Can't access CEAC

[team-joric 8]

Hi folks,

 

It's been around 3 days of this now so just wondering if anyone has any advice...

I'm trying to complete the DS-260 form on the CEAC portal but I'm having the usual upsets: being kicked out of the portal, "Connection was reset" errors which stop me from accessing the CEAC website completely for hours at a time, "Request rejected" errors, and now the below ("Request cannot be processed at this time" error, but actually on the CEAC website).

 

 

I've spent around 30 minutes total on the website itself, but hours trying to get into it!

 

 

Initially I was accessing the site from Google Chrome on Windows 11. I've tried clearing my cache, cookies, trying new browsers, trying Microsoft Edge in Internet Explorer mode, and so on... but it's causing me a lot of strife. It's hard to remain level-headed when you've waited 15.5 months to get to this point!

 

If any IT people/CEAC-whisperers can step forward and let me know what worked for them, that'd be great. Even just confirmation that it will sort itself out in time would be amazing.

[WoodlandsFamily 29]

1 hour ago, team-joric said:

Hi folks,

 

It's been around 3 days of this now so just wondering if anyone has any advice...

 

I'm trying to complete the DS-260 form on the CEAC portal but I'm having the usual upsets: being kicked out of the portal, "Connection was reset" errors which stop me from accessing the CEAC website completely for hours at a time, "Request rejected" errors, and now the below ("Request cannot be processed at this time" error, but actually on the CEAC website).

 

 

I've spent around 30 minutes total on the website itself, but hours trying to get into it!

 

 

Initially I was accessing the site from Google Chrome on Windows 11. I've tried clearing my cache, cookies, trying new browsers, trying Microsoft Edge in Internet Explorer mode, and so on... but it's causing me a lot of strife. It's hard to remain level-headed when you've waited 15.5 months to get to this point!

 

If any IT people/CEAC-whisperers can step forward and let me know what worked for them, that'd be great. Even just confirmation that it will sort itself out in time would be amazing.

There were some posts of people putting on tips to get past these problems in the last few weeks I'm sure. If you search CEAC hopefully they will come up. Good luck! I've been waiting since Mid October 2023 and hoping it won't be long for us to be where you are now! 

[team-joric 8]

On 1/3/2025 at 10:40 AM, WoodlandsFamily said:

There were some posts of people putting on tips to get past these problems in the last few weeks I'm sure. If you search CEAC hopefully they will come up. Good luck! I've been waiting since Mid October 2023 and hoping it won't be long for us to be where you are now! 

Thanks! Yes I finally managed to get it to work.

 

For prosterity - in the end Microsoft Edge in "Internet Explorer mode" worked best for me with some cookie/cache clearing along the way.

 

The best thing for me to get the CEAC to accept my documents was to open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, then "print to PDF", then upload the new PDF. Weird but it worked! All set.

[WoodlandsFamily 29]

On 1/4/2025 at 11:30 AM, team-joric said:

Thanks! Yes I finally managed to get it to work.

 

For prosterity - in the end Microsoft Edge in "Internet Explorer mode" worked best for me with some cookie/cache clearing along the way.

 

The best thing for me to get the CEAC to accept my documents was to open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, then "print to PDF", then upload the new PDF. Weird but it worked! All set.

Brilliant 👏 thanks for the tip! 

[D3vilD0g6582 18]

On 1/4/2025 at 5:30 AM, team-joric said:

Thanks! Yes I finally managed to get it to work.

 

For prosterity - in the end Microsoft Edge in "Internet Explorer mode" worked best for me with some cookie/cache clearing along the way.

 

The best thing for me to get the CEAC to accept my documents was to open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, then "print to PDF", then upload the new PDF. Weird but it worked! All set.

Just what I was looking for! I've been having the same exact issue trying to complete the DS-260 for my wife. It has been very frustrating as I'm sure you know, in the very least. 

[D3vilD0g6582 18]

I'm still running into this problem of getting timed out during the course of entering the information and having everything reset, it won't even let you save as you input information if that section is not complete. And of course there is no contact available other than email. Does anyone know of any remedies?? 

[P3ACHY 6]

8 hours ago, D3vilD0g6582 said:

I'm still running into this problem of getting timed out during the course of entering the information and having everything reset, it won't even let you save as you input information if that section is not complete. And of course there is no contact available other than email. Does anyone know of any remedies?? 

We had the same problem. Make sure you have all your information prepared in a separate document so you can quickly input everything before being timed out. Or fudge it a little bit so you can save the page, and then go back and add or edit anything missing.

 

Using a VPN also helped because the whole website would block us out. But switching locations with the VPN would let us get back in.

[D3vilD0g6582 18]

On 1/3/2025 at 3:10 AM, team-joric said:

Hi folks,

 

It's been around 3 days of this now so just wondering if anyone has any advice...

 

I'm trying to complete the DS-260 form on the CEAC portal but I'm having the usual upsets: being kicked out of the portal, "Connection was reset" errors which stop me from accessing the CEAC website completely for hours at a time, "Request rejected" errors, and now the below ("Request cannot be processed at this time" error, but actually on the CEAC website).

 

 

I've spent around 30 minutes total on the website itself, but hours trying to get into it!

 

 

Initially I was accessing the site from Google Chrome on Windows 11. I've tried clearing my cache, cookies, trying new browsers, trying Microsoft Edge in Internet Explorer mode, and so on... but it's causing me a lot of strife. It's hard to remain level-headed when you've waited 15.5 months to get to this point!

 

If any IT people/CEAC-whisperers can step forward and let me know what worked for them, that'd be great. Even just confirmation that it will sort itself out in time would be amazing.

 

On 1/4/2025 at 5:30 AM, team-joric said:

Thanks! Yes I finally managed to get it to work.

 

For prosterity - in the end Microsoft Edge in "Internet Explorer mode" worked best for me with some cookie/cache clearing along the way.

 

The best thing for me to get the CEAC to accept my documents was to open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, then "print to PDF", then upload the new PDF. Weird but it worked! All set.

 

2 hours ago, P3ACHY said:

We had the same problem. Make sure you have all your information prepared in a separate document so you can quickly input everything before being timed out. Or fudge it a little bit so you can save the page, and then go back and add or edit anything missing.

 

Using a VPN also helped because the whole website would block us out. But switching locations with the VPN would let us get back in.

I'll try the VPN route, I already have everything wrote down to enter as fast as I can. Even after I finally had everything completed for that section and tried to save, I get a screen telling me my connection was lost even though I was still connected to a strong Wi-Fi signal. 

[D3vilD0g6582 18]

38 minutes ago, D3vilD0g6582 said:

 

 

I'll try the VPN route, I already have everything wrote down to enter as fast as I can. Even after I finally had everything completed for that section and tried to save, I get a screen telling me my connection was lost even though I was still connected to a strong Wi-Fi signal. 

Just wish I knew why it keeps timing out in the middle of actively working on it. Very, very frustrating.