Chennai or Hyderabad, India Consulate for interview

[kannan 208]

I am thinking ahead and wondering which consulate Chennai or Hyderabad would be better to choose for K1 interview for my fiance, once I-129F is approved; i mean, is one where you can get a date quickly compraed to the other? anybody with experience or idea about, please let me know. I have put Chennai for now. If there is not much difference, what can be done after I-129F approval so that you can have the fastest interview date possible? My NOA1 date is May 18, so I am guessing I will get NOA2 by the end of September based on the current rate of approvals, and I am hoping to finish the interview by the end of October if possible and bring her by Thanksgiving. I know it's too early to plan anything, but I would like to be prepared so that I don't waste precious days after approval

thanks

Edited August 8, 2017 by kannan

[kannan 208]

I also don't see any K1 visa approval in the past 3 months from Chennai or Hyderabad. Are they not processing them in those consulates anymore? https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/statistics/non-immigrant-visas/monthly-nonimmigrant-visa-issuances.html

[KULtoATL 1,551]

By referring to https://in.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/, it looks like K-1 visa is only processed in New Delhi and Mumbai. 

[geowrian 22,337]

A couple items..

1. What embassy/consulate did you list on the I-129F? That's the one they will send the petition to. You can change it later via an embassy transfer, but it'll delay your case. (see my timeline in my signature as one example).
2. Only the New Dehli and Mumbai embassy and consulate handles immigrant visa cases (a K-1 is non-immigrant but still handled by the Immigrant Visa Unit). Chennai used to, but stopped I think several years ago.
3. If you did not choose one of those two on the I-129F, NVC will assign one (presumably based on her address...albeit I don't have the details of how they do this so it's just my guess). You can call NVC (once the I-129F is approved and received there) to have them verify and try to change it before they send the case to the embassy. The petition will likely only be at NVC for a week or so, so you need to call regularly to find out when they get it. NVC will send a letter by mail to the petitioner as well, but it very likely arrive after NVC has sent off the case.
4. It's a reasonable estimate that your case will be reviewed around September.
   1. If you are approved (no RFE), then I would expect the embassy to receive the case roughly around the same time in October. It takes about a month to go from NOA2 -> NVC -> embassy.
   2. Then the amount of time it takes to get an interview at those embassies varies, but I would presume it would be at least one month (probably longer). I will defer to others here since I don't know wait times for an interview there.
   3. If approved (no 221g) and no extended AP is involved, you should get your passport with the visa within a week or 2 usually.
   4. So getting there by Thanksgiving is certainly possible, but it does rely on lots of things going right (many of which are not in your control). I wish you good luck and speedy adjudication.