Interview at Warsaw embassy - case transfer from Moscow

[Jessystar16 20]

Hello! Thought I would share my experience as well with the Schengen visa. My husband never had one before and he has only been to two other countries. We had an appointment Nov 11th at the Greek visa center in Moscow and as of Nov 17th he got his visa valid for multiple entry until the end of February 2022. I didn't purchase any flights or hotels but I did buy a dummy ticket which was about 70 dllrs to make it look like we were flying together and staying at a hotel in Athens for two weeks. These are valid reservations that can be checked online and are valid for visa purposes. I also provided an affidavit of support that i would be paying for our stay in Greece and sent my bank statement along with an employment/wage verification from work. The lady at the visa center reviewed everything and she mentioned there was a likelihood of getting the visa very quickly and she was correct 🙂

 

As for the medical my husband was able to schedule it before we had our interview day set in Moscow . They where very helpful and said they would work with us once we get the date. Once we received our interview he called them back and they were able to schedule him for Nov 25th

[Jessystar16 20]

38 minutes ago, Jessystar16 said:

Hello! Thought I would share my experience as well with the Schengen visa. My husband never had one before and he has only been to two other countries. We had an appointment Nov 11th at the Greek visa center in Moscow and as of Nov 17th he got his visa valid for multiple entry until the end of February 2022. I didn't purchase any flights or hotels but I did buy a dummy ticket which was about 70 dllrs to make it look like we were flying together and staying at a hotel in Athens for two weeks. These are valid reservations that can be checked online and are valid for visa purposes. I also provided an affidavit of support that i would be paying for our stay in Greece and sent my bank statement along with an employment/wage verification from work. The lady at the visa center reviewed everything and she mentioned there was a likelihood of getting the visa very quickly and she was correct 🙂

 

As for the medical my husband was able to schedule it before we had our interview day set in Moscow . They where very helpful and said they would work with us once we get the date. Once we received our interview he called them back and they were able to schedule him for Nov 25th

I found the info about sponsorship letter for the Schengen visa here https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/sponsorship-letter/  we did submit a copy of my passport and copy of our marriage certificate 

[egur 8]

Hello.

We just got our NVC number today (Nov 23) for Warsaw for K1 fiancé visa directly from NVC, bypassing the Moscow Embassy.  I have a few questions.

 

1) How did people get the Schengen visa? I saw 2 posts for tours to Hungary and Greece. I am checking those out. My fiancé is in Sankt Petersburg. Anyone used any particular travel agency there to book the tour and apply for the Schengen visa? Or did people apply directly at the Hungarian or Greek Visa Center and just booked tickets and hotels themselves? Were those tickets and hotels refundable or non-refundable (i.e. prepaid)?

2) How did people get their COVID vaccines approved for EU? My fiancé has Sputnik-V vaccine which is not EU approved. Did Poland or Hungary ask anyone for any COVID vaccine records and was anyone not let into either country without them?

3) During the medical exam in Poland did the doctor require the applicant get more vaccines for other diseases on the spot? How long and difficult was the medical interview? My finance has some vaccines on the CDC list, but not all of them. And some of them are not available in Russia.

4) How many days in advance did the medical exam had to be scheduled in Poland, before the doctor appointment? Did you use the doctor in Warsaw or Krakow? How long was the line?

5) Did anyone fly to the US already after November 8 (when new rule about COVID vaccines with both doses went into effect) after getting the Visa in Poland? Did anyone require having 2 US approved doses of COVID vaccine? Or was a PCR test enough? 

6) Did anyone get rejected anywhere (US visa, or entry to Poland or Schengen Visa) for any reasons, like lack of vaccines, COVID, not letting Russians into Poland?

 

Any info is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Eli

 

[Wouter 143]

31 minutes ago, egur said:

Hello.

We just got our NVC number today (Nov 23) for Warsaw for K1 fiancé visa directly from NVC, bypassing the Moscow Embassy.  I have a few questions.

 

3) During the medical exam in Poland did the doctor require the applicant get more vaccines for other diseases on the spot? How long and difficult was the medical interview? My finance has some vaccines on the CDC list, but not all of them. And some of them are not available in Russia.

4) How many days in advance did the medical exam had to be scheduled in Poland, before the doctor appointment? Did you use the doctor in Warsaw or Krakow? How long was the line?

5) Did anyone fly to the US already after November 8 (when new rule about COVID vaccines with both doses went into effect) after getting the Visa in Poland? Did anyone require having 2 US approved doses of COVID vaccine? Or was a PCR test enough? 

 

Any info is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Eli

 

Hi Eli, I commend you for asking good questions to prepare yourself.

Let me address a few of them:

3) My wife had no vaccination records (apparently childhood vaccination records from the Soviet times were lost). The doctor told her she therefore needed to get two shots (of some combination vaccines, I don't remember which). The nurse gave her the two injections a few minutes later. We just had to pay for them. And that was enough for the doctor to sign off on the whole health exam form. (I do believe that the medical requirements are different between K-1 and CR-1/IR-1?)

4) We went to the doctor in Krakow. The reason was that we got our interview date only 19 days ahead of time and there was no slot available in Warsaw before the interview. But it was no problem scheduling a medical exam in Krakow, plenty of slots. I picked a date one week before the interview (because I had read that it can take 7 days for the medical results to reach the US embassy in Warsaw) but it turned out that in Krakow the doctor just gives you a sealed envelope with the results right there at the end of the exam, which you just take with you to the interview. (So we could have put the medical exam much closer to the interview).

5) My wife flew on November 13th. She was not vaccinated. Since she had a CR-1 visa she was an immigrant and therefore the vaccine requirement did not apply to her. Not sure if this applies to a K-1 visa. She only needed a negative COVID test taken no more than 1 day before her first flight. (Ironically, nobody asked to see her PCR test result! Not at check-in in her home town, not in Moscow for the connecting flight to Los Angeles, and not at immigration at LAX!)

[egur 8]

4 minutes ago, Wouter said:

Hi Eli, I commend you for asking good questions to prepare yourself.

Let me address a few of them:

3) My wife had no vaccination records (apparently childhood vaccination records from the Soviet times were lost). The doctor told her she therefore needed to get two shots (of some combination vaccines, I don't remember which). The nurse gave her the two injections a few minutes later. We just had to pay for them. And that was enough for the doctor to sign off on the whole health exam form. (I do believe that the medical requirements are different between K-1 and CR-1/IR-1?)

4) We went to the doctor in Krakow. The reason was that we got our interview date only 19 days ahead of time and there was no slot available in Warsaw before the interview. But it was no problem scheduling a medical exam in Krakow, plenty of slots. I picked a date one week before the interview (because I had read that it can take 7 days for the medical results to reach the US embassy in Warsaw) but it turned out that in Krakow the doctor just gives you a sealed envelope with the results right there at the end of the exam, which you just take with you to the interview. (So we could have put the medical exam much closer to the interview).

5) My wife flew on November 13th. She was not vaccinated. Since she had a CR-1 visa she was an immigrant and therefore the vaccine requirement did not apply to her. Not sure if this applies to a K-1 visa. She only needed a negative COVID test taken no more than 1 day before her first flight. (Ironically, nobody asked to see her PCR test result! Not at check-in in her home town, not in Moscow for the connecting flight to Los Angeles, and not at immigration at LAX!)

Thank you. This is very helpful.

 

How did your wife get the Schengen Visa to enter Poland?

[Wouter 143]

26 minutes ago, egur said:

How did your wife get the Schengen Visa to enter Poland?

She still had a valid multi-entry Schengen visa from a trip to Switzerland we had done together earlier in the year, in May.

We decided to both fly to Zurich first to enter the Schengen zone through Switzerland again. We then took another Covid test at the airport in Zurich and flew from Zurich together to Krakow (via Warsaw).

[Jessystar16 20]

Hello again! Final update my husband made it to America with the cr1 visa!... Here are the details:

 

On November 12th my husband received an email that our interview was Dec 2nd. We had applied for the Greek visa on Nov 11th and received it the week after. Booked a flight from Moscow to Athens Nov 29th and then from Athens to Warsaw Nov 30th. To enter Athens he had a PCR test 3 days before and had to fill out the locator form before check-in for the flight. They asked for visa, COVID test and the form at the border. He crossed no problem. At the Athens airport after arrival he took a rapid test and the results were given in English. The next day he headed to Poland and they just asked for the visa and COVID test. On Nov 30th we emailed the Moscow clinic to make sure his medical exam had been sent to the embassy and they replied within the same day saying it was sent. 

 

Once at the interview he waited about 2 hours, checked all paperwork and got called in for the questions. He said it took maybe about 5 min, very simple questions like how we met, when we got married and what i do for a living. After the office told him to come back the next day for the visa at 3pm. Next day picked it up no problem. We paid the immigrant visa fees and flew from Poland to new York on Dec 12th. At the border in New York they took him to the immigration room and the officer stamp his passport after waiting for a few minutes. We did have to show negative Covid tests before leaving Poland. We were able to take rapid tests the day before and results were in English

[egur 8]

Hello Jessystar16.

How long did it take you from the date that NVC sent your case to Warsaw to receive the email from Warsaw with invitation to the interview and the interview date?

 

Our case was sent by NVC to Warsaw on November 23 and we still did not receive the invitation or interview date by email. It's been 30 days so far. I keep calling Warsaw and asking, but they just keep telling me to wait.

[Jessystar16 20]

1 hour ago, egur said:

Hello Jessystar16.

How long did it take you from the date that NVC sent your case to Warsaw to receive the email from Warsaw with invitation to the interview and the interview date?

 

Our case was sent by NVC to Warsaw on November 23 and we still did not receive the invitation or interview date by email. It's been 30 days so far. I keep calling Warsaw and asking, but they just keep telling me to wait.

It was about 3 days, one of those days was a holiday. Have you checked your nvc status? That it says ready? You can also contact ustraveldocs in Poland to see if they can find out what happened

[egur 8]

Ok thanks. Yes I contacted ustraveldocs and they said (both by phone and by email) they have everything and just to wait. NVC status also is ok. Have letter from them. NVC also replied to an inquiry saying that everything is in Warsaw and just wait. So we are just waiting. I am just not sure how long is this wait. We also have a single entry Schengen visa from Greece. But it's going to run out of days of stay in Schengen on Feb 3 and if we don't make it in and out of Poland by then will need to extend it somehow while we are in Greece or in Poland or reapply for a second visa. I just hope my fiance would not need to go back from Greece (or from Poland) back to Russia to reapply for another Schengen visa and the back to Greece and back to Poland. I cannot really find any info on how to extend a single entry Schengen visa while inside Schengen and outside of your home country (i.e. Russia). Does anyone have any recent experience with doing that?

[Corp668 16]

5 hours ago, egur said:

Ok thanks. Yes I contacted ustraveldocs and they said (both by phone and by email) they have everything and just to wait. NVC status also is ok. Have letter from them. NVC also replied to an inquiry saying that everything is in Warsaw and just wait. So we are just waiting. I am just not sure how long is this wait. We also have a single entry Schengen visa from Greece. But it's going to run out of days of stay in Schengen on Feb 3 and if we don't make it in and out of Poland by then will need to extend it somehow while we are in Greece or in Poland or reapply for a second visa. I just hope my fiance would not need to go back from Greece (or from Poland) back to Russia to reapply for another Schengen visa and the back to Greece and back to Poland. I cannot really find any info on how to extend a single entry Schengen visa while inside Schengen and outside of your home country (i.e. Russia). Does anyone have any recent experience with doing that?

I am in a similar situation - my stuff was sent from NVC on November 24th and status is "Ready" with NVC.  I did the DS160 and paid the fee and could see the form to schedule interviews, but we couldn't do it yet because my fiancee has to get her police report and we dont have it yet.  The embassy had some interview dates in mid-January but those are all gone and nothing shows for the next 24 months, but I think that must just be because they haven't added them to the system yet.

 

I did NOT get the letter from the Warsaw embassy yet... so we are in the same situation, they have had our case for 30 days (almost) too and haven't heard a peep from them.

 

My understanding was there is around 650 cases transferred from Moscow to Warsaw and they were processing about 50 cases per month... so I hope we are not looking at a 10-month wait here

[millefleur 5,047]

16 minutes ago, Corp668 said:

 

My understanding was there is around 650 cases transferred from Moscow to Warsaw and they were processing about 50 cases per month... so I hope we are not looking at a 10-month wait here

That's insane. They need to move staff over from Moscow (the ones they have the budget for and planned to hire) to Warsaw. This is ridiculous.

[TBoneTX 45,598]

If they envision moving staff from Moscow, they'd need a place to put them, so much depends on the physical size and layout of the Warsaw embassy.

[egur 8]

Did you receive the passport with the visa back at Mailboxes Etc place? What ID did the Russian fiance had to present to MBE to receive their passport back? Did they ask just for the barcode from the embassy or some other ID? Russian driver's license?

[Jessystar16 20]

On 12/23/2021 at 12:00 AM, TBoneTX said:

If they envision moving staff from Moscow, they'd need a place to put them, so much depends on the physical size and layout of the Warsaw embassy.

When I spoke to American staff at the Moscow embassy they mentioned that Poland was the largest most equipped embassy in Europe to handle the case load. But also the situation in Afghanistan took priority over everything else so that is why both nvc and the embassies are taking a bit longer