maxbuo

8 hours ago, millefleur said:

As a person who had the unfortunate experience of needing lawyers recently, going through Warsaw is bound to be the cheaper and faster route. Lawyers are extremely expensive and what's worse is, they can make mistakes and give wrong information. 

 

I would just stick with the Warsaw route for now. The medical can be done in Moscow so at least there is that. Unless you have a strong reason to switch to another embassy like Georgia or Kazakhstan, Warsaw is the best bet. 

I second this. I talked with a lawyer in May about an ir1 and she told me a lawsuit was not going to help. We transferred the case to Poland in May and had the visa by early October. I think things are moving faster now. Based on the timeline she gave me, a lawsuit would have been resolved no earlier. I think any honest attorney will tell you the same (and charge you $250 for the hour of their time!)

16 hours ago, Wouter said:

I am a scientist so I like to use numerical data and analysis to get some insight into a situation.

Although Warsaw isn't the biggest post they have actually done amazingly well in processing CR1/IR1 visas throughout the pandemic.

Based on the published numbers https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-immigrant-visa-issuances.html

I have made the below graph of the CR1+IR1 visas issued each month.

You can see that before the pandemic, in 2019, their average was about 15 per month. After a dip in early 2020 they actually increased their processing to well above 15, more like an average of 20. I just added the July 2021 data that came out today and they issued 28 CR1+IR1 visas last month which is a good number. My impression is that they continue to push to work through any backlog and increased case load.

I think this embassy is doing an impressive job processing these visas, especially if you compare it to many other embassies where processing is still way below their 2019 average.

I remain hopeful!

It is true that Warsaw has been prioritizing IR1 visas, among a couple other categories. Unfortunately, it is not only (or even mostly) Warsaw that makes the decisions about which IR1 applicants get initial scheduling but NVC. NVC told me that they schedule based on priority date but the date seems to get reset once you transfer. But maybe not! There are some other wonky things going on with the transfer system. My wife was scheduled later than other IR1/CR1 cases whose priority dates were not as old. It is frustrating because, like you, I would like to look at the data and have a sense of where my wife was in line. I think 3-5 months might be the average going forward but you might get lucky and get scheduled earlier. That will also be annoying because you will have to scramble to organize everything!

11 hours ago, Strawberrymermaid said:

Does anyone have an update on how long its taking Warsaw to give an interview date after notice they will take the case? Last I saw it was like 4-5 months? Is this correct?

It is not clear how NVC is scheduling. For us it took 3 months from WRW number receipt to interview scheduling (May-August). Others seem to have been scheduled earlier with later transfers and some with earlier transfers have not been scheduled. Additionally, it may be that the line is longer than it was in May because it became clear that State was not going to do anything. Also probably depends on category (we are IR1). I would hope that 5 months would be the maximum but it might be more. Or it could be less - and that is also a problem for planning!

10 hours ago, marpolsdofer said:

My step son has a PD of 2019 and a DQ of of 2020.  We also have been trying to get answer like would it be better to stay or leave. Our house representative (his aid) has been trying to help but most of the embassies she has contacted ignored her. Other gave us a least a answer on when to ask again. Few made us email them only for them to say not then tell us to go to Warsaw. I don't understand why Warsaw is the best option. I know Russians need a visa there but am told it is hard to get? Then you also have to stay there for while wait for everything?

Anyway I contacted Warsaw before all this they ignored us then then next time I did told us to pound sand.

I honestly thought a family visa for a child would be high on priority. I mean for crying out load we are trying to get home her so he can attend school hear and be with his family. Not have him come here after he is done with school and should be out of the house.

Now I am not trying to be a ####### or anything here. Why do I see people who have PD like 6-8 years ago and are getting DQ last year or this year.  Why so long?

In the case of my wife 10 month PD to DQ, less then 4 week for interview, 3 weeks for waiting for visa and here. My step son 10 months from PD to DQ.

I may be wrong, but I think people with PD of 6-8 years filed their petition when they were themselves green card holders.

1 minute ago, 0580nvc said:

Wow, that’s kinda crazy for IR1 to wait for a year 

We transferred to Warsaw from the Moscow embassy. The embassy has been closed since March 2020. We would not have waited so long if the embassy had been open. Now it seems like the wait at Warsaw for Russian transfers is 2-4 months from transfer date to the time when NVC schedules the interview.

5 minutes ago, 0580nvc said:

Could you please share you category, PD and DQ date?

IR1, pd summer 2019, DQ summer 2020, transfer in May, scheduled last Friday

1 hour ago, Jane and Mak said:

You can stay in Poland as long as your Shengen is valid. Per doctor's office urine test results takes 4-5 business days to come back, so we planned accordingly. Arrived there on 21, interview on 31. It's a bit longer but because of weekends. The embassy recommends arriving 2-3 weeks in advance, but that's too long, and way too expensive. But again, it all depends on medical conditions that one might have, in case there are complications with tests and such

Interesting. It is an awkward thing to have to be in Warsaw so long and it is expensive. I am most worried that we would face consequences for the extended stay, even with a valid visa. Not much to do I guess unless you want to wait until Poland reopens to Russians.

On 8/22/2021 at 9:45 PM, Jane and Mak said:

Stayed in Greece one night. Arrived from Moscow in the afternoon, got rapid test done right after at the airport- 20 euro, took about 15 min to get results, flew to Warsaw next morning around 10:30

If you don't mind me asking, how long are you planning to stay in Warsaw? They scheduled my wife's interview but it is kind of tricky since she has to do the medical and I am not sure how long you are allowed to be in Poland technically.

2 hours ago, marpolsdofer said:

It seems we are getting more screwed. IR2 been DQ since May of 2020 contacted multiple embassy's and they ignore us and told us to pound sand.

 

That is a long time to be waiting and still not have an interview in sight. I am glad to at least have the prospect of an interview in the upcoming months in Poland, despite the difficulties. At some point I would guess that State will designate one or two countries in the region with robust embassies like Poland or Kazakhstan to absorb Moscow's cases but with 550k people waiting at NVC for scheduling throughout the world, it will probably be a while. The whole system is crazy now.

2 minutes ago, Jane and Mak said:

We transferred in June, DQ Jyly 2020, interview August 31. Yours should be very soon. We were told exactly 1 month in advance. Just be ready!

Dunno. We were DQ June 2020, transfer May 2021. Just shows the whole process is ridiculously arbitrary.

Just to follow up on an earlier post: we are waiting for an IR1 with young US citizen child with DQ in summer 2020 and transferred to Warsaw in May 2021. I suspect that many transferred like us in May and there may be fewer visa cases from Russia after they get through the backlog from May. But at this point I am hoping to have an interview by the end of 2021. On the plus side, it is possible by the time our interview date finally comes it will possible to go directly to Poland.