Russian employment based (EB) cases going through consular processing

[montreal-eb3 7]

Creating a thread so we can share/pool information, especially with respect to consulates, appointment availability, etc. The backlogs due to COVID are brutal at some consulates.

 

I'm filed the DS-260 days ago, currently assigned to Montreal (which has a 26 month backlog) but considering transferring to another consulate. My company's immigration lawyers showed me AILA meeting minutes where a Department of State representative suggests that Russian nationals can request a transfer to any consulate, with no proof of residence required. I recently submitted a Public Inquiry to the NVC, asking to confirm.

 

Feel free to share your timeline, visa type, consulate, etc.

 

[zug_202 3]

Hey.

I was assigned to Warsaw after my i140 petition was approved. 18th of May I asked the US Embassy in Riga, Latvia to transfer my case. The Embassy had approved my transfer the same day. 24th of May I got an email from the NVC that my documents are complete (DQ).

Now I am waiting for an interview appointment. A few days ago I sent a follow-up email to the embassy and got the response that it is fully booked by DV people and there is no guarantee to schedule an interview for me until the DV program ends (30th of September).

I don't know where would be faster for me Warsaw or Riga... And it looks like DV people are in priority for an interview appointment...

[Vonbroug 2]

Hi there, 
My visa type is EB-1. 
Consulate - Warsaw 
DQ - 04 April 
I've got an email from NVC on 04 June: 
"This notice is to inform you that your case for an immigrant visa is documentarily complete at the National Visa Center (NVC) and has been since 04-APR-2022. NVC has received all of the fees, forms and documents required prior to attending an immigrant visa interview. Your petition is awaiting an interview appointment. At this time, no further action is required. We appreciate your patience." - it is 60 days email, which will come every two months. 
"Ends of DV program" - sounds bad, especially if you are in Russia.
I hope we'll get our interviews long before the end of September 😃

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Vonbroug

[zug_202 3]

It is interesting that DV people that had been transferred to Riga one week ago already got their appointments for August.
As far as I know, NVC sends appointments once a month. For August it was several days ago. In July, NVC should send appointments for September...

 

PS. I am in Russia :(

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

2 hours ago, zug_202 said:

It is interesting that DV people that had been transferred to Riga one week ago already got their appointments for August.
As far as I know, NVC sends appointments once a month. For August it was several days ago. In July, NVC should send appointments for September...

 

PS. I am in Russia :(

NVC doesn’t schedule DV appointments, KCC does; moreover if it is an embassy-to-embassy transfer, the embassy itself schedules the new appointments.
DV applicants lose out entirely if their visas are not issued by 30 September, and there are many selectees from both Russia and Ukraine while Riga probably has fairly small capacity. So you may not like it because it means you wait some months longer, but it’s understandable why they are doing this.

 

This is very interesting news about Riga by the way, thank you for sharing it.

[Vonbroug 2]

4 hours ago, zug_202 said:

It is interesting that DV people that had been transferred to Riga one week ago already got their appointments for August.
As far as I know, NVC sends appointments once a month. For August it was several days ago. In July, NVC should send appointments for September...

 

PS. I am in Russia :(

I'm too, unfortunately)
But what I saw is that every appointment letter is super random and very depends on visa type

[zug_202 3]

3 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

NVC doesn’t schedule DV appointments, KCC does; moreover if it is an embassy-to-embassy transfer, the embassy itself schedules the new appointments.
DV applicants lose out entirely if their visas are not issued by 30 September, and there are many selectees from both Russia and Ukraine while Riga probably has fairly small capacity. So you may not like it because it means you wait some months longer, but it’s understandable why they are doing this.

 

This is very interesting news about Riga by the way, thank you for sharing it.

DV Lottery is an annual process. According to the logic described above, Embassies should serve only DV visas. I think it is not fair, cases should be processed in some ratio e.g 3DV : 1EB.

A few words about ''waiting a little bit longer"))
My process has been going more than 2,5 years. I faced a 2-month delay with the i-140 petition. Because of technical issues on the USCIS side with payment, we've re-submitted it and lost the time.

Why NVC/Embassy does not respect my and employer's time?

[zug_202 3]

1 hour ago, Vonbroug said:

I'm too, unfortunately)
But what I saw is that every appointment letter is super random and very depends on visa type

That is what i found about NVC:

#NVC schedules interviews on a monthly basis. We receive each embassy’s list of available appointment dates and times, and we fill them in the order that cases became documentarily qualified, as
long as there is an available visa number. #

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

55 minutes ago, zug_202 said:

DV Lottery is an annual process. According to the logic described above, Embassies should serve only DV visas. I think it is not fair, cases should be processed in some ratio e.g 3DV : 1EB.

A few words about ''waiting a little bit longer"))
My process has been going more than 2,5 years. I faced a 2-month delay with the i-140 petition. Because of technical issues on the USCIS side with payment, we've re-submitted it and lost the time.

Why NVC/Embassy does not respect my and employer's time?

Not here to debate what’s fair, you can ask them that question. Just to give  some perspective. I’m sure if Kyiv and Moscow embassies were operating normally this wouldn’t be an issue. There is normally  enough capacity to process everyone side by side. But someone started a war, so Ukrainians have to go elsewhere and now Riga is full.  

Edited June 17, 2022 by SusieQQQ

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

Some other perspective, going back to a normal year - before covid, before politics shut embassies, before war:

 

Examples :  2018, 2018

immigrant visas issued at 

Moscow: 4270, 4625

Kyiv: 5358, 4427

Riga: 169, 130. No I didn’t leave out any zeroes.

 

Quite clearly Riga is tiny and totally overwhelmed now. Even just one month at one of the other embassies used to issue twice as much or more than Riga issued annually. Best suggestion actually may be to find a different embassy with more capacity to move to?

[montreal-eb3 7]

I think overall the effect due to countries being reassigned is dwarfed by the effect due to COVID. If you stop all processing for a year and a half and then resume at the old capacity, your backlog just increased by, you guessed it, a year and a half

 

People in the Montreal thread are about to sue the consulate over this.

 

I totally forgot how seasonal DV is, so every consulate is likely currently dealing with that category as well.

[montreal-eb3 7]

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

2 hours ago, montreal-eb3 said:

totally forgot how seasonal DV is, so every consulate is likely currently dealing with that category as wel

It’s not usually seasonal at all, but the covid backlogs have affected it too. There were almost no DVs issued in the first half of the FY due to embassy backlogs and the previous policy of prioritizing family visas over DV (and EB visas btw, which were in the same 4th tier preference category), so they’re trying to play catch up. They will undoubtedly issue well below the limit this year. In the big picture of immigrant visas though DV really are not big and not the usual reason for embassy capacity issues - they’re totally dwarfed by family based visas, where citizens are complaining to their congressmen that their family members have also been waiting for two plus years. It’s just all a mess… as the table you just posted shows, too. 

 

 

[montreal-eb3 7]

1 hour ago, SusieQQQ said:

It’s not usually seasonal at all, but the covid backlogs have affected it too.

Huh interesting, so they do try to spread the DV interviews evenly over a year?

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

43 minutes ago, montreal-eb3 said:

Huh interesting, so they do try to spread the DV interviews evenly over a year?

Yes.