Missing B2 Appointment Letter

[astrlsrfr 1]

I recently filed a K-1 application for my fiancee. We know its a long shot, but we are trying to get her a B-2 while we wait for the initial K-1 processing. She is scheduled for a B-2 interview on Monday morning, but is missing her appointment letter. Earlier today she went to a form on the Consulate's website requesting an emailed version of the appointment confirmation letter, but I am afraid they were closed today (Friday) and may not respond in time. Is there any hope she can get into the interview without that letter or that she can get a sympathetic ear to help her locate the letter when she arrives for the interview? As a side note, why the hell do they require this??? They know who is scheduled - shouldn't their passport, DS-160 confirmation with the payment receipt be adequate?

Thanks for any help in advance....

[Anh map 2,098]

I recently filed a K-1 application for my fiancee. We know its a long shot, but we are trying to get her a B-2 while we wait for the initial K-1 processing. She is scheduled for a B-2 interview on Monday morning, but is missing her appointment letter. Earlier today she went to a form on the Consulate's website requesting an emailed version of the appointment confirmation letter, but I am afraid they were closed today (Friday) and may not respond in time. Is there any hope she can get into the interview without that letter or that she can get a sympathetic ear to help her locate the letter when she arrives for the interview? As a side note, why the hell do they require this??? They know who is scheduled - shouldn't their passport, DS-160 confirmation with the payment receipt be adequate?

Thanks for any help in advance....

The staff at the entrance likely does not have access to all the info. The appointment letter gets them in the door.

[astrlsrfr 1]

Thank you very for providing some feedback. I understand ur something of a guru in here on VJ in general and WRT Vietnam in particular. Perhaps we'll have another exchange on down the road.

I never leave a dangling question on any forum I post to, as that would not be very helpful to those that follow. So... What happened is that my fiancee could not locate her appointment this past weekend so she rescheduled for Thursday. But she went up there anyway to make sure they had the new one in their system, she said. After standing in line for 20 minutes at the HCMC consulate, she got to a window. A vietnamese lady was there and was able to answer her questions, and locate her Thursday appointment, but my fiancee described her as being very short and somewhat rude in her responses. In a nutshell.. it seems like they actually could help you if you have lost your appointment confirmation, as long as you have the DS-160 confirmation & passport. We'll see what happens on Thursday...

An interesting side note.... The waiting times for appoints seem to vary wildly. The first time it was nearly 3 weeks. This time it was only 3 days.

Thanks again.

Edited October 18, 2010 by astrlsrfr

[astrlsrfr 1]

let me know how it turn out... i would like to get a b1/b2 for my fiancee also. can you know what you provided for evidence so they would not 214b... 221g.. or whatever the hell it is they do... i was hoping to get a letter from my boss as to why i am unable to visit and why it would be nice of them to issue her a b1/b2 visa instead instead

Frankly.. I think they should have a special kind of visitor visa for fiancees who have had K-1s filed on their behalf. I mean, think about it. You yourself work; so you can only go there very briefly, not very often, and you are stuck staring at your mailbox for ohhh... 5-12 *MONTHS* waiting for each next step to arrive. So the only realistic option (other than short, brief visits to her from you) is to have your fiancee travel here while you wait, and the only current option for that is a B-2. The problem with the B-2 is they automatically apply all the standard B-2 assumptions to your case, which is clearly not a valid set of assumptions for people have filed K-1s. That said.. there is a whole parade of people who have posted they successfully received B-2s with pending K-1s. Sadly, though, there is another parade that is spouting a more somber tone and circling mailboxes.

As far as what we are provding for the interview:

- I created a letter of "invitation, intent & support", as I called it, which explains our K-1 situation (why I cant travel much & how we need to spend time together to help out K-1 case, etc), invites her to travel here & stay at my residence (+ a trip to my bros for Xmas), explains I will take care of her financially, and explicitly states I will make sure she returns to complete the K-1.

- a i-134 (affidavit of support) which is only a scanned, signed copy & not notarized & mailed.

- Paystubs

- 2009 1040 (page 1)

- bank statement

- the NOA1 I797C

- the emailed ("electronic") NOA1 notification

- copy of the entire i129f packet(about 25 pages)

- a document showing her family ties there

- a document spelling out our proposed itinerary

I think the B-2 issuance policies vary more wildly than the appointment waiting times and our particular consulate does not seem to be known for a whole lot of "enjoy your trip to America" statements. Hey if she doesn't get the B-2, we will suck it up & I will make what limited trips there I can. Lame as that might be. Hopefully, one day the the USCIS will recognize our plight & create a new kind of temporary visa for our cases, and this will become a thing of the past.. at least for those that follow. Not saying it would be an automatic free-pass, but you have already met a substantial burden of intent by going through with a K-1 filing... that should count for something.

I will follow up after Thursday.

[astrlsrfr 1]

I will follow up after Thursday.

Denied.

However, she froze up like the proverbial deer in the headlights and did not present ANY of the documents we painstakingly prepared. Dear Lord! Can I get a little circus music please???

She said she was peppered with questions right off the bat. Most of the questions were of the usual, expected and well-publicized variety. But there was one question about the K-1 & it was something about "is the K-1 not progressing in the US?" Some of this is lost in translation I am sure, but they may have been thinking we were trying to circumvent the K1.. another excellent opportunity to present the docs! Sigh....

The interview lasted only a few minutes & she thought she was going to be asked for the documents or that there would be more time. Gah! Apparently the CO went away to consult with someone in the back for a minute before returning to deliver the iron boot.

We are going to have her reschedule and try once more - this time she will be dumping the docs on them right off the bat. But again, its HCMC, not London or Paris. We don't have high expectations. I think given the K-1 scenario, if you get the kindest CO in there & you have the best possible doc prep, you are still looking at a very long shot. But that does not mean you should not try.

Well.. for us its one more try then I guess its time for me to fly again. I will follow up after the last attempt.

[astrlsrfr 1]

do you pay for each B1/B2 refusal or do they give you time rebut the refusal for free or do you have to pay when you go see them again???? arrrggggggg

how much is it for the visa b1/b2 interview??? how long does it take to schedule an b1/b2 interview???

i am going in to ask my bosses for the letter of recomendation monday!!!!!

She hasn't been back yet. Appointments were back to running 2-3 weeks out. She will go back this next week. Its $130 each time you go & you can go as many times as you want.

I had an email exchange with the HCMC Consulate, asking specifically about why she was denied & in general why they deny B-2s for "in waiting K-1s", while many other US Consulates grant them for this *SAME* scenario. The email from them was professional and courteous, however, they didn't seem to like that I was questioning their process & fell back to "US law" in defense. I'm confident the actual real reason has more to do with the fact that Vietnam is a high fraud country for visas, but they certainly did not say or even suggest that. Maybe they are not allowed to.

Again, I believe a new type of temporary visitation visa for this scenario should be created as the B-2 assumption-set is simply not a valid assumption-set for this scenario. I have contacted the US State Department with my recommendation. But even if they did it.. it would be years coming, I'm sure.

If you are going to try it, bring the house. Go big or go home! Do everything you can do to convince them she will return to complete the K-1 process. But frankly, I don't think much will kelp with this HCMC Consulate bunch. They seem heavily entrenched in their position. The didn't look at a single document the first time - but in fairness my fiancee didn't really offer them up. Hence, the retry.

I will prolly travel there again in late November, unless of course by some miracle they actually grant her the B2. Good luck with your attempt. You never know...

Edited October 30, 2010 by astrlsrfr

[Hamburger Man 3]

I think that the lowest fraud countries already have the VWP in place and the higher fraud countries don't, because, they are higher fraud countries. So you either get in on the VWP while the K1 is processing or you don't. Those who can't need a visa, and that is no accident.

She hasn't been back yet. Appointments were back to running 2-3 weeks out. She will go back this next week. Its $130 each time you go & you can go as many times as you want.

I had an email exchange with the HCMC Consulate, asking specifically about why she was denied & in general why they deny B-2s for "in waiting K-1s", while many other US Consulates grant them for this *SAME* scenario. The email from them was professional and courteous, however, they didn't seem to like that I was questioning their process & fell back to "US law" in defense. I'm confident the actual real reason has more to do with the fact that Vietnam is a high fraud country for visas, but they certainly did not say or even suggest that. Maybe they are not allowed to.

Again, I believe a new type of temporary visitation visa for this scenario should be created as the B-2 assumption-set is simply not a valid assumption-set for this scenario. I have contacted the US State Department with my recommendation. But even if they did it.. it would be years coming, I'm sure.

If you are going to try it, bring the house. Go big or go home! Do everything you can do to convince them she will return to complete the K-1 process. But frankly, I don't think much will kelp with this HCMC Consulate bunch. They seem heavily entrenched in their position. The didn't look at a single document the first time - but in fairness my fiancee didn't really offer them up. Hence, the retry.

I will prolly travel there again in late November, unless of course by some miracle they actually grant her the B2. Good luck with your attempt. You never know...

[astrlsrfr 1]

I think that the lowest fraud countries already have the VWP in place and the higher fraud countries don't, because, they are higher fraud countries. So you either get in on the VWP while the K1 is processing or you don't. Those who can't need a visa, and that is no accident.

Visa Waiver countries are actually not relevant to this discussion. I am talking exlusively about the case where there is no VWP in place, and a visa is required for this "visit while you wait" scenario. And just because a country is not a VWP country does not necessarily make it high fraud. There are many factors the State Department considers besides just visa fraud. Furthermore, There are plenty of examples of people from non-VWP countries who were granted B-2s with pending K-1s.

So to clarify, I believe Vietnam and other high-fraud countries are simply held to a higher standard, and understandably so. However, if I have clearly shown an intent to marry and immigrate my fiance under a K-1, incurred much additional expense and hassle to do the filing, and intrinsically implied my fiance *HAS* to return to her country to complete the K-1 process, it seems to me like this could and should be a factor for granting a temporary visa while enduring the wait, esp since they require you to spend a lot of time together to get the K-1 in the first place. Why the hell would someone who wants to skip on a B-2 (immigrate on a non-immigrant visa, which is what they are supposedly worried about) bother with all of the K-1 shennanigans??? Think about it. The Sate Department clearly has not.

So anyway, after much more hassle, my fiancee got denied again.. this time the CO actually looked at our documents for several minutes, then simply stated she hadn't enough history of travel, even though she left & returned to Vietnam twice already. I'd be willing to bet if she had travelled 10 times, there would be some other excuse. Go State Department!

Luckily for me I have a great job, a kool boss & I can do much of my work remotely. So I now plan to be traveling there quite a bit. I just feel sorry for the ones that can't.