Scheduling Interviews in Abu Dhabi Embassy

[RandW 30]

On 2/16/2021 at 4:15 PM, MAJER said:

hi everyone, i been DQ since 02/10/2021 but my priority date is since 3-DIC-2019 is this will make my process faster then others? is been long journey for my wife and my self, hope that will be reunited soon. 

I wonder about priority dates as well, however I thought they had more of an impact on visa categories that were limited.

Our priority date is just 3 days after yours, 12/6/19 and we got DQ in August but are still waiting for an interview.

From what NVC says, they schedule interviews in the order they become documentarily qualified but from the last batch of interview letters it doesn't seem that it's the only thing they go by.

It's definitely a looooong process but will be worth it!

[BISHO 13]

13 minutes ago, RandW said:

Did anyone get an interview letter for March?

I was hoping for this week as they previously have scheduled mid-month but I guess not..?

Not yet . Waiting 😤😤😤😤 . 

[Ayara 17]

32 minutes ago, RandW said:

Did anyone get an interview letter for March?

I was hoping for this week as they previously have scheduled mid-month but I guess not..?

I have seen two people here who updated their timelines for interviews in March.

[SQH 5]

Hello Friend, 

It's seems like ages for me and my wife - my wife (was on Green Card back then) filed I-130 petition for me back in August 2017. USCIS approved our case in Sep 2019 and then we got first response from NVC in Dec 2019. our documents were rejected twice which further delayed the process and finally I got the DQ in August 2020 (by this time my wife is Neutralised US Citizen) , The case has now been changed to IR1 from F2A , Still waiting for Interview call.

[Misiu 33]

This month, anyhow, seems extraordinary rather than previous 2 months to be honest. Normally people would get their interview letters in the middle of the month (14-15-16th) and each month of interview was covering roughly 2-2.5 month of DQ dates.

 

This month only 2 people got their IL in the forum (Both are October DQs and one of them as I spoke with him expedited his case). These two IL came around 8-9th of the month. And we haven't hear anything during 14-15-16-17th for the ones whose DQ are November and December which should be interviewed in March as per previous months statistics.

 

I do not know exactly, but something is not in place. Additional note: AUH embassy stopped nonimmigrant visa issue except medical-humanitarian cases. It can be that Embassy will not work full capacity this month, it can be that their staff are using their annual leave, or it can even be covid measurements related. We just simply do not know what is inside the box and blindly guessing.

 

No matter what, this months ILs are extraordinary compared to previous two months', that is for sure.

 

Let's hope the best. 

 

I was hoping that since they limited the nonimmigrant visas, they would've process more and more immigrant visas which they have very limited catagories already (IR1/CR1, EB3, K1,etc - Even no DV1). But that looks like this is not the case.

 

A side note, in general USCIS has approved almost 25% less cases in 4th quarter of FY 2020 (Which is July-August-September 2020). (144,000 worldwide approval compared to FY2020/1, FY2020/2 and FY2020/3 which were around190,000-200,000 approval). These 4th quarter approved cases mostly already got their DQ dates around August-September-October 2020 and had their interviews. I believe this less approval is a trend that continued at 1st Quarter of FY2021 (October-November-December 2020) as we can already see the affect on this on the VJ members. VJ members which got their NOA2 in these months are less than the previous quarters for sure. 

 

So statistically, there are less people waiting for their interview, hence less workload for embassies, still there is not much IL issued this month. Just weird. 

 

Also everything I wrote above are still so blindly guessed since we do not have information of the full picture. Just data of VJ members, their timeline etc is not enough to make concrete deductions. Still, while we are waiting, why not do some brainstrorm, right

[Ayara 17]

It might be due to the pandemic as the UAE seems to be closing down again after the increase in cases. Just when I thought it was back and moving 😅 but I guess let's stay hopeful 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Ayara

[joyc13 4]

3 hours ago, Misiu said:

This month, anyhow, seems extraordinary rather than previous 2 months to be honest. Normally people would get their interview letters in the middle of the month (14-15-16th) and each month of interview was covering roughly 2-2.5 month of DQ dates.

 

This month only 2 people got their IL in the forum (Both are October DQs and one of them as I spoke with him expedited his case). These two IL came around 8-9th of the month. And we haven't hear anything during 14-15-16-17th for the ones whose DQ are November and December which should be interviewed in March as per previous months statistics.

 

I do not know exactly, but something is not in place. Additional note: AUH embassy stopped nonimmigrant visa issue except medical-humanitarian cases. It can be that Embassy will not work full capacity this month, it can be that their staff are using their annual leave, or it can even be covid measurements related. We just simply do not know what is inside the box and blindly guessing.

 

No matter what, this months ILs are extraordinary compared to previous two months', that is for sure.

 

Let's hope the best. 

 

I was hoping that since they limited the nonimmigrant visas, they would've process more and more immigrant visas which they have very limited catagories already (IR1/CR1, EB3, K1,etc - Even no DV1). But that looks like this is not the case.

 

A side note, in general USCIS has approved almost 25% less cases in 4th quarter of FY 2020 (Which is July-August-September 2020). (144,000 worldwide approval compared to FY2020/1, FY2020/2 and FY2020/3 which were around190,000-200,000 approval). These 4th quarter approved cases mostly already got their DQ dates around August-September-October 2020 and had their interviews. I believe this less approval is a trend that continued at 1st Quarter of FY2021 (October-November-December 2020) as we can already see the affect on this on the VJ members. VJ members which got their NOA2 in these months are less than the previous quarters for sure. 

 

So statistically, there are less people waiting for their interview, hence less workload for embassies, still there is not much IL issued this month. Just weird. 

 

Also everything I wrote above are still so blindly guessed since we do not have information of the full picture. Just data of VJ members, their timeline etc is not enough to make concrete deductions. Still, while we are waiting, why not do some brainstrorm, right

I totally agree with your presumptions.  In addition to that, I know some cases that were transferred to other consulates because their lose their jobs and went home for good in their home country.  From NVC stage, they are still able to transfer their case to other consulates and it was granted.  So meaning, we are becoming less waiting for our IL.  Anyways, February is almost finish by next week.  We are all hoping that they will start to send IL by March and noting that the travel ban/proclamation will end by 31st March.  So, we are all anticipating interview schedule by April or this 2nd quarter (crossed-fingers). 

[Misiu 33]

8 minutes ago, joyc13 said:

I totally agree with your presumptions.  In addition to that, I know some cases that were transferred to other consulates because their lose their jobs and went home for good in their home country.  From NVC stage, they are still able to transfer their case to other consulates and it was granted.  So meaning, we are becoming less waiting for our IL.  Anyways, February is almost finish by next week.  We are all hoping that they will start to send IL by March and noting that the travel ban/proclamation will end by 31st March.  So, we are all anticipating interview schedule by April or this 2nd quarter (crossed-fingers). 

 

I was really hopeful that February interviews will clean the backlog significantly considering March and especially April will be very hard months.

 

As you said, proclamation will end in March 31st. That means it will bring a huge workload to Embassy with all pending and backlogged halted visas in April. Also Ramadan is starting April 12th which definately will reduce the working hours and productivity. 

 

So whatever ID is taken until April 1st is better. After April starts, things will go very busy. April 12th to May 12th Ramadan, so reduced hours. In may there is Eid which means holiday. Likely that some embassy workers may have their annual leaves during ramadan which I do personally normally.

 

So I wish we had more ILs in this February for March while melting the backlog was going really good. 

[RandW 30]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:22 PM, Misiu said:

This month, anyhow, seems extraordinary rather than previous 2 months to be honest. Normally people would get their interview letters in the middle of the month (14-15-16th) and each month of interview was covering roughly 2-2.5 month of DQ dates.

 

This month only 2 people got their IL in the forum (Both are October DQs and one of them as I spoke with him expedited his case). These two IL came around 8-9th of the month. And we haven't hear anything during 14-15-16-17th for the ones whose DQ are November and December which should be interviewed in March as per previous months statistics.

 

I do not know exactly, but something is not in place. Additional note: AUH embassy stopped nonimmigrant visa issue except medical-humanitarian cases. It can be that Embassy will not work full capacity this month, it can be that their staff are using their annual leave, or it can even be covid measurements related. We just simply do not know what is inside the box and blindly guessing.

I agree, this month has been different in regards to scheduling interviews. I'm not sure why that is but I called NVC the other day to try to get some information about it. While she couldn't tell me much (as usual but I decided to try anyway),  she did confirm that Abu Dhabi is still scheduling interviews and conducting them. When I further questioned if they could possibly be slowing down operations because of COVID or some other measures she once again confirmed they are still doing interviews. I guess that's something good? It doesn't solve the mystery about when anyone will get scheduled/why they haven't been scheduled yet but the way I'm looking at it is at least they are not stopping. 

[Kurdish 76]

On 11/6/2020 at 10:59 AM, Love To Teach said:

We are waiting for our interview. All papers were completed last year, but we had to wait because we thought my husband was going to be transferred to Germany. After waiting a year for the German visa, he was transferred back to Dubai. So although we have had our NVC approval for over a year, we are at the back of the line again. Does anyone have any idea what the approximate wait is?

 

BTW, what is DQ?

Hello, my case in US embassy in Qatar. I applied for my wife on 09/2018. And I'm US citizen. She had interview on 11/2020 but they canceled because qatar doesn't let people enter to Qatar. I sent Email to embassy in Abu Dhabi to transfer. We are so tired it's been very long time 

[MAJER 10]

hi every one look like we have good news the embassy did speed up this year 

 

 JANUARY 2021 - IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class (state.gov)

 CR1- 36 VISAS 

 IR1- 91 

lets be positive will have or family reunited soon nshallah!!! 

[BISHO 13]

What’s going on. No interviews .. very strange, this month no one got interview letter for March . We hope they will start sending interview letter ASAP .. waiting is frustrating 😤😤

[Misiu 33]

President Biden has revoked Proclamation on F visas (Family preference). 

 

I need to express that those who got their interview dates until March 2021 are very lucky. Now things will go crazy in embassy with all the backlog of this "Family preference visas" that were waiting since June 2020 (and beyond due to covid lockdown of embassy).

 

I wish Embassy had used this opportunity of lesser work load to clear up the backlog in IR1/CR1 visa, until this huge wave of other applications comes. Unfortunately that did't happen. Poeple from November DQ are still waiting for an interview.  Now we are the part of this huge backlog.

 

Well, those who got their interview until March can feel very lucky. And for the ones that are waiting for an interview date, best luck to us.

[MAJER 10]

i know its very frustrating the end of the proclamation but lets read and understand what really is goin to happen! 

 

just read this and relax. 

 

Phased Resumption of Routine Visa Services (state.gov)

  

[Ayara 17]

So that's what the embassy site says