Interview rescheduling

[Murph4865 597]

How long after interview is it taking to get passport/visa back via 2go for pick up in manila?

[flicks1998 1,044]

22 minutes ago, Murph4865 said:

How long after interview is it taking to get passport/visa back via 2go for pick up in manila?

Our experience was 2.5 weeks from the time they had the required documents.  That was the time it took the embassy to process everything, plus another day or two to pick up at the 2go office.  If you are really tight on time, you need to designate pickup at a specific 2go office.  They will probably call your wife and ask her if she can get to the US by the visa expiration date.  They called us to check on this.  

[Murph4865 597]

3 minutes ago, flicks1998 said:

Our experience was 2.5 weeks from the time they had the required documents.  That was the time it took the embassy to process everything, plus another day or two to pick up at the 2go office.  If you are really tight on time, you need to designate pickup at a specific 2go office.  They will probably call your wife and ask her if she can get to the US by the visa expiration date.  They called us to check on this.  

I plan on having her stay in manila to pick it up at 2go so i can book flight right out, but interview is real tight right now med expires on aug 7 they say she has to fly out by then, but that is only month since she got med stamp and she is vaccinated already after sputum results in may

[Murph4865 597]

7 minutes ago, flicks1998 said:

Our experience was 2.5 weeks from the time they had the required documents.  That was the time it took the embassy to process everything, plus another day or two to pick up at the 2go office.  If you are really tight on time, you need to designate pickup at a specific 2go office.  They will probably call your wife and ask her if she can get to the US by the visa expiration date.  They called us to check on this.  

We tried and tried to register for pick up on site but would not let us in to register

[flicks1998 1,044]

1 minute ago, Murph4865 said:

We tried and tried to register for pick up on site but would not let us in to register

The embassy actually went into the system and changed our information for us as I had sent an email to them stressing to not mail the visa and passport to the address in the system.  That was the province address and Cagayan had just gone into another lockdown and it would be weeks before we could get there.  We were locked out of the US govt system though as they had already sent us one visa until it was stolen.  Once you have concluded your interview, the system will lock itself.  The embassy had to manually go in and change everything for us.  

 

The embassy called my fiance again to confirm the pickup location.  It was a Filipino working at the embassy who called and they were helpful to update the system to have everything switched over to pick up at the 2go office in Makati.  You may want to follow up with another email to confirm what steps you need them to do.  Once I had the attention of the embassy, everything was smooth and they were helpful, but problem was getting the attention of the embassy.  Also, in your email, you may want to ask them what the visa expiration date will be so you can plan to that exact date.  

[Murph4865 597]

6 minutes ago, flicks1998 said:

The embassy actually went into the system and changed our information for us as I had sent an email to them stressing to not mail the visa and passport to the address in the system.  That was the province address and Cagayan had just gone into another lockdown and it would be weeks before we could get there.  We were locked out of the US govt system though as they had already sent us one visa until it was stolen.  Once you have concluded your interview, the system will lock itself.  The embassy had to manually go in and change everything for us.  

 

The embassy called my fiance again to confirm the pickup location.  It was a Filipino working at the embassy who called and they were helpful to update the system to have everything switched over to pick up at the 2go office in Makati.  You may want to follow up with another email to confirm what steps you need them to do.  Once I had the attention of the embassy, everything was smooth and they were helpful, but problem was getting the attention of the embassy.  Also, in your email, you may want to ask them what the visa expiration date will be so you can plan to that exact date.  

Ok, if we got medical stamp in march when started the medical 6 months from there is Sept but after sputum and result come back in may and she got vaccinations  she was told she had to fly out no later then Aug that is only 5 months on the medical why the difference of 1 month?

[flicks1998 1,044]

16 minutes ago, Murph4865 said:

Ok, if we got medical stamp in march when started the medical 6 months from there is Sept but after sputum and result come back in may and she got vaccinations  she was told she had to fly out no later then Aug that is only 5 months on the medical why the difference of 1 month?

That I dont know.  Who told her she had to fly out no later than August?  Embassy? SLEC?  If its SLEC, they may not know what they are talking about.  If your going to write to the embassy, I would put the question in there on what exact date is the expiration of the visa since its so important to know and time is tight.  Also, try and send your email to USEM around 530-6am PI time.  Try to get the email at the top of that days emails.  And put something in the subject line showing its urgency.  I believe the emails I wrote to USEM was something like "Urgent.........visa expiration date of Feb 24 2021, ready to travel now."   Once I had captured their attention, they were actually very helpful.  

 

If they are going to issue the visa with very little validity left, just make sure your wife can get to the US during that time, otherwise they will need to reissue the visa and it becomes even a bigger mess.  I actually had plan A, B, and C in place when we left the PI.  Things such as if my COVID test was positive, then she would continue flying and I was going to have colleagues from work pick her up.  We did our COVID testing through PAL separately with different addresses.  Also, if the flight was cancelled, I had several backup flights planned.  We only had 5 days to get to the US so there was no room for error.  If USEM does reach out to you and your wife gets the passport and visa, she needs to also self isolate herself as much as possible.  Our biggest fear was contacting COVID because then there would be no way to get to the US on time.  So the last two weeks in country, we lived in a bubble as much as we could.

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by flicks1998

[RO_AH 1,659]

1 hour ago, Murph4865 said:

Ok, if we got medical stamp in march when started the medical 6 months from there is Sept but after sputum and result come back in may and she got vaccinations  she was told she had to fly out no later then Aug that is only 5 months on the medical why the difference of 1 month?

The Embassy told my wife the same thing and I have no idea why the discrepancy. It is total BS in my opinion. The date stamped in the passport for the medical should be the day it is completed and should be valid for 6 months from that date. To have less than 4 moths validity on something that should be valid for 6 months is nonsense. Add that to the extreme delays currently for rescheduling it pretty much guarantees a second medical. My wife is going in for her second medical today for the same reasons. There goes another $700 for medical and transportation assuming that she will get flagged for sputum again.