u/Curious_Progress_554

I am a PhD student and I attend my F1 visa renewal interview at the Hyderabad consulate.

Date: April 27th
Location: Hyderabad

VO: Oh, you are a PhD student at Texas A&M?
Me: Yes, I am almost done.
VO: That’s great, congratulations! Are you fully funded?
Me: Yes
VO: *Hands over a white slip* Keep your social media public and email the links to us at the given email ID. Thanks!

Timeline:
Visa interview: April 27th
Email sent immediately.
Ceac status: Refused
May 18th: Admin Processing (for 30 min) -> Approved
May 19th: Issued
May 21: Picked up passport

My opinion:
I believe my application was misplaced or lost or not looked at. I reached out to the embassy at hydcea@state.gov on May 18th and specified that I am a PhD student and I need to go back before my semester starts and kindly asked them for an update. I received a generic response from them in 2 hrs. And my status immediately changed to Admin Processing and then Approved in 30 min.

What helped?
Emailing the embassy politely and respectfully.

I am PhD student and I attended my visa interview at the Hyderabad consulate for F1 renewal. Interview lasted 30 seconds. VO seemed nice and they kept my passport. They gave me a 221g white slip and asked to email the social media links (and make them public). I did that promptly. It’s been almost 3 weeks now and my application still says refused.

I have noticed that almost everyone who went to the Hyderabad consulate after me got approved in about 3 days (if not in 10 hrs).

I am really concerned now as I do not understand what is holding up my application. The last updated date is the same as my interview date.

Is it possible for 221g social media to take this long? Or did they lose my passport or something? My semester is going to start soon and I have to go back asap.

Any advice is appreciated!