U.S. Embassy in Bangkok Reopening on October 1

[R. Wolfe 25]

Pattama had her interview and visa approval today (13 OCT). I can see from the timeline info that the interviews last week took 4-6 days to get the paperwork back so I'm hopeful that ours will be roughly in that range (plus probably a day or two for the holiday(s)).

[KnoxThai 44]

On 10/11/2020 at 6:09 PM, x3n said:

If you had a successful interview already in October, could you let me know when you get (or got) the Visa etc. (and whether it was mailed or picked up)?

 

Our interview is on the 13th and I'm trying to get a ballpark figure for how long they are currently taking so we can start to rough out a travel schedule.

 

Thank you very much!

I didn't see this message until today.

 

My Fiancé had her passport and visa sent to her in Surat Thani and it was ready about 5 days after her interview. 

 

I think she could have had it 4 days after the interview if she picked it up in Bangkok.

 

Be well.

[R. Wolfe 25]

Thanks. For reference, our interview was on Tuesday (13 OCT) and the visa etc. arrived by mail on Saturday (17 OCT) morning.

She'll be flying from BKK to JFK on 28 OCT with someone she knows from the Thai-US visa Facebook group (unless the Covid spike or Thai protest cause problems of course).

So the end, of this stage at least, may finally be in site!

 

 

[zachp 3]

Just to add more. My Fiance interviewed on Tuesday and picked up her passport in BKK on Saturday. She arrived at IAD that Sunday  (Thanks to Qatar's extremely generous change policy they were able to make a same day change). She's now been in the US for about 12 days, she is so happy to be here in time for it to get cold 😶.

[TBoneTX 45,304]

On 10/23/2020 at 6:08 AM, zachp said:

Just to add more.

Glad that you did -- heartwarming.

[R. Wolfe 25]

I met my fiancé at JFK and brought her back to Pittsburgh today.  Thank you, everyone, for all of the help and support you've given us so far in this journey.

[NKBD 0]

Hello @x3n and @zachp! I was reading up on your guys' posts and congrats on your fiances' K1 approvals. My wife's CR1 application was sent to the US Embassy and as of May '20, are currently waiting for the interview date. Could either of you provide some insight into the emergency requests? Were they based on the initial interviews being postponed due to the closures earlier this year or were they for an emergency that required your fiances to receive expedited consideration? 

[zachp 3]

They sent an email saying to sign back up for an appointment, all the slots were December 24th and then the email ambiguously said to fill out the emergency request. We filled it out and they approved the following day. We then got a fairly open appointment schedule to pick from. I believe this was all because our appointments were cancelled but maybe my reason of closing on a house was enough to get them to agree, not 100% sure (likely they didn't care about the reason). 

[TBoneTX 45,304]

On 10/29/2020 at 6:45 PM, x3n said:

I met my fiancé at JFK and brought her back to Pittsburgh today.  Thank you, everyone, for all of the help and support you've given us so far in this journey.

Super to hear!

[kappy66 15]

On 10/30/2020 at 9:08 AM, zachp said:

They sent an email saying to sign back up for an appointment, all the slots were December 24th and then the email ambiguously said to fill out the emergency request. We filled it out and they approved the following day. We then got a fairly open appointment schedule to pick from. I believe this was all because our appointments were cancelled but maybe my reason of closing on a house was enough to get them to agree, not 100% sure (likely they didn't care about the reason). 

Is the emergency request on the website?

 

[R. Wolfe 25]

> Were they based on the initial interviews being postponed due to the closures earlier this year?

 

Yes, this appears to be what they were based on. We had no actual "emergency" so I believe that they were just using that form to help sort things out. The attached image show the exact instructions we received. I would expect that these specific instructions are no longer valid, but they should serve to illustrate the process we went through as far as rescheduling our interview (our specific one ended up being on Oct 13th).

 

 

 

 

[NKBD 0]

Thanks for sharing and I'm glad the embassy was able to make up for the lost time. The whole process and estimated wait times were slightly vague even before the closure, so I appreciate the info during the current situation that is even more unclear due to the backlogs!

[elkski 28]

Wow you guys!!  wish everyone well...  No idea what our timeline is with our Noa2 on Oct 16... but My Fiancée wants to five 2 weeks notice at her job or more and then I think she should go up country to visit mom..  So it maybe 2 months after she gets her visa until she can fly over.. . Not sure when she will be able to return to Thailand.  . 

[kappy66 15]

Anyone hear any updates about the resumption of k1 processing?

Edited November 26, 2020 by kappy66

[J+J 49]

On 11/25/2020 at 10:06 PM, kappy66 said:

Anyone hear any updates about the resumption of k1 processing?

My understanding is that the embassy is now working through CR-1 backlog in December, my hope is that K-1 will be the following month but I have nothing to back that up.  I have asked the embassy directly and they could not comment on a timeframe.