DCF in Tbilisi with my Ukrainian wife (exceptional circumstance)

[Rukavetchka 0]

Quick question: 

 

Has anyone had experience like ours where they were asked to mail the i-130 and other docs instead of deliver them? If so, how long was it before you receieved the next contact? I would expect it should take them at least some days to review the i-130 and make sure everything is clearly approvable, and it seems like with the people who hand-delivered documents that was about a week. 

[Boiler 44,824]

You are the first one I have seen In Georgia

[Rukavetchka 0]

Update: 

 

we received a case number and the invitation to schedule an interview! 
 

now, I have some questions. I’m confused by the order of operations here. 
 

what do I do first? Complete ds-260? Schedule the interview? Schedule the medical exam? 

the email I received tells me to email to schedule a visa appointment once I’ve “reviewed” the requirements - I guess that will probably be the first step? 

[Rukavetchka 0]

Update! My spouse attended the interview today. She was in the consulate a total of about 3 hours. 
 

seems everything has gone well, except that they asked us for one more documents. 
 

apparently, Georgia is peculiar in that there is more than one police certification that needs to be requested - this information isn’t listed on the embassy website. 
 

They gave us back my wife’s passport (because we would need it to get a copy of the second police cert), and instructed us to send the police certificate along with her passport by courier. 
 

we managed the certificate within a couple hours and sent everything to the consulate.

 

Only one thing was strange: I sent my wife with enough cash to cover all the fees plus some extra. But they only charged her for the i130 and the family-based visa app. So only around 1000. Is that normal? 

 

 

[powerpuff 6,446]

NVC fees are waived when filing directly with the consulate.

 

[Rukavetchka 0]

Update: 

 

still haven’t heard anything from the consulate since delivering the passport to them. With DCF process will the visa status usually still be updated on the CEAC website? Ours still just says “ready for interview” even though we already had the interview. 
 

today is the 7th business day since they received it.

[Rukavetchka 0]

Update - tried to email the consulate to at least confirm the receipt of the documents (after seeing how the ‘FedEx’ office in Tbilisi is operated, believe me you would want to check also 😅) 

 

just received a generic response about administrative processing and nothing else.
 

now the actually start date for the job is quickly approaching (September 15) and it looks like I’ll have to ask my new boss to delay my start - I’m definitely not going to travel without my wife.

 

Not ideal; and very frustrating considering that the consulate seems to know very well that this is a common issue with police certificate in Georgia, but make no special mention that 2 different types are actually needed from police here, either on the local consulate website or in the interview preparation email..

 

so, we have no choice but to wait and hope that we move quickly from AP to issued. 

 

[Rukavetchka 0]

Looks like we will have to delay the start of my new job - there is no way I’m going to fly to the US and leave my wife here in a foreign country without a visa and without a passport! 
 

I emailed my senator to contact the state department as well. 
 

Hopefully his team can manage to get some answers why they have kept her passport for 3 weeks just to process one simple document!