The vast majority of consulates and embassies will allow most passport holders from most countries to apply regardless of where they are from however, *technically in the States when you go to any consulate website they'll outline their jurisdiction which is their way of triaging traffic; They do this for better crisis management, resource management, efficiency, etc. and each consulate will typically have a handful of states in any given geographic region that they'll serve. For example, the NY Consulate-General is responsible for issuing visas for Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Islands, and Vermont.
You would generally want to pick the consulate whose jurisdiction you fall under and *typically by doing so you are often prioritized and things are just generally more efficient. I've found this to be pretty true even with my dealings with the French Consulates in the States too. Of course, bureaucracy is still bureaucracy so it's not always 100% guaranteed it will be quick or easy even when doing so.
Oof. I heard of a couple other people that have been waiting on the Chicago office for at least a week now too. They’re moving real slow over there… Knocking on wood yours gets pushed through asap🫡
Happy to share! There's a thread of replies about this under Jeff Ryan's comment, but basically, you don't need to book the real thing. You can just put in a flight/accom. that you are looking at or get a cheap onward ticket from a site like onwardticket.com (if you're particularly nervous about needing to show proof.)
Once I submitted the app. it immediately went into the 'processing' stage so there was no need for any alerts while it was being reviewed. But yes, I did get an automatic transactional/system email once it was approved.
Happy to share! From what I understand, they do accept applications from British passport holders— there's usually no problem as long as you satisfy the visa requirements for their jurisdictions. Still, it's best to double-check with them directly just to be sure. Safe travels!