Kenya Consulate interviews

[Md4764 18]

4 minutes ago, MysticGirl said:

Congrats! That’s great news...Keep is updated on the interview process.

the type of questions they ask etc.

I did my interview Jan 11, at the end I was giving a yellow slip and placed on AP, they didn’t ask for extra documents or anything as I had more than enough at my interview.

After almost 90 days, they need a new medicals so they can issue my visa, I have sent an email to IOM and hope they give me a sooner date for the medicals because my visa depends on that.

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by MercyDom

[shu josh 57]

21 hours ago, MercyDom said:

So it turns out that them asking for a second medicals is a good sign.

Our Senator sent an email to my husband saying the pending issues in my case has been resolved and they want me to submit a new medicals so they my visa can be issued.

My husband and I are crying for joy over this and we’re so happy this is finally over.

This is great news. You're on the homestretch I can only imagine what those almost 90days in AP have been. Book an interview at IOM ASAP I was there last week and they're backed up too because at some point they had reduced their numbers due to Covid. All the best.

[Md4764 18]

2 minutes ago, shu josh said:

This is great news. You're on the homestretch I can only imagine what those almost 90days in AP have been. Book an interview at IOM ASAP I was there last week and they're backed up too because at some point they had reduced their numbers due to Covid. All the best.

Thanks, I already send an email to IOM but since today and Monday is a holiday I hope to get a date from them on Tuesday, I hope they don’t give me a date too far out.

I hope I can be done with all this and can travel this April to the US, this whole process has been going on for more than two and half years now

[shu josh 57]

1 minute ago, MercyDom said:

Thanks, I already send an email to IOM but since today and Monday is a holiday I hope to get a date from them on Tuesday, I hope they don’t give me a date too far out.

I hope I can be done with all this and can travel this April to the US, this whole process has been going on for more than two and half years now

Aaaah yeees the long Easter weekend. You'll be re_united with your loved one soon. 

[shu josh 57]

Just an update it has been a while. Interviews are happening I was there on Monday. They've really reduced the numbers, doing emergency and immigrant visas with DQ of Jan-Feb 2020. Those waiting keep checking your emails and let's hope the Covid situation doesn't worsen. Keep hope alive.

[Edddie&Beatrice 64]

1 hour ago, shu josh said:

Just an update it has been a while. Interviews are happening I was there on Monday. They've really reduced the numbers, doing emergency and immigrant visas with DQ of Jan-Feb 2020. Those waiting keep checking your emails and let's hope the Covid situation doesn't worsen. Keep hope alive.

Good news what's your DQ date

[shu josh 57]

2 hours ago, Edddie&Beatrice said:

Good news what's your DQ date

Feb 5th 2020

[GregandNatty 195]

2 hours ago, shu josh said:

Feb 5th 2020

When did you get an invite for an interview.  Was it just recently or are you part of the group that was canceled and then re-scheduled before COVID?

[retheem 568]

6 hours ago, shu josh said:

Just an update it has been a while. Interviews are happening I was there on Monday. They've really reduced the numbers, doing emergency and immigrant visas with DQ of Jan-Feb 2020. Those waiting keep checking your emails and let's hope the Covid situation doesn't worsen. Keep hope alive.

Congrats. I take this to mean instant approval. 

[shu josh 57]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:38 PM, GregandNatty said:

When did you get an invite for an interview.  Was it just recently or are you part of the group that was canceled and then re-scheduled before COVID?

My invite was back in December but took time at IOM with medical.

On 4/3/2021 at 12:12 AM, retheem said:

Congrats. I take this to mean instant approval. 

Yes

[Kenyan Couple 21]

On 4/4/2021 at 12:17 PM, shu josh said:

My invite was back in December but took time at IOM with medical.

Yes

Thanks for sharing. Yes, IR1 hasn't moved much since Jan2021. Unfortunately we are back to the waiting table. My estimation is that we may wait until 2022 for all embassy staff to have been vaccinated and for the embassy to put measures in place such as a required covid test etc that allows on-site interviews. 

 

Wishing everyone the best, especially those DQ after April and are unsure what to expect ❤️

[GregandNatty 195]

7 hours ago, Kenyan Couple said:

Thanks for sharing. Yes, IR1 hasn't moved much since Jan2021. Unfortunately we are back to the waiting table. My estimation is that we may wait until 2022 for all embassy staff to have been vaccinated and for the embassy to put measures in place such as a required covid test etc that allows on-site interviews. 

 

Wishing everyone the best, especially those DQ after April and are unsure what to expect ❤️

Actually the VISA reports show that IR/CR1s had been ramping up.  Feb was 2.5 times higher than Jan, for example.   My guess is March will be even better. 

 

Yes this current COVID spike will set us back, but the consulates are getting quite a bit of pressure from the administration to figure out a way to process VISAS

 

Side note: It makes zero sense why the US isn't shipping over some vaccine and vaccinating the staff there.  My state just opened up for most adults - got my first dose yesterday.

[MysticGirl 26]

1 hour ago, GregandNatty said:

Actually the VISA reports show that IR/CR1s had been ramping up.  Feb was 2.5 times higher than Jan, for example.   My guess is March will be even better. 

 

Yes this current COVID spike will set us back, but the consulates are getting quite a bit of pressure from the administration to figure out a way to process VISAS

 

Side note: It makes zero sense why the US isn't shipping over some vaccine and vaccinating the staff there.  My state just opened up for most adults - got my first dose yesterday.

Actually they already have. My friend who works there stated that they’ve started getting the first dose of the vaccine and they even made it mandatory for all staff. Things are still super slow and they are barely working on the VISAS.They are still working remotely though and once the second doses starts to go out, they may start going back to work. I asked her about the workload and she mentioned that around December there were about 5000 backed up cases for IR1/CR1. These are just the ones in the consulate office. They had just started working on them with a bit of a zeal between Jan-Feb, but after March 15th, things have slowed down again. This has also somehow affected the emergency requests as well. So now we wait again. 

[MysticGirl 26]

Here is another scenario or reason as to why things have been much slower than normal. Typically CR1/IR1 individuals gets a green card as soon as they arrive in US. Now look at what I came across on the newsfeed below.

[GregandNatty 195]

24 minutes ago, MysticGirl said:

Actually they already have. My friend who works there stated that they’ve started getting the first dose of the vaccine and they even made it mandatory for all staff. Things are still super slow and they are barely working on the VISAS.They are still working remotely though and once the second doses starts to go out, they may start going back to work. I asked her about the workload and she mentioned that around December there were about 5000 backed up cases for IR1/CR1. These are just the ones in the consulate office. They had just started working on them with a bit of a zeal between Jan-Feb, but after March 15th, things have slowed down again. This has also somehow affected the emergency requests as well. So now we wait again. 

Thanks for the on-ground feedback.

I would just comment that the 5,000 backlog number can't only be IR/CR1s, but all VISA categories.  In the best of times (before COVID), Nairobi was processing at most 150 IR/CR1s a month.  If they had 5,000 IR1/CR1 backlogged cases on hand that would mean they had around 3 years worth of IR1/CR1 cases backlogged.    That isn't possible. 

Prior to COVID, Nairobi was processing about 2,500 VISAs a month across all visa categories (most of which are B1/B2 VISAS), so if they had 5,000 backlogged cases on post then they would have about a 2 month backlog.  This seems about right.

Based on what we were hearing from several others, NVC started sending new IR1/CR1/K1 cases to Nairobi first of March.  This means they had cleared out the backlog of these kinds of cases and were processing new ones.   I feel pretty confident they were processing cases with DQs in mid-late April 2020 right when the latest COVID spike came in Kenya. 

I wanted to make this clarification so people don't freak out thinking there are 5,000 IR1/CR1 cases sitting at the Nairobi embassy right now.  This simply is not possible.  

Edited April 6, 2021 by GregandNatty