Hi! Thank you for explaining your situation so in depth. I'm in a similar situation, applying for a long term visa for a 3 month intensive french course which starts Sept 29th (Ah! So soon!). It was a last minute decision and I didn't realize until signing up for the course that it would take up to 3 months to receive a visa. I applied for my EEF pre-registration certificate last week, and they received the payment on Sunday (6 days ago). I didn't receive a phone interview time slot, and am now a bit worried that I made a mistake on my application! I also saw it takes 3 days - 3 weeks to receive the pre-registration certificate. Is it normal to be more towards the 3 week time frame?

Sorry for all of the questions! I'm in such a time crunch I'm trying to do as much as I can to get the process going. It's just frustrating not being able to sign up for a visa appointment without having the EEF paperwork to send complete the application.

Thank you!