NVC/medical/visa interview/cfo timeframe

[An D 27]

Just got our i-130 (standalone) approved. I was researching how long it will take to have the case created in NVC, how long itll take to approve the documents, and then how long each of the medical, visa interview, and cfo will take to schedule and complete but I am not able to find any info besides that NVC is taking about a month to create the case and DQ, according to their site. 

 

Does anyone have recent info on any of the above? We won't be picky so will choose the soonest appointment for anything that requires one. 

 

Thanks!

Edited April 5, 2023 by An D

[LaJumpa 40]

Don't quote me on this but case creation takes only a few days (3 in our case) bare in mind they do not process anything on weekends.

 

Once you get your welcome letter you have to pay the fees and that can take 2-3 business days to process.

 

Once payment is complete you can start the process, I suggest in the meantime you gather the docs you need. Police certificate took me almost a month (But that's because they lost it) 

 

It took us about 2 weeks to be DQ'd. We are just waiting on our interview letter now. ETA on that is 2-3 weeks for the London Embassy. But from what I understand this varies by country. 

[IWander 589]

6 hours ago, An D said:

Just got our i-130 (standalone) approved. I was researching how long it will take to have the case created in NVC, how long itll take to approve the documents, and then how long each of the medical, visa interview, and cfo will take to schedule and complete but I am not able to find any info besides that NVC is taking about a month to create the case and DQ, according to their site. 

 

Does anyone have recent info on any of the above? We won't be picky so will choose the soonest appointment for anything that requires one. 

 

Thanks!

You control how quickly your file gets qualifed and approved.  Much depends on how quickly you are able to gather and upload all the required documents before the case can be sent to the consulate 

[top_secret 2,417]

NVC has been blazingly fast lately (by their historical standards).  If you do everything correctly as soon as NVC will allow you to, it is very reasonable to assume you could be documentarily qualified in less than a month.

 

USEM has been kind of unpredictable with interview dates for CR/IR cases lately.  As recently as January there were examples of people getting interview dates 2 or 3 weeks after their cases were documentarily qualified and people were getting expedited for trivial reasons or no reason at all.  But there seems to be a noticeable shift since February towards longer wait times for interviews and denials of most expedite requests.  It seems they are taking about 2 to 3 months to receive documentarily qualified cases from NVC and then allowing self-scheduling on https://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ with reasonable availability of scheduling dates in the near future.

 

Saint Luke's will 'usually' try to accommodate any actual scheduled interview date.  If trying to get through as quickly as possible it kind of makes sense to get one's physical out of the way sometime after becoming documentarily qualified but before they actually have an interview date.  This runs a risk that an unexpected delay could drag things out 6 months so the physical would expire and need repeated, but the other ever-present risk at Saint Luke’s is getting tagged for sputum testing which is a three-month delay.  By getting the physical done early one can either breathe a sigh of relief it's out of the way OR get the three-month delay started sooner rather than later if they are unfortunate and get tagged for sputum testing.

 

A week is typical to actually receive the visa after a successful interview though delays certainly do happen and people do regularly get asked for updated or additional documents etc.

 

CFO is unpredictable as well.  We had someone here recently who got CFO completed the day before their flight.  Some have been successful is getting CFO completed before the visa is even issued though CFO will generally give someone a hard time about that.  It seems that CFO may delay people and string them along for a while but usually comes through last minute before a flight is actually going to be missed.

[An D 27]

On 4/5/2023 at 10:45 AM, top_secret said:

NVC has been blazingly fast lately (by their historical standards).  If you do everything correctly as soon as NVC will allow you to, it is very reasonable to assume you could be documentarily qualified in less than a month.

 

USEM has been kind of unpredictable with interview dates for CR/IR cases lately.  As recently as January there were examples of people getting interview dates 2 or 3 weeks after their cases were documentarily qualified and people were getting expedited for trivial reasons or no reason at all.  But there seems to be a noticeable shift since February towards longer wait times for interviews and denials of most expedite requests.  It seems they are taking about 2 to 3 months to receive documentarily qualified cases from NVC and then allowing self-scheduling on https://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ with reasonable availability of scheduling dates in the near future.

 

Saint Luke's will 'usually' try to accommodate any actual scheduled interview date.  If trying to get through as quickly as possible it kind of makes sense to get one's physical out of the way sometime after becoming documentarily qualified but before they actually have an interview date.  This runs a risk that an unexpected delay could drag things out 6 months so the physical would expire and need repeated, but the other ever-present risk at Saint Luke’s is getting tagged for sputum testing which is a three-month delay.  By getting the physical done early one can either breathe a sigh of relief it's out of the way OR get the three-month delay started sooner rather than later if they are unfortunate and get tagged for sputum testing.

 

A week is typical to actually receive the visa after a successful interview though delays certainly do happen and people do regularly get asked for updated or additional documents etc.

 

CFO is unpredictable as well.  We had someone here recently who got CFO completed the day before their flight.  Some have been successful is getting CFO completed before the visa is even issued though CFO will generally give someone a hard time about that.  It seems that CFO may delay people and string them along for a while but usually comes through last minute before a flight is actually going to be missed.

How do you go about scheduling the medical exam after getting DQ?  I thought you had to wait for the embassy interview to be scheduled to do anything with that. Is there a way we can get the medical exam taken care of asap after DQ and before having a visa interview scheduled? 

 

Any idea how to schedule CFO after DQ, but before visa interview or visa on hand?

Edited April 10, 2023 by An D

[top_secret 2,417]

5 hours ago, An D said:

How do you go about scheduling the medical exam after getting DQ?  I thought you had to wait for the embassy interview to be scheduled to do anything with that. Is there a way we can get the medical exam taken care of asap after DQ and before having a visa interview scheduled? 

 

Any idea how to schedule CFO after DQ, but before visa interview or visa on hand?

An interview letter is one of their requirements but there have been a few people here and elsewhere that were able to sign a waiver acknowledging they understand the risk that the physical may expire and need repeated.  Probably best to check with Saint Luke's since they tend to randomly change policies every few months.

 

CFO is another one that are notoriously inconsistent.  They request a copy of the issued visa as one of their main requirements but there are some here that have successfully completed CFO prior to receiving a visa so YMMV.

The signup page is here.  https://manila.cfo.gov.ph/Online_PDOS_Account_Creation-GCP/Holiday.aspx

Strangely the main page for CFO here https://cfo.gov.ph/ has apparently decided to geoblock US IP addresses so to access it from the US you need to use a VPN or something to conceal your geographic location.

 

[EdwardSnowden 13]

On 4/5/2023 at 11:45 PM, top_secret said:

NVC has been blazingly fast lately (by their historical standards).  If you do everything correctly as soon as NVC will allow you to, it is very reasonable to assume you could be documentarily qualified in less than a month.

 

USEM has been kind of unpredictable with interview dates for CR/IR cases lately.  As recently as January there were examples of people getting interview dates 2 or 3 weeks after their cases were documentarily qualified and people were getting expedited for trivial reasons or no reason at all.  But there seems to be a noticeable shift since February towards longer wait times for interviews and denials of most expedite requests.  It seems they are taking about 2 to 3 months to receive documentarily qualified cases from NVC and then allowing self-scheduling on https://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ with reasonable availability of scheduling dates in the near future.

 

Saint Luke's will 'usually' try to accommodate any actual scheduled interview date.  If trying to get through as quickly as possible it kind of makes sense to get one's physical out of the way sometime after becoming documentarily qualified but before they actually have an interview date.  This runs a risk that an unexpected delay could drag things out 6 months so the physical would expire and need repeated, but the other ever-present risk at Saint Luke’s is getting tagged for sputum testing which is a three-month delay.  By getting the physical done early one can either breathe a sigh of relief it's out of the way OR get the three-month delay started sooner rather than later if they are unfortunate and get tagged for sputum testing.

 

A week is typical to actually receive the visa after a successful interview though delays certainly do happen and people do regularly get asked for updated or additional documents etc.

 

CFO is unpredictable as well.  We had someone here recently who got CFO completed the day before their flight.  Some have been successful is getting CFO completed before the visa is even issued though CFO will generally give someone a hard time about that.  It seems that CFO may delay people and string them along for a while but usually comes through last minute before a flight is actually going to be missed.

 @top_secret, you continue to be such a wealth of knowledge for us all here. Thank you so much for sharing your time and experiences with us!