Another question that we see a lot in our Facebook group and on our YouTube channel
we've been asked this quite a bit recently: "Can I change the location of my US embassy or US consulate
interview to another US embassy or consulate?"
We understand that the reason you're asking this question is because you're wanting to be creative and try to find the fastest route
to be together and we completely get that. We love that you're being creative, that you're
researching, that you're thinking, and that's what we do all of the time here at our office trying
to find creative ways to help people be able to be together as soon as possible.
We understand that that's why this question is being asked. To give you a little clarity
about where the US embassy or consular interview will occur, to just give you some context before I
answer the question, US embassy and US consulate interviews will occur in the immigrants' country of origin.
So the country that they're born.
They can also occur in a country where the immigrant is living.
Sometimes, we have couples who are married or they're going through the fiancé visa process
and their immigrant spouse or fiancé might have citizenship in several countries.
And so, there might be a few countries available that we could have that interview or
sometimes individuals have citizenship in one country but they have a resident status or lawful status in another country where they're working.
If an individual has lawful status in another country that they happen to be residing there,
working there, you can actually have an interview in that country too. So you can have some choices available to you
about what country you have your US embassy or consulate interview
depending on what countries of citizenship you have and also where you happen to have lawful status.
At the beginning of our clients' cases, we determine
what options are available to you, what embassies and consulates could
we potentially have your interview scheduled at and what's the most convenient for you.
At the beginning of the process, that's when you would make that determination
and ask immigration to have that interview there because they will typically default to
your country of origin, the country where you were born, the country where you're a citizen but you
can ask to have it in other places. A lot of people are asking this question because from what we
can tell from the questions we're asked in our Facebook group and on our YouTube channel is that
they're hoping that because of all of the backlogs and because there are so few interviews being
scheduled, I think a lot of individuals are hoping that they could move it to another US embassy or
consulate and be able to get an interview faster because I know some countries, specifically
the Philippines, there's just a very low amount of interviews being scheduled
and there's a high volume of people waiting for an interview. A lot of individuals
are feeling desperate and wanting to find another place to have the interview.
The reality is that moving your interview to another US embassy or consulate might be possible
if you have citizenship in another country or have lawful status working somewhere else.
That would really just depend on your specific case where you're wanting to move it.
That could be possible. The way to do that would depend on where you are in the case.
If you're still in the national visa center, you would ask if it's already been
moved to an embassy, then you'd be reaching out to the embassy of the country where your
interview will be scheduled and asking to move it to another US embassy or consulate
but to be completely honest, the reality is that would not necessarily get you an interview
faster and it actually could delay the process if you try to move your interview to another US
embassy or consulate because you could get put back in the back of the line with other people who've
already been waiting. Hopefully, that makes sense. It is really going to depend on where
you are in the case. If you're at the beginning of your case and you're picking a US embassy or
consulate to have your interview at, that's a good time to weigh options about which
might be best. But if you already are waiting for an interview at a US embassy or consulate,
the likelihood of moving your interview to another US embassy or consulate could
be pretty complicated and also would not necessarily give you an interview on a sooner date.