Embassy says i did not attend interview!!!!

[YNWA 0]

Hi All

I just wanted to share my experience with others and see who else has had the same problem in the UK.

My K1 interview was on APR 20TH 2011 and i was told that i was approved and paid my courier fee but told there may be a sligh delay due to all the holidays and the additional holiday for the royal wedding.

Anyway, i still have not received my passport after almost 10 working days tomorrow, so i emailed the embassy on FRI and today i got a reply saying that my case was in AP and they cannot specify when my visa would be issued.

I then called them up today to see if i could speak to someone and a very nice lady spoke to me and said well if we have your passport then thats the last stage of the process, if i was in AP they would have told me at the interview and not tell me i was approved.

She then went a way for a short time and came back and told me that she checked my file and it stated that i 'FAILED TO APPEAR FOR THE INTERVIEW' which was obviously not the case as the embassy has my passport.

She then gave me a special code to email the consular and put this code in the subject field. She stated that without this code they dont really look into detail at your case.

So i have emailed them back with this and now awaiting a reply.

I am totally confused now because......

1. why would they reply to say its in AP which means they obviously know i attended the interview.

2. i called DOS on FRI they said it was approved but not yet issued.

3. well if the lady said im shown that i did not attend the interview then point 1 does really make sense.

who the hell do i believe?

DOS

THE 1ST WMAIL FROM CONSULAR WITHOUT CODE

THE LADY ON THE PHONE TELLING ME TO EMAIL WITH THE CODE

Anyone else experienced this problem?

please help

[Mrs O. 29]

To be on the safe side, believe the worst, email with the code you were given. Dont stop calling or emailing untiul you know what s going on!

[JoannaV 174]

Just try to breathe until you get a reply to the email.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Emailing with a code gives you the better option to get information from an actual officer who can look at the details of you case. The person who answers the visa line at the embassy usually doesn't give information you can rely on. I've heard too many stories of wrong information. I called them one time while I was in the UK and got incorrect information.

Why haven't you called DOS back to see what their info says? If you weren't born in the UK, and I don't think you were, there is a higher liklihood of Additional Processing. I know many people who were told they were approved and then had AP. The interviewer found everything in order to his satisfaction. That doesn't always mean you've cleared any final security checks that can be done before the visa is actually issued. When you call DOS make sure you clarify what they mean by the letters AP. Sometimes it's used to mean Admininistrative Processing which could just mean paper shuffling to print the visa, assemble the brown envelope and pass it all to the courier.

When I went to the interview with my fiance, the computers were down so they said they couldn't do the final security checks until they were back up and he wasn't sure how long before they were fixed. When I called DOS to inquire, the first thing she told me was "it says you were a no show at the interview, what happened?" I assured he we were there, so she said "let me check a different page." Then she said by looking somewhere else she could see that the visa had been printed that afternoon. What I learned from that is security checks come after the interview and there's more than one screen to look at to dig into what's going on. She could have not taken the time to dig and hung up after looking at the first screen. In your case, who to believe?? Difficult to tell, so keep asking until you come up with an answer that says your visa is printed.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Nich-Nick

[YNWA 0]

Emailing with a code gives you the better option to get information from an actual officer who can look at the details of you case. The person who answers the visa line at the embassy usually doesn't give information you can rely on. I've heard too many stories of wrong information. I called them one time while I was in the UK and got incorrect information.

Why haven't you called DOS back to see what their info says? If you weren't born in the UK, and I don't think you were, there is a higher liklihood of Additional Processing. I know many people who were told they were approved and then had AP. The interviewer found everything in order to his satisfaction. That doesn't always mean you've cleared any final security checks that can be done before the visa is actually issued. When you call DOS make sure you clarify what they mean by the letters AP. Sometimes it's used to mean Admininistrative Processing which could just mean paper shuffling to print the visa, assemble the brown envelope and pass it all to the courier.

When I went to the interview with my fiance, the computers were down so they said they couldn't do the final security checks until they were back up and he wasn't sure how long before they were fixed. When I called DOS to inquire, the first thing she told me was "it says you were a no show at the interview, what happened?" I assured he we were there, so she said "let me check a different page." Then she said by looking somewhere else she could see that the visa had been printed that afternoon. What I learned from that is security checks come after the interview and there's more than one screen to look at to dig into what's going on. She could have not taken the time to dig and hung up after looking at the first screen. In your case, who to believe?? Difficult to tell, so keep asking until you come up with an answer that says your visa is printed.

Hi Thanks for this, your right i was not born in the uk so this could be a possible.

I can confirm that the AP meant Additional administrive processing as stated from the email. I also sent them an email asking if they needed anything from me and they said nothing at this time and if they do they would let me know.

My wedding is on Aug 5th and i am so worried im not going to make it in time.

I called DOS and they said its in AP and this could take min of 60 days but sometimes a lot less, i have given up on who to believe.

If i could start from the beggining there is no way on earth i would ever do the k1 again i shoudl have just done the CR1 and my baby could have been here with me whilst waiting.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

My wedding is on Aug 5th and i am so worried im not going to make it in time.

i have given up on who to believe.

You have 3 months and that's probably going to be enough time to sort you out.

Who to believe?? Believe you're in AP. How long? Nobody knows so they are just giving you a guess kinda picked out of the air. It's like if somebody asked how long will a K1 take? Ours took 4.5 months start to finish even with asking for a delayed interview. Is that a good answer? No because workloads change, consulates are different, people get RFEs, people show up to interviews without the proper documents. Nobody knows exactly how long a specific case will take. I'll say 4 weeks AP for you. Now who to believe? Nobody because it depends on your country of birth, how common your name is, if a known terrorist has the same name as you or your parent, if records are available in databases or paper files have to be reviewed in another country or a records center in the US. The hard thing will be nobody will give you details or a progress update and so you just wait. It's tough, but gear up mentally to forget about it for one month and organize your moving or spend alot of times with friends. Do anything but call DOS everyday. If nothing happens in a month, then give DOS another call. There's no way to speed it up or find out what they are doing so calling constantly will just make you sadder. Good luck!

Edited May 9, 2011 by Nich-Nick