My wife (American) is currently in the US awaiting for her visa to be processed. It's been three months since the canton confirmed receipt. The US consulate told us the processing time would be 10-12 weeks, but the OCPM in Geneva is currently stating processing time is 6-8 months.
I'm curious if anyone has gone/is going through this process and has any thoughts or advice?
Thank you!
Unfortunately, the OCPM estimate is probably more accurate. OCPM received my Visa D application on February 19, 2021, and I only just received my authorization letter in the mail yesterday!
I've been frustrated by this whole process because the Swiss embassy in Washington told us that the Visa D approval would only take 8-10 weeks. I don't know why they're now telling people 10-12 weeks, because they've known for months that it's taking much much longer than that.
My husband (Swiss) and I were living in Kansas City and had planned to move to Geneva together in June. Obviously, I couldn't since my visa hadn't been approved, so my husband moved without me, and I've been waiting since. We had our house all lined up to be sold, expecting the Visa to be approved in May, so we ended up selling the house anyways, and then I quit my job and moved in with my parents while I waited for the visa. It's frustrating to plan anything, because you only get 90 days to enter the country once it's approved, but the embassy/consulate tells you one thing, and then the OCPM tells you something totally different. You'd think these government agencies would communicate...
Anyways, in May, the embassy told me to contact OCPM, but they never answer phones, and they still haven't replied to my email from May, even though I wrote to them in French.
I'm attaching the updates from OCPM so you can get a sense of the time frame, and also the response I got from the embassy in May, and a picture of an article that my husband sent me in June (apparently it's a big problem with how dysfunctional the OCPM is).
Now that I finally got the authorization letter, I have my plane ticket to Geneva booked in two weeks, so now I'm just hoping the embassy will issue my visa and send my passport back in a timely manner.
I hope your wife will get hers soon too!
Thank you so much for your response. I believe we are in similar situations and it is very frustrating. We had also planned our move based on the consulate's indications.
Quick question, did you hear anything from the OCPM between reception of your dossier and approval?
I'm glad you got your letter, hopefully everything else goes smoothly. Best of luck with your move!
I applied for family reunification visa on 26 of June 2021. It has been 8 months and still pending
I hope you get it faster than I do
Have you checked with them to see what the delay is? Are they missing documents? Has the file been put on a shelf somewhere and forgotten? Yes, it does happen sometimes.
They asked the documents like salary, rent contract etc.... things after 4 months than we applied which is also very late I guess. We will call tomorrow again we are following the situation from tracking number.
It is just tiring depressing ......