Visa Delivery times

[MarkandLada 0]

Howdy All, just a quick question for some of you who have been through the K1 process. Our interview is 7/3, and with 7/4 being a holiday, I am guessing that her visa will not leave until Monday 7/7. I know this is not the smartest thing to do, but I am going to try and time my trip to coincide with her visa delivery. Her daughter's schooling starts 7/17 and I want to get them here at least a week beforehand. My question is on average, how long would it take for her visa to be delivered if by DHL Express? If her interview is at 8am, is there a chance it would go out that same day? Most timelines I have seen have delivery from 3-6 days. DHL Global says 1 day (since it is only 1.75 hours by plane)? If we are set to depart on 7/14 is that enough time, as I don't think staying in Moscow is an option at this point. Thanks everybody, and may all your journeys be quick ones!

[Chris & Olya 0]

Hi Mark, Olya's interview was on May 28th and she had Visa in on May 31st. But that was because she waited in Moscow. So if everything is in order I would allow at least a week just to be safe. Good LUCK !

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

In my Alla's case...

• Embassy Interview: Wednesday 21 May
• Visa Picked Up By DHL at Embassy: Tuesday 27 May
• Visa Delivered to Alla in Kazan': Wednesday 28 May

[KGSodie 0]

I HATE to be the rain on the parade, by my own experience was different from the other reports here. I too went to Moscow and waited with Natasha for the delivery of the visa (I also paced outside the consulate in the snow for 2 hours during the interview), but this did not speed the delivery process.

Interview: 26 Feb 2008

Visa delivered: 13 Mar 2008

No explanation was ever given for the delay, and in fact at the interview Natasha was given the standard line about receiving the visa in 1 week (though the best theory we have is that since Natasha had a previous K-1 they examined her petition very carefully). Every time we contacted the consulate we were told "visa approved, you should receive it in <insert time here - 2 days, 5 days, 1 week>". The only time they told us something different was 2 days before we actually received the visa, when we were told it would take up to 1 month.

In short, you just can't expect good information from the consulate when it comes to delivery times. That said, the VAST majority of visas seems to be delivered in less than a week (for the Moscow consulate) from the information available from the live reports here and on other visa forums.

So, is the 11 days you plan adequate? The best answer is 'probably', with perhaps a 95% confidence rating.

Good luck!

[MarkandLada 0]

Thanks for the input everybody! I think I may have to add a couple of days on the back end of the trip to be safe. On that note, what are the best days to fly into Atlanta so that our processing time is minimal? Our time between flights is about 2.5 hours, and I was going to have us come thru either on a Sunday or Monday.

[KGSodie 0]

Oh good Lord. Atlanta! Our experience there wasn't any better than Moscow.

We had 5 hours between flights, and we got to the gate for our connecting flight as the plane was boarding.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, we proceeded to the passport control area. It was hot with a long line. We waited in the non-US Citizen's line for about 90 minutes, then as we were getting 'close' to the front (maybe 100 people in front of us still) they opened the US Citizen's lines for everyone. We jumped over there and waited another 20 minutes or so. When we got to the passport control officer, he looked at the visas and said we needed to go downstairs. That's a twisty maze of passages, all alike, and we finally arrived at the 3-booths (labeled, helpfully, 1, 2, and 3). We were directed to booth 3, the only booth with a single officer. The counter tops at which the officers are stationed contain wire racks of pending travelers (this is where you put the sealed packet, among other things). The rack at booth 3 had a single file in it. Great, we thought, smooth sailing. I don't know if it was 1) the complexity of the case ahead of us or 2) the fact that only one officer was manning booth 3 or 3) the incompetence of the immigration officer, but we waited there for another 2 hours to be processed. With only 1 case ahead of us. While waiting, about 15 new cases queued up behind us. It was a quagmire of Homer-ian proportions.

We did make our flight, but only by the skin of our teeth. Not having assigned seats didn't help the fret-level, but there were 3 seats level (a miracle!) and we arrived safely, though tiredly, in Omaha.

I've also read many good reports about Atlanta, and I sincerely hope your experience there goes better than ours!

Good luck!

[KGSodie 0]

We processed through Atlanta on Tuesday, March 18. We landed around 4:50 PM (Delta 47) with a connecting flight of 8:33 PM. That's about 3.75 hours between flights (the 5 hours I originally quoted was for our original flights, which we had to change 2 or 3 times while we were waiting in Moscow).