment letter/email from the NVC or an instruction letter/email from the Consular Section directing you to this website to schedule an appointment, please make sure to correctly enter your IV case number."

 

We may be being a bit dense in our excitement/nerves- has anyone done this stage yet have any advice on this? 

 

It may take a day for it to update on their system or should we start querying it immediately?

 

Ours took a day or so. Don’t panic, just give it a couple days.

Yay congrats to everyone who got their dates today!!

I finally managed to have a full FaceTime conversation with my husband, between a hectic day for me at work and him traveling back from London. He told me a little bit about the interview process and I wanted to share that here.

He was at the embassy for a total of 40 minutes. He arrived 30 minutes early and waited for a while. There were two stages, first was biometrics. The woman taking his biometrics asked when he was planning to travel to the states, and he said hopefully before Christmas. She said visa processing is taking about three days after approval.

The second stage was the actual “interview” but it was more like a conversation. The woman asked three questions:

How did you meet your wife?

Why did you decide to propose?

How and where did you propose?

Apparently it was all very easy and casual, and she approved him after about three minutes! She told him to expect the visa in 1-2 weeks, but I think that they are just required to say that - it clearly hasn’t been taking that long lately.

All in all a pretty easy experience (except for the 18 months of waiting of course lol). The only documents he was asked for were passport, courier letter, and embassy appointment letter. It still doesn’t feel real that he could be here by Christmas! 

Congrats again to those who got interviews today! And I will be thinking good thoughts for those waiting to hear in January 🤞🏻

1 hour ago, Andy&Jamie said:

Just so y'all know, received my passport today at about 12 midday. Also received the news that my wife tested positive for covid. She's asymptomatic, and believe me my main concern is with her health, but alas - this will probably set us back another week or so. Should still make it in time for Christmas but... Meh. Not great news. Thankfully my test came back negative even though I still feel a little #######, but I think my symptoms may have been some kind of acute stress comedown (I really did feel rotten though, and i got swine flu at the same time as having 2 broken ribs so believe me I know what rotten feels like 😂) 

 

Anyways, tl;dr: interview on 7th, 221g asking me to upload spouse 2019 1040, uploaded straight away, passport arrived on 10th.

Oh no I’m so sorry to hear about your wife!! That’s such bad timing. Still, I’m glad to hear the passport arrived promptly! And thank you for keeping us posted on your timeline. It’s so encouraging for those of us with upcoming appointments to see people getting their passports back in just a few days. I hope your wife gets better very soon, and I hope you find some relief from your symptoms!

11 hours ago, Andy&Jamie said:

Well guys... 

 

I got... 

 

 

 

 

APPROVED!

 

 

Well, technically I got the green slip asking me to upload the missus' 1040 for 2019. But uh... That is now already uploaded, because despite my wife being in california she's still awake and she did it 😂. CO told me as long as I did it today it wouldn't add any processing time to my visa processing. 

 

The words do not exist in the English language to express my relief thst this is done, and that in all likelihood I'll be home with my better half for Christmas. This year has been horrible, I'm sure we can all agree. But thank you guys all so much, for all the information, support, encouragement, all of it. I'm feeling a lot of things right now so I'm not sure if I'm even typing this in English. 

 

I'll do a interview review thing shortly. Right now I need to decompress. I'm sure those of you recently approved will be familiar with the feeling but it's like... Literally my whole damn life from august last year to right now has revolved around this process and now it's done. Do I laugh? Cry? Scream all of that stress into the void and breathe in the glorious fresh air of relief? I'll update you all which one(s) I decide to do. 

 

Much love. ❤️❤️❤️

Yay!!! Congratulations! Please keep us posted as to when you receive your passport back! 

For those who have already received their passport with their visa following the interview - how long did it take? I know they tell you 1-2 weeks at the embassy but I’m curious if anyone recently has gotten theirs sooner or later than that.

1 hour ago, SEWI said:

 

I must have drafted a UK 'Dreaded 221g' thread a dozen or so times, since being rejected at my Interview on November 23rd, as I've become more and more anxious by the situation.

But, I can now, finally, update my 221g situation! Yay! 

 

23/Nov/2020 INTERVIEW: US Consulate London 

23/Nov/2020 CEAC: Rejected

23/Nov/2020 UPLOADED documents as requested by the interviewer

24/Nov/2020 E-mail response to my e-mail notifying the embassy of the documents being uploaded

24/Nov/2020 CEAC: Case last updated, still marked as rejected (I was expecting this to have updated to Administrative Processing)

...

...

30/Nov/2020 CEAC: Case last updated, still marked as rejected (this was the update that aggravated my concerns!)

...

03/Dec/2020 CEAC: ISSUED

 

ISSUED! ISSUED! ISSUED! Someone plz. pass me some TISSUES so I can wipe away my tears of joy! 16-months of separation, and my flight is now in sight! 

...Time to wakeup my wife!

 

 

Yes!! Congrats!

12 hours ago, Lola1990 said:

1- How long after you were documentary qualified did you recieve an interview in the US-  London Embassy?

2- How did you get notified about your interview in the US Embassy in London? (I am assuming by email?)

3- How much time in advance were you given / notified about your interview date? (2 weeks, 3 weeks?)

1 - August 6th -> November 13th, so about 3 months and 1 week

2 - My husband and I both received an email on November 13th

3 - November 13th -> December 15th, so just over 1 month

16 minutes ago, SEWI said:

Log into your CEAC portal, click on the *Documents* tab, and then upload into the respective category. Just as you(they?) would have done for the documents, as originally required. Just make sure to press the *Submit* button at the end, and complete the confirmation pop-up. 

 

Thank you! I am going to upload, just to be on the safe side. I was surprised to see that someone had been asked for those documents to be uploaded, since everything else I've seen said to just bring it in person, but I would rather err on the side of caution and not have any delay if possible!

21 hours ago, SteveBris said:

Interview went smooth today, just asked for standard docs, we uploaded our 2019 tax transcripts and w2s last week so I guess it was there for them. Nothing else to add that hasn’t already been said! 
Good luck to the December batch, all the best to you! 

Hi, I asked our lawyer if we should upload our taxes/W-2s before our interview which is in two weeks, and she said that she didn't think it would be possible for us to do that on CEAC. How did you manage to upload the documents? I am wondering if my lawyer is missing something. Thank you!

14 hours ago, Dags said:

I second that! Interview Nov 17 @11.0am and passport with visa here with me @09.10 today.

Incredible!! I can’t believe how efficient they’ve been. Hoping that by our interview date (Dec 15) things are still as efficient, it would be amazing to be together in time for the holidays ❤️

12 hours ago, Caresse33 said:

Thank you for posting, this gives us so much hope for the August DQ

I’m sure you’ll be in the next batch! Best of luck to you!

4 minutes ago, Dags said:

Hopefully  you guys will hear something from embassy soon! They haven’t canceled any November appointments and they still let DFC and expedite cases

to book appointments. Maybe it will be little bit later this month 🙏🏼 

That’s what I’m thinking! Maybe we have been reading into this “pattern” that develop with interview dates being sent out early each month. There have only been two or three months where that was the case, so it’s not really much of a pattern 😂 they might only be running behind by like a week or something, you just never know. 

8 minutes ago, MzA said:

Hey guys,

With the long awaited expected interview dates this month that is still not here, it's easy to want to give up hope. We've come too far, so we have to continue to be hopeful and hold on to a glimmer of trust that it'll be over sooner than later. There's still one more day left of this week where we could get lucky! Come on LND Embassy.... Get a move on!!! Good luck y'all 🤞🏾🙏🏾

Appreciate this positivity ♥️ 

13 minutes ago, jackbuck93 said:

Yes I am worried too that we are not "mission critical". I have repeatedly asked what they mean by that and they won't answer it. Do we know if anybody is having interviews through November? If so, then we are out of lockdown in December so no reason not to continue making appointments. 

As far as I know, November haven’t been canceled, so I have no idea why they wouldn’t be scheduling interviews for next month!

42 minutes ago, PBabz said:

Hi Jack, Tom

 

Earlier on this year, it was about 5 months from DQ to interview (notification coming one month before interview)

A few of us here in this thread have been waiting since the beginning of July and still no interview dates.

 

I think erring on the side of caution, 5-6 months might be a more realistic estimate of waiting times at the moment.

 

Fingers crossed to have things still moving along for everyone though. 

 

Keep hanging in there everyone  

Does anybody know what’s going on at the embassy and why we haven’t had another batch of dates released this month? I’m so worried. I wish we could do more than just speculate! 

1 hour ago, PBabz said:

I can see both sides of this - I do think we may take the phrase 'mission critical' too literally though. It does seem like it may be eluding to humanitarian efforts, etc, but I think as far as the US are concerned, family/spousal visas are mission critical.

 

Quote from the initial proclamation in July here:

Mission-critical immigrant visa categories may include applicants who may be eligible for an exception under this presidential proclamation, such as: IR/CR1, IR/CR2, IR/IH-3, IR/IH-4, SQ, SI, and certain employment-based medical professionals, as well as cases involving an applicant who may age out.  

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/Proclamation-Suspending-Entry-of-Immigrants-Who-Present-Risk-to-the-US-labor-market.html

This sets my mind at ease, thank you! I couldn’t sleep last night because I was thinking about the possibility of additional delays. I appreciate this information, makes me hopeful for another batch being released this week. Previous batches have come out on Thursday and Fridays so probably not tomorrow but fingers crossed for the end of the week!

It's still pretty early in the day for the NVC, so I'm still holding my breath a little bit today. What time of day did others get their interview notifications? Was it first thing or is it pretty variable?

3 hours ago, RadChan said:

 

Ooooh, you might just make it, in that case! I know that pain of waiting. Yes, my theory is that even denied expedites might get a tiny boost if you win someone's sympathies (even if you don't meet official requirements). I think I mentioned before, that my interview was a couple of weeks "early" (going by the 5 months average) and someone else who commented on here  also got a slightly early one, even though both our expedites were denied. Let us know tomorrow if you hear, I want to test my (highly scientific 😜) theory further! 😂😂

 

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you!

I think you might be onto something! Or maybe I just hope you are lol! Thanks for the support either way, we are very anxious to hear something.

21 minutes ago, RadChan said:

How early in August did you DQ? If it is at the very start of the month, you might be lucky? I was a July 1st DQ and made it into the last batch for a Nov 17th interview, but I haven't heard on here of any other July DQs who made it into that group. 

We were August 6th. I submitted enough expedite request that I'm kind of hoping somebody bumped me up a little bit at some point along the way. I don't want to get my hopes too high but I still can't stop thinking about it!

Anyone heard anything today? I'm so anxious to hear something. I'm wondering if the next batch will be next week instead. I know that as an August DQ we might still have to wait until next month, but I'm still desperate to see if we made it into this batch! 

2 hours ago, Andy&Jamie said:

Hey guys. July 23rd DQ here. Really really hoping I hear something tomorrow, and will keep y'all posted the minute I do hear something. Just wanted to say a quick good luck and pass on my well wishes. This has been a brutal year for all of us but we will get there. Be safe everyone. ❤️

Hey! I’m August 6th DQ. It’s been the hardest year of my partner’s and my life. I’m just really grateful to have found a few people who can relate to what we’re going through. I really hope that you do hear something tomorrow, and maybe we will just barely make the cut as well. Best of luck! We will get through this and it will all be worth it soon! ❤️