Seconded. Having access to a huge community of people who were a little further along in the visa issue process made navigating it much, much easier. Little stu

Seconded. Having access to a huge community of people who were a little further along in the visa issue process made navigating it much, much easier. Little stuff like "oh, they're now requiring 2 passport photos instead of 1 and the consular website hasn't been updated everywhere yet" saved a ton of pain. It was also really nice to see almost in real time how long processing was taking, because you could see when people ahead of you got their interviews scheduled and guess how long you had left.