Choosing an Interview Embassy for Dual Citizens

[Sha-Lee88 26]

Greetings,

 

My beneficiary is a dual citizen of Ghana and South Africa.  From what was explained to me, we basically have the option of conducting the interview at either location.  All we have to do is specify which embassy we want to do it at when we will out the DS-160.  The beneficiary currently has an address in both countries, and the beneficiary splits time between both throughout the year for work.  On the I-129F, we put the beneficiary's current address as Ghana, but listed the mailing address as South Africa.  Again, the beneficiary lives in both countries.

 

1. Can someone confirm if the information I received about choosing the embassy is correct?  In other words, can the beneficiary do the interview at any embassy where the beneficiary maintains a current address?  Would this be flagged as suspicious and affect our approval?

 

2. From what I understand, interviews in Ghana have been taking well over 100 days from the time the embassy receives the documents until the actual interview (based on the last 6 months of the K1 Stats Page at Visa Journey).  It seems to be considerably less in South Africa (less than 30 days during the same period).  However, South Africa is notorious for having issues with booking pre-interview medical exams.  Logically, it seems to me that if people are reporting a 30 day turnaround from receipt by the embassy to actual interview date, there is likely not an issue with booking the prerequisite medical exam.  Can anyone with any knowledge confirm?

 

3. Is there any way to know which embassies issue the interview instructional packet by regular mail or electronically?  How has everyone received theirs?  Since the beneficiary is currently in Ghana, but the mailing address is in South Africa, we may want to change it to Ghana when we fill out the DS-160.  However, would that pigeonhole us to having to do the interview in Ghana?  If it is done electronically in South Africa, we may want to just book the interview and medical exam remotely and then fly to South Africa for the exam and interview, especially if it takes less time.  That would entail keeping the South African address.  Has anyone tried this?

 

Thanks for all the help.  Best of luck!

Edited August 15, 2022 by Sha-Lee88