Had the interview last week and was told I was approved.

Tracking was updated today to "Administrative Processing"...

How bad is this? The internet is giving me a conflicting answer and searching here didn't turn up much. Am I in for a big delay?

This was on a K1 visa by the way.

This is all you need. It's been approved, sent to process and will be sent to you shortly.

They are putting everything together to send back to you. This is completely normal and hence the administrative processing change. It will soon change to issued.

No.

Congrats on your approval!

Thank you, appreciate the reply!

You can be in AP for seconds or years.

What's guaranteed, however, is that every visa application will be in this status for some time.

If all is good, it's realistically going to be a couple days.

In this case, it most likely means they've sent it for putting the physical thingee in your passport and getting the packet ready to send back to you. Happens to everyone after approval and in these specific circumstances likely is not something to get concerned about.

It doesn't "just mean" that. It's quite a loaded term for many processes.

I get your point, but I meant in this context. I will edit my post slightly.

As mentioned all visa under go "administrative processing". For the majority that only means as Tom stated having to approve the paperwork, send it to the department for visa printing, affixing it to the passport, sending the passport to the courier. For others it means additional security clearances are required. If you don't have a criminal history or a heritage from a middle eastern country or are Muslim, then you are in the first category.

Someone reported they went for their interview the end of last week and the sign said processing was taking 17 days.

Well today tracking updated to 'Issued'!

Welp, theres a lesson in patience for you, I guess I'm so close after so much paperwork I panicked a little

WTG! Congratulations.

Wonderful! Congratulations!