stegsaurus

That was my thought too -- the squeaky wheel and all that. If you keep making enough noise, hopefully they'll get sick of hearing about it and fix it.

This is how I contacted the White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/request/ I did so twice; the first time I put "NVC" and the second time I used "Embassy". I think this must have been what made the difference

Hello all, Per the issue I explained in this thread, my fiancée and I had an issue where she was not allowed into her interview on Oct 17 because she never went to the pre-interview, which they never let us know about. She has just called me with great news: the embassy rescheduled her pre-interview for this Thursday (Nov 14) and then her interview will be next Thursday, Nov 21. I'm so relieved! But I want to make sure I have something right. Because we didn't know when the pre-interview would be the first time around, we completed and signed all the documents for her interview (my I-134, our updated letters of intent to marry, employment verification letter, etc.) around Oct 5-7. I want to make sure my I-134 and supporting letters from my banks would still be valid now, about a month later. I can easily grab the more recent pay stubs that have been issued since, and I could probably get another letter from my main bank tomorrow if needed. However, I use an online service called Betterment for my HYSA and investing, and that letter took several days to generate when I did it the first time so I couldn't have a new one ready on such short notice. The simplest thing would be to leave everything alone so the amounts on my I-134 match what's on my existing letters without scrambling to fix it in one day, and I'm sure she can explain this to the officers if needed. I don't think a month is too large a gap considering the circumstances, but I also don't want to take any chances given the issues we had last time. I appreciate any advice on this. Thank you!

My fiancée just called me to tell me the embassy called her and scheduled an appointment! Her pre-interview will be this Thursday and then her interview will be next Thursday. This is so much sooner than I was expecting, and I'm so relieved. I don't know if it was the White House inquiry that did it or what, but I'm so happy!

@Myfam1st Thank you for that number -- my fiancée found a list of call center numbers a bit ago and this was one of them. Apparently the numbers 2262-0246 through 2262-0251 are all call center numbers. I believe she's called them all, but I'll double-check to see if she's called this one. Did you call it, and what were your results if so? I've called the main embassy Honduran number (2236-9320) a few times myself and don't get any useful info. When I talk to anyone on the phone, they tell me they aren't a consulate and can't look into specific cases. They tell me to email these various addresses, which always leads to no response.

Thank you for this -- I haven't come across this page before. I was going to try step 2 first, but when it looks like this page is intended for people in Washington DC to add complaints about the embassies of other countries. I'll email the general-purpose email to ask if I can use it for this purpose and see what we get.

I'll give them a try, but I doubt anything will come of it. Thanks for letting me know.

What number/email did you get an actually helpful answer from? I feel like I've tried everything and get the same runaround nothing answers.

Were you already aware of that name error on your end, or was it brought to your attention to the first time just now? I ask because I still have an inkling of a feeling that the Case Number field missing from my fiancée's profile on the new visa provider site may play a role here, but I can't get a clear answer about it and it's not a user-editable field. ----- One of the people I've been messaging on Reddit told me at 11:53 AM (Eastern) today they were able to get an appointment. They said there were slots open for Dec 19th and 20th. But they aren't on a K1 visa -- they are on an F11 with IR2 priority. I was (of course) out until about noon so I didn't see this while it was happening. I have been refreshing since then haven't seen anything. I'm going to keep checking and really hope I did not just miss our chance. I also just got a response from the honduras.visas@gdit-gss.com address that said: More useless nonsense. I am ready to lose it from the runaround I am getting. Nobody can give you a single clear answer or offer you any help.

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: "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. honduras.visas@gdit-gss.com is only for the support team -- this address does not go directly to the embassy. 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. 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. 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 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?

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.

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

@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.

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. ----- 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.

Thanks so much to both of you for responding. Apologies for my late reply and for not putting this in the right location (I didn't realize I had to place it). On Tuesday, August 6, I got the alert that USCIS had sent our case to the NVC, so it was about 2 weeks after the NOA2. I'm glad things are moving @hplusj Thank you so much for your detailed response; I really appreciate you taking the time. The two videos that I heard mention you could send an inquiry to NVC two weeks after your case was sent are this (around the 8:57 timestamp) and this (around the 1:10 timestamp). However, I remember the former video incorrectly -- he says that you can send an inquiry after 4 weeks of the case being sent to NVC, and that you can start completing your DS-160 during the In Transit phase. In the latter, she mentions you can make an inquiry after 14 days of the case being sent to NVC and says the same thing about booking once you're at In Transit. When you mention the regional forum, you mean here on VJ, right? This page says 102 days is the average time between NVC sending and embassy interview, which is one of the longest for any country. But there are only 2 Honduras cases so this might not be enough data/it might still be skewed from the Covid backlogs. Thank you for the kind words and advice. I'm trying to do as much as I can right now that isn't tied to the actual process -- cleaning up the house, gathering documentation, figuring out general things for the wedding, etc. I definitely won't make any concrete wedding plans or book travel until we're 100% sure she has the visa. I'm going to do my best to estimate as we can, without committing early and thus potentially creating a problem. I am trying to do as much research as I can and rely on discussions started by other people, as I don't want to ask stupid questions or waste people's time. But in this process, sometimes it's nice to think out loud and make sure I'm on the right track. Thank you so much

Hi everyone, following our NOA2, I have been watching videos and reading guides online about what comes next. I wanted to make sure I have the correct/most efficient plan in mind for our situation. We received our NOA2 on July 23, 2024 (the paper NOA2 says July 23, while the USCIS site says July 24). However, our USCIS timeline hasn't updated with a "We've sent your case to the NVC" step yet. I planned to request our case number from the NVC's Public Inquiry Form on Aug 6/7, as I've seen guides online say that two weeks after your NOA2, you can request your number here instead of waiting for the email/letter. Is this correct, or do I need to wait two weeks after the "we sent your case" step from USCIS? Am I also correct that we cannot take any of the next steps until we have this number? Per the US Embassy Tegucigalpa page, it looks like you schedule the medical exam simply by contacting the doctor yourself, but I imagine you need the NVC case number for that. I know we also need the NVC case number to complete the DS-160, which is then required to book the embassy appointment. My fiancée is in Honduras. We created an account with USTravelDocs, and the first available appointment is October 11, 2024 (it was October 7 a few days ago). Apparently the embassy in Tegucigalpa only opens a few appointment dates per month, so I'm feeling antsy about getting our NVC number in time to get an appointment for October. I want to make sure I'm doing anything I can now to save time later -- I've already filled out the I-134 as best I can for now. Thanks for your consideration! I'm essentially looking to make sure I'm not misunderstanding anything about the next steps and that I'm being as efficient as I can.

Hi everyone, I am so sorry that I did not respond here sooner — between my trip to Honduras and preparing the K1 packet, I didn't take a moment to say thank you for your responses. I really appreciate your insight; thanks for your time. I dropped our packet off at UPS on April 5, so it should be there on Wednesday and thus begins the count-up. I'll keep an eye on the forums for anyone I might be able to help!

My soon-to-be fiancée lives in Honduras. I will be submitting the K1 packet in a few weeks (I'm filling out the current one as a template to copy over once the new one is made available after March 31) and had a couple of questions I would appreciate guidance on. I have searched the forums and see lots of questions about address formatting, but didn't see anything asking about referencing Part 8. That's my main question, but I also had two quick other ones on my mind: HND's address format doesn't fit neatly in the address boxes on form I-129F. Should I do my best to make it match? Or is it acceptable to write "See Part 8, Box X" in each street address box that asks for a Honduran address, leave the rest of the boxes for that address blank, then write out the full HND address on the final page that has more room instead? Her street address is quite long, including a building, block, and house number, so I don't think I can cram all the info into the Street Number and Name box (either typing or writing). I figured writing it out in Part 8 would be much cleaner, but don't want it to look like I'm "skipping" the address. Honduran people have two first names and two last names -- this is how it's written on their national ID card. Thus, I believe I should write her and her parents' names on the form in the same way, writing "NONE" for Middle Name. Is this correct? I believe it's recommend to write "N/A" in every box that doesn't apply (extra addresses, A-Number, interpreter name, etc.) and you should not leave boxes blank that don't apply, correct? Should I also write "N/A" in boxes that Adobe Reader's interactive grays out automatically (such as older jobs that don't apply to me)? Thank you so much!