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Hi,
I looked for an appointment for a b2 visa for my mom early in March and got the appointment for May 26th. This was the earliest appointment available.
It was at the Chennai consulate. I didn't look for an interpreter as my mom is conversant with English, though not fluent. Also, I figured getting appointments in english without interpreter would be easier.
From May 26th I was able to bump up the appointment to March 24th(!!!) by using the modify/cancel option on the ttsvisas website.
Just like you, I couldn't see any appointments when I logged in to the ttsvisas website and tried the modify/cancel appointment link. Sometimes I would see an earlier appointment, but by the time I clicked on the date, it would no longer exist. This is because there's tons of people just like you and me looking to "bump up" appointments. I also heard that there are agents who block dummy appointments and modify them for money. I'm not sure how far this is true.
I was told by a friend that new appointments are available every certain interval of time. (Lets call this a server refresh). He said the website shows new appointments every half an hour. He was wrong.
I sat for a day and timed the "server refresh".
I found that the server refreshes every 10 minutes. I sync-ed my watch with this.
As anal as this sounds, it paid off!
The maximum number of appointments were shown exactly after every 10 minutes. By 10 minutes and 5 seconds most of the early appointments were gone.
For example by my time, I found that the maximum appointments between 4 and 5 p.m. were at 4:10:10, 4:20:10 etc. This was by my watch. Do some research yourself.
You have a window of 2-3 seconds to modify your appointment. The idea is to get to the calendar page of the modify/cancel appointment ,exactly every 10 minutes.
1) (PLEASE!)Be VERY VERY careful you don't accidentally click on a date later than the one you've already got. There's like four or five lines of months and days, and its easy to get confused.
2) I used a high speed connection, cable in my case. If you're really desperate and in the US, get cable. If your company has good connection speeds, try it at work. I wouldn't recommend this using dial up. You need a good connection that can take you to the next page in a second or two at most.
3) Try a few practice runs, without actually changing the date.
4) Set the options on your explorer so that the box where you have to enter the passport number and the receipt number automatically stores the earlier entries. This helps as you don't have to keep entering the passport number and receipt number each time. Also helps in cutting time to reach the calendar page.
5) You could also try opening multiple windows but it only helps if you have a kickass connection. It might actually slow you down if your connection is not too good.
When I tried this, I was able to bump up my appointment by two months in a matter of 2-3 days. I think I did this in phases, like bumping it back by a week or two at a time. Do not be disappointed if you are unable to see any cancellations. Someone out there IS modifying his/her date to an earlier slot, and his/her slot IS going to be available.
I don't know the "server refresh" time right now. Please time it and post it here so others can benefit from it.
I am posting this info here because I heard of agents making money from this process, while people who actually need an earlier slot are missing out.
Now, that said, I do not give any guarantees that this will work. But if it helps you, good for you. It worked for me.
I looked for an appointment for a b2 visa for my mom early in March and got the appointment for May 26th. This was the earliest appointment available.
It was at the Chennai consulate. I didn't look for an interpreter as my mom is conversant with English, though not fluent. Also, I figured getting appointments in english without interpreter would be easier.
From May 26th I was able to bump up the appointment to March 24th(!!!) by using the modify/cancel option on the ttsvisas website.
Just like you, I couldn't see any appointments when I logged in to the ttsvisas website and tried the modify/cancel appointment link. Sometimes I would see an earlier appointment, but by the time I clicked on the date, it would no longer exist. This is because there's tons of people just like you and me looking to "bump up" appointments. I also heard that there are agents who block dummy appointments and modify them for money. I'm not sure how far this is true.
I was told by a friend that new appointments are available every certain interval of time. (Lets call this a server refresh). He said the website shows new appointments every half an hour. He was wrong.
I sat for a day and timed the "server refresh".
I found that the server refreshes every 10 minutes. I sync-ed my watch with this.
As anal as this sounds, it paid off!
The maximum number of appointments were shown exactly after every 10 minutes. By 10 minutes and 5 seconds most of the early appointments were gone.
For example by my time, I found that the maximum appointments between 4 and 5 p.m. were at 4:10:10, 4:20:10 etc. This was by my watch. Do some research yourself.
You have a window of 2-3 seconds to modify your appointment. The idea is to get to the calendar page of the modify/cancel appointment ,exactly every 10 minutes.
1) (PLEASE!)Be VERY VERY careful you don't accidentally click on a date later than the one you've already got. There's like four or five lines of months and days, and its easy to get confused.
2) I used a high speed connection, cable in my case. If you're really desperate and in the US, get cable. If your company has good connection speeds, try it at work. I wouldn't recommend this using dial up. You need a good connection that can take you to the next page in a second or two at most.
3) Try a few practice runs, without actually changing the date.
4) Set the options on your explorer so that the box where you have to enter the passport number and the receipt number automatically stores the earlier entries. This helps as you don't have to keep entering the passport number and receipt number each time. Also helps in cutting time to reach the calendar page.
5) You could also try opening multiple windows but it only helps if you have a kickass connection. It might actually slow you down if your connection is not too good.
When I tried this, I was able to bump up my appointment by two months in a matter of 2-3 days. I think I did this in phases, like bumping it back by a week or two at a time. Do not be disappointed if you are unable to see any cancellations. Someone out there IS modifying his/her date to an earlier slot, and his/her slot IS going to be available.
I don't know the "server refresh" time right now. Please time it and post it here so others can benefit from it.
I am posting this info here because I heard of agents making money from this process, while people who actually need an earlier slot are missing out.
Now, that said, I do not give any guarantees that this will work. But if it helps you, good for you. It worked for me.
They are making so many changes already.
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