sorry to necro this thread, this but currently how long is the wait to get the actual visa issued after visa interview & approval?

I applied for a B1/B2 visa on Jan 8, managed to get an interview appointment on Jan 13, and was told my visa was approved. I chose the option to self-collect from Aramex PJ. The embassy staff said I should get my visa within that week.

More than a month later, my passport still has not been returned. I called Aramex last week (there's a US visa inquiry option in their call menu) and was told my passport isn't with them.

So I just wanted to know if this is a normal wait time for this current period? (when i search online for info about this, it's all India-related results lol - they always have a massive backlog, so I'm not sure how relevant it is to us here)

when was your application? not sure if there might have been a surge in applications during the final week of previous administration

haha, i was just speculating on what might possibly be delaying it (and there was CNY too, though not sure if that affects anything). The tracking site does show that the visa was issued on Jan 16, so technically the competent and properly qualified staff was still in charge.

Luckily my travel dates are flexible, but I really don't like not knowing where my passport is, especially now that it contains a shiny new US visa. I guess I'll call the number on the UStraveldocs site tomorrow, since today's a PH for the US.

update: got my passport with visa back today.

I wrote to the contact email on ustraveldocs with my details, and at 8pm that night I got a whatsapp from aramex saying that my passport was ready, which was quickly followed by a message telling me I had to collect my passport by Wednesday at 11am.

I called the Aramex office first thing next morning to confirm they had my passport, and was told by the CSR that I had to collect it by Wednesday because the SOP is that they must send unclaimed passports back to the embassy if not collected after 14 days. (But they received it on January 16 and had clearly been holding it for MUCH longer, and even told me on February 5 they didn't have it.) I told her I hadn't received any notification at all to collect it and she claimed it was sent. Her word vs mine, so I decided not to pursue the blame game with her, since they still had my passport.

Anyway I drove like a maniac from my office to PJ during lunch hour to get my passport back. And now I can finally look for flight tickets (even though the thought of flying in the US now is kind of )

tl;dr Aramex being Aramex.