No Available London K1 Interview Appointments?

[mjtenn 3]

Having completed all the necessary steps for a K1 interview at the London consulate (DS-160, medical interview attended, etc), we have registered at the requested Visa Appointment Service website at https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-gb/iv.  We chose our courier preference and have advanced to the stage of paying the MRV fee(s).  It is my understanding that this is the point when an interview can be scheduled.  However, we are unable to pay our MRV fees and are met with the message: "There are no available appointments at this time. Please check back in a few days as the Consular Section will open more appointments."  This has been going on for well over a week.  As with so many applicants who have suffered long delays all through the application process, we are desperate to finally schedule our interview.  We have been refreshing this page every few minutes, 24 hours a day, for the last 7 days without any change.  When I phoned the interview scheduling number, they simply read me the same message verbatim and told me to "keep trying".  I have submitted an online request to the London IV Unit via their form, and I have sent an email as directed by the person who was answering the interview scheduling phone.  I await their responses.  Just wondering if anyone has encountered this message in the past (and if so, how long the delay lasted), if anyone has successfully scheduled a K1 interview in the past couple of weeks in London, or if anyone has navigated this issue at all?

[Boiler 45,486]

You are just waiting London does not seem too bad releasing appointments some places you can wait a long time

 

if you get a response expect it to be the same nothing else they can tell you

[mjtenn 3]

Thanks for the info, as well as the somewhat hopeful outlook.

"...a few days" might be a bit misleading.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

8 hours ago, mjtenn said:

Just wondering if anyone has encountered this message in the past (and if so, how long the delay lasted), if anyone has successfully scheduled a K1 interview in the past couple of weeks in London, or if anyone has navigated this issue at all?

K1 appointments started getting sketchy after the embassy started reopening following Covid shutdowns. Many of the staff still worked from home, so not that many on-site to conduct interviews. And K1s were not being interviewed for a long time, even when spouse visa applicants were. So the backlog was huge. One would think it would be resolved by now.
 

They used to open a new month of interviews at the end of the month. Maybe that will still happen this week and January will open. Maybe your emails will jog somebody’s memory to open interview slots. Report back when you get in. 

[mjtenn 3]

18 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

K1 appointments started getting sketchy after the embassy started reopening following Covid shutdowns. Many of the staff still worked from home, so not that many on-site to conduct interviews. And K1s were not being interviewed for a long time, even when spouse visa applicants were. So the backlog was huge. One would think it would be resolved by now.
 

They used to open a new month of interviews at the end of the month. Maybe that will still happen this week and January will open. Maybe your emails will jog somebody’s memory to open interview slots. Report back when you get in. 

Thanks, will do.

[mjtenn 3]

Well, here's the surprising result:

 

Yesterday morning my fiancée, who had not sent the email to to schedulers, received a response to my email stating that a single slot had opened on December 16 and she should access her account immediately and that any other applicant could take that spot if they checked first.  Thanks to my fastidious checking, I was already logged into the account and payed and took the lone slot just as her email arrived.  

 

Amazed and thankful that we got a relatively personalized response via email and that we have an interview so soon.

In this case, at least, an email to the interview scheduling service did result in something actionable besides continued checking.

Have not seen any other slots opened since. 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

8 hours ago, mjtenn said:

Well, here's the surprising result:

 

Yesterday morning my fiancée, who had not sent the email to to schedulers, received a response to my email stating that a single slot had opened on December 16 and she should access her account immediately and that any other applicant could take that spot if they checked first.  Thanks to my fastidious checking, I was already logged into the account and payed and took the lone slot just as her email arrived.  

 

Amazed and thankful that we got a relatively personalized response via email and that we have an interview so soon.

In this case, at least, an email to the interview scheduling service did result in something actionable besides continued checking.

Have not seen any other slots opened since. 

Perfect!  
Have you booked a medical? Do you know it is most important to go with all immunisations completed. Shout if you need jab information. 

[mjtenn 3]

21 hours ago, Wuozopo said:

Perfect!  
Have you booked a medical? Do you know it is most important to go with all immunisations completed. Shout if you need jab information. 

Yes, thanks, medical went fine on Nov 21st.  Just the interview to go...and the wait to see how fast they can process the K1 over the holidays...