Thanks Jools. We were genuinely shocked to get the email given the lack of responses this month particularly. I’ve requested the ACPO and we will report back on how things progress.

Unwavering any news?

Anyone who had interviews in London in March had any updates? Mine was March 19th 2025 and still no update

nothing yet, still waiting

I thought they had been in contact to ask for financial supporting documents?

This was the only contact and no further updates.

Hi, I’m new here and hoping you can help. I had my interview at London on 12th May 2025. As expected it was referred to be considered for a ‘waiver of ineligibility’ some 11 months have passed and today I received an email stating that I have been recommended for the waiver however I specifically would like to know, gain some clarification on this part:

‘Based on the factors described above, we will be recommending you for a waiver of your ineligibility. If the consular supervisor agrees with this recommendation and DHS decides to grant your waiver, you will be issued a limited-validity visa. The current waiting period for these two agencies to consider your case is approximately 6-8 months.  However, this is not always guaranteed.

Does this mean that the 6-8 months waiting period has now just started from today - the date of the email or from when I had my interview - 12th May 2025

Please could you kindly clarify

Thanks

Attended London Embassy 5/3/25 for an I-Visa (foreign media representative). Approved for a waiver. When logging into CEAC, I can see case has not been opened again since that same day - Is this normal?

Only a few in the spreadsheet from around this time via London Embassy, but no movement with any of them.
Such a painfully long process.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Yes, the lack of updates in CEAC is completely normal unfortunately. The only time it will change is when they finally get around to contacting you to ask you to submit your passport (or rejecting it out of hand).
As you'll see in the sheet, some have been waiting for 18 months now :-( All one can do is wait.

I assume you're using UK date format - 5th March. I'll add an entry in the sheet for you if you're happy for me to do so.

jools

Thank you! Gotya. Ultimately, is there always going to be some form of contact from them, or have people been known to hear nothing at all?
Yup, a long old time!

That's fine, feel free to add that to the sheet.

There should be a response at some point. Just cannot say when :-(

Entry added.

All the best,

​​​​​​​jools

Be aware renewing a waiver



I have a B2 waiver which expires in March 2027,given that currently it is taking a year or more for waivers to be processed(if granted).

I thought I would start the process now to minimise the gap between waivers,so that when the existing waiver expired and new one would start shortly after the current one expired(if you follow my logic)



Yesterday I went to London and after a three and half hour wait I had my interview, no problem and they said they would recommend a waiver (I have had four waivers before).



I was then told that the procedure was that my existing waiver would be cancelled as I was applying for a new visa.



Obviously I did not want that as it still had almost a year left and I had planned travel using that waiver. I said I would withdraw my new application and was told I could not do that.



After some discussion the CO agreed to speak to her superior and came back to say that in view of the timescale for waivers they would not cancel my existing waiver but made it very clear this was not normal

I think I was very lucky as I seemed to establish a good rapport with the CO during the interview and that this helped. I may not have been so lucky with a different CO!



Just be aware

mine was 12th May 2026 and had an email yesterday to say “Based on the factors described above, we will be recommending you for a waiver of your ineligibility. If the consular supervisor agrees with this recommendation and DHS decides to grant your waiver, you will be issued a limited-validity visa. The current waiting period for these two agencies to consider your case is approximately 6-8 months.  However, this is not always guaranteed”

Hi Emma_hay Did you mean 12th May 2025? And did you only get an email yesterday (7 Apr 2026) to say that they'll recommend, and the current waiting period is 6-8 months? In which case you could be looking at a total wait time of 17-19 months.

jools

Yes correct, sorry I meant 12/05/2025. I can’t believe that after 11 months I’ve only just been sent an email to say they are recommending it but I was told at the interview that it was being sent for a recommendation so I wrongly assumed the whole process for both agencies was 9-12 months.