Wow! What a wild story. I guess I got lucky. I applied back in the US in early September, while I was home in the US under the "workcation" criteria. Just had a few emails back and forth and I had it in October. I am self employed and it took 2 extra document requests as I could only upload one each time. It took about 5 weeks and DTV arrived while in Thailand under 60 day standard stamp. Congrats on your long trek to get it done!