I finally got my Visa, yeah!!! The RA called yesterday and informed me that ASC has received my passport back. My passport (along with all other documents) was sent out to the embassy @ Ottawa on the Oct 23rd/24th, so the entire process took the full 3 weeks. The RA said that's unusual, usually it does NOT take that long, but they were told the embassy is very busy and it is taking a little longer to issue Visas.
Here are some tips for those of you that are about to start the Visa process:
1) Do NOT expect the ASC to send your passport to the embassy right away when they received it. If you are like me that the passport was delivered to the ASC on a Thursday morning chances are that your RA may not receive it until Monday morning. The reason-- most of the RA's are on a compressed work schedule and have every other Friday off. (Found this out the hard way when my RA told me the internal mailman did not deliver the package to her until the following Morning @ 8:30 a.m.)
Also once your passport or the package is delivered to the RA, she will need to pass the medical results to the Medical Team to confirm the information is correct and that the medical form is stamped. So yes, your RA probably won't be able to send out the passport & the application to the embassy @ Ottawa until late afternoon or even the following day.
2) If you would like to keep an eye on the status of your Visa, use this website:
enjazit.com.sa/VisaPerson/GetApplicantData.
This link only needs the Passport number instead of both the Passport number and the Application Number (which we won't have until the Application is entered). If your Visa application has NOT yet be entered, you will see this: "Error Ocuured please try again" (and yes, there is a typo in the message). If your Visa IS entered, a new screen will pop up and you will see your photo, the Application Number and some information in regards to your application. However, this only means your Visa application is entered, it does NOT mean the Visa is issued.
3) Now that your Visa application is entered and you have the Application Number, you can then use it (along with your passport #) to check whether your Visa is issued. Use this link to check:
enjazit.com.sa/ At the bottom of this website, in the “Searching for” drop down, select “Issued Visa By Application Number”. Similar to #2 above, if your Visa has NOT be issued, you will receive the same “Error Ocuurred please try again” message. If your Visa is issued, you will see at the bottom, “Visa has been issued, No./ ##########...” (in small fonts, at the LHS corner).
This means your Visa has be issued, though it doesn’t mean your passport has been stamped with the Visa. So you still need to wait until the RA calls you and confirms the passport has been stamped and returned to Houston.
My application was entered on Nov 6th, Visa was issued on Nov 8th, and as mentioned the ASC received my passport on Nov 10th. So it takes ~2 business days for each step to be completed. I think once your Application is entered you are half way there, but in my case, it took the embassy almost two weeks before they entered my application.
Sky
