What to expect at Warsaw US Embassy Interview (September 2022)

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

UPDATE FROM WARSAW POLAND US EMBASSY INTERVIEW COMPLETED, VISA ISSUANCE DELAYED

 

So we are now in Warsaw Poland, we completed the US Embassy interview last Tuesday, that was 1 week ago as I type this update.  The total interview time took about 2.25 hours.  Most of the time was just waiting for her number to be called once inside.  The interview was scheduled for 8am, we arrived at the embassy at 7:45am there were already about 30-40 people standing in line. There was a line coordinator working the line and we were separated into two lines one for the non-immigrant visa folks, and one for immigrant visa folks.  I was not needed/allowed to go inside with my wife during the interview. She was inside by 8:15.  I had to wait 2+ hours on the street outside.  Nowhere to sit, no coffee shop, no cafe near by.

 

While inside she was given a number. When called she presented her documents to an immigration officer, a woman that spoke good Russian, she reviewed the documents and said 'its all in order' gave her documents back and asked her to sit down again and wait for her number.  About an hour or more later she was called to the 2nd official, a man with not so good Russian.  He spent less than a minute reviewing her documents and asked her two questions:

 

1. How did you meet your husband

2. How long have you known your husband

 

Though she had every document requested in the instructions to be sure to bring with you, he asked her to return to the hotel and upload her updated birth certificate and police report and he indicated they would then process her visa quickly and she could pick it up at the mailboxes ETC.  We went back to the hotel, scanned and uploaded the two documents within 1.5 hours.  The need to do this was understandable since her original police certificate expired because of the long delay between moving her case from Moscow to Poland and the delay in obtaining an interview.  The need for the birth certificate update was because my wife decided she wanted a brand new birth certificate that was in perfect condition, her original was partially not perfectly readable in the area for her birth city....so she got a new one and the officer noticed they were different so its understandable to upload the new one.

 

LESSON LEARNED: If any of your documents expire or change, its a SUPER GOOD IDEA to upload them before your interview so that they are already in the system before your interview.

 

Why the official couldn't just copy and upload them or put them in a folder I don't know but its not part of their process apparently.  The official assured her that if she did this quickly (the upload) they would quickly process her visa and it would be available for pickup in a few days at the mailboxes etc.

 

THIS DID NOT HAPPEN....

 

We have extended our stay an additional week in Warsaw, and this has been expensive to change flights, get a hotel for an additional week, food, etc.

It's near impossible to get anyone on the phone that can tell you anything more than to just wait. We check the CEAC web site profile several times a day for an update, nothing after a week now.  No email communications from the embassy, no communications at all.

 

The Warsaw embassy has several ways to communicate with them. This includes live online chat, Skype and web phone call.

• The live online chat turned out to just be a robot and I was unable to actually get my chat routed to a human. I wasted about 30 minutes repeating my wife's name, passport number, birthdate and email address to the robot only to at the end be told it was a holiday.  It's Tuesday morning and not a holiday in US or Poland
• I got no response to the Skype message I sent even after adding the correct Skype account to my contacts, no response at all
• The web talk phone call just took me to the same voice response system that calling the number on the website provided
• Called the number on the site +48 22 307 1361 (see below)

Finally got a human on the phone this morning, talked for 20-30 minutes, he answered questions and was quite patient but could not indicate how long we might have to wait...that is how much longer we will have to wait. No indication whatsoever how much longer. 

 

The problem is that obviously we need to get back to work, we do not have unlimited funds to stay in Warsaw for an indeterminate time. To compound the issue, the embassy has my wife's passport and she obviously can not leave Warsaw/board a plane without it.

 

We can get her passport back by doing a request for it to be returned, this can take 2-3 days, and if we do that we (apparently) do not have to return for an interview, BUT she will have to submit her passport again using the correct form and the support agent told me several times that the passport can ONLY be mailed from the mailboxes ETC location in Warsaw!  It can not be mailed from any other location!  Are you sure I asked him several times!

 

MY level of frustration is just off the scale, apparently you can't just walk down to the embassy and explain your situation to anyone, there is no way to expedite your request or processing, you can only get your passport back and start all over or sit and wait an unknown amount of time.

 

If this is what happens when you have a simple immigration case where the parties have known each other for 7+ years, been married for 5+ years and appear with all original documents as requested, I can't imagine what a hard case must be like.

 

At this point we are wondering if we can stay an additional week....and the only advice we have to offer is to be sure if any of your documents changed to upload the updated version to the CEAC site well before the interview.  If they do not need to be updated, DON'T...they were already approved. There is no need to update documents that are not expired (like a police report) and that have already been accepted and approved.

 

Any sage advice would surely be appreciated.

[SalishSea 17,801]

Immigrant visas are rarely issued immediately, even when the beneficiary is interviewing in their home country.  If your wife is Russian, that obviously complicates the last minute vetting/background checks (administrative processing) that need to happen.

 

Sorry to hear it's been a cluster, but if your expectation was that she would get the visa without a period of AP, that was maybe not reasonable.

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

@Jorgedig of course every case is a bit different but....I have seen so many examples of others here that were in pursuit of their IR1 visa in another country and after the interview either received their visa on the spot or within days, specifically there are at least 2 examples of people from Russia that have interviewed in Warsaw in the last 60 days and one got their visa the next day at the embassy, the 2nd it was at mailboxes etc a few days later.  I 3rd, had some additional documents requested and got theirs via the mailboxes delivery method within a week...the variables are apparently numerous.

 

As an update we called the help line and I was able to actually get a human on the phone, again no estimate could be given on when it might be processed.  Was told more than once there was no way to rush or expedite the visa processing and that he didn't have any way to reach out to see where it was in the process.

Oddly enough, a few hours later we get an email asking us to upload a document that had previously been requested verbally by the officer during the interview but not later in writing from CEAC.  However, I had already uploaded the document they were today requesting, it was already submitted and I confirmed it is in the system.  Also I note that the two documents they did request and that we uploaded a week ago are also still sitting in the system with status 'submitted' but not accepted/approved like all the other documents.

So the system and the requests and the people involved are connected but not in synch it seems.  I find it interesting that within hours of actually contacting the help line human, that we suddenly get a response and some movement on the approval of the visa, all be it a request for a document not previously requested in writing by the system and already submitted.

 

So.....I responded to support-poland@ustraveldocs.com with a screen shot of the CEAC control panel for our case showing the document had been submitted a week ago.

 

So we made some movement today but still don't feel much closer because the documents requested, uploaded to the control panel and submitted have not been acknowledged or accepted....but I suspect they will sometime soon since apparently some human in the visa food change got a tap on the shoulder.

 

Stay tuned my friends

[Boiler 45,445]

I received my visa on the spot but that was a lifetime ago, the only time I have heard about it happening recently was Pakistan and that seemed so unlikely I dismissed it, do not believe everything you read on here.

 

I have seen no end of speculation about how things work inside a Consulate and I have never come across anything definitive. My suspicion is a combination of paper files and IT system that may operate OK if the standard process works but get out of sync otherwise, in your case uploading additional documents. probably?

 

I am inclined to believe there is very little connection between the telephone service which may be outsourced and in a totally different  location and the Consulate. 

[millefleur 5,046]

5 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

I was not needed/allowed to go inside with my wife during the interview.

That is intriguing. Back when the Moscow Embassy unctioned, spouses were allowed to attend. Good for others to know if they were counting on that.

 

5 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

About an hour or more later she was called to the 2nd official, a man with not so good Russian.  He spent less than a minute reviewing her documents and asked her two questions:

Quite strange. At the Moscow Embassy, our experience was there was only one official who interviewed my husband. I wonder if this 2 officers is the norm now or if for some reason they suspected something was off.

 

I'm sorry to hear what you are going through. It sounds like just bumbling incompetence on their part when dealing with an applicant who needed to update paperwork. Always a good idea to be super prepared and even over prepared beforehand to avoid things like this from happening. I hope your case is updated soon and she gets the visa.

[FJinSD 14]

I hate reading stories like this.  My Russian wife and I are in a queue SOMEWHERE in time behind you - awaiting an interview date - and this just gets my blood boiling.  I honestly think you COULD NOT design or create a system or experience that is more frustrating and demoralizing.  For example - would it have been so difficult to inform you AHEAD of time that only the spouse would be allowed to be inside the embassy?  As you wrote - couldn't the C.O. just say "hang on a moment. I can scan that directly into your case files at CEAC"?  Why defer to the administrative blood clot at the NVC? No way to contact?  I understand the need to screen but why not give someone like you a PIN or password in order to bypass the phone bot and talk to a REAL person?

 

Friends, relatives, etc. keep saying "be patient" "it will all work out", etc.  Yes - but (for example) while you've been waiting in Warsaw - at least 1000 illegals PER DAY have crossed into the USA.  Highly doubt anyone hassled them about a slight change in the appearance of a birth certificate.

 

After almost two years in this process (yes many have been here longer) - I've learned one thing.  The federal government (and many state/locals) care MUCH more for non-citizens who enter the U.S. illegally than the trials and tribulations of any U.S. citizen and those pursuing legal immigration. Not even close.

 

That is all.

[Simplytex 387]

3 hours ago, FJinSD said:

My Russian wife and I are in a queue SOMEWHERE in time behind you - awaiting an interview date

Just out of curiosity - your timeline shows that you were DQ'ed July 22, and since then you haven't heard anything from the embassy about scheduling?

Edited September 7, 2022 by Simplytex
can't spell...

[Simplytex 387]

13 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

We have extended our stay an additional week in Warsaw,

So, if I understand your timeline correctly, you interviewed last Tuesday August 30th, on the same day uploaded the documents, and have been waiting to hear any update since then? You have now extended your stay from August 30th to today (Sept 6th) and are now considering extending it yet again to Sept 13th? If I may ask, when did you arrive in Poland? 

 

I'm just wanting to figure out if/when my wife and I get to the interview stage, how long we should allocate possibly having to stick around in Poland... I can remote work for a short time, and take vacation time, but as you said, it's not fair or reasonable to expect people to have to wait 2+weeks to get their passport back!

 

14 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

she will have to submit her passport again using the correct form and the support agent told me several times that the passport can ONLY be mailed from the mailboxes ETC location in Warsaw

I'm not sure I understand this part - if you ask for the passport to be returned, then to 'resubmit' the passport once visa is approved, you have to send it from the Warsaw Mailboxes shop?

[FJinSD 14]

32 minutes ago, Simplytex said:

Just out of curiosity - your timeline shows that you were DQ'ed July 22, and since then you haven't heard anything from the embassy about scheduling?

That is correct.

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

==================

@Boiler

I have seen no end of speculation about how things work inside a Consulate and I have never come across anything definitive. My suspicion is a combination of paper files and IT system that may operate OK if the standard process works but get out of sync otherwise, in your case uploading additional documents. probably? I am inclined to believe there is very little connection between the telephone service which may be outsourced and in a totally different  location and the Consulate.

==================

I have been using the telephone service the last 2-3 days.  For the most part the agents that man these phones can provide only information and they can only view your profile.  They apparently have no edit capabilities and surely they have no power to act or make decisions on your behalf.  They are on the help desk and provide only information.  Though they have been helpful in telling me what to do and how, they have no power or authority.  If you want to talk to a human then CURRENTLY the VRU responses are as follows:

 

DIAL: +48 22 307 1361

 

2 for English

3 for immigrant visa

2 for immigrant visa

2 immigrant visa information (then listen to pre-recorded information)

5 to talk to an agent

 

There is no electronic link between the CEAC system and the ustraveldocs.com system that Poland uses.  ustraveldocs.com is a salesforce powered support system.  It is for the most part a basic function system that you MUST use for the Polish/Warsaw embassy to schedule or reschedule your interview or to provide 'feedback' which in other terms is to request help/support.  If you have problems with your visa or questions, feedback is the place to go.  Response is 1-2 days typically.  You'll get an autoresponse almost immediately and there is a log of your requests.  It seems like the help desk personnel have the ability to answer questions that you place in feedback as well as forward them to the embassy for processing, resolution, whatever might be needed.  This is the same path that your request takes if you simply email "support-poland@ustraveldocs.com" but your request will not appear in your traveldocs profile if you email direct from your email account.  ALWAYS be sure to include your CASE NUMBER as well as the applicant name.  I have become accustomed to include the name, birthdate, passport#, case#, and the UID#.  The UID# is assigned you when you setup a profile in ustraveldocs.com.  A profile is required to schedule/reschedule an appointment or use the feedback system, it is also required for some of the VRU phone menu selections.

 

For example, when I called the help line to see why documents submitted over a week ago in CEAC had not been accepted yet, the help desk instructed me to fill out a feedback form and explain that the documents had been submitted and that the request was to accept them so visa processing might continue.  The help desk person indicated that either the system or they could then escalate the request to the CEAC team to accept the documents in CEAC.  So there is some link be it a human interface or an electronic support request forwarding system of some sort.

I think that it is best to utilize the feedback feature in the ustraveldocs.com system so that your communications are stored in your profile and anyone that works your profile for issues can see them all Vs using the support-poland@ustraveldocs.com email address.

 

Edited September 7, 2022 by StevenInAtlanta

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

@millefleur  Others have indicated that the original Moscow embassy was run efficiently and also that after entering the embassy, there was actually a room where you sat with an official for your interview, a single person.

 

To even enter the Warsaw embassy you have to show your appointment interview confirmation page with the bar code.  Without it, you are not going to get inside, period.  There are two windows outside the embassy, one for immigrant visa the other non-immigrant.  You show the teller at that window your confirmation page and they confirm you have an appointment for that day.  They sticker your passport and give you back the confirmation page.  Then you go to the door and wait for it to open, they again check your passport for the entry sticker and confirm your cell phone is turned off.  It must be turned off and they check. You also can only take a standard size purse in, no backpacks or large satchels.  If you have a baby stroller w/you and a children's diaper bag, they will thoroughly check that and it will be allowed inside.

 

In the Warsaw Poland embassy, the process is different it seems, everybody initially gets a number and has a seat in the waiting area.  When your number is called, you go to the first window for a pre-interview document check.  Then you wait your turn for the next window where there is a stand-up interview at the window, they don't sit you down and perform an interview.  Everybody goes through this same ordeal it seems.  Very impersonal and matter of fact.  The interview lasted all of 3-5 minutes at the most and the officer took almost no time looking at all the documents that were requested.  I suspect that they are experts at reviewing the typical requested documents and that they can quickly spot any differences in what was uploaded and the original that is presented.  That is what happened to us, we just didnt know that it would have probably saved us a week or more in processing time had we been asked to upload any update documents well ahead of time rather to hold them for the interview.  The interview invitation letter and instructions CLEARLY indicate to bring the originals to the interview.

 

What wasnt clear and was never indicated to us was that if (for example) it has taken them more than a year to process your case and your police certificate expires, you need to get a new one for the interview AND upload it well before the interview...and if it is still not accepted by the interview, apparently the interview officer can see that it has already been uploaded and he can accept it on the spot.  Otherwise you have to return to your hotel to scan and upload it then and wait for it to be accepted before processing can resume.

 

It's a critical and very important fact that I want everybody to know about!

 

Also note, that if you have a document that has been accepted and that doesn't expire (like a birth certificate) there is no need to get a new one because the original isn't factory crisp and perfect.  That is what my wife did, she wanted a perfect new birth certificate that was all crisp and perfectly readable and she got one, then took it to the interview and presented it to the officer, he noticed it was different than the one uploaded and that was then the requirement to upload the updated one.  We didn't expect this but I had been told by others that once you have been DQ'd is not a good idea to upload any additional documents unless asked.  The caveat is that if one of your documents expire or is outdated (like a police certificate or a tax form that is over a year old) then it IS a good idea to upload the new one well before the interview to give them plenty of time to 'accept' it or request something else be done.

 

Lessons learned.....stay tuned.

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

@Simplytex

==============

So, if I understand your timeline correctly, you interviewed last Tuesday August 30th, on the same day uploaded the documents, and have been waiting to hear any update since then? You have now extended your stay from August 30th to today (Sept 6th) and are now considering extending it yet again to Sept 13th? If I may ask, when did you arrive in Poland? 

 

I'm just wanting to figure out if/when my wife and I get to the interview stage, how long we should allocate possibly having to stick around in Poland... I can remote work for a short time, and take vacation time, but as you said, it's not fair or reasonable to expect people to have to wait 2+weeks to get their passport back!

==============

We got here on the Sunday before the interview Tuesday morning.  No problems getting her on time for the interview.  You have the timeline correct, we anticipated the process to take maybe 3-4 days based on others experiences with IR1 visa at this embassy, the delay created by having to submit new documents is what has screwed our timeline and I believe created the delay, that compounded with a system and human processing triage. The workload at the embassy seems pretty high and every case is different I imagine.  But we should be a pretty straight forward case, together for 7 years, legally married in the USA over 5 years ago, tons of regular communications and travel together, hundreds or thousands of pictures, cards, letters and lots of money going from me to her as evidence of support capabilities.  We are both educated professionals with jobs/businesses and it just seems like it should be much easier and not take several years...I mean geesh, were have been DQd for over two years and in process for over 3.  It's not a system well designed for expediency. 

 

As a note, I just saw a YouTube video of one of the directors for US immigration talking about all the hiring of additional personnel and how things were returning to pre-pandemic processing levels.  How the new interview waiver program was going to greatly speed things up...well if you research the details the visa interview waiver program is for agriculture workers and people seeking work and student visas...not for immigrant visas.  So that interview fast track program does me/us no good whatsoever.

 

From my perspective, the system still needs a lot of work.  It shouldn't take years to process a visa, certainly not weeks to stamp a visa for a professional married couple, one of which is a born US citizen, and that has been married for 5 years and DQ'd for over 2 years...so long in fact that documents are expiring and have to be refreshed.!  Pffft!

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

@Simplytex

==============

I'm not sure I understand this part - if you ask for the passport to be returned, then to 'resubmit' the passport once visa is approved, you have to send it from the Warsaw Mailboxes shop?

==============

I asked the help desk person that same question at least three times and in different terms.  The passport can not be mailed from a different country, it has to be submitted from the MailboxETC location (there are 2) in Poland and then taken to the embassy.  I believe they have a daily courier that is either picking up or dropping off visas that need or that have been processed.

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

@Simplytex

==============

I'm not sure I understand this part - if you ask for the passport to be returned, then to 'resubmit' the passport once visa is approved, you have to send it from the Warsaw Mailboxes shop?

==============

I asked the help desk person that same question at least three times and in different terms.  The passport can not be mailed from a different country, it has to be submitted from the MailboxETC location (there are 2) in Poland and then taken to the embassy.  I believe they have a daily courier that is either picking up or dropping off visas that need or that have been processed. And there is a special form that has to be used if you submit your passport via the MailboxETC method.  If you dont properly use the proper form, your passport will be returned unprocessed.

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

#RantWarning

 

Just to add a little perspective on the situation my wife and I have found ourselves in:

 

We had to fly through 2 other countries to get to Poland(Italy and Turkey), my wife had to get an Italian Schengen visa to travel to Poland at all($500), airfare alone cost initially was over $2000US, then there is hotel at approximately $1,000/wk, (going on 3rd week now so thats $3000) add food at $50-$100 a day, extra bag fees(about $350), taxi and uber fees, flight change fees (so far about $400 having to change flights now a 2nd time) and having to schlep our bags from one apartment to the next because where we are staying is not available "next week". I am away from my business now for 3 weeks and another week is on the radar, same with my wife.  That is loss of income.   I can't check voicemail or even get a TXT message on my US phone, my only tether to communicate is email and facebook and telegram and that is if I can get a WIFI signal and password.  Even though I alerted all my banks where and when I would be traveling the fraud triggers keep catching me and trying to send me a friggin TXT to confirm the charge is valid....of course I cant get a TXT and there are no other verification options.  I do compliment WellsFargo for allowing me to setup a travel profile to prevent this however Chase was worthless and they can only verify me via TXT message.  

We appeared at the interview fully prepared, very well documented, full DQ'd and had absolutely everything that we were instructed to bring.  Proof of income, copies of letters and email communications, pictures of places we went together, travel records to visit each other over 7 years, official original documents, medical reports, everything in Russian translated to English and certified, documentarily qualified for 2 years, patiently waiting for an interview for over a year.....and the list just goes on and on.  We perform an interview that quite literally took less than 5-7 minutes total, the immigration officer doesn't even so much as more that casually glance at all the documentation for less than 2 minutes and proof of a legitimate relationship and marriage (including 2 separate affidavits)...I mean EVERYTHING that we were told to bring....and after 10 days the embassy and it's triage hasn't even taken the time to 'accept' electronically the documents they told us to quickly upload so they could quickly process the visa and return the passport to my wife so we could get on down the road.  Nobody that you can talk to has any power to do anything, everything is done via online form or email and a response is at best 2-3 days away.  You cant go to the embassy and talk to anyone, they will send you away.  You can't get an immigration officer or official on the phone, no way.

So far, all that has happened is we get 3 emails requesting documents that were present at the interview, that the immigration office had in his hands, and 1 of those emails comes a week after the interview asking us to upload a document already uploaded 8 days earlier and we have nothing to show for it except a pile of expenses and brochures from this 'vacation' in Warsaw Poland.  Even more frustrating is the immigration officer requests two specific documents verbally at the interview, then back at the hotel we check email and the emails dont request the same documents....so we upload all documents requested in email and verbally.  Then after a week they email and ask for a document that has already been uploaded and submitted properly.   ARGH!

10 days here and I don't feel one inch closer to getting any traction at all towards getting her visa and passport returned completed before the sands of the hourglass have run through.  And if it doesn't happen sometime in the next 5 days, we will have to extend either another week ($1500) and ignore our mutual businesses and continue to be patient, or pack it up, request her passport be returned 2-3 days before our departure and call it a loss, and start over where ever and when ever the process demands.
 

In the words of Ricky Bobby....little baby Jesus help us all.

When this is all over I plan to write a scathing bad review of this process and find a way to get it to the director of the US Embassy program.  This recent news of how they are hiring so many new people that things are getting much better and how great the new interview waiver program is at least for immigration visa's is absolute BS.  All the new hires and the interview waiver program is for ag workers and foreign students.  The immigration visa program and it's support system and infrastructure is poor at best at this time it seems.

#RantEnded