favobee

The only thing we were ever told about timing was "at the beginning of the month", (this was in April and the person was referring to the beginning of May), but that turned out not to be true. My theory is either the people answering about the phone don't know or they can't do anything about it, so they tell us something that will get us to stop calling for at least 2 weeks.. 😅

Same here, we are still checking every day but haven't found one yet. According to the person I talked to about 12 days ago (see my last comment), I'm expecting some kind of email from the consulate this week, but keeping my expectations low as to how helpful it will be. (More instructions on how to book an appointment, as though this while situation is our fault? That is becoming my biggest pet peeve haha. 😆) But still hoping for the best for all of us!

Hey Kay! I was able to reach one of the consulate numbers today, and wanted to share what I learned. On the number you're supposed to dial from the US that can be found on this page, there was a recording saying they were closed for routine operations, so I tried one of the SL based ones instead (+232 99 1055 00 ext 5082), and reached a person. I mentioned that we had applied for a K visa, and asked if they were indeed closed for routine operations, because their phone system said so and because we haven't seen new appointments for about 1 month. The person on the other end said they are still operating and processing visas, and were aware of the issue with the appointment shortage. She mentioned that their team had discussed this problem at a meeting recently and had decided on a way forward. She said they would be reaching out to applicants in about "2 weeks" via email. Sorry this is really vague, but that is everything I took from the conversation. The audio was cutting in and out a little bit (it could have been my phone/connection, not sure), so there may have been some detail I missed. I think we will keep checking the AVITS appointment page in the meantime just in case, but if we haven't heard from them in two weeks, I'll be trying that number again. 😇

Something that might be helpful for your planning... We had a friend who has his interview recently (so the appointments do exist!) His interview was successful 🎉 and was given a date to return to pick up his passport with the Visa. When he returned to the consulate, on the date that the consulate had told him, he was told that his passport was not ready yet. 🫠 Somebody else who came at the same time was told the same thing, and just from overhearing, our friend had the sense that it was not the first time that dude had been told to come back. Our takeaway, having a date to pick up the visa is not the same thing as having the visa in hand. If it hadn't happened to someone I know, I might not have believed it. Just, yuck.

Oof da (as we say in MN), thank you for sharing about your journey, and congratulations! Reading stories like yours is an encouraging snapshot of what we hope for our future, and also a reminder that we're not alone in this frustrating chapter. 😖 This cannot be over soon enough. Someone's gonna be hearing from me tomorrow. 😆

Here are some pages where I have found contact info that I have tried: https://www.usvisaappt.com/visa/page?country=SL&apiPageName=locationsHours&locale=en https://sl.usembassy.gov/visas/ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAFVuWFgfcYN8YrwXxJMeLUdK-C7HuAr9N0GIfIXXeLfRpYw/viewform?pli=1&pli=1 Most of them say there is help available for questions about booking an appointment, but really they just reshare the basic instructions for how booking an appointment should work 🫠 I haven't seen any mention of appointment shortages. I don't know if being the "squeaky wheel" is the right approach, but I'm hoping if they get sick enough of hearing from me while we're stuck in this apparent backlog, they might be able to do something to address the backlog for everyone's sake. Maybe just wishful thinking! 😅

Thank you for the suggestion! I have sent them a message through their portal. Will share if/when I hear back. Fingers crossed...

My fiance is working from and applying for a K1 visa in Freetown, Sierra Leone (but he is from a nearby West African country). The application is at the last stage--the Embassy has received it, and he just needs to schedule his interview. My fiance had been able to schedule his B2 visa interview through the same consulate last year without a problem, just that it was about 4 months from when we scheduled it. So we were expecting that the appointment we found might be a few months out, and we would have to wait. What we didn't see coming was to get to the appointment page and see a message that "Currently, there are no appointments available for the selected location." We submitted the DS-160 on April 8 immediately after learning the case had been forwarded, and have been checking the appointments page several times daily since then. I was able to contact the consulate and was advised that they usually post new appointments at the beginning of the month, so since April 30 we have been checking the page much more frequently, several times every hour. At one point since then, I did notice that the AVITS website displayed the message "This application is currently undergoing updates and is temporarily unavailable. Please check back later." It did this several times. There was also a period where the appointment page was loading too slowly for me to access it, and I tried logging out and back in. I wondered if this might be when appointments were being added, but when I was able to access the page again, it displayed the same "no appointments available" message. It's hard to believe that maintenance message and lapse in loading (which happened early on the morning of April 30, Freetown time) was due to new appointments coming online and getting booked so fast. I'm aware that this problem is not new, and that many people have had to try at it a lot longer than us before they found an appointment, so we understand these things take time. But like with the DS-160, it is just challenging enough that we are starting to ask ourselves, "Are we doing this right, or are we missing something?" Any thoughts or tips welcome! Feb ??, 2024 | Received B2 visa & visited the US in summer 2024 Sept 11, 2024 | I-129f application received by USCIS Feb 10, 2025 | Case approved and sent to NVC Mar 24, 2025 | Case completed NVC processing Apr 8, 2025 | NVC sent case to Embassy in Freetown, SL Apr 17, 2025 | Embassy in Freetown, SL confirmed receipt of our case