Can you tell me, is it normal that the NVC sent me three Welcome Letters, each 3–4 days apart? I sent all the documents they requested, and after almost two weeks another letter arrived — “we received your case, here’s what you need to send us”. Does this affect the processing time or the date of the consular interview?
I also received several of those in a row — I thought something had gone wrong. It’s a standard letter for people who will have their interview outside their country of citizenship; it offers the option to change the country or to reschedule. It doesn’t affect your place in the queue or the appointment date.
6 Likes
Phew — that’s a relief. I was starting to worry the case had gotten stuck somewhere. I’ll actually be doing the interview in a country other than my country of citizenship, so it looks like everything’s falling into place. Thanks.
6 Likes
After changing countries, a new case number arrived; they didn’t send a separate welcome letter — I just followed the same instructions from the first one. The transfer went fine for me, but I’ve seen on forums that the NVC sometimes refuses — even when there are documents showing legal presence in the country.
6 Likes
I transferred a case from Abu Dhabi to Poland — there were three attempts: the first two in Kazakhstan (KZ) were unsuccessful; on the second attempt they approved the transfer to Warsaw. After approval they sent a new case number whose first three letters are WRW (that’s Warsaw). There wasn’t a separate welcome letter — I used the instructions from the first one.
6 Likes
Send a letter requesting a reschedule immediately after submitting the DS-260 documents — don’t wait for the NVC to contact you. Be sure to attach a scan of the supporting document: RVP (temporary residence permit) or VNZh (residence permit); a Schengen visa refusal is also accepted as justification. And include the case number — without it your request may simply not be considered.
6 Likes
By the way, I had the exact same thing with the location — I checked the start of the case number and saw that the NVC had put Abu Dhabi, even though Warsaw was requested. I suspect they use the residential address as the default when assigning cases, so it doesn’t matter what you asked for when applying. I had to contact them separately after I sent the documents.
6 Likes
My lawyer and I submitted a request to transfer the case from Warsaw to Yerevan, but the NVC’s reply still said the case was in Warsaw. We had to use their form to ask separately whether the request had actually been accepted. Without that, it’s unclear whether that’s just a standard letter or the transfer was denied.
6 Likes
My transfer to Almaty went through without a temporary residence permit (RVP) — NVC wrote that we couldn’t obtain a visa in the EU, so they transferred it. But at the interview itself the consular officer raised the question directly: „Am I correct in understanding that you bypassed the residency requirement?“ So approval of the transfer by NVC and the actual interview are two different levels. NVC can let it pass even without residency documents, while the consular officer on site will deal with it.
6 Likes
The fact that NVC approved the transfer without documents isn’t the final word. Changing embassies still happens based on the official documents required by the country you’re going to, and the consular officer at the interview checks that. If you don’t have the papers, there’s a risk of getting 221(g) once you’re there, and you’ll have to explain the situation separately.
6 Likes
Who had an interview in Warsaw — how long after NVC’s email with the interview date did you receive a message from the embassy? Or is that not a required step? Since there are a few people here with Warsaw cases.
6 Likes
I have a Warsaw case, but I haven’t received a letter from the embassy yet — I’m waiting too and don’t know if it’s mandatory.
6 Likes
At my O-1 interview in Madrid I had something similar — the consul handed me a leaflet about workers’ rights, and I already thought it was approved. But then he saw something on his computer, called one colleague, then another. I heard them say to each other “it’s ok” — only then did I relax. The officer on the spot makes their own judgment, regardless of what happened before the interview.
6 Likes
For my O-1 I remember there were four questions — that’s standard. On average it’s two to six, and it doesn’t depend on the country of the embassy. It’s rare that they ask only one question and then refuse — that’s already a worrying sign. So if the officer was looking through the computer and conferring with colleagues, it’s most likely just standard procedure, not a precursor to refusal.
6 Likes
In Yerevan the consul was a young American — when we picked up the documents they immediately asked which language I wanted the interview in; I chose Russian. For the case itself they asked two questions: what’s extraordinary about it and how many years I’ve been in the profession. It was an EB-1A. I was out in 10 minutes. So two questions aren’t a reason to be nervous — the officer had already figured out the case before you went in.
6 Likes
For my EB-1 in the sciences, the embassy wrote about two months before the interview — they requested the applicant’s CV, the supervisor’s CV, and a plan for future research. That was even before the actual consular interview. So a letter from the embassy isn’t necessarily just a date confirmation; they can immediately send a list of documents.
6 Likes
I didn’t know the embassy could send a separate request for documents before the actual interview — I thought that once the I-140 was approved you just wait for the interview date. It turns out they have their own check running in parallel with the NVC, and they can also request the research supervisor’s CV.
6 Likes
Two questions and 10 minutes in Yerevan for EB-1A — that’s encouraging. I’m currently sorting my documents by the criteria, organizing them into folders — judging, associations, publications, contributions. One question — does the officer pick one or two of these, or try to go through all six?
6 Likes
The officer definitely doesn’t go methodically through all six criteria — in Belgrade they asked for the petition file and CV before the interview, so he had already familiarized himself with the case before you came in. He picks one or two points that seemed unclear to him and skips the rest.
6 Likes
In Warsaw, for an O-1 the officer didn’t ask anything about the criteria at all. A very pleasant woman with good Russian checked my documents and asked three questions — whether I had lived in another country, my mother’s maiden name, and which language the interview would be conducted in. Regarding the case itself — not a word about specific achievements or criteria. So the picture seems to be the same everywhere: the officer has already figured out the case before you went in, and on the spot either clarifies one or two unclear points or doesn’t get into the petition’s details at all.
6 Likes