Any experience with interviews in Auckland?

[BahamaBaby 12]

I recently came across this official website which gives an indication of time delays on non-immigrant visa (figured waiting period might be similar for immigrant visas also). 
 

The Auckland numbers were previously just a few days but have recently gone up through the roof! Anyone experiencing delays? Just want to be careful with reassigning my case to Auckland and not getting held up again waiting as I am in Sydney right now. 
 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/wait-times.html

[Jevin 4]

Does anyone know if we are allowed to drop off our Packet 3 documents directly at the consulate at:

3rd Floor,
Citigroup Building,
23 Customs St East
Auckland 1010

 

The postal address is:

Consulate General of the United States of America
Private Bag 92022,
Auckland 1142

Are they the same?

[BahamaBaby 12]

@Ash23122 I was on the phone with the Sydney consulate again today, no ETA on when they open. I asked if we could be interviewed in Melbourne instead and they told me I would have to speak to NVC to reassign my case to Melbourne. So this is an avenue we are exploring as we are still in the Sydney pipeline at NVC. Melbourne would be far easier than having to fly to NZ and quarantine for 10 days. Will let you know how we get on and please share any updates on your case too! 

[Ash23122 22]

20 hours ago, BahamaBaby said:

@Ash23122 I was on the phone with the Sydney consulate again today, no ETA on when they open. I asked if we could be interviewed in Melbourne instead and they told me I would have to speak to NVC to reassign my case to Melbourne. So this is an avenue we are exploring as we are still in the Sydney pipeline at NVC. Melbourne would be far easier than having to fly to NZ and quarantine for 10 days. Will let you know how we get on and please share any updates on your case too! 

Someone had posted on one of the Facebook pages I follow that rumour is - the Sydney consulate is planning to re-open their new location sometime in June 2022 (fingers crossed) and until then they will continue to schedule the visa interviews in Melbourne to clear the backlog. 

 

My understanding is that NVC cannot transfer the case to the Melbourne consulate directly as the Sydney consulate is the only consulate in Australia that processes immigrant visa applications so only they have the authority to schedule or transfer the case to Melbourne but I guess, there is no harm in trying. Let me know how you go! 

 

Update on my case - 
So after sending multiple emails to the consulate and calling NVC, they finally accepted my NZ police certificate document on 12/02 and I got DQ'd (yayy!). So now just waiting for NVC/consulate to schedule the visa interview.

 

I also did a quick research on the internet and found out the Auckland consulate has cancelled all the visa interviews that were scheduled between Feb & March due to COVID so don't think I will go down that path and request my case to be transferred to Auckland.  

[BahamaBaby 12]

@Ash23122 thanks for your reply and congrats on being DQ! 
 

We called NVC and they said they cannot send anything to Melbourne. The only option is to ask for an expedite… changes of those being approved are slim. 
 

Yes I did notice Auckland processing times seem to have shot up so figured something was happening there. Might be best to hold tight for Sydney, June isn’t that far away… 

 

Mind if I ask if there are any FB groups worth following for updates on the consulate? I’ve only seen the Sydney consulate official page which only has general updates. 

[Ash23122 22]

4 hours ago, BahamaBaby said:

@Ash23122 thanks for your reply and congrats on being DQ! 
 

We called NVC and they said they cannot send anything to Melbourne. The only option is to ask for an expedite… changes of those being approved are slim. 
 

Yes I did notice Auckland processing times seem to have shot up so figured something was happening there. Might be best to hold tight for Sydney, June isn’t that far away… 

 

Mind if I ask if there are any FB groups worth following for updates on the consulate? I’ve only seen the Sydney consulate official page which only has general updates. 

I had a feeling they won't approve your request to move your case to Melbourne and they will only be able to transfer your case to the Sydney consulate if your expedite gets approved by NVC/Sydney consulate.

 

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do at this stage. Will just have to wait it out for Sydney Consulate to re-open. 

 

Here you go - https://www.facebook.com/groups/307315123602923/

^This is the page I follow on Facebook. A lot of people are currently waiting for the Sydney consulate to schedule their visa interview. 

 

[R gill 2]

On 1/3/2022 at 8:06 AM, mcs_2021 said:

@EKT thank you so much for your insight - very excited to report we got DQ'ed the other day! 

 

@Stevi_09 - I thought I'd let you know what worked for us if it's helpful. Thanks to @EKT's experience, we reached out to the Consulate in Auckland and asked them to re-forward the results of the police certificate to the NVC. Once we received confirmation from the Consulate that they did this, we called the NVC to tell them that the results had been re-sent.

 

The doc that we uploaded on our side was a cover letter, the email confirmation, the reciprocity language, and the section 14 form. This was the doc that was originally rejected. We never uploaded a new document - they just retroactively approved the doc once they received the document from the Consulate. However, I also called a few times so that could have triggered a re-review. Sounds like everyone has had a bit of a different experience! So sorry you're struggling with this as well! 

Hi

I have send comleted section 14 overseas form to NZ police for police certificate. Just want to ask how long it took for Nz police to send me the confirmation email that they have got my detail and they will send police certificate to consulate general Auckland ? Can any one please shed some lights on this.
 

thanks in advance 

[EKT 117]

On 3/1/2022 at 10:34 AM, R gill said:

Hi

I have send comleted section 14 overseas form to NZ police for police certificate. Just want to ask how long it took for Nz police to send me the confirmation email that they have got my detail and they will send police certificate to consulate general Auckland ? Can any one please shed some lights on this.
 

thanks in advance 

Hey, from memory I think it only takes a few days to receive email confirmation. Yes, the police report gets sent directly to the Consulate but it’s a good idea to email them to confirm they received it and forwarded it to NVC. 

[mekbus 9]

Got our I-130 approved today! Onwards to the NVC portion. 

Did you all wait for the NVC case reference number before applying for the police certificate?

[EKT 117]

5 hours ago, mekbus said:

Got our I-130 approved today! Onwards to the NVC portion. 

Did you all wait for the NVC case reference number before applying for the police certificate?

Congratulations!! I’m pretty sure you need the case number to complete the section 14 form so yes, I would wait. Use the time to complete the DS-260, I-864 and write cover letters, etc. I remember it took us a surprisingly long time to pull everything together after we got our case number and paid the fees. 

Also, try to get your US tax transcripts if possible instead of your returns. You can request them online from the IRS and it will save you the delay of getting an RFP to provide W-2/1099s. Sorry if I already mentioned this to you! I’m know I’m like a broken record but it seems to trip up so many applicants/sponsors who are based overseas. 

 

[ztiberiusd 38]

FINALLY DQ'D TODAY. What a fantastic feeling. 

 

Intially submitted everything to NVC on 09/19, but got an RFE. Resubmitted 12/20 and just got DQ'd on 03/19. 

 

I've been pretty out of the loop on how the Auckland consulate is moving (focusing on it too much was just driving me insane). Does anyone have any rough idea of how long we might expect to wait before we receive an interview date? 

 

I'm so thankful that we are DQ'd. The end to this process is hopefully in sight. 

[Bubblytea 0]

hi all, does anyone have experience getting a CR1 via DCF through the Auckland consulate? Is it something they are processing at all? 

[EKT 117]

On 3/19/2022 at 6:54 PM, ztiberiusd said:

FINALLY DQ'D TODAY. What a fantastic feeling. 

 

Intially submitted everything to NVC on 09/19, but got an RFE. Resubmitted 12/20 and just got DQ'd on 03/19. 

 

I've been pretty out of the loop on how the Auckland consulate is moving (focusing on it too much was just driving me insane). Does anyone have any rough idea of how long we might expect to wait before we receive an interview date? 

 

I'm so thankful that we are DQ'd. The end to this process is hopefully in sight. 

I can’t help with consulate timeframes but just wanted to say congrats on getting DQ!

 

@Jevin did you had an interview recently? I remember you posted about sending docs to the consulate a little while back.

[EKT 117]

22 hours ago, Bubblytea said:

hi all, does anyone have experience getting a CR1 via DCF through the Auckland consulate? Is it something they are processing at all? 

I didn’t hear of anyone on VJ doing DCF in Auckland during our IR-1 process (Feb 2021-Jan 2022). I have a feeling it’s not routinely done anymore but hopefully someone else will know. 

[Jevin 4]

11 hours ago, EKT said:

 

@Jevin did you had an interview recently? I remember you posted about sending docs to the consulate a little while back.

Yeah, we ended up sending Packet 2 documents by courier. We got an email on March 1 telling us that we could start scheduling the interview, but there were no slots available on the scheduling website back then. On March 14 they released a few interview slots for early April and early May. Ours is scheduled for April 6 🤞