Shoud we be worried?

[JezJess 2]

I'm sorry if this is covered somewhere and I've missed it!

I've been poking around the forums (and appreciating again Vanessa's threads in particular), but I'm having trouble pinpointing whether we should be getting nervous about the length of time that has passed since the NOA2.

We received notice on May 17th that our petition had been approved and it had been sent onward. Since then we've heard nothing. I know it supposedly can take a month to hear from the consulate - but it's been nearly six weeks now.

Any insight? Should we be worried and try to contact the consulate or are we still within normal parameters?

Thank you a ton in advance!

- Jess

[Cathi 5,755]

you don't contact the consulate, from uscis it goes to the NVC. you can contact then at 603 334 0700

[Dupont 0]

It took a while for me too. We received NOA2 on May 8th. We didn't receive packet three from the embassy until 30 May (although much shorter than you). And that was after I called to follow up - they then sent it the next day. It's impossible to get through to them by phone. You get sent to a call center. Your best bet is to email them at SydneyIV@state.gov. I would definitely follow up - as they are probably just behind. Call them - and email them. The second time I called, my case was marked as a higher status - because it hadn't been resolved yet. And then I received packet three the next day. So it might take a couple of phone calls. Have you called NVC yet? Would be good to call them and get your case number (they assign it) so then you can mention that in your emails. The good news is that you can go ahead and prepare the docs needed for packet three if you haven't already - so go ahead and get your medical, police check, etc. Let me know if you have any questions! And good luck!

[Dupont 0]

you don't contact the consulate, from uscis it goes to the NVC. you can contact then at 603 334 0700

Yes but after NVC it goes to the Consulate. I would contact NVC to see when it left so you can get a sense of where the hold up is. If it has left NVC, definitely contact the consulate.

[JezJess 2]

Thank you to both of you

We were so focused on the petition approval we didn't spare much thought for the rest of the process - other than gathering the documents that he will need in Sydney.

We'll start calling/emailing tomorrow.

[Mitexi 8]

I see that your petition was at California Service Center. There's been a lot of issues with approved CSC petitions not being sent to the NVC within the 15 business days they tell you it will take. There are people with NOA2 dates way back to the beginning of May still waiting for CSC to send their petitions to the NVC. )= Here's a few threads discussing the abnormal waiting times:

Getting NVC case number

Stuck between USCIS and NVC

Hopefully when you call NVC they've already received your petition and have your case number waiting for you, but if not, at least you're not alone in this problem.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Agree with everyone else to call NVC.

On the up side, this gives you more time to get your P3 documents together so that when you receive P3 you can reply immediately. So close. It'll feel like it's going so quick once you get P3. You'll get the interview notice and it'll feel like it's ages away until a couple of days till interview and you'll feel like there's not enough time. Then you'll realise that in a few short weeks you'll be together again and not parted. It'll be awesome

Oh, also gives you time to save the $1070 required for AOS

[JezJess 2]

I realized that not only did I misspell "should" in the thread title, but that I never returned to thank everyone for their friendly advice!

CVC is apparently incredibly slow. The extremely kind man at the NVC said that they hadn't received the case file from CVC until June 25th - and that they'd forwarded it onward to Sydney on July 2nd (yesterday).

Which means that it took 5.5 weeks for the file to make it from the CVC to the NVC - and a week for the NVC to send it out.

Thank you guys for all the kind advice, I seriously don't know where we'd be without this site!

Edited July 3, 2012 by JezJess