Hi. I haven't posted on here before, but I just wanted to warn anybody else who might be applying for a visa so they don't have to go through what I'm going through.
I closed the sale on my house the same day I sent in the application for my fiancée visa, so the address listed for where I currently live is no longer valid. I don't have a permanent address right now since I've temporarily moved into an extended stay hotel until I can leave. I provided my Post Office box address as the contact address on the application, and when I sent my application in I attached a letter explaining my situation that specified that my documents must be sent to the P.O. Box via postal mail, that they would not reach me if they were sent to my old house since I was finalizing the sale that day and no longer live there, and to contact me if there was any problem sending it to the P.O. Box (I provided two phone numbers, the phone number at the hotel, and my email address). I also enclosed a bill from the hotel with the address, my name and room number on it as proof that I was staying there and an additional means of contacting me.
I wish I had known that they don't read letters, don't make phone calls, don't follow instructions, don't care if your passport gets sent to an address where you no longer live (in fact they went out of their way to do this), and will not send anything via postal mail.
My thinking was that it would look bad not to have a permanent address on the application, which is why I left my house on there since I technically still owned it when I submitted the form. I think I'd have been better off giving only the hotel address, but I assumed (wrongly) that these people can read and that they would call me before they sent it out. I was told today that it "isn't their policy"...great.
I got an email this morning saying my visa had been issued, but that it was sent out via FedEx. So I called the 900 number immediately. This was at 9:31 am Central time (they had just opened). I was kept on the phone for quite a while (costing me money) giving an alternate address, contact information, email address (though they had to already have all of it in my application), etc. Then I was told someone would contact me, and that the documents would be re-routed.
At this time I thought that it was sent to my P.O. Box in error, and the worst that could happen there would be it would go back to the FedEx depot and I could pick it up. But no, they had to really mess things up. They sent it to my old house. I got a voicemail about 5 hours later--I left my desk for two minutes, and the person called then (of course)--from someone saying it had been sent already and saying it had been sent to my old address!!!
Disaster.
FedEx won't reroute it without sender authorization. The woman answering the 900 number says there's nothing they can do and to call FedEx. The best FedEx will do is to hold it after one delivery attempt, which they will make Monday morning. But apparently they will let anybody sign for it, so if the new owner of my house accepts it then it will just be handed over.
So, if anyone else is in the process of moving/selling a house/without a permanent address at the same time they are applying for a visa, be careful. You cannot communicate with these people and they are not helpful. I don't know if I'll ever see my passport again. I don't know if all my plans are ruined yet...and I won't know until Monday.
