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| Egypt |  Review on November 16, 2011: |
Tarig
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I have had my share of bad experiences with Embassies, but this one ranks really low in satisfaction. My fiancee and I first noticed something was wrong when it took close to 9 weeks since we heard back from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. My fiancee submitted all forms, documentation, and paperwork on August 25th but we received the notification for interview on October 24th...and that was not the worst part. The worst news was the letter communicated (indirectly via website) that my fiancee\'s scheduled interview was on October 17th, so interview date was 6 days before we received the interview notification! In trying to fix this issue, it became very apparent that the Embassy suffers major organizational and management issues. They hardly respond to emails, answer phone inquiries only two hours of the day, and have massive failure of internal and external communication. It turned out that the notification letter was NOT delayed by DHL....DHL received the letter from the Embassy on October 20th, so it was already 3 days late when the Embassy submitted the letter to DHL. I was told, after several phone attempts, that my fiancee will be rescheduled within a week and will be notified by email. That never happened and so I was forced to follow up with yet another round of phone attempts, hours being on hold, and countless emails. I like to think my incessant phone calls and my overwhelming e-mails finally got their attention. However, my fiancee was rescheduled on November 13th for a new interview date on November 15th, which was less than 30 hours away from the time the email was sent. My fiancee scrambled to pack, book, and catch a flight from Khartoum (SUDAN) to Cairo in half a business day. The only appeasement in this entire experience is she was finally approved for K-1 visa. But she explained to me how petitioners waited for hours in very long lines with no idea what is happening. Whatever happened to assigning every person a time slot, replying to emails, being courteous, and minimizing disorder? Thank you to the interviewer and whoever made my fiancee\'s interview possible, but there is a chronic and systematic problem with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and it reflects badly on the management while makes the job of phone service and external communication a lot harder.
(updated on November 19, 2011)
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8712