Any experience with interviews in Auckland?

[EKT 117]

2 hours ago, MelanieR18 said:

Hi everyone, I emailed B yesterday and got some unfortunate news today:

 

The U.S. Consulate General Auckland will remain closed to routine immigrant visa applicants requiring in-person interviews until Auckland enters the orange level of the COVID Protection Framework / Traffic Light System. Please keep in mind that this situation is dynamic and we may cancel future appointments if Auckland returns to a state of lockdown.

 

FFS. That’s very unlikely to happen before mid-January. They emailed me today too but only to say they would check our documents and get back to us if anything is missing. I’ve had such a weird experience with this process over the past week. We couriered our documents last Monday at B’s request and then kept getting tracking notices saying delivery had failed because the business was closed. I checked in with B and she said there’s rarely ever anyone there but they would get it eventually. So our original birth/marriage certificates, passport copies, sensitive financial info and tax returns with SSN, etc were just bouncing around Auckland between depots and courier vans for 5 days until it was eventually delivered. Everything seems so casual and ad-hoc in how they operate and make important decisions😂😂😂

[rycilla 14]

16 hours ago, EKT said:

FFS. That’s very unlikely to happen before mid-January. They emailed me today too but only to say they would check our documents and get back to us if anything is missing. I’ve had such a weird experience with this process over the past week. We couriered our documents last Monday at B’s request and then kept getting tracking notices saying delivery had failed because the business was closed. I checked in with B and she said there’s rarely ever anyone there but they would get it eventually. So our original birth/marriage certificates, passport copies, sensitive financial info and tax returns with SSN, etc were just bouncing around Auckland between depots and courier vans for 5 days until it was eventually delivered. Everything seems so casual and ad-hoc in how they operate and make important decisions😂😂😂

Gah yikes!! Glad it finally got there in the end. Haha I'm low-key paranoid that they are going to come back to me asking for more documents, even though they confirmed they received documents over a week ago. 

I just wanna know, the why haha. Like why does it keep getting pushed back. And why do they keep giving us false expectations, first we had hope with Level 3 Step 2, then the traffic light system, but now it's the Orange light. WHY.


 
I feel like it's very hard to get any answers from them 😅

Glad to hear your interview is still going through @JoshandSarah!!

[kg_nz 19]

Hi everyone - just discovered this thread! My husband's CR-1 interview was scheduled THE DAY Auckland went into lockdown (Aug 18th) and we've been in this painful limbo ever since. I had to fly back to the US on Aug 29th so we've been separated for over 3 months now.

 

The info everyone seems to be getting from the consulate seems super inconsistent - on November 17th we were notified that his interview was rescheduled for December 8th. We didn't get any cancelation notification due to waiting for 'orange light' or whatever so as far and we're aware, it's still on.

 

Don't know if it makes a difference, but they already have our documents and have had them since the second week of August. So strange that they told MelanieR18 they wouldn't be resuming interviews... that makes me super nervous though!

 

Also don't know if this made a difference, but I got my congressperson (from Colorado) involved, and I've been relentlessly emailing the consulate for months about how this is a humanitarian issue – how are retail and hospitality able to resume operations but the consulate refuses to resume what should be considered an essential service to reunite families? So maybe they just wanted to shut us up, idk.

[EKT 117]

1 hour ago, kg_nz said:

Hi everyone - just discovered this thread! My husband's CR-1 interview was scheduled THE DAY Auckland went into lockdown (Aug 18th) and we've been in this painful limbo ever since. I had to fly back to the US on Aug 29th so we've been separated for over 3 months now.

 

The info everyone seems to be getting from the consulate seems super inconsistent - on November 17th we were notified that his interview was rescheduled for December 8th. We didn't get any cancelation notification due to waiting for 'orange light' or whatever so as far and we're aware, it's still on.

 

Don't know if it makes a difference, but they already have our documents and have had them since the second week of August. So strange that they told MelanieR18 they wouldn't be resuming interviews... that makes me super nervous though!

 

Also don't know if this made a difference, but I got my congressperson (from Colorado) involved, and I've been relentlessly emailing the consulate for months about how this is a humanitarian issue – how are retail and hospitality able to resume operations but the consulate refuses to resume what should be considered an essential service to reunite families? So maybe they just wanted to shut us up, idk.

Thank you so much for chiming in! I really thought Auckland people would start having interviews on Dec 8th after the move today. I can see now that the consulate is prioritising people who are separated from their fiancé/spouses and just not being transparent about it with everyone else. Argh. So good you guys are going to be reunited soon!

 

I ended making a last minute decision to fly to the US with our kids in September for a family member’s funeral, desperately hoping something would change here and my husband would get an interview. We can’t be separated long term because of the kids, jobs, housing costs, etc so we ended up flying back in late Oct (via 14 days in MIQ which was traumatic in itself). I thought about talking with our congressman- he lives in my hometown- but I just don’t have the energy to throw at this any longer. We’re seriously thinking about just staying in NZ now but I would feel so terrible letting my family down after a year of telling them we’re moving over there to be closer to them. Ugh, this sucks so much. I feel better knowing I’m not the only one borderline harassing B though 😂😂😂

[EKT 117]

28 minutes ago, EKT said:

The info everyone seems to be getting from the consulate seems super inconsistent - on November 17th we were notified that his interview was rescheduled for December 8th. We didn't get any cancelation notification due to waiting for 'orange light' or whatever so as far and we're aware, it's still on.

Also, from what we’ve heard here from @JoshandSarah I think your husband’s interview is definitely still on. And I think B needs to retire. The consulate is making them a gatekeeper(/scapegoat) to a bunch of really stressed people and it’s a completely dysfunctional situation. I asked in an email last week if I could speak directly with someone else about what’s going on and the reply I got from B was that they had been working in that role for 23 years and things have always been run this way 🤦‍♀️ 

[EKT 117]

It’s also really helpful to know that August interviews were cancelled as well. My husband’s interview was scheduled for September 15th and I’d wrongly assumed the August ones went ahead. That would have been so devastating for you guys to miss out by literally hours @kg_nz 😟 

 

I guess the good news here is that despite all the strange, inconsistent emails the consulate is sending out, they actually are restarting immigrant visa interviews in December. You think they would just announce that and let everyone know that there are others ahead of us in the queue!

[MelanieR18 29]

@kg_nz hi! Thank you so much for posting, it is good to hear your story. Hoping all goes well for you guys on December 8th. 

After I saw your post, I replied back to B's email where she told me that they are only opening in the Orange for interviews. I asked her to double check and clarify on when they were going to do in person interviews. She sent this reply, which makes way more sense:

 

Interviews are being scheduled in order of when the documents arrive in our office. The mail is dated, and we are scheduling interviews in order of arrival in our office.

 

I wish they weren't so vague about this stuff and had consistent messaging, this whole thing has been super stressful. But yes, at least we are getting somewhere now

 

[kg_nz 19]

@EKT I wish I knew this thread existed earlier! This whole situation has been insanely stressful... my husband and I have had our lives come to a screeching halt and had no idea when we'd be together again.

 

Yeah I feel bad about constantly bothering B because I know she doesn't have any control over it, but it was the only thing I could do to try and find out what their plan was. The most upsetting part was when retail was allowed to resume operations but the consulate refused to conduct interviews. And then when it was established that hospitality could resume in Level 3, Step 3 but the consulate said they would not open full-stop during Level 3 I was fuming! I was contacting congress, reaching out to lawyers -- I just felt so powerless and desperate. Luckily they finally reached out to us! We were about to drop $$$ on an immigration attorney, which probably wouldn't have even helped in the end 😅.

 

I'm still holding my breath until December 8th. If COVID has taught us anything, it's that life in unpredictable and nothing is certain. But yeah, things definitely seem to be moving now and I'll totally report back after his interview. @MelanieR18 I'm glad you got some clarity – that's so annoying that they gave you false information until you reached out!

 

What I'm now wondering is how quickly he'll get his passport/green card afterward... I heard pre-COVID it was taking less than a week, but I guess now who knows. He has a his plane ticket bought for December 22nd, but we're hoping to move it earlier. 🤞

 

Sending everyone good vibes!! At least know that things are finally moving!

[EKT 117]

 

1 hour ago, MelanieR18 said:

@kg_nz hi! Thank you so much for posting, it is good to hear your story. Hoping all goes well for you guys on December 8th. 

After I saw your post, I replied back to B's email where she told me that they are only opening in the Orange for interviews. I asked her to double check and clarify on when they were going to do in person interviews. She sent this reply, which makes way more sense:

 

Interviews are being scheduled in order of when the documents arrive in our office. The mail is dated, and we are scheduling interviews in order of arrival in our office.

 

I wish they weren't so vague about this stuff and had consistent messaging, this whole thing has been super stressful. But yes, at least we are getting somewhere now

 

I guess that good news but doesn't really explain why your husband's interview hasn't been scheduled... Maybe the December dates are full. The craziest thing about the whole document arrival date thing is that I never would have known we needed to send them in at all if I hadn't been on this thread. Every other source says the documents get sent in a week prior to the interview for CR-1/IR-1s. We were DQ in late July and only finally got the info about needing to send our documents in order to reschedule the interview last week after I brought it up with B.

[EKT 117]

23 minutes ago, kg_nz said:

What I'm now wondering is how quickly he'll get his passport/green card afterward... I heard pre-COVID it was taking less than a week, but I guess now who knows. He has a his plane ticket bought for December 22nd, but we're hoping to move it earlier. 🤞

 

Sending everyone good vibes!! At least know that things are finally moving!

I have a feeling they will try to turn the visas around as quickly as possible given the situation you've been through. What a complete nightmare! Can't wait to hear back over the next couple of weeks as interviews start to happen and people can actually to fly out. Woohoo!

 

It sounds like they are holding interviews on December 8th, 15th and 22nd so hopefully they will do a few dates in January as well to catch up. A few of you are ahead of us in the document pile--I will be waiting patiently to hear about any Jan interviews being scheduled lol

[Vamp.nz 23]

18 minutes ago, EKT said:

 

I guess that good news but doesn't really explain why your husband's interview hasn't been scheduled... Maybe the December dates are full. The craziest thing about the whole document arrival date thing is that I never would have known we needed to send them in at all if I hadn't been on this thread. Every other source says the documents get sent in a week prior to the interview for CR-1/IR-1s. We were DQ in late July and only finally got the info about needing to send our documents in order to reschedule the interview last week after I brought it up with B.

We were also waiting on our packet three. We should have got it late august. B failed to email it, According to Elle from Auckland, she was under the assumption B had sent it even tho we had sent at least three emails saying we were waiting on packet three.. we did not get packet three until I put the police reports in, cause I got sick and tired of waiting And being mucked around and told contradictory information.  They have received all our paperwork and it’s sat there since  15th nov. they contacted me yesterday with this… 

We’ve received your documents and I will go through them next week when I am next in the office to see if everything is in order.  

 

Once, I can confirm you have everything ready for an interview, I can send you the instructions to schedule an interview appointment.

 
 

*obviously still very vague but at least a response of sorts. 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Vamp.nz

[EKT 117]

3 minutes ago, Vamp.nz said:

We’ve received your documents and I will go through them next week when I am next in the office to see if everything is in order.  

 

Once, I can confirm you have everything ready for an interview, I can send you the instructions to schedule an interview appointment.

 

*obviously still very vague but at least a response of sorts. 

Wow, I'm so glad we didn't have to rely on B for that part of the process! The CR/IR process is quite different than K in that all of the documentation is managed in an online portal by NVC until it is complete and then they send out the interview date. Our documents have been complete since late July (we actually submitted them in April and then had to resubmit a few in early June) and our interview was scheduled for September 15th but that was obviously cancelled due lockdown. Since then we have just been waiting patiently for an update regarding reopening/a new interview date, until last week when I found out the hard way that we needed to send in the actual hard copies of our forms (the same ones the consulate received electronically from NVC back in July) in order to get a new interview date. We would have happily sent them everything in August if only we had known to do this...

 

Hopefully you get to schedule your interview soon!

[EKT 117]

Maybe this will be helpful for those who want to update their info over the next few weeks to get an idea of when interviews will be scheduled/rescheduled (the VJ timeline dates seem a bit less relevant right now due to the closure). Consulate rec'd is the date when your documents physically arrived at the consulate and for K-1s I gather this is the date packet 3 was completed/received by the consulate. Sorry if I forgot anyone and others please feel free to jump in!

 

VJ Name	Visa category	Consulate rec'd	Interview scheduled	Interview date	Visa issued
kg_nz	IR-1/CR-1	Aug-2021	17-Nov-2021	08-Dec-2021
Joshandsarah	K-1		18-Nov-2021	15-Dec-2021
MelanieR18	IR-1/CR-1
rycilla	IR-1/CR-1
Vamp.nz	K-1	17-Nov-2021
EKT	IR-1/CR-1	26-Nov-2021
kas & jewel	K-1
Jovany&Divya	K-1

 

Just quote the most recent version to update, unless someone wants to set this up in google sheets and post a link. I couldn't figure out a way to do it anonymously.

 

[MelanieR18 29]

21 hours ago, EKT said:

Maybe this will be helpful for those who want to update their info over the next few weeks to get an idea of when interviews will be scheduled/rescheduled (the VJ timeline dates seem a bit less relevant right now due to the closure). Consulate rec'd is the date when your documents physically arrived at the consulate and for K-1s I gather this is the date packet 3 was completed/received by the consulate. Sorry if I forgot anyone and others please feel free to jump in!

 

 

VJ Name	Visa category	Consulate rec'd	Interview scheduled	Interview date	Visa issued
kg_nz	IR-1/CR-1	Aug-2021	17-Nov-2021	08-Dec-2021
Joshandsarah	K-1		18-Nov-2021	15-Dec-2021
MelanieR18	IR-1/CR-1	22-Nov-2021
rycilla	IR-1/CR-1
Vamp.nz	K-1	17-Nov-2021
EKT	IR-1/CR-1	26-Nov-2021
kas & jewel	K-1
Jovany&Divya	K-1

 

Just quote the most recent version to update, unless someone wants to set this up in google sheets and post a link. I couldn't figure out a way to do it anonymously.

 

 

Great idea @EKT thank you for making this! I've added in mine  

Edited December 4, 2021 by MelanieR18

[kas & jewel 8]

23 hours ago, EKT said:

Maybe this will be helpful for those who want to update their info over the next few weeks to get an idea of when interviews will be scheduled/rescheduled (the VJ timeline dates seem a bit less relevant right now due to the closure). Consulate rec'd is the date when your documents physically arrived at the consulate and for K-1s I gather this is the date packet 3 was completed/received by the consulate. Sorry if I forgot anyone and others please feel free to jump in!

 

 

VJ Name	Visa category	Consulate rec'd	Interview scheduled	Interview date	Visa issued
kg_nz	IR-1/CR-1	Aug-2021	17-Nov-2021	08-Dec-2021
Joshandsarah	K-1		18-Nov-2021	15-Dec-2021
MelanieR18	IR-1/CR-1
rycilla	IR-1/CR-1
Vamp.nz	K-1	17-Nov-2021
EKT	IR-1/CR-1	26-Nov-2021
kas & jewel	K-1	2-Dec-2021
Jovany&Divya	K-1

 

Just quote the most recent version to update, unless someone wants to set this up in google sheets and post a link. I couldn't figure out a way to do it anonymously.

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by kas & jewel