Lets hope that Mumbai won\'t delay it further...
Kunash, Neil, I am in the same boat as you are. My wife and I are also very anxious to complete this process done so that we can put an end to this forced separation. We were very hopeful that we will be together for the holidays and New year but now it appears that it may be delayed. My wife submitted the first set of forms a few days ago and is waiting for the consulate to schedule the K-3 interview.
I get the feeling that whoever stated that the interview will be in Jan was only talking about an 10 to 20% chance, i.e. if they cannot schedule all the visa interviews in December itself - something like the first-second week of Jan instead of last week in December. I don\'t think there is a callous disregard for the families\' plight. The consulate is closed for five days between now and January (Veterans day, Diwali, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New year) which essentially is one full work week. That may be having a negative impact on the interview schedule.
The only other consulate that seems to be processing quicker is Chennai - I hear that they have already scheduled at least two K-3 interviews for the last week of Nov!! That is very impressive!!! But Chennai consulate covers a smaller geographical area as compared to Mumbai which caters to applicants from Gujarat to Assam. We should derive some consolation that Mumbai is not in the same category as Manila, Dhaka, or Moscow which don\'t seem to have even sent out the first set of forms.
Lets hope that there will be a good chance for the interviews to be scheduled in December itself. Lets hope that the State Dept\'s cable in early Sept advising the consulates to give higher priority to the K-3 visas will have some positive effect.