Why does it take so long?

[lele]

To those who have already been through the interview, why does it take so long?

 

Is the interview incredibly long?

 

They claim to process "thousands of cases a month", but that can not be the case for just K1 and K3. Or are they lumping us in with every other immigrant visa category?

 

And why is it that once approved by China, that people wanting to adopt a child have to wait on order of no more than 2 weeks to get an immigrant visa?

 

Maybe things can speed up now, since there are not as many other immigrant visas issued during this point of the year?

[olemanoman1950]

Speed up?????? I Hope I hope I hope. Actually I hope it does speed up for everyone, we have all been waiting for a while now, some more then others. The end is drawing closer and closer for some and heres to wishing them all Good Luck.

[tywy_99]

To those who have already been through the interview, why does it take so long?

 

Is the interview incredibly long?

 

That is like asking, "Why is the sky blue?"..........because,,,,it just is!

 

Be patient! I counter your question with this............"All good things come to those who WAIT!"

[warpedbored]

Actually there are a number of reasons. The system is bogged down by redundancy for one. Probably the biggest reason is tinkering with the system by government. every time they get s system down pat they throw them another curve which invariably affects the computer systems. My experience with this system was not long after the black hole days. They decided to do away with the INS and make it a part of homeland security. This started a series of evolutions that had neither GZ or DOS knowing who was doing what with security checks. Finally they decided to send all the petitions to the NVC after NOA-2 and do the checks there. This actually worked pretty well. You could get through the system from NOA -2 to interview in about 5-6 months. Then they decided they had to have bio metric scanning. another series of computer glitches resulting in huge back logs then compounded by requiring another name check at GZ after clearing NVC. The system is ever changing and thus always confused.

[tonymasiello]

Carl, you have one of the quickest P3 to Interview timelines out there. It's hard to believe now that that happened in this calendar year. You even took twelve days to prepare P3. These days it seems people are talking about the number of hours it takes them to return the P3.

 

Sometimes I kick myself for having waited to file our petition. We got engaged in Oct 2003, but we decided we would wait until after our engagement celebration with Quan's family before we filed the petition. Who knew that the P4 turnaround would go from one month to five months so quickly! We could have snuck through in five months. Still, we are very grateful to be looking at a 10 month timeline. So many others here have endured much longer waiting times.

[warpedbored]

Actually it was 9 days to prepare P-3 but who's counting? It was about 3 months from P-3 to interview. I often use mikem's timeline as an example as to why it is important to send P-3 back ASAP. (hope you don't mind Mike) His fiancee and Bing received P-3 the same day. She sent her's back 5 days before Bing and got an interview date a month earlier. There are X amount of interview slots available each month. When they are used up the remaining P-3s get shuffled to the next month. I guess these days 6 months from NOA-2 to interview is fast but is shouldn't be. The whole process from filing the I-129 F to finish shouldn't take any longer than that.

[mikem]

Actually it was 9 days to prepare P-3 but who's counting?  It was about 3 months from P-3 to interview.   I often use mikem's timeline as an example as to why it is important to send P-3 back ASAP. (hope you don't mind Mike) His fiancee and Bing received P-3 the same day.  She sent her's back 5 days before Bing and got an interview date a month earlier.  There are X amount of interview slots available each month.  When they are used  up the remaining P-3s get shuffled to the next month.  I guess these days 6 months from NOA-2 to interview is fast but is shouldn't be.  The whole process from filing the I-129 F to finish shouldn't take any longer than that.

No Problem you always pay your bills!!

[keelec]

Visa Processing is by definition a long and involved process. I will endeavor to explain some of the processing that goes on with your applications:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

- As you know, your application is first submitted to the BCIS in Quadruplicate.

 

- Congress must next vote on which trees to chop down for processing the application.

 

- After the trees are chopped down, the timbers are marked for your application and shipped off to China.

 

- next a Chinese Peasant is paid 25 cents / hr to whittle the trees into chips suitable for making paper using his trusty Chinese knockoff of a Swiss Army Knife. Of course, being a Chinese Knockoff knife, the peasant must head back to the Chinese Open Market to replace the broken knife after every hour of work. Fortunately it is a government reimbursable job, but he must spend 3 hrs doing paperwork to justify the new knife. Next he must take the paperwork to a local translator and get it translated into English in quintuplicate and deliver it to the US Embassy, after this he can resume whittling on the log for another hour or so before the knife breaks again.

 

- The Chips are next processed at a Chinese Paper Mill and cut to size 8.5 x 11. Separate bundles of paper wrappers are also made.

 

- The paper is next shipped back to the USA where the paper is put in the wrappers, then marked with “Made in the USA of US Materials” before forwarding to the government.

 

- At this point, a secretary at the BCIS office is paid to cut the paper into quarters and photocopy all 4 copies of your application onto quarter size paper (4.25 x 5.5). (in compliance to the Paperwork Reduction Act).

 

- Since the BCIS reviewer can’t read the ¼ size paper, he boxes up all of the applications and sends them back to China to be blown up onto 11 x 17 paper and shipped back to the USA for review.

 

- The comments must be typed out, but unfortunately the BCIS office was unable to afford a computer so they use and 1856 vintage printing press, individually setting each letter before stamping the comments onto specially produced 23 ½ x 29 3/8 paper.

 

- Of course, Kinkos periodically runs out of the 23 ½ x 29 3/8 paper so more loggers must be sent up into the forests to cut down more trees for processing this paper for their vintage printing press.

 

- In a desperate attempt to continue to comply with the paperwork reduction act, these comment sheets are sent back to China to be reduced onto the ¼ sized paper (4.25x5.5), and returned back to the USA.

 

- If the comments are favorable, and don’t get lost in shipping, your application is forwarded to the NVC.

 

- Since your application is now classified as “Top Secret”, nobody really knows who should look at it, but rather that it should be reviewed. It is again reduced, this time to 1/16 size paper (2.125 x 2.75), and reproduced to 350 copies so that it can be sent out to every agency in Washington DC in hopes that the “correct agencies” actually get it. Of course, each agency gets all 4 copies of your application as reproduced on to the 1/16 size paper for compliance with the paperwork reduction act.

 

- Nobody can read the 1/16 size paper so some of the 350 agencies just throw out the applications. Others put it through the “official shredder”. Others put it through the “official incinerator”. Fortunately, other agencies choose to blow the applications back up onto legal sized paper before deciding it is unrelated to their official business of monitoring 3rd world Rain Forrest deforestation, and chuck them into the nearest dumpster.

 

- If the proper mystery agencies actually get the application and review it, then they add their comments and re-reduce the quadruplicate application onto 1/64 size paper (1.0625 x 2.375) to comply with the paperwork reduction act. Of course, the printer used to print the documents on this size of paper is a 50,000 printer.

 

- These miniscule slips of paper are next collected and blown back up to 8.5 x 11 paper to verify that all have been received. Anything that would have been made on native legal paper gets the margins cut off. If the wigi board indicates that parts might be missing, the application is recopied into all 350 copies and shipped back to all 350 agencies for review.

 

- Nobody really knows when the NVC review process should end because nobody really knows who is reviewing the applications. But, at some point, they are gathered up and re-reduced to the 1/64 size paper and put in a sailboat to China (weather permitting).

 

- By this time every application has gone through a dozen enlargements and reductions and everything looks like a big ink blob, even if re-enlarged.

 

- In a desperate hope to recover the lost information, a Form DS-230 is sent out to all applicants. Once it is returned, GZ and promptly copied onto 1/16 size paper to comply with the paperwork reduction act.

 

- Unfortunately, the workroom table was also made in China and only has 3 legs. It periodically tips over and all the applications end up in one big jumble on the floor.

 

- The only person in China (with 40/20 vision) who can descramble the applications has met a girlfriend in South Africa. He banks up all of his cigarette breaks, and takes three out of every five days off to go down and visit her. About half the time he leaves his briefcase down in South Africa with her and is forced to spend the following work week counting the fibers in his office carpet.

 

- It usually takes an additional 7 weeks to sort out most of the jumbled up pages for the applications. It doesn’t really seem to make a difference if some pages are left out of some of the applications and added to others.

 

- Sometimes the applications are dropped on the floor again and the descrambling process must be repeated.

 

- If your application is irreparably destroyed via multiple copy generations, or if someone thinks that critical parts may have gotten lost when the applications were dropped then the GZ consulate must send it back to the original BCIS office. That is, assuming the name can be read on the application. Also, after receiving multiple e-mails with no applications, it is assumed that they were just lost, and a paper tape punch reel is sent to BCIS with the names of the applications than need to be replaced. Since BCIS only accepts magnetic reel to reel tapes, these are attempted to be mounted with limited success.

 

- If somewhere in the process the original allotted paper is believed to run out, everything must be sent to congress in quintuplicate for reviewing the merits of cutting down Canadian trees for duplicating updated forms.

 

- Interview scheduling can be particularly complex because they can only be scheduled on new moon nights, or nights when one-eyed jacks are randomly drawn from a deck of cards. The interviews must all be scheduled for full moon nights, and must be rescheduled if clouds obscure the moon and the sky.

 

And, of course, the most important part of the interview are the psychic’s interpretation of the tarot cards.

 

----- Clifford -----

[konajim]

If we only had A year to wait I would feel Greatful and lucky at the end of this month we will have a yaer since I-129f. And it still looks like if we are lucky Mei will get her interview in February sometime. And there are some waiting longer than us I feel deeply for them. What keeps me going is that I know eventually I will spend the rest of my life with the most wonderful woman in the world. I just hope I have some life left when this process is over.

[lele]

Visa Processing is by definition a long and involved process.  I will endeavor to explain some of the processing that goes on with your applications:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

- As you know, your application is first submitted to the BCIS in Quadruplicate. 

 

- Congress must next vote on which trees to chop down for processing the application.

 

- After the trees are chopped down, the timbers are marked for your application and shipped off to China.

 

- next a Chinese Peasant is paid 25 cents / hr to whittle the trees into chips suitable for making paper using his trusty Chinese knockoff of a Swiss Army Knife.  Of course, being a Chinese Knockoff knife, the peasant must head back to the Chinese Open Market to replace the broken knife after every hour of work.  Fortunately it is a government reimbursable job, but he must spend 3 hrs doing paperwork to justify the new knife.  Next he must take the paperwork to a local translator and get it translated into English in quintuplicate and deliver it to the US Embassy, after this he can resume whittling on the log for another hour or so before the knife breaks again.

 

- The Chips are next processed at a Chinese Paper Mill and cut to size 8.5 x 11.  Separate bundles of paper wrappers are also made.

 

- The paper is next shipped back to the USA where the paper is put in the wrappers, then marked with “Made in the USA of US Materials” before forwarding to the government.

 

- At this point, a secretary at the BCIS office is paid to cut the paper into quarters and photocopy all 4 copies of your application onto quarter size paper (4.25 x 5.5).  (in compliance to the Paperwork Reduction Act).

 

- Since the BCIS reviewer can’t read the ¼ size paper, he boxes up all of the applications and sends them back to China to be blown up onto 11 x 17 paper and shipped back to the USA for review. 

 

- The comments must be typed out, but unfortunately the BCIS office was unable to afford a computer so they use and 1856 vintage printing press, individually setting each letter before stamping the comments onto specially produced 23 ½  x 29 3/8 paper. 

 

- Of  course, Kinkos periodically runs out of the 23 ½ x 29 3/8 paper so more loggers must be sent up into the forests to cut down more trees for processing this paper for their vintage printing press.

 

- In a desperate attempt to continue to comply with the paperwork reduction act, these comment sheets are sent back to China to be reduced onto the ¼ sized paper (4.25x5.5), and returned back to the USA.

 

- If the comments are favorable, and don’t get lost in shipping, your application is forwarded to the NVC.

 

- Since your application is now classified as “Top Secret”, nobody really knows who should look at it, but rather that it should be reviewed.  It is again reduced, this time to 1/16 size paper (2.125 x 2.75), and reproduced to 350 copies so that it can be sent out to every agency in Washington DC in hopes that the “correct agencies” actually get it.  Of course, each agency gets all 4 copies of your application as reproduced on to the 1/16 size paper for compliance with the paperwork reduction act. 

 

- Nobody can read the 1/16 size paper so some of the 350 agencies just throw out the applications.  Others put it through the “official shredder”.  Others put it through the “official incinerator”.  Fortunately, other agencies choose to blow the applications back up onto legal sized paper before deciding it is unrelated to their official business of monitoring 3rd world Rain Forrest deforestation, and chuck them into the nearest dumpster.

 

- If the proper mystery agencies actually get the application and review it, then they add their comments and re-reduce the quadruplicate application onto 1/64 size paper (1.0625 x 2.375) to comply with the paperwork reduction act.  Of course, the printer used to print the documents on this size of paper is a 50,000 printer. 

 

- These miniscule slips of paper are next collected and blown back up to 8.5 x 11 paper to verify that all have been received.  Anything that would have been made on native legal paper gets the margins cut off.  If the wigi board indicates that parts might be missing, the application is recopied into all 350 copies and shipped back to all 350 agencies for review.

 

- Nobody really knows when the NVC review process should end because nobody really knows who is reviewing the applications.  But, at some point, they are gathered up and re-reduced to the 1/64 size paper and put in a sailboat to China (weather permitting). 

 

- By this time every application has gone through a dozen enlargements and reductions and everything looks like a big ink blob, even if re-enlarged. 

 

- In a desperate hope to recover the lost information, a Form DS-230 is sent out to all applicants.  Once it is returned, GZ and promptly copied onto 1/16 size paper to comply with the paperwork reduction act.

 

- Unfortunately, the workroom table was also made in China and only has 3 legs.  It periodically tips over and all the applications end up in one big jumble on the floor.

 

- The only person in China (with 40/20 vision) who can descramble the applications has met a girlfriend in South Africa.  He banks up all of his cigarette breaks, and takes three out of every five days off to go down and visit her.  About half the time he leaves his briefcase down in South Africa with her and is forced to spend the following work week counting the fibers in his office carpet.

 

- It usually takes an additional 7 weeks to sort out most of the jumbled up pages for the applications.  It doesn’t really seem to make a difference if some pages are left out of some of the applications and added to others.

 

- Sometimes the applications are dropped on the floor again and the descrambling process must be repeated.

 

- If your application is irreparably destroyed via multiple copy generations, or if someone thinks that critical parts may have gotten lost when the applications were dropped then the GZ consulate must send it back to the original BCIS office.  That is, assuming the name can be read on the application.  Also, after receiving multiple e-mails with no applications, it is assumed that they were just lost, and a paper tape punch reel is sent to BCIS with the names of the applications than need to be replaced.  Since BCIS only accepts magnetic reel to reel tapes, these are attempted to be mounted with limited success.

 

- If somewhere in the process the original allotted paper is believed to run out, everything must be sent to congress in quintuplicate for reviewing the merits of cutting down Canadian trees for duplicating updated forms.

 

- Interview scheduling can be particularly complex because they can only be scheduled on new moon nights, or nights when one-eyed jacks are randomly drawn from a deck of cards.  The interviews must all be scheduled for full moon nights, and must be rescheduled if clouds obscure the moon and the sky.

 

And, of course, the most important part of the interview are the psychic’s interpretation of the tarot cards.

 

----- Clifford -----

Although I know that this is not what is actually going on, but the story was still quite involved and a bit interesting to read. Thanks for it.

 

However, if this is the case, why is it that from start to finish, a person from England getting a K1 took only 7 weeks and was told sorry by the consulate that they took so long!

[keelec]

However, if this is the case, why is it that from start to finish, a person from England getting a K1 took only 7 weeks and was told sorry by the consulate that they took so long!

There is a good comparison of processing times at:

 

www.k1k3.com

 

As far as the visa processing for beneficiaries at other countries, the time in the USA at the BCIS service centers and the NVC is about the same.

 

Then the times for China significantly diverges. Shipping time from NVC to most other countries is within 1-2 days. Then, most countries can conduct the interview and issue the visa within a day or two after they get the application. Some actually allow the couple to do all of their paperwork before the application actually arrives at the "post".

 

Processing applications in Russia can be variable. However, one thing they have done to help streamline the process is combine the P3/P4 packet into a single packet that is sent out 1-2 months before the interview.

 

While I believe that China has the #1 immigration to the USA, it is also the largest country in the world. If you look at the "per-capita" immigration from England, the number is several times as high as China.

 

Somehow, perhaps to discourage immigrants, perhaps due to mismanagement, the process just seems to take longer in China. Unfortunately they don't seem to be interested in making a global process fix, but rather just patching the holes which then push the problem around from one part of the process to another.

 

Also, the designers of the "system" don't seem to be interested adding together all of the steps of the process... 6 months at BCIS Service Center PLUS 1-2 months at NVC PLUS 1 month for shipping PLUS 3 or so months for the P3 PLUS 4 or so months for the P4 PLUS 2 months for the interview.

 

------ CK ------