How long from DQ to schedule interview for U.S. Embassy in London

[Ann Blair 39]

Husband just got DQ’d last Friday, September 4. Using NVC’s timeframes page as to what week they were reviewing civil docs, I waited 3 weeks from when I thought we should have heard something. I finally broke down and called NVC last Friday, waited on hold 55 minutes, and about had a stroke when the phone rep told me yeah, we should heard by now and she thought our case had been overlooked?! She said unfortunately that happens sometimes and she’d send it over for review right away. She said it might be 3 more weeks before we heard anything. I couldn’t believe it when we got DQ’d 2 hours later?! So grateful!  I’m a U.S. citizen sending for U.K. spouse. I poked around on FAQ’s and posts and read interview appointments can take a few weeks or months. I’m gonna be worrying now we’ve been overlooked again so just trying to understand a general timeline we should expect to be contacted. Anyone else just get a September DQ? Anyone have an idea if we might hear this month? Think it’ll be October before we’re contacted for interview? Thanks! Appreciate any info we can get. If you’re in this thread, hopefully you’re near the end of this journey. Best to everyone. 

[PBabz 137]

8 minutes ago, Ann Blair said:

Husband just got DQ’d last Friday, September 4. Using NVC’s timeframes page as to what week they were reviewing civil docs, I waited 3 weeks from when I thought we should have heard something. I finally broke down and called NVC last Friday, waited on hold 55 minutes, and about had a stroke when the phone rep told me yeah, we should heard by now and she thought our case had been overlooked?! She said unfortunately that happens sometimes and she’d send it over for review right away. She said it might be 3 more weeks before we heard anything. I couldn’t believe it when we got DQ’d 2 hours later?! So grateful!  I’m a U.S. citizen sending for U.K. spouse. I poked around on FAQ’s and posts and read interview appointments can take a few weeks or months. I’m gonna be worrying now we’ve been overlooked again so just trying to understand a general timeline we should expect to be contacted. Anyone else just get a September DQ? Anyone have an idea if we might hear this month? Think it’ll be October before we’re contacted for interview? Thanks! Appreciate any info we can get. If you’re in this thread, hopefully you’re near the end of this journey. Best to everyone. 

Good work for getting onto the NVC, seems like depending who you speak to on which day, the level of help they offer varies! 

Terrible that you were overlooked?! So irritating because it feels like those making the decisions aren't seeing things from our perspective, but best for us all to try and keep hope alive and not get too hung up on the negatives I suppose.

 

It is definitely a difficult one trying to figure out the timeframes moving forward. There are a number of people who have been in the forums here for months waiting for an interview with earlier DQ dates. Mine was back in July, but I seem to recall there being some people who were DQ back in May/June and have only just been invited for their interviews at the embassy. 

Without any scientific evidence behind it whatsoever, if you wanted my opinion, I think October might be optimistic without an expedite on your application, don't know whether you have one or not, but there are a few of us still waiting from earlier on in the summer.

 

Hang in there though - there's lots of information here and everyone seems to be really open and honest about their experiences and updates.

 

Does that help? I'm not sure that it does, I hope it does!! 

Good luck  

[jan22 3,056]

Really sorry, but it can't be this month (in normal times, cases are generally scheduled during the month prior to the interview date) and definitely won't be as soon as October.  They just recently began re-scheduling appointments that were cancelled as far back as mid-March into April.  They need to work through those and all the cases that were DQed from those dates forward (i.e., cases DQed in May through August) before they start on September DQed cases.  Hard to predict how long that will be, unfortunately.

[Bbking2 93]

2 hours ago, Ann Blair said:

Husband just got DQ’d last Friday, September 4. Using NVC’s timeframes page as to what week they were reviewing civil docs, I waited 3 weeks from when I thought we should have heard something. I finally broke down and called NVC last Friday, waited on hold 55 minutes, and about had a stroke when the phone rep told me yeah, we should heard by now and she thought our case had been overlooked?! She said unfortunately that happens sometimes and she’d send it over for review right away. She said it might be 3 more weeks before we heard anything. I couldn’t believe it when we got DQ’d 2 hours later?! So grateful!  I’m a U.S. citizen sending for U.K. spouse. I poked around on FAQ’s and posts and read interview appointments can take a few weeks or months. I’m gonna be worrying now we’ve been overlooked again so just trying to understand a general timeline we should expect to be contacted. Anyone else just get a September DQ? Anyone have an idea if we might hear this month? Think it’ll be October before we’re contacted for interview? Thanks! Appreciate any info we can get. If you’re in this thread, hopefully you’re near the end of this journey. Best to everyone. 

You will be really lucky to hear anything this year. Seems like they are only on May at the moment. 

[Ann Blair 39]

It’s so hard to tell because Covid has changed everything around processing times. I’m seeing notifications that other February 2020 filers (like us) have gotten September and October interviews then I’ve seen people who have filed before us who haven’t gotten NOA2 yet.

[Bbking2 93]

9 minutes ago, Ann Blair said:

It’s so hard to tell because Covid has changed everything around processing times. I’m seeing notifications that other February 2020 filers (like us) have gotten September and October interviews then I’ve seen people who have filed before us who haven’t gotten NOA2 yet.

You need to understand that there was a 3 to 4 month backlog whilst the embassy was closed. It has only reopened for limited  processing on July 27th. There is also the covid factor with limited consular staff. So unfortunately you will have to wait for this all to be cleared. It's super frustrating... But welcome to the club😎

[Dags 134]

Hopefully the backlog will clear out soon! 

We're about to start filling in the form and sorting the documentation - just waiting for the payments to clear out so we can start doing it.

[Sm4598 37]

On 9/9/2020 at 4:45 PM, Ann Blair said:

Husband just got DQ’d last Friday, September 4. Using NVC’s timeframes page as to what week they were reviewing civil docs, I waited 3 weeks from when I thought we should have heard something. I finally broke down and called NVC last Friday, waited on hold 55 minutes, and about had a stroke when the phone rep told me yeah, we should heard by now and she thought our case had been overlooked?! She said unfortunately that happens sometimes and she’d send it over for review right away. She said it might be 3 more weeks before we heard anything. I couldn’t believe it when we got DQ’d 2 hours later?! So grateful!  I’m a U.S. citizen sending for U.K. spouse. I poked around on FAQ’s and posts and read interview appointments can take a few weeks or months. I’m gonna be worrying now we’ve been overlooked again so just trying to understand a general timeline we should expect to be contacted. Anyone else just get a September DQ? Anyone have an idea if we might hear this month? Think it’ll be October before we’re contacted for interview? Thanks! Appreciate any info we can get. If you’re in this thread, hopefully you’re near the end of this journey. Best to everyone. 

Hi there! Any update on your situation? Have you received an interview date?

[Ann Blair 39]

No nothing. I called again last week because I’m worried about our case being overlooked again. The rep said she can see the DQ waiting for interview appointment, but had no other info to give me. It’s so frustrating. I realize it changes every day as people get expedites approved, but if they’re going in the order of the DQ dates it seems they could provide some general timeline like roughly 2 months from DQ, 3 months, 5 months... No idea if there are 50 people ahead of us or 500. I really think the Embassies could be doing more to reunite families.

[PBabz 137]

1 hour ago, Ann Blair said:

No nothing. I called again last week because I’m worried about our case being overlooked again. The rep said she can see the DQ waiting for interview appointment, but had no other info to give me. It’s so frustrating. I realize it changes every day as people get expedites approved, but if they’re going in the order of the DQ dates it seems they could provide some general timeline like roughly 2 months from DQ, 3 months, 5 months... No idea if there are 50 people ahead of us or 500. I really think the Embassies could be doing more to reunite families.

I definitely don’t have all the information, but if you’ve been able to speak to someone at the NVC and they can see you’re waiting for an appointment that sounds positive. 
Gauging from the amount of time others in the forum have been waiting, it’s likely going to be a few months before you hear anything if things continue at their current pace. 
 

There’s good conversation where everyone updates what’s going on here if you want to take a look: 

It’s been pretty helpful and most people give detailed updates so you can see what’s going on for those in similar situations who are also waiting. The last batch of interviews released were for people with DQ dates up to and around 1 July. 
 

Hopefully you’re able to find some useful information and some support. The spreadsheet on the first page is good to get an idea too!
Always happy to share a chat and a moan 😊

 

 

[Bbking2 93]

2 hours ago, Ann Blair said:

No nothing. I called again last week because I’m worried about our case being overlooked again. The rep said she can see the DQ waiting for interview appointment, but had no other info to give me. It’s so frustrating. I realize it changes every day as people get expedites approved, but if they’re going in the order of the DQ dates it seems they could provide some general timeline like roughly 2 months from DQ, 3 months, 5 months... No idea if there are 50 people ahead of us or 500. I really think the Embassies could be doing more to reunite families.

As people have previously answered, as it is going now, you can look at 4 months from dq to an interview letter plus a month to an interview. So about 5months from dq to interview. 

[Bbking2 93]

That is for us going through the nvc, not sure about the dcf. 

[Ann Blair 39]

Thanks for the info. 😊