K1 interviews London

[Elzmd 7]

5 hours ago, Wuozopo said:

This is the page for updates. It was updated today. https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/u-s-visa-and-travel-faqs/
 

Unfortunately you started the visa process in the middle of a pandemic. You are going to experience significant delays while they clear a year-long backlog of approved K1 petitions that have been building up at the NVC. Your embassy must follow local (England) health and safety rules. Considering the country’s lockdowns and that it’s still not “business as usual” in England,  the embassy in London has many working from home or furloughed like other businesses. The government had planned to lift all legal limits on social contact on 21 June, but this was delayed amid concern over the spread of the Delta variant. Covid is not over yet and is affecting your visa.
 

You will get your visa, but trying to guess a timeline is futile because, as you know, things change constantly during this time. It’s really hard on you and the others waiting. My best advice is don’t hover over it too much. You are just going to be disappointed daily if you keep checking all day, every day. Then you’ll get all mental and whiney and won’t be the adorable person your fiancé fell for. Get on with your life as it is and push your immigration expectations to 2022.  Keep your relationship happy instead of worried all the time. Have you had a chance to visit? Maybe plan a vacation getaway to Mexico if that’s possible. 

 

Yeah, I had hoped the June date would open things up a bit more but I'll see if there's news by the end of July on the front. I have not been able to visit for a few reasons, but thank you for the response. It is at least somehow comforting to see so many in the same boat, I had worried for a while that I'd done something wrong but this does not seem to be the case. 

[Matthew Dodds 6]

13 minutes ago, dizzle said:

Hi all, I think I might be in the same situation as @Nadine72; I received a NOA on 03/23/2020 that the NVC would begin processing our application. Since then we haven't received anything, except for a notice from the NVC that we hadn't contacted them in a year and our application would be cancelled, and then another notice a week later that the last notice was sent in error.

 

When I check the ceac status page, it says that our application is "At NVC". I do have an NVC case # and an NVC invoice number.

 

I'm under the impression that we shouldn't fill out a DS160 until the embassy had reached out. Is this correct? Also, would it help to fill out a DS160 even if the NVC hasn't sent over our information to the embassy? Would filling that out preemtively be a bad thing to do?

 

Gosh this process is so stressful. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I would continue to check Ceac website...when the embassy is ready to interview...the website will say ready.... there is a significant amount of backlog...but they will to the cases as fast as possible or you could definitely try an expedite.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

58 minutes ago, dizzle said:

I'm under the impression that we shouldn't fill out a DS160 until the embassy had reached out. Is this correct? Also, would it help to fill out a DS160 even if the NVC hasn't sent over our information to the embassy? Would filling that out preemtively be a bad thing to do?

I am confident that it doesn’t matter when you submit your DS160. Nobody is going to look at it until your interview. It will just sit on a server until then. It won’t hurt your case or kick start it out of NVC. I think you need to deal with NVC yourself to see if you can knock that case loose. It has been there a very long time. London says they are processing K1s again so a case as old as yours ought to be at the front of the queue to be shipped outta there.

[Nadine72 0]

if our K1 visa is stuck at NVC and London embassy is not accepting new visas, is it possible to transfer our file to another US embassy in a different country especially if I am moving back to my homeland.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Andrea J 1]

4 hours ago, Nadine72 said:

if our K1 visa is stuck at NVC and London embassy is not accepting new visas, is it possible to transfer our file to another US embassy in a different country especially if I am moving back to my homeland.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Yes the official process I've been told is to go to the new embassy but everyone seems to find it works just to tell the NVC you would like to do it including your new address in the homeland,  case number, names of both and a copy of the passport to show you have the right to go to that embassy.   That worked for us.

[Nadine72 0]

2 hours ago, Andrea J said:

Yes the official process I've been told is to go to the new embassy but everyone seems to find it works just to tell the NVC you would like to do it including your new address in the homeland,  case number, names of both and a copy of the passport to show you have the right to go to that embassy.   That worked for us.

Thanks Andrea for your reply.

How long did it take the NVC to transfer your file to the new embassy??

[Andrea J 1]

6 minutes ago, Nadine72 said:

Thanks Andrea for your reply.

How long did it take the NVC to transfer your file to the new embassy??

it took a while to get the response to the public enquiry but then it was immediate - we could tell that our NVC number stopped working (checking for status) within a couple of days so we called and got our new number.   We expect to get called to the other embassy next time they call for a batch (every several weeks from what I see).   Maybe London will start moving but there's such an enormous queue of K1s (DQ early 2020) and even the lawsuit is >100 people so I was thinking end of 2021 that way and end of summer via Amsterdam.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Andrea J

[Nadine72 0]

36 minutes ago, Andrea J said:

it took a while to get the response to the public enquiry but then it was immediate - we could tell that our NVC number stopped working (checking for status) within a couple of days so we called and got our new number.   We expect to get called to the other embassy next time they call for a batch (every several weeks from what I see).   Maybe London will start moving but there's such an enormous queue of K1s (DQ early 2020) and even the lawsuit is >100 people so I was thinking end of 2021 that way and end of summer via Amsterdam.

So if I ask for transfer this month, will it take around 2 to 3 months to be transferred? I need to follow with NVC on that?

Sorry for asking a lot of questions but I am a bit confused and do not want to take any action  that risk delaying further the visa.

Thanks again for your help.

[Andrea J 1]

11 minutes ago, Nadine72 said:

So if I ask for transfer this month, will it take around 2 to 3 months to be transferred? I need to follow with NVC on that?

Sorry for asking a lot of questions but I am a bit confused and do not want to take any action  that risk delaying further the visa.

Thanks again for your help.

the processes are not working well so there is a risk with anything you do.  It would be good to check the embassy you are transferring to has a much better situation (i.e. no backlog) than the one you are switching from so it's a no brainer.   I wrote to NVC and it took 3 weeks for them to read the enquiry and then the switch was immediate (like 2 days).   The embassy we switched to has essentially no backlog and the pattern we saw was every few weeks all the K1s/CR1s go 'in transit' so we are hopeful.  August may be a slow time for all the embassies if the staff are on holiday (heard that from a Greg Suskind briefing).   We were also about the 'changing supermarket queue' problem but in our case it made sense.  

[Nadine72 0]

1 minute ago, Andrea J said:

the processes are not working well so there is a risk with anything you do.  It would be good to check the embassy you are transferring to has a much better situation (i.e. no backlog) than the one you are switching from so it's a no brainer.   I wrote to NVC and it took 3 weeks for them to read the enquiry and then the switch was immediate (like 2 days).   The embassy we switched to has essentially no backlog and the pattern we saw was every few weeks all the K1s/CR1s go 'in transit' so we are hopeful.  August may be a slow time for all the embassies if the staff are on holiday (heard that from a Greg Suskind briefing).   We were also about the 'changing supermarket queue' problem but in our case it made sense.  

Great! Thanks for your help and clarification.

Good luck for your visa!

[joy717 4]

On 6/30/2021 at 9:10 AM, Nadine72 said:

Thanks Andrea for your reply.

How long did it take the NVC to transfer your file to the new embassy??

Hi. I moved embassies (requested in April) and it took 4 weeks for transfer. I have now had my interview in London and was approved. It went very fast once it arrived at the embassy. Good luck!

[Andrea J 1]

1 hour ago, joy717 said:

Hi. I moved embassies (requested in April) and it took 4 weeks for transfer. I have now had my interview in London and was approved. It went very fast once it arrived at the embassy. Good luck!

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Andrea J

[Boss and Potato 5]

So random question from the interviews thread to the K1 people - for those of you who are stuck, DQ ages ago but no interviews, are your cases showing as having left NVC in the CEAC tracker?

 

I only got my first ever contact from NVC today via email to tell me that they were sending my case to London, and now my case shows as 'In Transit', but I'm not sure if im likely to actually get an interview anytime soon, or if the same thing happens to everyone.  I only got NOA2 in April 2021, so it seems odd that my case would be moving while so many others are stuck in limbo, but I don't have much other info to go off of

 

TLDR do all the stuck K1 cases show as 'At NVC' in the CEAC tracker, or are the 'In Transit' ones also caught in limbo?

Edited July 12, 2021 by Boss and Potato

[joy717 4]

Im in a K1 Facebook group and it seems like a lot of London cases have been requested by the embassy mainly cases with NOA2 march 2020 or April 2020. My case moved to "in transit" in April, at this stage I did my ACRO and started getting all my paperwork ready. Once it hit the embassy I booked my medical immediately and paid the interview fee. Then I checked multiple times daily for appointments on the website and got one after checking about 10 days. Then I just waited about 4 weeks to attend my appointment and that was it!

If you are lucky you might be having your interview in August/Sept- its first come first serve on the appointment booking website so just check regularly particularly in the morning

[Boss and Potato 5]

oh that sounds promising - did you actually get a letter from the embassy or did you just wait for the tracker to go to 'ready' state and then just start making arrangements yourself?