How long to get an Interview date at the US Embassy in London

[valb47 1]

Hi everyone

Hope someone who has recently gone through this process can help.

My husband and I live in the UK and our daughter (a US Citizen) has petitioned for us both to emigrate to the USA.

We started the process on the 12 Jan 2013, and got the 2nd Notice of Action (I797) on the 18 April 2013. It took the NVC some time to get the documents but I chased them and they sent the request for $88 for the Affidavit of Support fee on the 30 May. We then paid the Immigration Visa fees which were marked paid on the 2 July. We sent off our Visa Application to the NVC on the 4 July 2013 and when I phoned yesterday they said it would take 20 working days for them to review the file.

I then asked how long it would then take to get an interview date at the US Embassy in London and they said they couldn't say.

So my question is - roughly how long does it take from the NVC reviewing the Visa Application and getting an interview at the US Embassy in London?

Many thanks for the help. It's a tough process, mainly because you have no control whatsoever over the timing, but it will be lovely to be in the USA with our daughter and grandchildren.

Val

[Mark88 183]

IR-Visas are for immidate family and will be process right away. This means it depends on how much workload the embassy has at the moment and if your application is complete. This might delay if they need further documents, or i.e. a signature was forgotten on one of the pages. But imho IR cases can take anywhere from 6 weeks to one year.

[Collie 122]

Hi Val, you guys are in the same situation as my parents (UK based). How did you chase up for a the Affidavit of support fee? I filed for my parents in March and haven't received the NOA 2 as of yet. Its so frustrating having to wait!

[valb47 1]

Hi Collie

We didn't chase up the Affidavit of support fee. Once the USCIS have finished their review of the I-130 they send you another I-797 (NOA2). Our daughter sent in the I-130 on the 12 Jan 2013 and we had the NOA2 on the 18 Apr - so 3 mths. Then the USCIS send all the information to the NVC.

The NOA2 letter says leave it 30 days before contacting the NVC (National Visa Centre) if you haven't heard anything. We hadn't so I e-mailed them but it took them a couple of weeks to reply - I had got fed-up with waiting so I phoned the NVC and they said they hadn't received them - also said it wasn't unusual. They asked me to e-mail the NOA2 letters which I did. Finally had confirmation from the NVC that they had received the petition on the 30 May and said it would take 6-8 weeks.

But it didn't, on the 12 June we got an e-mail from them asking for the $88 Affidavit of Support fee (if you are filing for 2 parents at the same time you only have to pay this fee once). That part is very well organised and the NVC website is easy to use. It took several days for the fee to be marked as paid, but because our daughter had sent in the I-134 Affidavit of Support document to the USCIS with our original I-130, we got the request for the Immigration Visa fee on the 27 June.

We sent off our DS-230 on the 4 July from the UK and are now waiting for it to be received by the NVC. I phoned them last Friday and they said they had received something, but as our daughter had sent in her original birth & marriage certificate we assumed it was that they had received. Am going to ring them again this Friday and see if they will check what they have actually received. Don't want our documents getting lost in the post!

Then, as I said in the topic, I have to wait for them to review all our documents and give us an interview date at the US Embassy. The NVC said it would take them 20 working days to review the documentation, but couldn't tell me how long to get an interview date. It's this bit that we don't know how long it's likely to be, so I was hoping for someone who was in that final stage who might be able to tell us how long it took the NVC to give them an interview date at the London USA Embassy.

You still have quite a long way to go with your parents visa application, but I wish you the best of luck. And I agree, it is very frustrating, mainly because you have no idea how long the process is going to take.

Val

Val