To_the_moon

Poland has recently banned all Russians entering their country, regardless of their Schengen visas. So I don’t know if we’ll still attend his interview in Warsaw.

How is that travel fraud if the embassy clearly invited us to attend the interview? By the way, no definitive instructions have been released yet in regards to land travel among EU countries. They banned entrance on Russian-Estonian/Lithuanian/Latvian borders, which means no new Russians will be allowed, but what can they do to people who entered prior to this ban? In addition to travel fraud claim, fairly speaking they should also question people getting Schengen visas to Italy/Spain or any other country to attend their interview in Warsaw without stepping a foot in those countries. Or getting business visas to France to attend a "business conference"😄 My point is that the US consulate in Warsaw is clearly aware of Russian citizens having trouble getting into the country for almost two years but still continues interviewing them without questioning their path to Europe. And I never suggested anything illegal, I was just trying to work around the blind spots that have not been clearly identified yet. Of course I would never even try to cross the border illegally. But until it does become illegal, it is only a theory which can change multiple times before our interview day.

Does your case number start with 3 letters abbreviating your consulate?

Doesn't seem like USCIS has certain days to send out petitions, unlike NVC that mails petitions to appropriate consulates every other Tuesday. The next shipment will supposedly be on this upcoming Tuesday. However, I'd anticipate up to 6 weeks until USCIS sends your case to NVC. At least, that's their "official" timeframe (not to mix up with NVC processing time).

Yes, I did read your informative post in another thread. I cannot imagine, though, Polish officers stopping every car on every border to search for a Russian passport. Especially, if I, as a US citizen, just rent a car and drive ourselves to Warsaw. I assume, that would, first of all, discriminate all other Europeans who drive across the border and shouldn't, technically, experience any border control procedures. Also, there are SO many roads connecting Poland with other EU countries that I think there is not enough manpower to stop every car without creating a huge traffic. We have already lost our hope to get there by air/train, or any other port of entry that will check his passport, so I'm exploring opportunities to get there by car. Our airbnb booking is on my name and I will provide my passport details for check-in. Meanwhile, we are also trying to transfer our case to another location, which, of course, has many downsides as well.

Is anyone aware about passport control between EU countries on land? I mean car, buses, trains, etc. We were of course planning on going to another country first, information about Poland accepting Russians directly from their flight was conflicting, so we decided not to take our chances. My fiancé is applying for a Hungarian visa next week and our plan was Hungary-Czech Republic-Poland. I wonder if anyone would check his visa if we just drive from Czech Republic to Poland?

Yes, you can check your case status using this link https://ceac.state.gov/ceacstattracker/status.aspx It should show "At NVC" status right now. Once they send your case on Tuesday you will get an email from NVC and your case status will change to "In Transit". It should go pretty quick from now on.

Our updated timeline: NOA1 - May 17, 2021 NOA2 - June 29, 2022 NVC Received - August 11, 2022 NVC Sent - August 30, 2022 Case "Ready" at Consulate - August 31, 2022 Packet 3 Received - September 9, 2022 Interview - December 6, 2022 (Questionable...)

Ironically, our case is ready for interview at the Warsaw embassy. My Russian fiancé got his instructions (Packet 3 I suppose?) emailed today. Surprisingly, it only took 10 days from NVC sending our case to Warsaw to receiving instructions, which is VERY fast. I've read stories about people waiting on their instructions for 2 months. Very. Bad. Timing. Everything has started going so smoothly and now we probably won't be able to attend his interview in Warsaw. Why do they keep sending out instructions? How are we supposed to get to an interview they are inviting us to?

They only send out cases on Tuesdays. So probably this upcoming Tuesday people from July will start getting their notifications.

Sorry I cannot provide you with the copy of my email; all cases are different and I don't want you to rely on ours. Also, I cannot just pull out the personal info because all of it IS personal. But I can briefly outline its content. I said that my fiancé has never obtained a Schengen visa before, which complicates his chances of approval. I also mentioned the potential ban on Russians entering Poland and asked if a scheduled interview in Warsaw would fall under the humanitarian type of visa. I also asked for an advice on what to do but you saw their reply.

The exact and only wording was: На данный момент выдача виз с целью, указанной в электронном письме, приостановлена.

My representative never replied to my email I sent 1 month ago about USCIS not sending our case to NVC for 2 months after approval... So I guess finding a good and helpful representative is another complicated task in this never ending journey.

I have also contacted the Polish consulate in Moscow explaining our situation and requesting a humanitarian visa. They refused saying the issuance of humanitarian type visas due to the circumstances outlined in my email are now suspended.

You can schedule your appointment at any time using your WAC number, even prior to NOA2. I personally did it in July about 4-5 weeks after our NOA2, and the nearest available appointment was for February 2023 So the backlog for non polish residents is huge. But I believe if she is polish she will have a priority and you could get a closer date. I would recommend to at least wait for your NOA2, so you don’t lose your consular fee because you can only reschedule 2 or 3 times. It’s hard to predict your appointment date before NOA2 because USCIS processing time is unpredictable.

I had my interview scheduled before it was received by the consulate, I just didn’t input it in my timeline. Some embassies allow you to schedule beforehand, you just need to pay the fee.

I wish they could come up with a temporary "humanitarian" type of visa for interview purposes only. Our case was finally received by the consulate today and now says "Ready" with all those unpleasant news around. 😥

Did they only give you the number or did they send the case to the consulate?

You will probably get your case transferred on the 13th, as they only ship bi-weekly. Stay strong🙏🏼 If you used the public inquiry tool there is little chance they will reply sooner than 2 months. I sent my inquiry over a month ago and haven’t gotten a response yet. The only way to communicate with then is through the expedite requests.

No, I requested an expedite at NVC level after about 5 weeks without hearing anything and they replied that they don’t have our case yet and it may take up to 6 weeks for USCIS to send it to NVC. So by the end of 6 weeks I requested another expedite and they said they just received our case, so that’s what I inputted as “NVC received”. P.S. the expedite was denied. They only said they will send it “as soon as possible”.

Our case was sent to the consulate today. 61 days since NOA2.

Please take a look at these timelines for Russian cases: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?cfl=&op1=5&op2=d&op3=1&op4=1&op5=5,6,8,10,11,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,22,25,26,27,28,108,110,111,208,210,211&op6=All&op66=All&op7=Russia&dfile=No&adv=0 You can definitely see an unusual amount of cases getting approved in March/April way earlier than the expected processing. These people are just quietly enjoying their journey

Hey. No, I never said that 1000+ expedites were given to the Russian cases. I said there are 1000+ members of the local group who are sharing their experiences. Some of them were given expedites pretty easily in March/April, others were denied for the same exact reasons thereafter. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Russian cases should get ahead of everyone. I’m just curious why USCIS approved so many expedites with reasons that were not considered ‘traditionally’ valid before.

Personal stories from people that I know. Plus the local Russian chats with 1000+ fiancés/ées.

I guess the ruthless Russian is not that ruthless anymore.