The Visa invitation letters were in the email box when I got up this morning. They were processed some time during the night and sent out around 11:30 PM.
Around 8PM last night, we sent a message to their technical support staff asking were the invitations were. According to their web site, you can pay $15 extra to get same day service and should receive your letters within "a few hours".
This morning, in addition to the letters we also received a response from their support team:
Dear Mr. Sopata,
Your invitations are processed and sent to you. Please
allow for the time difference (we are a Moscow-based company).
Thank you for using Visa Help Center!
Best regards,
Customer service team
I guess "same day" means within 12 hours-ish.
Also, it looks like we will definitely be staying in an apartment at least part of the time. That is a frustrating story to tell so I'll avoid it for now.
Today we are off to Green Bay to pick up our plane tickets. Hopefully there will be no more unpleasant surprises.
Serenity now... serenity now...
