When to ask for consulate transfer

[Bigmasoud 38]

Hello. I got the email from NVC that my case was created for CR1 visa. I noticed however that they have appointed a consulate for my interview which is different from my original request (which was anticipated). The cases from my country get sent to three different consulates, and now I want to change it to one of the other posts. So my question is, can I send an inquiry to NVC and ask for a consulate change and upload the documents and pay fees at the same time, or should I make the inquiry and wait for the approval and then upload the documents and pay the fees. Any help would be appreciated.

[Crazy Cat 41,888]

Request the change immediately and upload documents, pay the fees.  They may or may not honor your request.  They assign cases based on consulate workload.

[Bigmasoud 38]

18 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Request the change immediately and upload documents, pay the fees.  They may or may not honor your request.  They assign cases based on consulate workload.

Thank you. I read about others who were able to change without problem, though it took them some time, from a few days to a couple months. My concern is while waiting for the change, the case gets transferred to embassy, and then I wouldn’t be able to do anything. I don’t think they assign based on workload in our case. By default, they assign the Abu Dhabi consulate, and there’s a two-year backlog there. However, the Yerevan consulate processes the DQ’d cases in a matter of months.

[arken 4,197]

You can request the transfer while going through AOS/DS260 and documents upload process concurrently.

[Chancy 6,241]

*** Moved from IR1/CR1 Progress Reports to IR1/CR1 Process & Procedures ***