Do you have to drop off/courier documents to Auckland consulate ahead of CR-1 interview?

[ztiberiusd 38]

I notice on the Auckland consulate portion of travel.state.gov, there's a section which says "Please use the list below to determine the items that every applicant must provide to the consulate PRIOR to the immigrant visa interview. Bring your documents to the consulate the week before your interview any time between 8:00 a.m. and 12 noon Monday through Friday, except public holidays. Place them in an envelope with your case number and full name on the outside and addressed to “Immigrant Visa Unit.”". My wife doesn't live in Auckland so this would not be possible. She could courier the documents up this week if necessary, but I found it odd that there was no mention of this process in any correspondence she's received from the consulate, and I don't see much mention of it here on VisaJourney either. I'm wondering if this is an out of date/irrelevant instruction. I thought it was strange that if they did want this to happen, they were relying on people to meticulously read through the travel.state.gov website rather than following the instructions directly received from the consulate. 

 

I emailed the consulate on Thursday in the US which would have been Good Friday in NZ, so I can't expect a response from them until NZ Tuesday. 

 

[Kuchiki 170]

On 4/17/2022 at 7:16 PM, ztiberiusd said:

I notice on the Auckland consulate portion of travel.state.gov, there's a section which says "Please use the list below to determine the items that every applicant must provide to the consulate PRIOR to the immigrant visa interview. Bring your documents to the consulate the week before your interview any time between 8:00 a.m. and 12 noon Monday through Friday, except public holidays. Place them in an envelope with your case number and full name on the outside and addressed to “Immigrant Visa Unit.”". My wife doesn't live in Auckland so this would not be possible. She could courier the documents up this week if necessary, but I found it odd that there was no mention of this process in any correspondence she's received from the consulate, and I don't see much mention of it here on VisaJourney either. I'm wondering if this is an out of date/irrelevant instruction. I thought it was strange that if they did want this to happen, they were relying on people to meticulously read through the travel.state.gov website rather than following the instructions directly received from the consulate. 

 

I emailed the consulate on Thursday in the US which would have been Good Friday in NZ, so I can't expect a response from them until NZ Tuesday. 

 

The instructions are more than likely outdated. The applicant usually has to bring all the documents with them on the interview day. 

[ztiberiusd 38]

4 hours ago, Kuchiki said:

The instructions are more than likely outdated. The applicant usually has to bring all the documents with them on the interview day. 

Just as an FYI, this is incorrect. I emailed the consulate last week but because of Easter I didn't get a reply until today. They told me if the documents aren't in their possession within two days (which will be one week before the interview. Must be the cut off) they will have no choice but to postpone the interview. 

 

You'd think they might contact at some point after not having received the documents just to make the applicant aware of this requirement, since they said nothing about this during any correspondence and I was only aware of it due to reading the Auckland consulate page of travel.state.gov. I mean seriously, my expectations are already pretty low at this point but I just thought they might have let us know... 

[AmericanLotus 6]

Similar situation, we got an email from the consulate 9 days before the interview in November asking us to courier the original documents and make sure they were all in the CEAC portal too. The email came from <AucklandIV@state.gov> and included a bullet-point list of documents they wanted. We hadn't received any previous communication from them despite a line saying:

 

"As noted on your instructions previously emailed, we asked for your documents to be forwarded to our office at least two weeks prior to your interview so that we can ensure everything is in order."

 

I SWEAR we never received any other email before this one. It really freaked me out, especially this line: 

 

"Can you please kindly advise our office whether or not you would still like to pursue your application on [DATE] or whether you would like us to reschedule your appointment to a later date to allow you more time to gather your documents. If we do not receive your documents by [DATE - 6 days before interview date] we will have to reschedule your interview to a later date." 

 

OMG! We ran to the post office. Until that moment we were under the impression that we needed to bring all the documents to the interview, as that's what our immigration attorney had advised us.

 

So I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happened to others. The information on the travel.state.gov site is severely out of date.

 

ALSO → If anyone from India is reading this, they wanted a physical copy of my husband's police clearance certificate from India, even though HCI Wellington only emailed us a copy which we'd printed.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

[The Kiwi 0]

Morning everyone. I have my interview on the 19th of April. I have a few questions. Do we sent in the hard copy documents via courier two weeks before or the week before? I’m very confused, as I have heard two different stories eg the actual USA website, says the week before but I’ve received an email, saying two weeks before (everything is already loaded on the portal but what about the hard copies from the checklist you get)…I’m very nervous. If so, then what do we bring on the day (just a passport and the letter?) 

 

Any information would help. 

Edited March 29, 2023 by The Kiwi
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