Yeah, I'm not surprised it crashed. The backlog is insane and has been since May. Now I'm thinking that must be when the database issues began, and word didn't get out until now. For people bringing immediate family to the U.S., once your petition gets to NVC, it's currently taking 30 business days to get a case number, 30 more to review each package, 30 more if you get a checklist and have to send more stuff. It's even taking five or so days for them just to scan in a package once they receive it, and around three weeks just to answer an e-mail. Keep in mind that 30 business days is like a month and a half. There's not enough staff to do document review with the recent flood of petitions and now I guess the database can't handle it either. Our case has been with them since April 29. This stage of the process used to take a month, two months max if you went really slowly or didn't follow instructions. We'll be lucky if we reach case closed by September at the rate things are going. Even just to call the hotline I have to make around 30 attempts just to get past the busy signal and get put on hold for minimum 20 minutes. It's been pretty stressful.
