Interviews in Australia set to be reduced with some cancelled

[ECCK 211]

I just went and visited https://www.ustraveldocs.com/au and found this message regarding interview cancellations (interestingly dated from tomorrow): 

 

Information for visa applicants regarding novel coronavirus:  As of March 18, 2020, the United States Consulates in Australia are reducing routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments. At this time your visa appointment is cancelled. We will resume routine visa services as soon as possible but are unable to provide a specific date at this time. The MRV fee is valid and may be used for a visa application in the country where it was purchased within one year of the date of payment. If you have an urgent matter and need to travel immediately, please follow the guidance provided at  http://ustraveldocs.com to request an emergency appointment.

 

I wonder how many appointments will be cancelled... my K1 interview is currently set for 31 March and really hoping it won't be cancelled. 

[KittyKat3072 235]

Ours was just cancelled with no date of reschedule.

[ECCK 211]

Same here. I got the email just then. It’s so disappointing. 

[ECCK 211]

8 minutes ago, KittyKat3072 said:

Ours was just cancelled with no date of reschedule.

I hope that ours get put at the top of the list when they reschedule! It sucks at how slow they were to schedule ours even when we got our NOA2 in December  

[KittyKat3072 235]

I can't help but be frustrated that there were people scheduled before us that had an noa2 after us. Especially after we emailed them and asked for an earlier appointment date.

[Clayera 28]

Scheduled for March 24 and cancelled with no reschedule. Please update when you guys get rescheduled for interviews!!

[ECCK 211]

13 minutes ago, Clayera said:

Scheduled for March 24 and cancelled with no reschedule. Please update when you guys get rescheduled for interviews!!

I will! If you could too, that’ll be great. There’s not many Aussies here so it’s hard to figure out what’s going on. 

[KittyKat3072 235]

We had emailed the Sydney consulate asking for an interview, saying that we have family in the US that have urgent medical health conditions (not related to Covid-19). 

We waited two weeks and after no response we emailed them again. On this past Friday April 3 (Aus time) they CALLED him (in Aus) and asked him if he was available to go to an interview on Tuesday, April 7, 10am (Aus time). 

He accepted. 

Now we see what they say.

 

We were shocked. 

 

Now if they approve it we need to figure out if/when he can/should come to the USA. 😕

 

[ECCK 211]

5 minutes ago, KittyKat3072 said:

We had emailed the Sydney consulate asking for an interview, saying that we have family in the US that have urgent medical health conditions (not related to Covid-19). 

We waited two weeks and after no response we emailed them again. On this past Friday April 3 (Aus time) they CALLED him (in Aus) and asked him if he was available to go to an interview on Tuesday, April 7, 10am (Aus time). 

He accepted. 

Now we see what they say.

 

We were shocked. 

 

Now if they approve it we need to figure out if/when he can/should come to the USA. 😕

 

Wow that’s great news! I emailed them to ask for an interview because my fiancé is expected to go on deployment in a few months but they didn’t give me a reply. I wonder if I should email them again and see if they’re available. 
 

Good luck to him with his interview and I hope he will be with you soon. Hope your family member will be ok too. 

[KittyKat3072 235]

2 minutes ago, ECCK said:

Wow that’s great news! I emailed them to ask for an interview because my fiancé is expected to go on deployment in a few months but they didn’t give me a reply. I wonder if I should email them again and see if they’re available. 
 

Good luck to him with his interview and I hope he will be with you soon. Hope your family member will be ok too. 

Thanks, yeah we were surprised.

Ya I would definitely email them again. They did say they are stopping all "routine" interviews not all interviews entirely. 

 

Apparently once approved, there is a waiver form with the Commonwealth that can be filed to be able to legally leave the country (Aus) with this travel ban in place. Who knows if they will even grant the waver though.

[ECCK 211]

10 minutes ago, KittyKat3072 said:

Thanks, yeah we were surprised.

Ya I would definitely email them again. They did say they are stopping all "routine" interviews not all interviews entirely. 

 

Apparently once approved, there is a waiver form with the Commonwealth that can be filed to be able to legally leave the country (Aus) with this travel ban in place. Who knows if they will even grant the waver though.

Did you just email the support-australia@ustraveldocs.com? 
 

From what I’ve heard anecdotally, the waiver isn’t too difficult to get. I think the hard part is getting a flight though. There’s so many flights cancelled and the ones remaining are so expensive!! 

[KittyKat3072 235]

On 4/6/2020 at 3:56 AM, ECCK said:

Did you just email the support-australia@ustraveldocs.com? 
 

From what I’ve heard anecdotally, the waiver isn’t too difficult to get. I think the hard part is getting a flight though. There’s so many flights cancelled and the ones remaining are so expensive!! 

Yeah that's the email we used

[Chad&Thalia 49]

That's really interesting....I see you both had your packets completed and interviews scheduled.  I'm not sure what the options are with ours not having been "received" at the Consulate. It would be worth checking into though as we have a few things going on unrelated to COVID 19 as well.  Keep us posted and good luck!

[ECCK 211]

9 hours ago, KittyKat3072 said:

Yeah that's the email we used

Congratulations on your approval! 

[ECCK 211]

6 hours ago, Chad&Thalia said:

That's really interesting....I see you both had your packets completed and interviews scheduled.  I'm not sure what the options are with ours not having been "received" at the Consulate. It would be worth checking into though as we have a few things going on unrelated to COVID 19 as well.  Keep us posted and good luck!

You could email that email I posted above and see what the status is. Since kittykat was able to get an interview, it does seem like they’re still working at the consulate. Let me know how you go. I’m going to give it another shot today.