Louis10182

1 hour ago, R gill said:

Hi Louis

 

I booked my medical for 22 August 2022 and i am going to drop my all other required  documents to the consulate on same day because i am flying from South Island. 
 

just want to ask that “ Is city medicals sends the report directly to the consulate or they are going to give me closed envelope to submit to the consulate? “ 

 

My medical appointment is scheduled for 11:00AM and i am planning  to drop all the documents to the Consulate around 10:00 AM before going to the medical. Does it work ? 
 

Thanks .

Yeah that should work. For me the medical was completely electronic, so just got sent to the embassy automatically. 

2 hours ago, R gill said:

hi guys

 

i am trying to book the medical appointment at city medical Auckland but no body is picking the phone , I registered myself on there online system. And got email from them saying that they will contact me for booking but no boday contacted me yet . Do any one know how long they will take to schedule the appointment? 
 

Thanks . 

When I booked mine in July it was quick. I think they phoned later the same day. They also had lots of appointments available for that week. 

Yeah that is rough. I have to do a month without my two year old and 4 month old and that is frustrating enough. 

Once you get your interview letter you can always email the Auckland Consulate and see if they can schedule you to an earlier interview. In my experience the consulate has always been quite reasonable to deal with, even if you have to wait a few days for a response. It's the NVC that is a giant bureaucratic black hole. 

4 hours ago, mekbus said:

 

 

Does anyone know when Auckland sends out interview letters? If we get DQ'd mid/end of July, when should we expect an interview letter? I see @Louis10182 had about a month and @RGill possibly hasn't heard anything about theirs, with a DQ date of 22 June. 

Hi Mekbus 

From what I have seen and read, the interview letters tend to come out around the 20th of the Month and usually sent Friday to Monday (NZ time). So for July I assume they'd likely come over the weekend of the 15th or the weekend of the 22nd. The interview is always scheduled on a Wednesday for CR1/IR1. 

I think the Consulate is still pretty back logged. They are basically trying to catch up all the interviews that were put on hold during last year's lock down (since August 2021).  I also think they kept most classes of interviews on hold until March 2022 as NZ was technically in traffic light 'orange' (even though everything else was open like normal). I think the Consulate eventually realised the traffic light system is arbitrary and the government is not actually using it (I think they have left it at Orange since the lockdown ended and not changed it despite the wording of the traffic light system) so the Consulate restarted all the interviews. But this means they are trying to clear the backlog. 

The consulate recently contacted me to see if I could push my 10 August 2022 interview (IR1) back to 30 August 2022 (but we couldn't because my wife is starting work in the US in August and we have very young children). So looks like the backlog is still not cleared. I also know for my daughter's consulate record of birth abroad and first passport interview the backlog was long. In 2021 for my son it took two weeks to get an interview from from application received, this time it took 4 months and we had to make it an emergency passport application. 

So I suspect that you may be in for a bit of a wait. I'd guess that if you are DQ'd mid July you'll probably receive an interview letter around 20 August 2022 for an interview late September/early October (maybe 28 September or 12 October). 

On 5/20/2022 at 12:01 PM, NZ_101 said:

Congratulations. I'm glad it worked out. They seriously need to fix this!

 

My spouse was recently DQ'd. Would be great to keep each other posted on interview dates etc.

For anyone keeping track of times from DQ to interview we just got our interview letter. 

Was DQ'd on Friday, 20 May 2022 (NZ time). We received our interview letter on Saturday, 18 June 2022 (NZ time) for an interview on 10 August 2022. 

So seemingly things are running a bit slower now that they have opened up interviews etc for all visa classes. 

21 hours ago, jcm122 said:

Hello. Do you have any idea how long the Auckland consulate is taking to issue employment-based immigrant visas?  We had our interview nearly 5 weeks ago (EB visa) and they still have not processed the visa nor returned our passports.  Every time I check with them they just say its still being processed and can't give me a timeline of how long that will take.  No administrative processing or 221g forms received.  Any idea what's going on there?

I have no clue about employment based Visas, but I know the Auckland consulate is pretty swamped at the moment. It put off a lot of non-urgent interviews and applications due to the government lockdown and only started them again in April 2022.

For instance, we were told that appointments for Consular Records of Birth Abroad now has a 4-month wait, when in early 2021 when we did one for my son it was only 2 weeks. 

18 hours ago, NZ_101 said:

Congratulations. I'm glad it worked out. They seriously need to fix this!

 

My spouse was recently DQ'd. Would be great to keep each other posted on interview dates etc.

Yeah it's clearly a flawed system. 

Absolutely, I'll let you know when we hear about interview etc. Hopefully smooth sailing from here.

41 minutes ago, JRDA said:

From our experience with NVC, I'm convinced that as long as you are uploading documents in the "Additional AOS Supporting Documentation" section, you are not sent back to the end of the queue.

We've had apprehension the first time. After submitting "Required Documents" we had uploaded additional documents couple of times and we heard back from NVC according to the 'Current Case Review Time' NVC publishes ' every Monday. So no delays in both reviews!

 I agree. Almost all the posts I've seen and people posting DQ times on Facebook had no issues when uploading further 'additional documents'.

So I got DQ'd today!

I had already swapped in a letter explaining the process etc (probably shouldn't have). 

My wife called the Auckland Consulate three times, eventually the lady on the phone conceded she could not access the system that sends the police certificate to the NVC and recommended we email so she can escalate to a consular officer for review.

So I emailed the Consulate asking them to: (1) resend my police certificate to the NVC (2) to ask the NVC to review it again without going to the back of the line.

The Consulate sent me an email yesterday confirming that on 4 March 2022 the NVC confirmed to the Consulate that they received my police certificate and marked it against my file - but not that the Consulate had resent it or anything. 

I tried calling the NVC a couple of times yesterday but couldn't connect, and the one time I did my call disconnected while on hold (I got into an elevator without thinking).  Then today, literally while on hold to the NVC to request a review, they DQ'd me.

I can only assume the consulate sent them a message in the background!

On 5/19/2022 at 8:20 AM, Louis10182 said:

Well I did have a note advising that in NZ the police certificate comes from the consulate along with the confirmation email - and this is what got RFE'd.  

 

The confirmation email I had uploaded advises:

• in bold that "Neither the Police Vetting Service nor the US authorities can provide vetting results directly to individual applicants." 
• "Your Visa vetting results have been sent, via email, to the US Consulate General in Auckland... The US Consulate General in Auckland is then responsible for forwarding the results... to the National Visa Centre."
•  "If you are required to upload your criminal record from New Zealand as part of the US immigration visa application process you will need to upload.. a copy of this email receipt.  We have been advised by the US Consulate General that this is acceptable."

The Consulate advised that they sent the police certificate to the NVC - so just an issue of the NVC either misplacing it or not bothering to look. 

 

I have uploaded a letter explaining the process attaching the various emails with the NZ vetting service and the consulate and making it clear that the Consulate has sent the police certificate to the NVC. I also included a print out of the civil docs for New Zealand to show that I followed the correct process (as the RFE referred back to these - even though this is exactly what I followed!). 

 

I amended the note to ask them to please read the letter before assessing the police certificate. 

 

But I will also call the NVC and ask them to re-review this as it was their error. I saw someone else from NZ had the same issue and eventually after many phone calls the NVC re-reviewed their application and DQ'd them. 

 

At the same time I have been annoying the consulate to resend my police certificate, hoping (likely in vain) that this may trigger a new review. 

Got DQ'd today! 

My wife called the Auckland Consulate three times and did not get very far - eventually the lady on the phone conceded she could not access the system that sends the police certificate to the NVC and recommended we email so a consular officer could review.

So I emailed the Consulate (all three email addresses) asking them to (1) resend my police certificate to the NVC (2) to ask the NVC to review it again without going to the back of the line. The Consulate sent me an email yesterday confirming that on 4 March 2022 the NVC confirmed to them that they received my police certificate and marked it against my file - but not that they had resent it or anything. 

Then today, literally while on hold to the NVC to request a review, they DQ'd me. I can only assume the consulate sent them a message in the background!

13 hours ago, ROK2USA said:

Are you going to attempt a call to NVC and ask them for an immediate DQ as you submitted the correct documents? Or will you upload the email confirmation with a note?

Well I did have a note advising that in NZ the police certificate comes from the consulate along with the confirmation email - and this is what got RFE'd.  

The confirmation email I had uploaded advises:

• in bold that "Neither the Police Vetting Service nor the US authorities can provide vetting results directly to individual applicants." 
• "Your Visa vetting results have been sent, via email, to the US Consulate General in Auckland... The US Consulate General in Auckland is then responsible for forwarding the results... to the National Visa Centre."
•  "If you are required to upload your criminal record from New Zealand as part of the US immigration visa application process you will need to upload.. a copy of this email receipt.  We have been advised by the US Consulate General that this is acceptable."

The Consulate advised that they sent the police certificate to the NVC - so just an issue of the NVC either misplacing it or not bothering to look. 

I have uploaded a letter explaining the process attaching the various emails with the NZ vetting service and the consulate and making it clear that the Consulate has sent the police certificate to the NVC. I also included a print out of the civil docs for New Zealand to show that I followed the correct process (as the RFE referred back to these - even though this is exactly what I followed!). 

I amended the note to ask them to please read the letter before assessing the police certificate. 

But I will also call the NVC and ask them to re-review this as it was their error. I saw someone else from NZ had the same issue and eventually after many phone calls the NVC re-reviewed their application and DQ'd them. 

At the same time I have been annoying the consulate to resend my police certificate, hoping (likely in vain) that this may trigger a new review. 

2 minutes ago, EKT said:

So sorry this is happening to you. Easily the most frustrating part of applying from NZ. When we got this RFE, I also emailed the consulate at AucklandIV@state.gov to confirm they received it and passed it on to NVC. Make sure you include your full name and case number when you email. Then I would call NVC (expect to wait on hold for ages) and stress that what you submitted the first time was correct and ask if they can flag it to be reviewed by a supervisor instead of going back to end of the line. Unfortunately whenever you upload new documents in CEAC, the most date becomes your place in line. Saying that, occasionally people just seem to get lucky and get a quick second review so fingers crossed that happens for you!

Thanks. 

I have emailed the consulate - so I guess tomorrow I will begin harassing the NVC!

I submitted on 4 March 2022 and just received a RFE. So it seems they are up to 4 March. 

The RFE was for my police certificate. In New Zealand the police does not provide the applicants with a copy of their certificate rather it gets sent directly to the consulate in Auckland who are meant to pass it onto the NVC. We are told to upload the confirmation email into the CEAS (which I did). Unfortunately the NVC does not understand the process and have rejected it. It is a common issue for applicants from New Zealand. 

Hi 

I just received a RFE for police certificate. I know others had issues with this. What did others do to ultimately get the NVC to DQ despite not being able to upload the police certificate themselves? Also was there away to not have to wait the full three months again?

I updated a copy of the form and email from the police confirming that they mailed it to the Auckland Consulate. 

Hi 

I just received a RFE for police certificate. I know others had issues with this. What was the way to ultimately get the NVC to that we can't upload a police certificate?

On 5/7/2022 at 9:27 AM, Stevi_09 said:

Hi, just wondering if you can help me.

 

Ive been DQ'd and i've been asked to upload photographs to CEAC website before interview. Is this photos of us  or is it meant to be of something specific?

 

Thanks in advance 

Hi 

Do you have the exact wording of the message from the NVC? I think they probably mean passport photos (US passport size) of the intending immigrant as it is one of the civil documents.  

Submitted on 5 March 2022. Fingers crossed!

5 hours ago, Sammy.NZ said:

Yay thanks for the update. Let us know if they respond for the police vetting question. I suppose I should do the same. I only uploaded confirmation it had been sent by the NZ police vetting service. 

Will do.  I uploaded the confirmation email from the police in the CEAS as well. Probably not necessary to have emailed the consulate to check (I am sure they would have sent it). Just figured no harm in asking to get some peace of mind.

Hi. 

I emailed the consulate last night just to check that they have received my police vetting and forwarded it onto the NVC. I got an automatic reply email with FAQs in it. 

Based on that email, it looks like interviews are still going ahead for certain visa classes, including the IR-1, CR-1 & K-1 visas. 

• "Are you open for immigrant visa services?  The Consulate remains closed to routine IV applicants requiring in-person interviews until Auckland enters the Orange Level of the COVID-19 Protection Framework / Traffic Light System.  If you have an emergency situation or you are applying for a non-routine service, then you can contact AucklandIV@state.gov for further assistance.  At this time, the only visa categories approved as “non-routine” include IR-1/2, CR-1/2, K-1/2, and SB-1 returning resident visas.  We will be in touch directly with applicants who fall into one of these categories.  
   

• What immigrant visa categories are you processing currently?  At this time, the only visa categories approved as “non-routine” include IR-1/2, CR-1/2, K-1/2, and SB-1 visas. We will be in touch directly with applicants who fall into one of these categories. We have not begun processing any other immigrant visa categories, nor do we anticipate that we will be able to do so before January 2022. We are, however, still accepting documents from applicants applying in other immigrant visa categories. " 

Thanks, Crazy Cat. I assumed that would be the case but better to be safe than sorry!

Hi 

We have recently received our NOA2 and so collating all our documents for the NVC stage. 

I see that for the 'civic documents' step they want birth certificates and passports for "You and each family member immigrating with you..."

I am the beneficiary (New Zealand Citizen) and my wife is the petitioner (USC). We are planning to move to the US together with out 2 year old son (both US and NZ Citizen) once I receive my visa (all going well). 

My question is are my son and wife 'family members immigrating with me' (and hence I need to include copies of their passports and birth certificates? Or because they are not immigrants (i.e. will enter on US passports) there is no need to include their documents? 

My feeling was that I would not need to include their documents, but would love some clarity from someone who understands a bit more than me.