Are K1 visa interviews being scheduled? What is going on with K1 visa interviews?
Yes, they are being scheduled. Before COVID, you would be able to go online and schedule your interview for your fiancé visa. But with COVID, US embassies and consulates closed and there weren’t interviews occurring. As the US embassies and consulates started to open back up, they were slowly starting to schedule interviews.
There is such a large backlog at all US embassies and consulates that it’s slow. It’s slow for those interviews to be scheduled but they are definitely being scheduled.
You used to be able to select your date for the interview but now, the US embassies and consulates are sending an email letting you know you’ve been scheduled for your fiancé visa interview. They’re scheduling people because they’re in a state of triage. They’re working on getting through the backlog in any way they can.
The US embassies and consulates, they are scheduling individuals for their interviews and we are receiving emails saying, “You’ve been scheduled for your interview. Take these next steps.” That is when you would fill out additional paperwork and forms and prepare for that interview, medical exams, and all of that.
A lot of individuals are asking what’s going on with a specific consulate. You’re looking at how many cases were decided in months prior. The US embassies and consulates don’t have something like USCIS where they can give you an estimated time that you have to wait.
They have consulate statistics available for June. In June 2021, Manila had adjudicated or decided 50 K1 or fiancé visas and 31 K2s, which are children that are coming with the future intended spouse. That’s low for the Philippines.
When you check on their website, the Philippines have the routine visa services suspended. They’re trying to do as many cases as they can every month. In Manila, Philippines, they have a very high volume consulate so that is a low number.
But the important thing is that interviews are being scheduled but at a slow rate. To give you an idea on other countries: Paris had 30 fiancé visas that had interviews, Colombia had 42, Germany had 25, Guatemala had 2.
It really just varies so much by each US embassy and consulate. It depends on their volume, what’s happening on the ground with COVID, and staffing. There are many factors to take into consideration that it’s hard to give a general answer of when you will get an interview.
There’s a US consulate in Ciudad Juarez and that’s been the main place that interviews occurred for spouse and fiancé visas in Mexico. There’s another consulate in Mexico City and recently, immigration made an announcement that they’re going to start processing and scheduling interviews in Mexico City too.
Once that happened, we have started seeing interviews being scheduled much faster. Mexico has the highest volume of consulates in the world. They just have so many people that are going through. It has a huge backlog, estimating usually more than two years for couples and fiancés to go through the process.
Between Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, they’ve done over 400 interviews and we are seeing those being scheduled much faster. While somebody from one country might get their fiancé visa interview, it might take a year or it might take six months for others. It really depends on so many factors.
But again, we are seeing interviews being scheduled. Pay attention to your email. They will send you an email and we are seeing that they’re giving pretty minimal notice. Usually two to three weeks. Just be as ready as you possibly can. Have your documents ready and keep checking your email multiple times a day and checking your status online.