URGENT: accidentally opened visa envelope

[phirephly 0]

Thanks simple_male, girl37. We kinda went MIA for a bit while pressing hard into this, but fortunately everythnig came out great as the result of our work. Our evidence was definitely the result of our teamwork, and the CO complimented us that we had a "well-documented case". He didn't even look at half the stuff we had ready. No news yet on how the resealing went; she'll probably get there in about an hour and then have to wait inside the embassy forever. Fortunately, she's comparably close to the embassy too.

pendelton_boy - You have to file both a I130 and an I129f for a K3. Check out the guide which will get you going. You can see what we've done and when we've done it in my VJ timeline and I have all the details for pretty much everything in my profile, as Dylan'sWife noted. If you haven't done your I129f yet, it sounds like you're probably too late to bring her here before the birth.

ttyl,

mich

[caagirl 0]

Hey other people have done the same thing you just explain to the embassy your mistake and then have them reseal it its that simple congratulations on getting your visa:)

[JoelAndAnalyn 0]

Howdy...

We passed our interview (yay!) and the visa was delivered today. However, my wife misunderstood the instructions for not opening the envelope. She received a clear envelope that contained both her passport and another clear envelope that had the brown folder. She opened the clear envelope to get the passport, then thought that she could also open the clear envelope around the brown folder. She thought the brown folder itself just needed to stay sealed. Apparently, the brown folder is open on the top, and this clear envelope was the one that she wasn't supposed to open.

Needless to say, we're both very very concerned about this, including the big warning that says opening it might delay her POE. What do we do now? Can we go back to the embassy and get it reissued? Can we just go to the POE and explain the confusion and what happened? Like everyone here, we've done quite a bit to try to get things done (right) and we don't want it all to blow up at the last moment. Thanks for any help you can give us. ttyl,

mich

I don't understand. I explained to my wife about the two clear envelopes and she says there are not two, only one and the brown envelope and passport within it. I told her to take pictures of it. She has not opened anything yet. She said there were written instructions and also Delbros gave instructions about what to open and what not to open. I hate this confusion. Are there two configurations of envelopes?? If she makes a mistake, no time to fix before her flight out I'm afraid. I'm confident she will figure it out. I just hate being here not able to help or see directly what's going on. I feel helpless over here :-)

[JenT 0]

My lovely wife opened her K1 brown package that she's not supposed to open. Embassy sealed it back up the next day no questions asked. The officer who helped her said it happens all the time and that she would most likely be refused entry at the POE if she had gone with it open.

Luckily my wife lives 20 miles from the embassy so it was easy to go back.

This is consistent with others' experiences who have posted about this happening. The Embassy/Consulate needs to re-seal the envelope.

Jen

[phirephly 0]

What my wife told me (or at least how i understood it?) was that there was a clear plastic bag that had the passport and the envelope in it. The delbros guy opened this one 'cause it also had some sort of form that my wife had to sign about the delivery or something. The only plastic that was left unopened when he gave it to her was that around the brown envelope/folder, which was supposed to stay sealed. She didn't say anything about instructions, but at that point it may not have been important. The only instructions that she noted to me were the ones printed on the brown envelope/folder. It sounds like this may not be much help, but hopefully maybe it's a little more clear. It seems unlikely that there are two envelope configurations, but the description you received sounds slightly different than the one I received.

I know what you mean about feeling helpless all the way over here. I know my wife will be able to do everything herself and doesn't need my help or anything, but I still would like to be there anyways. It's important to us both. I can pretend to be useful or something.

Unfortunately, I don't have an update for the results. Typhoon Xangsane started beating down on Manila today and the embassy was closed when she arrived. They (guards, probably) told her to return tomorrow. I hope that this is an in-and-out sort of thing, our time is getting short too and I don't want to wait for delbros again. ttyl,

mich

Howdy...

We passed our interview (yay!) and the visa was delivered today. However, my wife misunderstood the instructions for not opening the envelope. She received a clear envelope that contained both her passport and another clear envelope that had the brown folder. She opened the clear envelope to get the passport, then thought that she could also open the clear envelope around the brown folder. She thought the brown folder itself just needed to stay sealed. Apparently, the brown folder is open on the top, and this clear envelope was the one that she wasn't supposed to open.

Needless to say, we're both very very concerned about this, including the big warning that says opening it might delay her POE. What do we do now? Can we go back to the embassy and get it reissued? Can we just go to the POE and explain the confusion and what happened? Like everyone here, we've done quite a bit to try to get things done (right) and we don't want it all to blow up at the last moment. Thanks for any help you can give us. ttyl,

mich

I don't understand. I explained to my wife about the two clear envelopes and she says there are not two, only one and the brown envelope and passport within it. I told her to take pictures of it. She has not opened anything yet. She said there were written instructions and also Delbros gave instructions about what to open and what not to open. I hate this confusion. Are there two configurations of envelopes?? If she makes a mistake, no time to fix before her flight out I'm afraid. I'm confident she will figure it out. I just hate being here not able to help or see directly what's going on. I feel helpless over here :-)

[phirephly 0]

the embassy was closed again on friday in the aftermath of the typhoon, so it was finally open Monday when she got there. well, um, ok. turns out we didn't make a mistake after all. The brown envelope has just a corner cut off diagonally, but the rest of the envelope is sealed, so it was ok that she took the plastic off of it (or if there's no plastic at all, i guess). the guy at the info desk told her that it was just fine, but that she was missing some sort of document inventory and to go to window 34. the girl at window 34 (when she finally answered her window) didn't know what the guy was talking about and said that my wife didn't need whatever it was. however, she did go ahead and reseal the envelope (apparently just for the fun of it) in the plastic. so everything was ok after all. what i thought looked like a folder in the pic she sent was really the envelope. i thought it was open at the top, but it's just a corner that's cut off the envelope where the papers are visible and sticking out. hope this makes sense and helps anyone else that's at this final stage. ttyl,

mich