Oh, Johannesburg: Case Status Checks/Consulate Communication in 2024

[hplusj 135]

Hey all:

 

I sent the Johannesburg consulate an email today, after waiting ten weeks "at NVC"; South Africa has a notorious reputation for its government agencies taking forever to process forms.  I understand that the consulate is run by Americans, but I have my misgivings about how things are going in Jo-Berg.  I kept it simple: status inquiry, any word on backlogs for K1 visa interview times or needed extensions beyond the four month window on the I-797.  Case number, petitioner name, beneficiary name, our emails.

 

Been doing the DHL hack and saw something move to Jo-Berg at the end of April; nothing for this week, sadly.  Which is what prompted me to poke the consulate.  GENTLY.

 

Anyone work with Johannesberg  who can give advice on communicating with them?  Can poking go too far?  I want to avoid any setbacks to the process if our case is blackmarked for us being nags lol!  I did search similar timelines but nobody using Jo-Berg for K1s who got their NOA2s in this calendar year have reported an interview date.  The last one was December 2023* (with the interview in March, but I digress).

 

Even if it's been a few years, I'd love to hear from folks who have successfully navigated Johannesburg.  

[Linsean 2]

We did our K1 visa in Joburg, and now we are doing IR1, the communication with Joburg embassy is pretty quick,  minimum response time can start from 30 minutes to 12 hours. We used to nag too until we got more information from the travel state site and be more patient.

[hplusj 135]

5 minutes ago, Linsean said:

We did our K1 visa in Joburg, and now we are doing IR1, the communication with Joburg embassy is pretty quick,  minimum response time can start from 30 minutes to 12 hours. We used to nag too until we got more information from the travel state site and be more patient.

How long ago was your K1 and what was the length of time between NVC and the embassy?  I feel like ten weeks is a lot longer than older reported timelines, which is why I'm getting worried.  But I have no idea how to go about it.  Senator got back to me today to say the reasons have to be valid to expedite, so maybe that's another way of saying I'm not being patient enough..?  I didn't realize I was asking to expedite anything lol

Edited May 13 by hplusj

[Linsean 2]

I797 From  07/28/2020 to 02/22/2021, the NVC took around 40 days to respond but it was during the COVID period. Yes if you feel the need to expedite your case, you can but you need a valid reason. Everything will be fine, I trust the Johannesburg US embassy.

[query123 0]

On 5/9/2024 at 1:55 AM, hplusj said:

Hey all:

 

I sent the Johannesburg consulate an email today, after waiting ten weeks "at NVC"; South Africa has a notorious reputation for its government agencies taking forever to process forms.  I understand that the consulate is run by Americans, but I have my misgivings about how things are going in Jo-Berg.  I kept it simple: status inquiry, any word on backlogs for K1 visa interview times or needed extensions beyond the four month window on the I-797.  Case number, petitioner name, beneficiary name, our emails.

 

Been doing the DHL hack and saw something move to Jo-Berg at the end of April; nothing for this week, sadly.  Which is what prompted me to poke the consulate.  GENTLY.

 

Anyone work with Johannesberg  who can give advice on communicating with them?  Can poking go too far?  I want to avoid any setbacks to the process if our case is blackmarked for us being nags lol!  I did search similar timelines but nobody using Jo-Berg for K1s who got their NOA2s in this calendar year have reported an interview date.  The last one was December 2023* (with the interview in March, but I digress).

 

Even if it's been a few years, I'd love to hear from folks who have successfully navigated Johannesburg.  

How did you contact. When I called they said no one available to answer questions. Email responses were vague.

[hplusj 135]

59 minutes ago, query123 said:

How did you contact. When I called they said no one available to answer questions. Email responses were vague.

You’re going to need to be more specific if you want NVC or embassy information 

 

either way, it’s vague emails from what I’ve learned.  I’m certainly not the one to ask for assistance on this.  It’s why I made the thread 

[hplusj 135]

So nothing on the DHL hack yesterday to today (thus far) yet I noticed that someone with a later NOA2 than us changed their timeline to imply the case left the NVC for Joberg.  Might be a misunderstanding, since I'd see some kind of DHL shipment if that were the case...

 

Even still it begs the question: do cases get picked up in order from the embassies?  I suspect there's no clear answer on this, but it's still unnerving to think we're getting overlooked.

And makes me wonder if I should email the embassy, yet again.

Edited May 22 by hplusj

[PushaKee 42]

HI I don't have much advice but we're an I-130 filer.  We got the NVC case created in January, got DQ'ed 60 days later in March (we submitted the final info in March hence the long time), interview notice in April and interview set for May. Not sure what's happening with K-1. We didn't call them or email. Just waited.. I hope things are going to happen for you soon.

[makfc 0]

@hplusj did u ever receive your IL yet?

 

I'm DQ'd 20 March IR5 visa and still no interview insight. Seems relatively long compared to others. 

[hplusj 135]

6 hours ago, makfc said:

@hplusj did u ever receive your IL yet?

 

I'm DQ'd 20 March IR5 visa and still no interview insight. Seems relatively long compared to others. 

No, others have continued to received theirs before me.  Joberg is requesting newer K1s than mine.  Not sure why.

My fiance and I have both submitted inquiries to the NVC asking for the issuance of our K1-FTP.  Got a cookie cutter response as per usual but we'll probably send one the Friday before next shipment (6/21, with cases selected on Tuesday 6/25) in the hopes that it jogs their memory.

Sending inquiries to the embassy itself has proven just as fruitless.  They direct us right back to NVC.  So we're in a constant volley of pointed fingers, while our case continues to sit in limbo for no perceivable reason.

We're at twelve weeks now.

[hplusj 135]

For the heck of it, I tried emailing the embassy again with a new tactic.  It provided interesting results and gave a bit of insight into the embassy's perspective:

 

Hello:

 

We are messaging again to humbly request you add our case to your next delivery request from NVC.  Our case number is JHNxxxxxxxxxx.  We have been informed that other K1 cases have been delivered to your embassy that were only sent to NVC four weeks ago.  Our case has been at the NVC for twelve weeks.

 

We have also submitted a request to the NVC to supply our case with the next batch, if there are no issues. We are asking for you to assist in communicating this to the NVC as well.

 

Case again is JHNxxxxxxxxxxxx

Principal applicant: J------------

Arrived at NVC on 5 March, 2024

 

If there are further issues with making this request from the NVC, please inform us and I will follow up with my congressperson for assistance, so we may investigate causes for the delay.

 

---

 

Within just a few hours, I got this reply (you know it's a good sign when they've taken the time to discern if they're talking to a sir OR a madam, and pick the right one to use lol):

 

Dear Madam,

 

Thank you for your email. 

 

Please note that US Embassies/Missions which processes immigration visas provides NVC/KCC only with capacity for months not specific slots for visa applicants. KCC/NVC then have their determination on whom is scheduled when. This may be based on date of documentarily readiness and combination of visa numbers for those applicants require priority dates. Even though our estimated waiting time is 3-6 months, we do not have oversight of how many cases are documentarily ready and what number you are in the queue at NVC/KCC, so we cannot assure you when the actual interview date will be. Please continue to liaise with NVC with regards to appointment dates. 

 

Sincerely, 

Johannesburg Immigrant Visa Unit

 

----

 

So this response tells me a few things, let's break it down:

1. Capacity is the focus from the embassy, and NVC does the legwork on meeting those numbers.

2. The embassy seemingly knows NVC procedure and prioritization, even if they don't have control over it

3. The embassy also knows what their estimated wait time is, and I presume this is related to either K1s specifically OR for all visas on average.  At any rate, it's a different estimate than what the Department of State claims for Joberg.  Just took the right framing to get that out of them ("twelve weeks? psh, that's just inside the average")

4. Achieving priority with the NVC is the only way to "jump the queue", so to speak. 

 

This means I plan to focus squarely on NVC inquiries.  Communication with the embassy isn't going to move the case at all.

[makfc 0]

@hplusj thanks for sharing the info & shedding some light on the process. In one of your earlier posts you mentioned cases would next be selected on 6/25. Is that all visa categories or only k-1? How did u get to that determination? Any idea when joburg typically announces the monthly batch of interview letters? From what I've read it's the beginning of every month

[hplusj 135]

35 minutes ago, makfc said:

@hplusj thanks for sharing the info & shedding some light on the process. In one of your earlier posts you mentioned cases would next be selected on 6/25. Is that all visa categories or only k-1? How did u get to that determination? Any idea when joburg typically announces the monthly batch of interview letters? From what I've read it's the beginning of every month

Every month the VJ mods start a new thread in this forum for cases moving from NOA2 to embassy: the OP always sheds light on what information we have on this stage.  Included is a calendar highlighting the shipping dates from NVC to the embassies.

 

The 2024 calendar they've shared shows that cases are selected and shipped every other Tuesday and Wednesday, based on if the embassy provides space in their workload.  The last shipping dates were on June 4th and 5th, so we just advance a fortnight to find the next ones: June 18th/19th.  And so it goes.

Edited June 7 by hplusj
seems i had the dates wrong! i'd skipped a week. it's the 18/19, not the 25th

[Confusedtinybird 41]

On 5/8/2024 at 7:55 PM, hplusj said:

Hey all:

 

I sent the Johannesburg consulate an email today, after waiting ten weeks "at NVC"; South Africa has a notorious reputation for its government agencies taking forever to process forms.  I understand that the consulate is run by Americans, but I have my misgivings about how things are going in Jo-Berg.  I kept it simple: status inquiry, any word on backlogs for K1 visa interview times or needed extensions beyond the four month window on the I-797.  Case number, petitioner name, beneficiary name, our emails.

 

Been doing the DHL hack and saw something move to Jo-Berg at the end of April; nothing for this week, sadly.  Which is what prompted me to poke the consulate.  GENTLY.

 

Anyone work with Johannesberg  who can give advice on communicating with them?  Can poking go too far?  I want to avoid any setbacks to the process if our case is blackmarked for us being nags lol!  I did search similar timelines but nobody using Jo-Berg for K1s who got their NOA2s in this calendar year have reported an interview date.  The last one was December 2023* (with the interview in March, but I digress).

 

Even if it's been a few years, I'd love to hear from folks who have successfully navigated Johannesburg.  

 

It's not really run by Americans.  When we were there years ago there were many different Nationalities working there. I have been to several Embassies throughout Africa and it's run very well. Very organized.

 

The Embassy is run very different than Home Affairs. We did DCF so cant really advise on K-1 too much.

 

Just a side note- It's also mostly called Jo'burg or Jozi. Ive never heard it called or spelled Jo-berg.

 

The timelines are really hard to go by. The Embassy will let you know when they are ready for you.

 

 

[hplusj 135]

1 minute ago, Confusedtinybird said:

 

It's not really run by Americans.  When we were there years ago there were many different Nationalities working there. I have been to several Embassies throughout Africa and it's run very well. Very organized.

 

The Embassy is run very different than Home Affairs. We did DCF so cant really advise on K-1 too much.

 

Just a side note- It's also mostly called Jo'burg or Jozi. Ive never heard it called or spelled Jo-berg.

 

The timelines are really hard to go by. The Embassy will let you know when they are ready for you.

 

 

Thanks for your feedback.