Experience with Washington VAC

[jan_ardan]

Hi, all fellow forumites. Have any of you applied for a visa at the Washington VAC? How was your experience? I just had a very bad one recently. For starters, they only lodged the application and processed the payment after seven business days of receiving it from the courier! Then, according to the "track your document" function on their website, it was sent to Immigration in Washington five business days later. After that one, there wasn't anymore updates.

I called back after the holiday break, but wasn't given any information because according to them there hadn't been more than the average ten business days timeframe. Finally, I resorted to calling the embassy directly and, coincidentally, the officer who answer the phone was the one who have processed my application. He had approved it two days before the date the website showed it had been sent to him, and had it sent back to the VAC right away.

The passport was couriered back but they never updated the status or e-mailed me the result along with the courier tracking number. To make matters worse, neither did the courier. So my passport spent the xmas holidays and a few days of January sitting at the courier warehouse in my city. If not for the officer at the embassy, the courier would have sent the passport back to Washington! To add insult to injury, I called the VAC manager and he swore the updates were right, not the embassy officer's info. Of course, the courier's timeline contradicts his claim. Later on, during the conversation, he argued it could have been a glitch in their system due to a revamp on their website they're working on, that was going to go live last weekend. Of course, it didn't.

Conclusion, don't trust the updates on their website. They're inaccurate. And don't bother calling them when in doubt (or sending messages on their website, all you'll get is an automatic reply advising someone will get in touch with you, which won't happen). Call the immigration office at the embassy, where you'll find kind and efficient people.

Happy new year to all!

[whizbee]

I've had a similar experience. My application arrived at the Washington DC NZVAC on December 18 but was not registered till 5 days later, after which there was no further update. Around January 10, I called the NZVAC to ask if my passport had been sent to the New Zealand embassy and I was assured it had, although there was no update on the website to that effect. She could not give me anymore information. I asked if she wanted my passport number to confirm this and she declined. How could she know for a fact without my passport number? What if it had been lost in the holiday rush for instance?

Anyway I decided to wait another few days before calling again as there still had not been any updates. This time I specifically told her about my concern over the lack of updates so she inputted my passport number and a minute later the website said my passport had been transferred to the NZ Embassy. Certainly not enough time for her to actually physically check. The person on the other end was always in a hurry to hang up... the lack of updates and communication is really frustrating considering I don't know whether or not I'm moving to the other side of the world in two weeks!

I will call the Washington DC embassy directly tomorrow as per your suggestion. Thanks!

[iluvmykiwi]

Sounds like there are/were three of us all in the same boat. I've been a nervous wreck about it. I talked to another member on here about it though, and she said that the website tracking never got updated beyond that first entry, even though she got her approval in the mail.

I might try calling the embassy as well. Thanks for the heads up.

[kiwieagle]

I had opposite experience. The embassy was useless.

Edit: Sorry, just read this a bit closer. Washington office was good. LA embassy was useless.

[jan_ardan]

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences. I still need to secure an Australian transit visa and most probably will have to change my reservation once again (paying penalties and fees). It used to be different when the whole process was managed directly by the Immigration Office at the Embassy. This TTServices is very inefficient (you can first tell by their website: poorly designed and buggy). I wish you the best in your process.

[iluvmykiwi]

Called the embassy. Got directed to the immigration department that was absolutely useless. She told me that she knew for a fact that my application hadn't been looked at yet because it was a first time residency visa, and that it would take 3 to 6 months. She also told me that an immigration officer would be contacting me.
I tried explaining to her that it was a partnership visa, and that my husband was a citizen, but she just blew me off.

[whizbee]

I think residency visas always take longer. I'm waiting for a temporary work visa that has a normal processing time of 10 business days. The person at the embassy was very nice and told me she was waiting for some last minute checks, but apart from that everything was good to go. I should hear back by next week.

[iluvmykiwi]

The immigration website says that partnership visas are processed within 10 business days unless there was an issue, in which they would contact you within that period. We haven't been contacted and it's been well over 10 business days. Also, my husband was told by the consulate officer that partnership visas were given priority over other visas.

He's sent the embassy an e-mail "as a citizen", to see if he can get some answers that way.

[iluvmykiwi]

He just heard back from what we think was the same lady that dismissed me on the phone. He just got the same line I did. I'm really super ticked because we triple/quadruple checked all this before applying and setting a time-line for ourselves. We have a dog which makes it that much more complicated because we have to get everything done within a certain too.

I guess at this point all we can do is hold our breath and pray that things will go through soon. And that this woman isn't the one handling my case, lol.

[sberleze]

I also sent my application and according to DHL it arrived at Washington VAC on february 18th, but up until now, did not receive any replies and their "track your document" say my passport number is not in their system... I'm from brazil and already send them an email regarding to my documents with no replies... I'm getting nervous... 3 business days are gone and no messages like a simple "we received your application and is being processed" I received. Communication is something great! Don't they know that?