Problems contacting Frankfurt embassy

[KittyKahlohr 10]

Dear fellow K1 filers (and of course everyone else who might know a solution!),

first of all, I am so glad to have found this community and I very much appreciate the input I could find on here today!

Our K1 journey so far has been rather smooth, apart from the endless waiting at Texas Service Center, which seems to be the norm for almost everyone in this visa category, as I can see from the posts here. Unfortunately, we are having some issues now, which is why I am seeking other people's advice now.

I read that the procedures for scheduling an interview do vary from embassy to embassy, so this is how it works in Frankfurt: Once the embassy received your file they send you a letter (packet 3) in which they ask you to send them your supporting documents for the interview. Upon them reviewing these documents you will be able to schedule your interview date yourself via Traveldocs. I have received the respective letter and have also sent them my documents, which I know that they arrived there safely via online tracking. So far so good. According to the online tracking they should have received my documents on July 3 and I have not heard back from them since. I didn't know how long I should expect this process to take so last week Thursday I sent an online enquiry to the embassy's immigrant visa section, which is the only form of contact they seem to offer for this kind of matter, asking about the status of my application. I did not get any reply so far and sent another message yesterday, which has also not been replied to yet. So by now I am getting a little nervous as after all this waiting the only thing I want to do is scheduling an interview date to at least have an actual date to look forward to! Does anyone have any advice what I could do, is this a normal thing for this embassy?

Thank you so much for your input!

[HK12 273]

Did you send your enquiry to FrankfurtVisaInquiries@state.gov?

From my K1 visa experience, the Frankfurt IV unit was always very quick and efficient with replies (usually same or next day). That was in 2012, though. Keep in mind it is summer and the 4th of July weekend was right after they received your package, so people may be on vacation and things may be a little slower. I would not get nervous, yet. You're almost there!

Edited July 14, 2015 by HK12

[p1nkmamba 18]

I believe it could take 2-4 weeks from what I have read on here, other Germans I know, and people's timelines.

[KittyKahlohr 10]

Thank you both so much for your replies! It is always very helpful to hear about other people's experiences, especially when it comes down to "don't worry about it"

HK12, yes that was the address I sent the messages to. It might also be due to the recent strike of the Deutsche Post that they just got a higher volume of letters which they have to deal with now.

This whole process so far has been so energy consuming. Especially since I am graduating from my Master's at the same time as going through this final stage of the visa and am preparing for my final exam next week at the moment everything seems way more serious than it actually is!

[D.Ba 85]

I got the mail that I could go ahead and schedule my interview 3 days after I mailed the documents!

I was shocked because I thought they could not possibly have looked at them. But all was fine.

That was at the end of April, before the visa system hack and before the Post strike.

[KittyKahlohr 10]

Ah yes, the whole hacking incident might be another factor. I don't feel so uneasy about waiting to hear from them as I do about not getting any replies to my enquiries. Just to know if my documents got there safely or if anything is missing. Hoping to hear from them tomorrow then. There is no other way of contacting them, or is there?

[D.Ba 85]

I used the mail address for another question (on self-sponsorship) and got a reply after two days.

[KittyKahlohr 10]

As for my message on Thursday it has been three working days by now, maybe that message got lost somehow and I will hear about my Monday message tomorrow Thank you for your input

[Rike&Brandon 0]

I submitted my documents on June 11, just when the hardware problems at the Visa section and the post strike started, so for the next two weeks nothing happened. On June 25 I read that the consulate was restarting to schedule interviews and when I logged into cgifederal.secure.force.com I saw that I could suddenly choose an interview date, which was not possible before. It was only after I scheduled the interview that I also received an email saying that my request to schedule an interview had been approved - very confusing. I did also send an email FrankfurtVisaInquiries@state.gov afterwards to confirm that all was fine and they answered the next morning.

[KittyKahlohr 10]

Thank you, Rike&Brandon! Seems that I am still within a normal time frame conerning this step.

How were you guys' experiences concerning picking an interview date? Were there many free slots to pick from? I will have to travel a bit to Frankfurt from Hanover and I'd be interested how flexible these dates are and how soon one could schedule an appointment after receiving the mysterious notification

[TabeaK 517]

Good luck and keep us posted! I am waiting for pack 3 at the moment and was also thinking about emailing them because most people seem to get it within a week or so. I'll give it a few days now.

[KittyKahlohr 10]

Receiving packet 3 for me took about 10 working days, this may have been distorted due to the Deutsche Post strike though!

[Rike&Brandon 0]

The waiting times for the interview have also increased due to the backlog after the hardware problems. When I scheduled the interview I took the first available date, which was July 8 - there were only two slots remaining for that date and I did not even look at other options. Right now waiting time seems to be about 15-16 calendar days according to http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/general/wait-times.html/(This info is not for K-Visas, but waiting times seem to be similar).

[Rike&Brandon 0]

KittyKahlohr: This may be a dumb question, but have you created an account on ustraveldocs to pay your visa fee and request scheduling an interview? Because the notification will come through via ustraveldocs, not from the embassy (at least I never received any email from the embassy).

[KittyKahlohr 10]

Oh wow, that is quite an additional waiting time! At least it gives me the chance to plan traveling to Frankfurt with no pressure It's good that I've been staying away from even making theoretical plans, besides me wanting to spend my birthday on August 15 over there, which I should probably forget about for now.

And yes, I had registered on that website as soon as I found out how the fees are paid, thank you I had checked if by any chance I could schedule an appointment already without getting an email first like you, but it still told me to hold on