Question for those who are having the interview in non-Indian consulates..

M

Mitsy

Registered Users (C)
How did you find the date of the interview and how much time in advance? My consulate (Tokyo) doesn\'t accept/answer e-mails and the option I have is to send fax or use the "pay with your credit card" phone service. I have sent faxes inquiring about my interview date (once this week and another one last week,) but haven\'t heard from them. They also changed their phone service so if you want to talk to real person, you must first use the prerecorded service first (which cost like $6,) then, you will given an option to speak to an operator (about $7/6 min.) It will cost at least $13 or so just to get to an operator!! What a rip off. I don\'t really want to call them everyday to check up on if my interview date has been scheduled for this reason.

Anyway, is that the only option I have? How long should I wait before I call them? I see that July\'s interview dates are out from Indian consulates. Anybody else got their interview date in July at different consulates? How did you find out?

Any suggestions will be very much appreciated.
 
US consualte standards vary

Mitsy, reading the postings on this web site I am amazed at the professional service levels of Indian consulates, in particular Mumbai. When one compares it with your consulate (Tokyo?) or even Sydney, it is unbelievable that quality of service levels vary so much. One of the reasons could be that Mumbai issues around 11,000 NIV and 1200 IV a month. So they must be earning around $1.6 million a month in revenue! Naturally they will be able to provide much better services.
Coming to your question on how to contact them, I think you need to wait until 15th of this month to call them again. Right now, other than the Indian consulates non of them have yet received the priority dates and Visa numbers for the month. Even DOS has not posted the Visa bulletin. Tokyo is not the only US consulate which is slow in answering faxes, Sydney rarely replies before a week. A guy sent me an e-mail yesterday and he said he rang the Sydney consulate to ask about a fax he sent to them regarding if they accept AC140, the lady told him that they are behind by over a week in replying to faxes. I would say call them on your Monday night. Please post here if you receive any updates.
BTW, I may be having a stop over in Japan enroute to Sydney for my interview, ie., if do buy a Japanese airlines ticket. They seem to be very inexpensive compared to Qantas and United.
 
Prague-Czech/Slovak republic

Prague-rocks!!! Interview date scheduled by phone on the date we picked. Very informal, appointment letter sent out to us the same day by fax.They did not even send us Packet 4-just some instructions regarding medical exam.
 
darina

Are you talking about EB based interviews or fiancee/family type ones? If the former, then it would be interesting because they have to request a Visa number the previous month before they can give an interview date. In short are you saying that as soon as they receive P3, they give the interview date on phone?
As Yang says may be we should make a bee line to your consulate!
 
Yes, my husband is EB-2.

We called the consulate the day after they received our Packet3 at the end of May. The lady we spoke to was very forthcoming. She let us pick the date and was even surprised that we want the interview in July and not earlier. We were also surprised that it was so easy but a couple of people before us went through the same consulate with the same experience. My guess is that because in Czech and Slovak Republic are not many IV applications the consulate is more relaxed about the whole process. I hope they know what they are doing...
 
I think it is a question of local standards

Well, not many go through Sydney or Tokyo consulates either. But they don\'t take calls, they claim on the web site that due to the volume of e-mails they are not able to reply e-mails. So one can only send a fax and hope they reply. I don\'t know how the department of state allows such a variation in the level of standard of service.
Good luck with your interview next month!
 
Mitsy

I too did not get a satisfactory response from my consulate (Sydney). I called them but the operator told me that they don\'t take calls for any Visa inquiry, I had the option however to give my credit card number and hear pre-recorded information,but no contact with an official. I can either come in (LOL) or send a fax. I sent an e-mail to them, and I got a prompt reply. Here is what they said:
The immigrant visa section of the U.S. Consulate in Sydney does not accept e-mail or telephone enquiries on case specific issues. Your question is case specific if you have a case number or have questions/need assistance while filling out your immigration paperwork.

 

Please mail or fax your question(s) to the immigrant visa section, making sure to include your name, case number (if you have it) and your contact information such as fax number, daytime phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.
"We will make every attempt to respond as quickly as possible, however, you may have to wait up to 10 working days for a response. Before sending your request, please take a few minutes to look over your instructions thoroughly as you may find your answers there." I will now wait 10 days and hope they fax my interview date. I am going to pay through my nose for air tickets by buying them at such short notice. Any further luck with your attempts?
 
Here\'s an update...

Well, first of all, thank you all for your posting. I feel little better now that Tokyo is not the only consulate who doesn\'t give very good service.

I had sent them a fax twice and asked them to fax the reply to my parent\'s home in Japan. My mother called me today saying that she had received the fax from the consulate replying to my fax. The shocking news (well, at least to me it is) is that they said my interview will be likely in September!! Why?? NVC has sent my case to them in early May, and I sent my P3 in late May. AND I know they aren\'t that busy like those consulates in India. I was really hoping for either July or August interview... Oh well, I guess there\'s really not much I can do at this point. Just have to wait again.

Thank you all for your advice and good luck with your interview!
 
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