Passport + visa possibly lost by Frankfurt embassy?

[snailyote 8]

I am worried that my fiance’s visa and passport have been lost by the embassy.

 

For some backstory, she lives in Slovakia, and after May 2024 the Slovak embassy no longer handles K1 visas, it’s the Frankfurt embassy that does it for her country. The procedure as outlined on ustraveldocs is for the embassy to mail back the passport with visa to her in Slovakia so that she doesn’t have to go all the way back to Germany. She was supposed to register her delivery address online before the interview, then give the embassy the address delivery paper during the interview. She did all of this.

 

On 12/23, my fiance’s case status on ceac changed to “issued”.

 

On 12/27, the embassy emailed her telling her that her passport has been mailed back to her. There is no tracking.

 

Then on 12/31, the embassy emailed her saying that her passport was available for pickup at one of the Frankfurt lockboxes.

 

She reached out to them asking for clarification so she could find out which email was correct. They responded saying that they would make a support case for her and that they would escalate it. Since then, nothing.

 

She has reached back out 3 times asking for updates and they have nothing to share, other than the case has been escalated. I’m starting to worry that they have no idea where the passport is because I can’t fathom why there wouldn’t be any updates on what happened to it after almost 2 weeks.

 

Has anyone experienced anything close to this? If so, how long did it take for them to find the passport and for you to receive it?

[HarryFromAus 5]

I've been waiting since Dec 20th for mine. I've just learned that when the consulate said "It should take 15 business days", that is meaningless and it'll happen when it happens

[Lemonslice 4,968]

22 minutes ago, HarryFromAus said:

I've been waiting since Dec 20th for mine. I've just learned that when the consulate said "It should take 15 business days", that is meaningless and it'll happen when it happens

We are close to 15 business days from December 20th with the Holidays here, what about where you are?

[HarryFromAus 5]

1 minute ago, Lemonslice said:

We are close to 15 business days from December 20th with the Holidays here, what about where you are?

I'm at 15 I believe. My consulate also says it can take up to 3 business to get through security, so I might actually be at 13 for all I know

[Lemonslice 4,968]

6 minutes ago, HarryFromAus said:

I'm at 15 I believe. My consulate also says it can take up to 3 business to get through security, so I might actually be at 13 for all I know

Best of luck. Holidays always delay things a little more (!), since, like in any other workplace, people tend to add a couple of days of personal time to the official days off.  

[appleblossom 3,150]

8 hours ago, HarryFromAus said:

I'm at 15 I believe. My consulate also says it can take up to 3 business to get through security, so I might actually be at 13 for all I know

Don’t forget that your consulate also has US holidays - so they’ll have been closed on 9th Jan for example. Not sure what Xmas/NY holidays you get in Oz, but for my consulate it’s only been 12 business days since the 20th Dec. 

[snailyote 8]

We finally heard back with some information today. Ustraveldocs did not inform the Frankfurt embassy that my fiance qualifies for free delivery so Frankfurt put it in a lockbox. Frankfurt then couldn’t find the passport and asked my fiance if she picked it up because it wasn’t with them. But apparently they were looking in the wrong place. After looking in the right place, they found it and gave it to UPS to be shipped to my fiance. They seem very disorganized. Hopefully the passport arrives soon.

[HarryFromAus 5]

4 hours ago, appleblossom said:

Don’t forget that your consulate also has US holidays - so they’ll have been closed on 9th Jan for example. Not sure what Xmas/NY holidays you get in Oz, but for my consulate it’s only been 12 business days since the 20th Dec. 

Just looked at their FB page for the first time and yeah, they were off Jan 9 so I've got a bit more waiting to do. Luckily I'm not really in a rush. Gives me more time to save money to have during that period between arriving and work auth

 

57 minutes ago, snailyote said:

We finally heard back with some information today. Ustraveldocs did not inform the Frankfurt embassy that my fiance qualifies for free delivery so Frankfurt put it in a lockbox. Frankfurt then couldn’t find the passport and asked my fiance if she picked it up because it wasn’t with them. But apparently they were looking in the wrong place. After looking in the right place, they found it and gave it to UPS to be shipped to my fiance. They seem very disorganized. Hopefully the passport arrives soon.

Classic. An issue we're having in Australia is that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE getting their interviews in Sydney is getting them BEFORE their medical appointment. When I went to my interview, basically everyone around me was saying their medical was after their interview. I gathered from that every K applicant got 221(g)ed. Glad they resolved your issue though. The frustration seems to never end but it will

Edited January 14 by HarryFromAus

[snailyote 8]

5 minutes ago, HarryFromAus said:

An issue we're having in Australia is that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE getting their interviews in Sydney is getting them BEFORE their medical appointment. When I went to my interview, basically everyone around me was saying their medical was after their interview. I gathered from that every K applicant got 221(g)ed.

Oh no, why is that the norm? Are the medical exams all booked up for a while? That sounds like a nightmare

 

6 minutes ago, HarryFromAus said:

Glad they resolved your issue though. The frustration seems to never end but it will

Thank you! This is the last thing in the way of me and my fiance living together so when she finally gets her passport back it will be a sigh of relief. I hope they issue your visa soon!

[HarryFromAus 5]

12 minutes ago, snailyote said:

Oh no, why is that the norm? Are the medical exams all booked up for a while? That sounds like a nightmare

There's only 3 doctors in all of Australia that can do the medical and one of them got sick so everyone had their appointments rescheduled but even before she fell sick, my appointment was after my interview. It was about 1 week after, but they cancelled and rescheduled to a whole month after. But yes, it's all booked up and the amount of doctors allowed to perform the medical is very small. 

 

When I went for my interview, the CO said "I'm going to say the legalese and then say it in plain english. I am refusing to issue you a visa under section 221(g) of the INA because of your missing..." and he gestured to me to finish the sentence and I said "medical". He handed me a green 221(g) notice and he sounded like he had said that about 100 times that day

Edited January 14 by HarryFromAus

[snailyote 8]

4 minutes ago, HarryFromAus said:

There's only 3 doctors in all of Australia that can do the medical and one of them got sick so everyone had their appointments rescheduled but even before she fell sick, my appointment was after my interview.

That’s horrible. Slovakia only has one doctor but it’s pretty small compared to Australia. I’m shocked there aren’t more doctors who can do the exam there