Paid NVC fees and both transactions took the money out of my account but the IV fee shows 'NOT PAID'

[jm1409 4]

I paid the AOS fee on 4/17 and then that transaction took the money out of my checking account on 4/18. The NVC portal showed the AOS fee as 'Paid' on  4/20.

 

I then proceeded to make the payment for the IV fee on 4/20. That transaction took took the money out of my checking account on 4/21. The NVC portal showed the IV fee 'Paid' on 4/23.

 

Both show paid, so we upload all of our documents and wait for DQ as of 4/25. 

 

As of today, 5/5, I receive an email from NVC about the IV Fee saying "Unfortunately, the receiving bank was unable to accept your payment for the following reason: No Reason Provided." My checking account still has both fees deducted though -- and now the NVC portal is saying 'Not Paid' for the IV Fee and there's a message saying the IV Fee was rejected.

 

I have read through lots of experiences people have had where it would take a long time to show 'Paid' after they made payment...but that common issue isn't this one. This issue is (I think?) nuanced because the money left my checking account, NVC showed paid, and now it shows unpaid. Has anyone ever heard of this? Should I be worried? What should I do?

Edited May 6, 2023 by jm1409

[Worldismine03 2]

I just had this happen to me to this morning. It even so showed start now on my Ceac to start finishing my documents. On the email it says to just contact nvc inquiry and send them a statement from your bank account showing it was deducted. I paid mine 4/21 not sure why they would do this now

[jm1409 4]

Ok. I ended up submitting an inquiry showing my bank statement with the fees being taken out. Hopefully this helps resolve it quickly.

[Worldismine03 2]

I hope so too after reading a bunch of similar posts it seems it’s a common issue on their end which is very frustrating 

[elmas3oud 1]

The same thing happened to me, I paid both fees on Apr 20th, the amounts were deducted from my account and was able to start the application 3 days later, on May 6th I received the dreadful email stating: "Unfortunately, the receiving bank was unable to accept your payment for the following reason: No Reason Provided, If you check your bank account and see a record that U.S. bank deducted funds from your account, please send a scanned copy of your bank statement showing the deduction through https://nvc.state.gov/inquiry. We will review it and update your case to reflect the payment." So that's what I did I submitted a statement showing that the money has left my account and referenced the email and asked them to resolve the issue, my account shows the "pay now" button but I didn't wanna pay the again, a few hours ago I logged into the seac portal and found this message:

 

"Thank you for your inquiry. Duplicate and rejected fee payments should be resolved by pay.gov within 30 days. If it has been more than 30 days and your bank account has not been credited for your duplicate or rejected payment, please contact pay.gov directly. If your fee payment status shows "rejected" in the Consular Electronic Application Center CEAC, you will need to log back into CEAC to repay your fees."

 

which basically telling me to get lost, when I tried contacting pay.gov I found this in their faq: "Request a refund

Only the Federal agency receiving your payment can authorize a refund of a payment made using Pay.gov. Please contact the agency directly to request a refund." 

 

It seems to me that the only option now to to contact my bank and ask for a charge back and see how that goes, this so frustrating I can not believe that this kind of ####### still happens, anyone has any ideas?

 

[chatgpt4 19]

3 hours ago, elmas3oud said:

The same thing happened to me, I paid both fees on Apr 20th, the amounts were deducted from my account and was able to start the application 3 days later, on May 6th I received the dreadful email stating: "Unfortunately, the receiving bank was unable to accept your payment for the following reason: No Reason Provided, If you check your bank account and see a record that U.S. bank deducted funds from your account, please send a scanned copy of your bank statement showing the deduction through https://nvc.state.gov/inquiry. We will review it and update your case to reflect the payment." So that's what I did I submitted a statement showing that the money has left my account and referenced the email and asked them to resolve the issue, my account shows the "pay now" button but I didn't wanna pay the again, a few hours ago I logged into the seac portal and found this message:

 

"Thank you for your inquiry. Duplicate and rejected fee payments should be resolved by pay.gov within 30 days. If it has been more than 30 days and your bank account has not been credited for your duplicate or rejected payment, please contact pay.gov directly. If your fee payment status shows "rejected" in the Consular Electronic Application Center CEAC, you will need to log back into CEAC to repay your fees."

 

which basically telling me to get lost, when I tried contacting pay.gov I found this in their faq: "Request a refund

Only the Federal agency receiving your payment can authorize a refund of a payment made using Pay.gov. Please contact the agency directly to request a refund." 

 

It seems to me that the only option now to to contact my bank and ask for a charge back and see how that goes, this so frustrating I can not believe that this kind of ####### still happens, anyone has any ideas?

 

 

If your account shows the "pay now" button, I would pay again. That way your case will progress and you won't waste a month waiting. You will eventually get the refund for the duplicate charge but waiting could result in unnecessary delay. Your call. 

[Jimmyzr1 36]

1 hour ago, chatgpt4 said:

If your account shows the "pay now" button, I would pay again. That way your case will progress and you won't waste a month waiting. You will eventually get the refund for the duplicate charge but waiting could result in unnecessary delay. Your call. 

I'm in the same boat but have talked to Pay.gov twice on the phone and they told me if I were to pay again they wouldn't be able to give me my money back. I have 2 petitions at NVC.

[elmas3oud 1]

That's crazy, as if this whole process wasn't complicated enough already.

[jm1409 4]

Update: We got DQ’d on 5/8 but our NVC portal still says not paid….super odd. 
 

unsure if I should wait it out, or make another payment In hopes the first payment gets rejected and then avoid a potential 30 day delay…but being DQ’d with the “pay now” in the portal has me questioning. 

[elmas3oud 1]

1 hour ago, jm1409 said:

Update: We got DQ’d on 5/8 but our NVC portal still says not paid….super odd. 
 

unsure if I should wait it out, or make another payment In hopes the first payment gets rejected and then avoid a potential 30 day delay…but being DQ’d with the “pay now” in the portal has me questioning. 

This is all super confusing, I'm thinking I'll give them till next week and then if I don't get a refund I'll contact my bank and see how it goes from there.

[jm1409 4]

UPDATE: As of today, my NVC CEAC portal now is showing Paid again on both fees. So bizarre.

[Jimmyzr1 36]

4 hours ago, jm1409 said:

UPDATE: As of today, my NVC CEAC portal now is showing Paid again on both fees. So bizarre.

Yes, mine is finally showing paid as well after being locked out since May 1st!

[elmas3oud 1]

5 hours ago, jm1409 said:

UPDATE: As of today, my NVC CEAC portal now is showing Paid again on both fees. So bizarre.

Same

[Britishwizard 2]

On 5/9/2023 at 7:14 PM, elmas3oud said:

The same thing happened to me, I paid both fees on Apr 20th, the amounts were deducted from my account and was able to start the application 3 days later, on May 6th I received the dreadful email stating: "Unfortunately, the receiving bank was unable to accept your payment for the following reason: No Reason Provided, If you check your bank account and see a record that U.S. bank deducted funds from your account, please send a scanned copy of your bank statement showing the deduction through https://nvc.state.gov/inquiry. We will review it and update your case to reflect the payment." So that's what I did I submitted a statement showing that the money has left my account and referenced the email and asked them to resolve the issue, my account shows the "pay now" button but I didn't wanna pay the again, a few hours ago I logged into the seac portal and found this message:

 

"Thank you for your inquiry. Duplicate and rejected fee payments should be resolved by pay.gov within 30 days. If it has been more than 30 days and your bank account has not been credited for your duplicate or rejected payment, please contact pay.gov directly. If your fee payment status shows "rejected" in the Consular Electronic Application Center CEAC, you will need to log back into CEAC to repay your fees."

 

which basically telling me to get lost, when I tried contacting pay.gov I found this in their faq: "Request a refund

Only the Federal agency receiving your payment can authorize a refund of a payment made using Pay.gov. Please contact the agency directly to request a refund." 

 

It seems to me that the only option now to to contact my bank and ask for a charge back and see how that goes, this so frustrating I can not believe that this kind of ####### still happens, anyone has any ideas?

 

 

Hi,

Same happend to me. I submitted both fee on April 19th. Payments were out of my bank account on April 20th. Then we submitted all the required documents in hope of review. In first week of May I  received an email that the payment is rejected. I contacted NVC through public inquiry form. They replied a generic answer if the status shows rejected then I will have to pay again. Duplicate/rejected payment will be credited in 30 days. Even though I provided them my bank statement that shows both payments paid to them..I also contacted the pay.gov on the phone. They said that the agency took the payment will authorize and refund not pay.gov. its such a bad system. I didn't want to wait 30 days so I went a head and paid both fee again. I also contacted my bank for the duplicate payment. They said that I can file a dispute but I am waiting for nvc 30 days period which is approaching soon but I don't see any refund so far. I will wait till next week before I file a dispute with my bank. I think they have issues with their system at NVC. I have seen post back dated from 2015 with same issues. 🙃🙃

[Jimmyzr1 36]

On 5/15/2023 at 7:54 PM, Britishwizard said:

Hi,

Same happend to me. I submitted both fee on April 19th. Payments were out of my bank account on April 20th. Then we submitted all the required documents in hope of review. In first week of May I  received an email that the payment is rejected. I contacted NVC through public inquiry form. They replied a generic answer if the status shows rejected then I will have to pay again. Duplicate/rejected payment will be credited in 30 days. Even though I provided them my bank statement that shows both payments paid to them..I also contacted the pay.gov on the phone. They said that the agency took the payment will authorize and refund not pay.gov. its such a bad system. I didn't want to wait 30 days so I went a head and paid both fee again. I also contacted my bank for the duplicate payment. They said that I can file a dispute but I am waiting for nvc 30 days period which is approaching soon but I don't see any refund so far. I will wait till next week before I file a dispute with my bank. I think they have issues with their system at NVC. I have seen post back dated from 2015 with same issues. 🙃🙃

I had the same problem, paid on 4/18, locked out on 5/1 for rejected payment, but refused to pay again. I had talked with Pay.gov twice and they informed me they could not refund the extra payment. My account let me re-enter my documents the same day as everyone else's. The problem I'm having now is I cannot upload any documents on the accounts I had earlier worked on. I have 2 cases, one for wife and stepson.