CR1 is DQ, current wait time for interview in Manila?

[top_secret 2,456]

US Embassy Manila is on their Facebook page AGAIN patting themselves on the back and trumpeting what an awesome job they are doing on visa interviews lately.  This time for C1/D crewman's visas where they issued 110,000 last year, and publish a current wait time of 32 days to get a visa interview for that category.

 

OTOH, all the CR and IR interview appointment letters they just sent out Friday and Monday were for cases that were documentarily qualified before the last week of June 2023.  Since they got April Interview dates that makes the backlog for spousal visas rather definitively 10 plus months from becoming documentarily qualified.  A backlog that only developed over the last year and that did not previously exist.

 

The embassy is getting roasted in the comments AGAIN.  Certainly one of the more dumb, tone-deaf social media campaigns ever.

 

[LonelyGringo21 3]

 

 

I think this is the right response!  👏👏👏👏👏to all who posted responses.

We need to keep them from congratulating themselves for ignoring us.

You have to make them uncomfortable. 

You don't have to let them post this ####### without a response. 

If we could "ratio" them, it would change things.

 

[top_secret 2,456]

Another grim milestone.  It has now passed 7 months since any VJ member has updated their timeline reporting issuance of a CR1 or IR1 visa by US Embassy Manila.  A gap for Philippines spousal visas that as far as I can tell is unprecedented in the entire history of this forum.

[NeonParticles 126]

23 hours ago, top_secret said:

Another grim milestone.  It has now passed 7 months since any VJ member has updated their timeline reporting issuance of a CR1 or IR1 visa by US Embassy Manila.  A gap for Philippines spousal visas that as far as I can tell is unprecedented in the entire history of this forum.

 

Always love being a part of history ... 

[flipicaneze 20]

On 3/15/2024 at 1:44 PM, top_secret said:

Another grim milestone.  It has now passed 7 months since any VJ member has updated their timeline reporting issuance of a CR1 or IR1 visa by US Embassy Manila.  A gap for Philippines spousal visas that as far as I can tell is unprecedented in the entire history of this forum.

I know I've been itching to update my timeline.

[RO_AH 1,659]

On 3/15/2024 at 8:44 AM, top_secret said:

Another grim milestone.  It has now passed 7 months since any VJ member has updated their timeline reporting issuance of a CR1 or IR1 visa by US Embassy Manila.  A gap for Philippines spousal visas that as far as I can tell is unprecedented in the entire history of this forum.

Is this even longer than the covid shutdown?

[top_secret 2,456]

1 hour ago, RO_AH said:

Is this even longer than the covid shutdown?

 

Actually for the most part US Embassy Manila kept up on CR1/IR1 CR2/IR2 interviews throughout all the lockdowns, even as they let K1's and other family categories languish.  They never developed a major backlog in CR1/IR1 CR2/IR2 even while K1's were screwed.  The Embassy totally shut down with the mid-March 2020 lockdown, remained closed April and May 2020, resumed limited priority CR1/IR1 CR2/IR2 in June and resumed kind of low normal-ish interviewing in July-September and then came up to full speed October on.   I think that if you had your CR1/IR1 CR2/IR2 interview canceled in May 2020 you were probably accommodated by July or August.   For the sake of comparison in July 2020 they processed 76 CR1's and 84 IR1's vs January 2024 where they only processed 4 CR1's and 86 IR'1.   Our interview letter in October 2021 came 2 weeks after becoming documentarily qualified so that's where the backlog stood then.

 

This NEW backlog is not a product of the COVID era because as recently as June of last year they sent those mass expedites to everyone documentarily qualified up until early May. Very literally, if you became documentarily qualified May 5 2023, then in late June 2023 you could self schedule an interview and many are sitting in the US since July of last year.  Whereas someone who was documentarily qualified 20 days later on May 25 2023 is still waiting and has not received an interview letter to this day.  It seems crazy.  I suspect what has happened is that CR1/IR1 CR2/IR2 had always been prioritized but last year they just removed any prioritization and dumped them all in the lengthy IR5 queue.  So rather than preserve those categories that did not have backlogs and catch up on the categories that did, they created a new backlog that did not previously exist.  Some kind of government logic that normal folks cant understand.

 

On the bright side K1's are doing awesome now.  You could schedule a K1 interview next week.

[RO_AH 1,659]

2 hours ago, top_secret said:

On the bright side K1's are doing awesome now.  You could schedule a K1 interview next week.

I almost wonder if they paused CR/IR visas to focus on clearing the K1 backlog

[WaltAimee 6]

Just receive expedite notice for my wife and daughter’s IR1/IR2 Visa Interviews after being documentarily complete in July of 2023. Must be an auto expedite as we didn’t file an expedite request.

[PsychoGF 11]

Been seeing a lot of IR1s get expedited even though they got DQed in June, July and August.

Mostly CR1s that turned into IR1s. 

I thought CR1 and IR1 are just processed the same but probably not.

My husband got DQed in May, but won't be IR1 till June. 

We'll probably get left behind 😭

[Jason and May 79]

1 minute ago, WaltAimee said:

Just receive expedite notice for my wife and daughter’s IR1/IR2 Visa Interviews after being documentarily complete in July of 2023. Must be an auto expedite as we didn’t file an expedite request.

Would be great if they did another mass of auto expedites, but I wonder why you received this and all these other cases from May forward are waiting in queue. I wonder if it is the IR2. Or maybe we’ll start seeing a number of posts the next couple of days or weeks similar to yours. 

 

Weird. Weird but awesome for you guys! Congratulations! 🥳🤙🏾

[WaltAimee 6]

Yes I literally got the notification 10 minutes before I posted on here.

[Jimmyzr1 36]

1 hour ago, WaltAimee said:

Just receive expedite notice for my wife and daughter’s IR1/IR2 Visa Interviews after being documentarily complete in July of 2023. Must be an auto expedite as we didn’t file an expedite request.

We just got expedite request to post as well for Ir-1/Ir-2. we're early July. Do we need to schedule interview now? And, if so, how? Thanks

[Cuds&Fmly 4]

We also just received notice of expedite. My wife has a DQ date of 7/12/23. I just returned home from the Philippines, after waiting 8 long months. But I'm still happy to see the expedite. I know it will take a few more months but at least it's moving forward.

[Adobo 13]

A bunch of IR1's just got auto expedited between May 2023 and Oct 2023....Unfortunately, no news on CR1's yet.