They received my docs on the 4th of December. I have absolutely no idea how long it's gonna take, they will be delivering to my brother's address in Cali so I have shaved off a bit of time from this chaos (from your timelines it seems like 3 weeks, jeeeezus). However, my deadline is the 15th of February for my application and here I am certificate-less. I don't even trust the mail system here in Lahore enough for them to get it to my door in all honesty, so kudos to you for having those nerves to start with.
How I WISH this electronic system had been there before, apparently it went live on the 1st of Feb. If I have no update by the 4th of March, I will apply for it again- trying to avoid that step because I had to go the court for my finger impressions on FD-258 the first time around (did you take the impressions yourself?). Honestly man, feels like being hit by a ton of bricks for this system to be launching NOW- kismat mein he roray hain.
Well I really hope things turned out fine for you. I'm sorry I just got too busy and then forgot about this forum. Just now I was going through old email that I saw you messages and then headed straight to the forum. I know it's been a while so it may not be of use to you anymore but may be helpful to other readers in a similar situation.
I sent them 5 (yes, 5!) FD-258 forms, all of them were 120 gram papers, which is a much thicker, more solid/dense paper, so they were more like cards than papers. You can actually find such paper at any good stationary shop if you look for it. And I would recommend anyone going for the FD-258 finger print card to use that paper, it is way more reliable and easier to get your finger/thumb impressions on as opposed to the regular run of the mil 80g paper.
Of the the 5, FD-258 fingerprint cards, that I sent, 3 of them were done through a professional guy in Islamabad F-8 Kachehri. He used a special, very thick, viscous and somewhat gooey ink for the impressions, it was a pain in the ass to clean my hands afterwards. He charged me Rs.500 for each, so I spent Rs.1500 on these three fingerprint cards. And for good measure, I added 2 more FD-258 finger print cards, but this time I took the impressions myself using the regular/ordinary ink pad that is used for stamping purpose. I think I did a decent enough job. I was just scared at the prospect of getting the finger print cards rejected so I overdid it, but it's always better being safe than sorry. Sending extra FD-258 cards is recommended and is desirable because if the lone finger print card included in the application is rejected for whatever reason, you'll cause them nuisance because now they'll have to put your file/case on hold and wait for proper fingerprint impressions to arrive, you'll have to resend another one or two costing you more money not to mention the trouble and the added delay on top of already nightmarish delay. So, one should always send multiple FD-258 fingerprint cards so that in the event of a bad fingerprint impression or a botched up FD-258 card that is unacceptable to them, redundant fingerprint forms should serve as a backup.
