Plan on walking in to the LA office after application submitted through mail

[december]

My parents' TRV application was sent a month ago. We are set to travel on the 20th. I cannot wait any longer, decide to go in person. I saw some people on the forum say they had walk in experience after mail in the application.
Can somebody shed some lights on this? My parents don't have any ID card with them except for the passport, which is with the application package in the consulate!
Do they need any ID to go in? After they enter, can they just go to any window for status inquiry? Can I go in with them? If I want to withdraw the application, will they get the passport back right away, the same day?

Whoever has been in a similar situation please come share your experience! I will come back share my experience too once I go through this, promise!

 

[freeguy]

From what I noticed, you should be able to do that. Just let them know the passport has been submitted and you are waiting for the visa. Most cases, they will give the passport the same day. Go there in the morning and they should give the passport in the afternoon, unless they find something missing in the documentation.

Now, you want to know my situation? I sent my father-in-laws passport on July 3rd, still waiting, and we have travel arrangements made for this Aug 9th. We are not in a position to go there in person. If we do not receive this by the 8th, we have to forego the trip, this losing the airline tickets as they are non refundable :'(

 

[december]

Did you know somebody who did the same? I am just afraid they won't even let me in. And would they drop everything on their hands to find my case?
why can't you do the same?

 

[Dollar555]

Free guy,


Any luck with your visa?

 

[freeguy]

No updates on my visa. It looks like the only way is to go in person and ask them to process the visa. They are completely ignoring emails. I even attached travel documents in my visa application and they dont bother about checking anything. Unfortunately I am not in a position to travel to LA for the visa at this time

 

[leico]

I just registered to share my own experience.

I was planning to do the same thing (i.e. walk in) for my parents' visa applications, which were delivered on July 2nd. I have been extremely worried for the past days, as our Alaska cruise date is coming very close and there is no way to reschedule the cruise.

Luckily, I just got a response to my inquiry email that their passports will be sent back this afternoon. I did sent out two emails, one for each parents, and one fax with cover page "URGENT" and detailed letter to explain our situation over the past few days. I don't know which any of them has made any difference. But you may want to try the same thing (if you haven't yet) and then wait for another couple of days before you gave up your help and try walk in.

Best of luck!

 

[freeguy]

Leico,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have sent several emails to the consulate (over 10) and only yesterday, I received a response asking for the applicants full name and DOB (as if I have not provided that in any my email communications). I also opened an enquiry at thier website 3 days ago, for which I received a response today with the file number. The message says processing time is 30-45 business days, they cannot expedite processing via mail, and that I should let them know if I want to withdraw the application.

The trouble is, our travel is scheduled in 2 days, that is, Aug 9th, so I do not have any option to wait...unless I walk in....wondering if that would work ...there really is no time left unless they overnight the passport today.

 

[december]

Leico, thank you so much for sharing, I will try the urgent fax way first then. I was going to go down today, as I wasn't sure if they will process my parent's visa on the spot or ask us for withdrawal. If withdrawal, then I imagine we need a couple days to apply again.
But sounds like most likely they will just process your case if you go in unless u are being checked or have missing documents, etc.
So I decided to give it another week, go down next Monday, which is one week from our cruise sailing date on the 20th. Hopefully your suggestion would work, save us the trip. I am going to try that tomorrow.

By the way, anybody knows if my parents filed together as a family case, do they both need to go in for passport pick up or the primary applicant is alone is good enough?

And freeguy, best of luck to you. Your visa will be here tomorrow!!!

Thank you!

 

[december]

I just wan to share a major update on my parent's visa status. I did plan to go down next Monday, a week from our scheduled traveling time. But after reading some people's post about sending an urgent fax. I tried that yesterday. I typed up a nice email explaining our situation and gave them my parent's name and DOB. On the very top of the letter, I used extra extra large (#100, i think) and bold font for the word "URGENT!". And I also emailed the same letter to them.

I don't know if it is the fax got their attention or what. Today I called in to check my person money order status, and it has been paid as of yesterday!!!

I am so thrilled! I don't know if they will mail out the passport immediately, but I think we should get our visa in time. There are still over 10 days to go from the time we travel, on the 20th.

So if you haven't tried the urgent fax way, do try it. It may just work for you too!

Also not sure if everyone is aware that you can check the status of your money order by phone. I used Wells Fargo, but I assume every bank should have that service. There should be a phone number listed on your purchaser copy and some kind of account and serial number which let you refer to when you call.

Good luck to everyone!