NVC and Schengen question

[Matt S 8]

My fiance is in Russia, Our case is currently at NVC just waiting for the mail from them as last update from them was: "The National Visa Center (NVC) has received your petition and will send detailed instructions to the petitioner, principal applicant, and attorney of record (if applicable) soon." anyone know the typical timeline from this to getting the instructions then ultimately the Embassy recieving the case?
We are trying to prepare for Schengen application and a bit worried she won't get approved. She just graduated from specialist degree in February but hasn't looked for a job since she will be coming to the USA so instead been using the time to be with family and prepare. We have around 5k USD in her account and can add more if it would help. Ive also heard it might be possible for me to sponsor her Schengen even if we aren't married, has anyone done this before? We are initially going to try Hungary with places like Bulgaria, Italy and Greece as back ups. 

I really don't want to have to transfer the case and delay it longer so any tips on best way to ensure she can get approved for Schengen? Even if it costs more.

[Pirozhok 13]

Ours was stuck in that status for about 2 weeks before the attempted to send the instructions via email. I say "attempted" because they didn't send it to the correct email address, told me to keep waiting when I emailed them at around the 4-week mark, and eventually admitted they'd sent it and offered to re-send to the correct email address on, I think, the third time I contacted the NVC for a status update. That part of the process was a fuster-cluck of delays and problems for us.

 

She was able to get a Schengen visa to Hungary. I did write a pretty detailed letter of support, including a lot of docs confirming my financial situation. I also added her as an authorized user on my credit card with a $50k limit and included that. Another potential factor is that she traveled to the EU pre-covid quite a bit, so has a history of previous Schengen visits without overstaying. Not sure what combination of factors wound up mattering, but she asked for a 30-day stay and was approved for 6 months or so. After she applied, the visa approval only took about a week.