Scandinavians Part 2

[RTimo 7]

how many days does it take for the embassy at Stockholm to return the passport?  please share your experience 

[Scandi 4,173]

2 hours ago, RTimo said:

how many days does it take for the embassy at Stockholm to return the passport?  please share your experience 

This was back in 2016, my status said issued on September 6 and I received a note in my mailbox on September 7 that my passport was ready for pickup at my local Kassaservice. So only about 24 hours, super fast. 

[LilyJ 1,258]

7 hours ago, RTimo said:

how many days does it take for the embassy at Stockholm to return the passport?  please share your experience 

For us it took 5 days, but my husband also lives in Denmark so it had to be shipped a bit farther

Edited September 17, 2020 by LilyJ

[Jon & Ygritte 178]

8 hours ago, LilyJ said:

Under normal circumstances at this point we probably would but money is just too tight for him to be gone another 3 months unfortunately, we’ve already been pushed back 5 months in our process because of covid so we can’t take much more financially  

You are aware that the fee for removing conditions is being increased to $760 plus an additional fee for biometric service of $85? Can't your husband work in Denmark a couple of months to help support you so you can avoid all the hassle and costs which come with removing conditions?

[LilyJ 1,258]

4 hours ago, Jon & Ygritte said:

You are aware that the fee for removing conditions is being increased to $760 plus an additional fee for biometric service of $85? Can't your husband work in Denmark a couple of months to help support you so you can avoid all the hassle and costs which come with removing conditions?

Yes I am aware, and no there is nowhere for him to work right now where he is, he is in a somewhat rural area and no one is hiring someone to work for only 3 months especially during covid, he already lost his last job due to him not being able to fulfill their request which would have required him to take a 2 year vocational education that he wouldn’t even be in the country long enough to take. He has a guaranteed job once he is here and done with his 2 weeks quarantine so we would really be losing money for him not to come, avoiding the $845 removal of conditions fee isn’t worth missing out on $3-4K a month of income for another 3 months to be quite honest. I’m sure over a span of 2 years we can muster up to save under $1k for ROC, costs less than the CR1 did in the first place anyways 

Edited September 17, 2020 by LilyJ

[Ellxtdan 95]

On 9/16/2020 at 1:01 PM, RTimo said:

how many days does it take for the embassy at Stockholm to return the passport?  please share your experience 

My husband had his passport sent to the ICA near his home in Gothenburg. It took two days after the visa was issued. (Issued on the 2nd, ICA had it on the 4th)

[ntur 4]

Our status just changed to DQ this last week.  I am confused about the next step.  If we do not request an expedite, how long can we expect to wait before the interview would be scheduled?  (My husband is Finnish but he is living in Sweden so it will be sent to the consulate in Stockholm.)  I have heard it could be 6 - 8 months.  Does it mean that we will keep getting bumped back if everyone else is requesting an expedite?  What are valid reasons to expedite?   Thank you!  

[LilyJ 1,258]

7 minutes ago, ntur said:

Our status just changed to DQ this last week.  I am confused about the next step.  If we do not request an expedite, how long can we expect to wait before the interview would be scheduled?  (My husband is Finnish but he is living in Sweden so it will be sent to the consulate in Stockholm.)  I have heard it could be 6 - 8 months.  Does it mean that we will keep getting bumped back if everyone else is requesting an expedite?  What are valid reasons to expedite?   Thank you!  

I’m not sure what the covid backlog is like from when they were closed mid March to July but Stockholm isn’t a very busy embassy so I can’t imagine it’d be more than a month or two before you get an interview letter. 6-8 months is more what you’d expect at a busier embassy like Montreal, Canada or Mumbai, India. Stockholm doesn’t have nearly as many visa applicants

[ntur 4]

14 hours ago, LilyJ said:

I’m not sure what the covid backlog is like from when they were closed mid March to July but Stockholm isn’t a very busy embassy so I can’t imagine it’d be more than a month or two before you get an interview letter. 6-8 months is more what you’d expect at a busier embassy like Montreal, Canada or Mumbai, India. Stockholm doesn’t have nearly as many visa applicants

I sure hope you are right.  Fingers crossed!  

[LilyJ 1,258]

1 hour ago, ntur said:

I sure hope you are right.  Fingers crossed!  

Pre-covid it took us a month to get our letter (got cancelled because the embassy closed), post-covid (in July) once we requested our interview be rescheduled it took around 3-4 weeks (interview in August), Scandinavia is not very busy so you shouldn’t be waiting too long 

[Simon Pacis 6]

Will just add to this. Was DQ on 8th Sep. Wrote the embassy today and got this reply:

 

“The immigrant visa unit at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm is performing limited services for applicants subject to exceptions from the current presidential proclamations (i.e. spouse or child of a U.S. citizen). While the Embassy aims to process the cases as soon practicable, there is likely to be increased waiting times for completing such services due to substantial backlogs. We are currently scheduling IR1/CR1 cases from the National Visa Center that were documentary qualified for an interview in late spring/June of 2020”

 

I sure hope I won’t have to wait until December or next year potentially. Anyway, just wanted to add.

[Simon Pacis 6]

Not sure about the rules regarding double-posting, but here’s a sad follow-up I just got:

 

“Thank you for your follow up. NVC can only send case to the Embassy if our current resources and local conditions resources. In addition, we must also consider current presidential proclamations in effect. Therefore the Embassy ask NVC to send us small batches of the oldest documentary qualified cases. We are currently receiving IR1/CR1 cases that was documentary qualified in late spring /June 2020.”

Edited October 5, 2020 by Simon Pacis
Fixing colors

[swmfly 45]

An update from our side -- after 6 weeks of administrative processing/review, my husband's visa was issued. 

His passport and original birth certificate were returned to us in Denmark today. We have waited over 800 days (almost 2 years 3 months) for this moment. 

[isamanda 4]

41 minutes ago, swmfly said:

An update from our side -- after 6 weeks of administrative processing/review, my husband's visa was issued. 

His passport and original birth certificate were returned to us in Denmark today. We have waited over 800 days (almost 2 years 3 months) for this moment. 

Why does the AP takes so long? 

I am a Flight Attendant and wonder if they will take my passport for so long how will I go to work...

[swmfly 45]

3 minutes ago, isamanda said:

Why does the AP takes so long? 

I am a Flight Attendant and wonder if they will take my passport for so long how will I go to work...

 

I have no idea why it took so long. I also have no idea why they retained his original birth certificate during the review (a document that has been presented at other embassies for previous non-immigrant visas). At the time of the interview, the officer indicated that he did not doubt the validity of our relationship. After 5 weeks of not receiving any update/feedback/request, we pinged the embassy on 28 September and asked if they could provide an update. They stated that his case was still under review (i.e., no update). But 2 days later, his status changed from 'Refused' to 'Issued' in Ceac. I think our prompt perhaps put us back on their radar. 

 

But back to your concern -- there was another poster in this thread whose spouse needed their passport to travel following their interview, as it was his only photo ID -- so shipping your passport back to the embassy to receive the visa could be a possibility. Hopefully you will not have to endure AP!