The National Visa Center (NVC) is currently issuing notices for all cases still on hold with the NVC prior to forwarding to the appropriate US Embassy or Consulate for visa stamping appointments. While this is normal for most immediate relatives consular cases, K-1 cases are now being included in these email updates. 

The updates do not provide a timeline, but do indicate that cases are ready to be forwarded automatically when the time comes. This effort is to calm fears of petitioners and beneficiaries that are swamping the NVC and Embassies with calls and emails about their cases that are on hold due to backlogs in normal processing from the Covid 19 pandemic and continuing issues from Covid Variants. 

Good News: Immediate relative petitions and K-1 petitions are being given higher priority, and in some cases additional consular posts are taking on new case types that they've not traditionally done. For example, the US Embassy in Mexico City is now handling K-1 visa cases even though these cases in the past were exclusively done through the US Consulate in Juarez Mexico. 

Bad News: Though the NVC and embassy/consular posts are improving their communication, it is still impossible to tell how long a wait will be for a visa stamping interview at a particular post. Hopefully time will be saved and more resources spent on conducting visa stamping interviews where petitioners and beneficiaries follow the advice issued in the NVC emails and refrain from contacting the NVC or embassy locations where notice has already been issued that their case is documantarily qualified.