Originally Posted by
Nayef
Thanks for clarifying. Now I feel stupid for not knowing that I should’ve asked for expedited shipping. For some reason I thought it would be automatically shipped quickly and I wasn’t offered anything at the post office. I thought paying the $60 expedited fee and the $17.56 to mail it back quickly was enough to expedite everything.
And I feel extra stupid for knowing any of this beforehand despite reading about it supposedly thoroughly in FT and other places.
You should not feel stupid. The USPS is doing its job well- it still only takes only a couple of days for most mail to move clear across the country to final destination. But for some reason, Citibank was/is taking up to six weeks to receive, scan and enter applications into the system so actual State employees can review and make a determination about the application. Submitting the application with expedited shipping (priority or express mail) results not so much in the application reaching the processing center more quickly but in it being entered into the system (and check cashed) ahead of all of the "regularly submitted" or non-expedited shipping applications.