Honduran Embassy Never Sent Pre-Interview Info, Then Denied My Fiancée Entry Into K1 Interview

[stegsaurus 3]

Hi everyone,

 

At the end of August 2024, we booked our K1 interview for Thursday, October 17 at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Honduras uses a pre-interview system where you must attend a separate interview to have your documents reviewed, then you are asked the questions at the main interview. The only "official" mention of this is on the Tegucigalpa Embassy page here; my fiancée was also aware from WhatsApp groups we're in. It's not mentioned on the new visa provider website for Honduras, which we migrated our account to after they changed it in mid-September.

 

From everything we've seen and researched, the embassy will email you about your pre-interview at whatever time they choose; it could be weeks before or a few days before. You do not pick your own pre-interview date. However, neither of us were ever contacted with information about the pre-interview. We both contacted the embassy via phone, as well as via email, multiple times to ask. I called on October 7, and was told that they didn't have any information about the pre-interview. They said she should show up for the scheduled interview if we didn't hear about the pre-interview, so that's what she did.

 

None of our other attempts at contacting the embassy about the pre-interview resulted in more information. We both checked our email regularly (including spam) and saw nothing concerning her pre-interview. I have noticed that the case number does not appear on our account page linked above -- I attempted to add this, but the box is grayed out so I cannot. I wonder if this could be what led to the pre-interview information not being sent out.

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After waiting for hours at the embassy on October 17, my fiancée was told that she was not able to enter for her interview because she had not completed the pre-interview. She explained the above but they still wouldn't let her in. I immediately called the Honduran number for the US Embassy (because the US number was no help) and was told that this issue was not our fault; there must have been an administrative mix-up. Several other K1 interviewees that my fiancée met at the embassy on Oct 17 also had the same experience: not being allowed to enter after not receiving any contact about their pre-interview.

 

I was then told on the phone that I needed to contact tggiv@state.gov, from which I would receive instructions to reschedule her interview. I followed those instructions and was led to the reschedule option on the visa provider website, which I linked above. However, I've tried to schedule another appointment 6+ times over the last day, and every time I get a "System is busy. Please try again later." message. 

I'm not sure what other countries do pre-interviews, so I wanted to ask if anyone has dealt with a pre-interview and what it was like for you. I am beyond furious to the point where I cannot see straight -- this system of "we'll contact you, but if we don't, then you're screwed and have to reschedule" is ridiculous. It is absurd that we followed the directions we were told and she wasn't allowed in on Thursday, even though she had everything she needed (including proof she had emailed to ask about this and never got a straight answer). I am going to be beside myself if we have to get back in line and wait months more for an appointment when it's the embassy's screw-up that caused this. 

[HondurasK1help 3]

Did you ever schedule your interview?  I am in the same boat. My fiance was not allowed to have her interview September 17, 2024 for the same reason, although they did the document review while she was there.  It took a month to get her new account created and now I can’t get past the “schedule interview” button. The help desk has been absolutely no help and the embassy won’t answer visa related questions. I keep trying several times an hour throughout the day and night but always get “system is busy”. I don’t see any way forward except to keep trying and hope the new provider eventually gets their act together.

[stegsaurus 3]

@HondurasK1help No, I have not gotten anywhere since I posted this, which is very upsetting. I am checking the new Visa provider site every day and I get the "Server is busy" message every single time I try. On one of my calls to the embassy, I was told this means there are no open appointments, and my fiancée also heard from another girl that she hasn't been able to schedule her K1 appointment since Oct 3. 

 

I have been trying to take every possible approach. I contacted both senators and my representative; one senator got back to me and submitted an inquiry on Thursday, but said it can take up to 30 days for an answer on that. I used the Visa Navigator they tell you to walk through to contact with two different requests, and my mail tracking tool says they haven't even opened those messages yet. I got an email contact for the head and second-in-command of the embassy from someone on Reddit and it's the same there. I contacted the White House too. 

 

Every time I call either the US or Honduran number for the embassy, I get the runaround and they're not answering my emails, as I said. I cannot put into words how angry I am at this. I should have been going to Honduras to get my fiancée next week and here I am almost 2 weeks after her interview floating around in the void with no answers. 

[HondurasK1help 3]

My immigration lawyer told me to contact my representative on the 

Homeland Security Committee. I will do it, but I doubt he can do much in the way of immediate help.  This is not just an issue in Honduras.  I agree it is very frustating, especially for my fiancé. She was crushed when she couldn’t get the interview. We have invested so much time, effort, money, and emotional energy in this that it’s just devastating to have such an incompetent company destroy everything just at the final step.

[stegsaurus 3]

I have not heard that tip, so I suppose I'll look up mine and do the same thing. It can't hurt, though I'm looking for a faster response than weeks or months here. They should have let her in and reviewed her documents that day (she had everything, including proof she had emailed the embassy and gotten no response). Or immediately rescheduled her for a following day.

 

I'm so sorry you're also going through this. We would have been married before Christmas and now all our plans are screwed up, including the fact that I'll probably have to ask the bank to regenerate the letter with proof of my balances. The embassy isn't going to want to see info from October in a month or two.

 

Dealing with the government is so frustrating. You, as a citizen, deal with all this nonsense while they let tens of thousands of people flood into the country illegally without any of these processes. We play their salaries with our taxes, and can't even get a response within a reasonable time when we need help. 

 

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As I was typing this, I got a response back from my senator with an update from the embassy. It said this:

Quote

Our records indicate that [my fiancée] has not made an interview appointment yet. An email was sent to [her] at [my email address] on September 16, 2024, containing information needed to schedule her appointments, as well as documents needing to be uploaded and brought with her to the interview. The applicant must schedule their appointment through the call center.

 

If there is another email address for [my fiancée], please send that to us, so we may update her information. More information regarding the immigrant visa process can be found here: https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-hn/iv. Additionally, there is increasing demand for immigrant visa appointments in Honduras, and we are aware of a growing wait time for an appointment; however, new immigrant visa appointments are routinely opened.

 

I did receive an email from the embassy on September 16, which prompted us to complete Form DS-160 (we did). It also says we need to pay the $265 fee, which we did.

 

Then it says we need to read the instructions on this page and complete her medical appointment. She successfully completed her medical appointment and we've gone over the instructions multiple times. We used them to make 100% sure we were ready for the interview. The linked page only states that the embassy is using a pre-interview process; it doesn't state how to schedule a pre-interview or how to know when yours will be.

 

Thus, I don't understand what they mean when they say we didn't make an interview appointment. We had one scheduled for October 17, which we scheduled on Aug 28 as confirmed in the attached documentation. We never received information about a pre-interview, nor were there instructions to schedule a pre-interview in the email they refer to. 

Edited October 29 by stegsaurus

[KMG 120]

Have you tried reporting this directly to the Department of State?  I feel your anger.  Every single experience I have had with this Embassy for US citizens services has been infuriating.  I am hoping for better when my husband's time comes around...

Edited November 3 by KMG

[HondurasK1help 3]

Have you made any progress?  They only send me boilerplate replies about the availability of interview dates, which is not my problem.  I cannot get past the “schedule interview” step because I get a “system is busy” message.  I have taken their advice and continued trying for several hundred times at all times of day and night. I believe this is a nonspecific error code that will not go away until someone fixes what is causing it.  I will try writing them again tomorrow.  My congressman sent an inquiry, but no response yet.  Like you, if the embassy had notified my fiancé about the document review and allowed her to have her scheduled interview, we would be in the US now getting married. This is so incredibly frustrating. We did everything we were supposed to do and because of the incompetence of the embassy and the new service provider we are stuck with nowhere to turn. 

[stegsaurus 3]

I haven't gotten much movement since I last posted here. I let my senator's office know the embassy's response wasn't helpful because it didn't address the pre-interview issue, so they sent a follow-up that I haven't heard back on yet. My other senator got back to me but said it can delay things if more than one congressional inquiry is sent for the same issue, so they aren't going to send one unless I ask them to once the process with the other senator concludes. I haven't gotten anything back on any of the embassy emails I sent. I tried using the White House's "help with a federal agency form" and got nothing back.

 

I sent an inquiry to the NVC and got a response that once they hand the case off to the embassy, I need to contact the embassy instead. I suppose I can call the embassy number again, but I never get anywhere when I do. The way they talk to you, it's as if you're calling Walmart's 1-800 number and asking about some problem in your local store. They tell me they can't give details, but who else can give me details if not them?

 

Someone told me the "system is busy" message means there are no appointments available, and my fiancée said another girl has been trying to schedule since Oct 3 and has gotten this every time. I've tried 5-10 times per day since Oct 18 and I get that message every time too. I heard there might be appointments that open up on Nov 1, so I checked at midnight Honduras time but it was still busy.

 

It's been two weeks of this but it feels like two months. It's exhausting. My fiancée wants me to come see her in the meantime, which of course I want to, but the thought of having to spend a few thousand dollars on a trip that I should not have to take because I should have been going to get her this coming week makes me sick. This is wearing on both of us and I am so upset that these people are putting us through this with no recourse. They won't even apologize for putting your life's plans off track by months, let alone refund your application fee or anything like that. We have to re-prepare documents, spend more money, and so much else because of this.

 

@KMG Do you have a recommended contact page/email/etc. for the Dept of State directly? When I go to a page like this, it essentially tells you to contact the nearest embassy. The NVC won't help at this stage. 

[HondurasK1help 3]

There is a public inquiry form at travel.state.gov under US Visas.  Strangely, I can find it in my ipad but not on my computer. ??

[HondurasK1help 3]

I think the “system is busy” message may be a nonspecific error message indicating a software glitch of some sort.  I have seen it before in other applications and it didn’t actually mean the system was busy.  A few months ago we made the interview appointment on the first try and there were several dates to choose from.  Now we can’t even get into the scheduling system.  The embassy webpage is showing a 2 day wait for appointments.  I will contact the no help at all desk again today with another screenshot but I don’t expect much different to happen. I am up to about 500 attempts at all hours to get into the scheduling system. It should be obvious that system error isn’t going away until someone fixes whatever the problem is. I expect to receive more irrelevant boilerplate.

[KMG 120]

9 hours ago, stegsaurus said:

I haven't gotten much movement since I last posted here. I let my senator's office know the embassy's response wasn't helpful because it didn't address the pre-interview issue, so they sent a follow-up that I haven't heard back on yet. My other senator got back to me but said it can delay things if more than one congressional inquiry is sent for the same issue, so they aren't going to send one unless I ask them to once the process with the other senator concludes. I haven't gotten anything back on any of the embassy emails I sent. I tried using the White House's "help with a federal agency form" and got nothing back.

 

I sent an inquiry to the NVC and got a response that once they hand the case off to the embassy, I need to contact the embassy instead. I suppose I can call the embassy number again, but I never get anywhere when I do. The way they talk to you, it's as if you're calling Walmart's 1-800 number and asking about some problem in your local store. They tell me they can't give details, but who else can give me details if not them?

 

Someone told me the "system is busy" message means there are no appointments available, and my fiancée said another girl has been trying to schedule since Oct 3 and has gotten this every time. I've tried 5-10 times per day since Oct 18 and I get that message every time too. I heard there might be appointments that open up on Nov 1, so I checked at midnight Honduras time but it was still busy.

 

It's been two weeks of this but it feels like two months. It's exhausting. My fiancée wants me to come see her in the meantime, which of course I want to, but the thought of having to spend a few thousand dollars on a trip that I should not have to take because I should have been going to get her this coming week makes me sick. This is wearing on both of us and I am so upset that these people are putting us through this with no recourse. They won't even apologize for putting your life's plans off track by months, let alone refund your application fee or anything like that. We have to re-prepare documents, spend more money, and so much else because of this.

 

@KMG Do you have a recommended contact page/email/etc. for the Dept of State directly? When I go to a page like this, it essentially tells you to contact the nearest embassy. The NVC won't help at this stage. 

Call the 800 number on this page- or use the contact form. https://register.state.gov/contactus/

[stegsaurus 3]

@HondurasK1help I don't see an inquiry form on my computer on the page you mention, and I don't see it on my phone either. Is it perhaps the NVC one? I sent an inquiry using this a bit ago and received a response that they handed off my case to the embassy so I need to talk to the embassy for further info. So unfortunately, I don't think that's going to be a help. 

 

The last time I called the embassy (I think it was the Honduran number), I was told that "system is busy" appears when there are no appointments. I don't know if that's true, but if so, this error is way too vague. This system is also a huge step down from the prior one -- under that one, as soon as you logged in, you'd see a "Next appointment date is XYZ" on the sidebar, which was super useful. It doesn't seem possible that they have had no appointment slots available for a month straight. On the old system, we booked at the end of August and the first available was Oct 17. 

 

I might call again today but I don't expect anything to change. They tell you to email when you call, and then they ignore the emails. And meanwhile our lives are on hold here. 

 

@KMG I'm not trying to be dense, but which number specifically do you mean? I see a number for emergencies, which seems inappropriate for this, and this isn't a passport service issue. Did you call the number under Urgent Travel Service? The form at the bottom says not to use it for visa questions, so I imagine they'll ignore anything I send through there.

 

Interestingly, when I used the CEAC checker just now, it says that our case was last updated on Oct 31 (last time I checked, it said Oct 17, which was the day of her interview). I wonder what they are updating on our case when we haven't gotten anywhere with it during all this time?

[HondurasK1help 3]

I just received a reply from the embassy to my Congressman’s inquiry.  As expected, they just referred me back to the call center.  They did mention that they routinely release new appointment dates and said we should try a few times each week.  I have tried about 400 times for the last 3 weeks.  My biggest concern is that the “system is busy” error code actually means something else.  If we could get to a step that actually said “No appointments available” it wouldn’t be so stressful.  My concern is that appointments are being made available but we are not able to see them because of some software glitch.  I have seen the “system is busy” error code in other applications and it can refer to something as simple as an unchecked box, out of range date, formatting error, etc.

[stegsaurus 3]

That's so frustrating; I hate this bureaucracy nonsense. Nobody ever takes responsibility for their mistakes and you cannot get ahold of anyone close to the people who have screwed you up. They've mentioned to me that new dates are regularly added too, but that's not an answer when dates haven't been added in over a month. We had no problem picking a date back in August -- do they treat the end of the year like a dead end and not add any appointments for 2025 until the year rolls over, or something? That would be silly. 

 

I also had thought about what you mentioned with the "system busy" message being a glitch. I just got off the phone with the embassy's US number again (first time I've called in two weeks). I didn't get any new useful info, but here's a summary:

1. "System is busy" shows both because there are no available dates and because there's been "heavy traffic" since Sept 23. Per this page, that's the day the new system was rolled out. There's no way that there was coincidentally a huge influx of requests on the same day as a new system, so this tells me that the new system is broken. 
2. honduras.visas@gdit-gss.com is only for the support team -- this address does not go directly to the embassy.
3. I was advised to visit usembassy.gov or cbp.gov to contact someone there, or "call the Honduras local embassy" because the number I called (703-831-3391) is a third-party that only helps with scheduling. I asked if they are in Honduras, Washington DC, or what and they wouldn't tell me. 
4. To avoid the pre-interview problem in the future, I need to go to NVC webpage and contact them. They are in charge of the pre-interviews but the rep was not sure how. 
5. The reason why my case shows as updated on Oct 31 is that the NVC or embassy could be reviewing my case and may send me the pre-interview info by mail or email soon, so I should keep an eye out.

I guess the last point makes me feel a bit better, though I still have that "adrift" feeling of having no idea who to turn to. Apparently, there's basically no option for contacting the actual embassy, which for a citizen is absurd.

[HondurasK1help 3]

My fiancé is friends with the son of a Honduran immigration attorney. He says lots of people are in the same situation. No one can schedule an appointment or have their calls answered.  I actually did get some help from the help desk.  Apparently my fiancés account had not migrated into the new system properly because I spelled the “del” in her name with upper case D in one place and lower case in the other.  They corrected this but I still get  “system is busy” when I try to schedule. I only hope it is now a little less futile.