London Embassy Not Checking Their PO BOX??

[Teddy406 0]

I mailed through my package with the initial forms 11 days ago, I mailed my request for an interview yesterday (both by special delivery)

I have been told they are BOTH still in the US' PO BOX...what the heck? Apparently it should have been signed for by now but just hasnt!

What should I do?

[Teddy406 0]

I should that upon calling them, I was told "nobody from the VISA team was around" which was great, considering i thought I'd rang the SUPER DUPER PREMIUM £1.20 AND YOUR FIRST BORN VISA SERVICE on my freaking mobile as well. All I wanted to know was "does anybody check your mail box or is it just a "when it gets full, we'll maybe take a gander" job.

Is this common? I sent both as "recorded" which was a relief, but Royal Mail thought it was odd they wouldnt check their PO BOX in two weeks.

[Mags 112]

There have been a couple of threads very similar to this one, so I'd say this seems to be the norm for the present. Dunno what's up with London at the moment, I really don't.

Edited March 16, 2007 by mags

[TheZilla 0]

I mailed through my package with the initial forms 11 days ago, I mailed my request for an interview yesterday (both by special delivery)

I have been told they are BOTH still in the US' PO BOX...what the heck? Apparently it should have been signed for by now but just hasnt!

What should I do?

Mags called it, there seems to be a whole handful of people dealing with this mysterious P.O. Box that never gets checked. My fiance' and I are in the same boat and there doesn't seem to be many answers about it. We DID get a good tip from one of the boards to call the State Department instead of that rip-off helpline [they're so vague and not helpful most of the time]. The State Department didn't have MUCH more info, but they at least seemed to have some sort of information on a screen in front of them. Here's the number:

FROM U.K. - 001-202-663-1225. [it's a U.S. number] They'll have recorded messages and options, we were told to Press 1, then Press 0, then press 0 again to speak to someone. My fiance' got through and they were at least able to tell him it was in the system as being 'processed'. Maybe you'd get better feedback from them.

The 'Waiting For Packet 4" thread has some good advice/info in it as well. I found a lot of it to be helpful.

Mucho good luck and hope you get some decent feedback

[Teddy406 0]

Thanks,

I just read your embassy troubles thread...God, When I heard my letters were in a PO BOX, I thought "poopy" (not the actual word, obviously) and that I had sent them to a junk mail hell PO BOX and missed a trick.

It's good to know I'm in PO BOX PURGATORY with everyone else. Or not.

[TheZilla 0]

Thanks,

I just read your embassy troubles thread...God, When I heard my letters were in a PO BOX, I thought "poopy" (not the actual word, obviously) and that I had sent them to a junk mail hell PO BOX and missed a trick.

It's good to know I'm in PO BOX PURGATORY with everyone else. Or not.

You're welcome. I hope you get some luck with the State Dept. line. For us it was just a relief to know they DID RECEIVE everything, even if they couldn't give us any idea of when an interview date might come.

Just gotta take those little victories as they come

[Teddy406 0]

You wouldnt happen to know the State Department's hours of business ROUGHLY would you?

I'm at work untill 10pm GMT, so I can call tomorrow or about 7pm EST tonight, I have my medical on monday though, so I might wait till Tuesday to call (i have to day off, go me!)

[TheZilla 0]

You wouldnt happen to know the State Department's hours of business ROUGHLY would you?

I'm at work untill 10pm GMT, so I can call tomorrow or about 7pm EST tonight, I have my medical on monday though, so I might wait till Tuesday to call (i have to day off, go me!)

I believe they probably operate during regular business hours, though I'm not sure.

Over here we set our clocks forward already, so now there's only a four-hour time difference between the U.S. East Coast and U.K. It's a Washington D.C. number so I'd try and give them a ring earlier in the day, before the lunch hour rush time. I told my fiance to call around 9AM-10AM here, which would be 1PM-2PM U.K. time.

Hope you can get a chance

[garyandkris 0]

You wouldnt happen to know the State Department's hours of business ROUGHLY would you?

I'm at work untill 10pm GMT, so I can call tomorrow or about 7pm EST tonight, I have my medical on monday though, so I might wait till Tuesday to call (i have to day off, go me!)

You'd think they'd list their hours of service where they list the phone numbers, but they don't, for some reason. I think they have normal business hours, Monday to Friday. Maybe your SO could give them a ring? If you can't phone them, there is an email address for "inquiries and quick, general information" usvisa@state.gov <usvisa@state.gov> . You should probably put case number in the subject line if you decide to email.

I wonder how long it'll be before the phone operators at the State Department start to get very sick of us London visa petitioners.

[TheZilla 0]

"I wonder how long it'll be before the phone operators at the State Department start to get very sick of us London visa petitioners. "

They can get sick all they want, we will never give up. We are a force to be reckoned with, mwa ha ha ha!

[Teddy406 0]

Perhaps instead of spending One TRILLION dollars on Iraq, they could bung the US embassy £10k or so and get them to hire someone to check their freaking PO BOX.

[flutter95 4]

Grr how annoying!

I'm really sorry you got stuck in the PO box...I have NO idea why thats happening right now...perhaps the PO box checker is sick?

Hope it gets sorted soon

[meauxna 15]

Has it occured to anyone that the mail *has* been picked up, but you haven't been notified?

Occom's razor.

Leave 'em alone & they will get to you. You won't feel better in the meantime, and you won't be able to be oh-so-proactive-feeling, but it will all get done.

(isn't it you lot who think it's us Americans who are pushy? <g>)

[Mags 112]

Has it occured to anyone that the mail *has* been picked up, but you haven't been notified?

Occom's razor.

Leave 'em alone & they will get to you. You won't feel better in the meantime, and you won't be able to be oh-so-proactive-feeling, but it will all get done.

(isn't it you lot who think it's us Americans who are pushy? <g>)

Actually, you have a valid point. The Royal Mail has done it's job and delivered the mail to the PO Box. When it gets picked up is nothing to do with them, they wouldn't know. The box is the property of the Embassy...NOT Royal Mail. They cannot check when the box has been emptied. Therefore, you will only ever get a PO Box delivery notification, surely?

[Buxton babe 0]

We too have been asking about the mysterious Po.box. Having worked for the British Postal service for 12 years, the idea of a PO. Box was totally alien to me.

The fact that the post office cannot track the package, seems to me to be a security thing. When we enter our tracking number on the Royal mail site, it returns an error.

So we have decided to stop obsessing until the end of the month, just sit back and relax. See our signature timeline.

The packet 4 thread has put me in the mind to wait 49 days, once I know they have my package.

Breathe in........hold it.... breathe out. Relax now