I understand that delaying my DS-260 submission could make the interview scheduling unpredictable, and I can see why this might be difficult if I have a short time period in my country. But assuming I go back to my country for all of my summer break, arriving early May and not returning to the U.S. until mid August, wouldn't that be enough time to receive my interview appointment? I would be available at any date within that range.I’m still not understanding, or maybe you’re not realizing that the CP process works quite differently to aos. with CP, most often, you will interview in the month your number is current. If you miss the interview, you lose out. Some countries let you reschedule (before you miss it), some don’t, some make you cancel before you can reschedule, some never get you back on the schedule. So basically if you have an interview with CP you need to get there in time. If you try delay the interview by delaying ds260 submission then all bets are off as to when you will actually get an interview scheduled. You can’t expect it to time it for the period you will be there. It may work out to what you want, but chances are more likely that it won’t. That’s why most people going home for CP plan travel back to home country for once they know their interview date.
Sorry if it seems like I'm going round in circles, I just want to make a safe and well-informed decision.