Help? Embassy Change

[Michael & Michele 23]

Hi All and thanks in advance for any help.

 

My fiancee is a Jamaican living in Sint Maarten (the past 15 years) He holds a Jamaican passport which was lost 9 months ago that we have painfully been trying to replace.  My petition was approved on 4/20  and although I never received a formal letter yet I called NVC and got a file number.  We have been assigned to the Embassy in Bogota, Columbia!  I understand that there's no Embassy in Sint Maarten but there are three (Jamaica, Barbados, Curacao) a whole lot closer than a 5 1/2 hour plane ride.  I completed the ask.nvc form on-line with a request for an Embassy change.  Any other suggestions at this point?

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

Just wait for response. Changing embassies can cause a delay obviously.

[geowrian 22,337]

I did an embassy change on my I-129F a month ago. They cannot/will not change it at NVC...I've tried (18 phone calls, 4 emails, 1 online support request on ask.nvc, speaking to 2 supervisors, etc.). The best I've seen is that they can change it if it was a mistake on their side (i.e. I-129F and NOA2 have the correct embassy stated).

 

To do the transfer, you will need to wait until it arrives in Bogota, then call/email the embassy you want to use instead and request the embassy transfer. They can make the request to the Bogota embassy, and if/when approved, will send your case to the desired embassy. Just note that you need to have legal residency status in the country where you will interview (i.e. not just being a tourist there). For me, it took them about a week to recognize my transfer request, then a couple days to approve it, then about another week for them to complete the transfer. Check my timeline in my signature for details. Just note that the timeline will definitely vary from embassy to embassy.

 

The emails and ask.nvc responses came several weeks afterwards. The actual I-129F will likely only be at NVC for days or a couple weeks.

Edited May 17, 2017 by geowrian

[Michael & Michele 23]

2 minutes ago, geowrian said:

I did an embassy change on my I-129F a month ago. They cannot/will not change it at NVC...I've tried (18 phone calls, 4 emails, 1 online support request on ask.nvc, speaking to 2 supervisors, etc.). The best I've seen is that they can change it if it was a mistake on their side (i.e. I-129F and NOA2 have the correct embassy stated).

 

To do the transfer, you will need to wait until it arrives in Bogota, then call/email the embassy you want to use instead and request the embassy transfer. They can make the request to the Bogota embassy, and if/when approved, will send your case to the desired embassy. Just note that you need to have legal residency status in the country where you will interview (i.e. not just being a tourist there). For me, it took them about a week to recognize my transfer request, then a couple days to approve it, then about another week for them to complete the transfer. Check my timeline in my signature for details. Just note that the timeline will definitely vary from embassy to embassy.

Thank you so much! Makes more sense...Worst case scenario, we'll have to go to Columbia..

[Michael & Michele 23]

On 5/17/2017 at 2:28 PM, Michael & Michele said:

Thank you so much! Makes more sense...Worst case scenario, we'll have to go to Columbia..

Good morning,

 

Just wanted to thank you.  I requested an Embassy change directly from Jamaica via email.  They acknowledged my email the same day and advised they requested the change from Columbia. They advised that they would contact us when they received the case.  Fingers crossed I hear relatively quickly that the transfer was approved/received.  NVC NOT the way to go.

[geowrian 22,337]

4 minutes ago, Michael & Michele said:

Just wanted to thank you.  I requested an Embassy change directly from Jamaica via email.  They acknowledged my email the same day and advised they requested the change from Columbia. They advised that they would contact us when they received the case.  Fingers crossed I hear relatively quickly that the transfer was approved/received.  NVC NOT the way to go.

Awesome. Glad it went so smoothly! For me, it took about a week for the receiving embassy to get the packet. Good luck.