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!