Mandatory 21 days before you file??

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

It wan't easy for me to travel, but you do what you must. I worked full time with limited vacation , had a child at home and at the time I was primary support to my daughter, who was raising 4 kids ,2 of children with developmental issues, by herself.

[Zee Bee 61]

I think the take away message is that the more face time the better. I haven't heard of specific number of days requirements but with Lagos the more you can provide the better.

I personally think it would be unreasonable for them to institute a minimum number of days that you need to be together. Every situation should be looked at in it's entirety.

[dwheels76 5,468]

Immigration is something between a formula and an unbalanced scale. They have the ablity to collect data at all points of the operation. How many petitions of which type are filed. What are the profiles of the petitioner and the beneficary, how many issued visa recipients are married at ROC, at citizenship ? You make a grid of the responses and issue scores to the success rate of all people. Some places like the UK you have a high success number across all ages, all deltas in race/religion so they rate everyone as a low chance of fraud. Other places like Nigeria you have troubles all around but few low success when the woman is older/white/divorced/not travelled so these people have the balance tripped heavily against them in getting approval. To pull the scales back into a favorable tilt you have to do more to show you have a better chance then others in your group. One of the things measured is how much you really know each other. Once measure of this is time spent together. If worse your probability score the more you have to add to your side of the scale to balance it out. I have seen scammers work over woman for years, all the time spewing their tales of absolute love and commitment. I have seen USC's snowballed by the over attentive behavior of these people and left holding the bag. Is 21 or 30 written down somewhere no, but if you have a heavily unbalanced scale then spending time together will help bring it back into balance. If you are in the white, over 40, divorced crowd I would put a month of face time high on your list of things to do in Nigeria. I know Nigerians don't marry each other without doing background checks, they really consider us rather silly for not.

Wow excellent this really paints the pic more thoroughly. Thanks.

What I wonder is about AP you speak of that happening a lot in nigeria. Now this is what I don't understand there's AP basically we need more from you before we give you visa. That we have the denials which seem to fall into two categories: one the petitioner gets letter and it states why they were denied. I have seen some pretty detailed straight forward letters (well 2). Than another same denied but nothing but the standard "immigration purposes". What is the reasoning the with holding of info?

Is it a proprietary thing with info about the beneficiary? Just strange.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

The basic immigration process is that the USC submits a petition that is examined to see if it meets the requirements of filing. They don't spend a lot of time going deeply into the petition and on the US side all places are more of less equal. It then gets forwarded to the country involved. Here is where all things are not equal. Each potential recipient has a risk rating. The higher your risk rating the more they are going to check out the relationship.

Being that all petitions met the basic rules for filing the consulate is restricted to denying based on some "new" information. The generic reason is that the relationship isn't for love , it was created to gain an immigration benefit. This isn't a measure on how real the USC think the relationship is, it is a measure of the underlying movtives of the recipient. Some denials are for reasons that the USC especially doesn't want to come back here and tell ( such as they found out "hubby" has a wife and kids there) There are cases where interview is failed on purpose so that the USC will continue to send money. There are othter denials for bad marriages, being married and filing K1, incomplete divorces, insuffient affidavits of support . If everyone came back and listed the codified reason for denial , most will list relationship for immigration purposes even if the words are not directly written in engish on the denial.

[LoveNigarmostyle 164]

Each post here has a valid point to be considered. None of us have that luxury to juggle a job, life in the US, family, traveling back and forth to Nigeria as much as we would like. Our careers demand us to be here and be responsible otherwise out we go. Yes, it would be wonderful, if Nigeria was few hours away and traveling there for a three day weekend would work and also be feasible. But reality is very different. It is at least a day's travel for most of us and we need at least a week to go back and forth with the dedication of two days to travel alone.

None of us would think twice to travel and spend more time with our husbands or fiances. But in order to be able to qualify as a petitioner we need to have a reliable job and income to be able to sponsor our loved ones. So how do we travel to Nigeria and live there for months at a time, be able to file for our husbands, wives, or fiances and be able to juggle a career and a life meanwhile???

If impossible is the current going rate of the Lagos embassy, I would say they are succeeding. In the K1 visa application process they ask that a couple have met in person, it never indicates how many times are mandatory trips or the length of the time which must be spend with each other. But the US Embassy in Nigeria has the right to deny any one based on their assumption and decision of how many times a couple should meet and be together.

All in all I think there is some truth to your question. Whether it is 21 days or 21 years that remains the question which would be nice to have an answer to. Any one care to elaborate?

[Dana and Divine 61]

LOL thank you Tracy and heck ya soon soon. I am so ready.

And u right if it is some unwritten rule is one thing but to say required. Hmmmm

Thomas u funny paranoid (yes I am). I always feel like somebodies watchin me.

OMG, I knew there was going to be a song in here somewhere! :rofl: I'm checking my passport now to see how many days total for each trip...and all combined.

[Dana and Divine 61]

Yes, I agree! Nigeria definately gets the short end of the stick as to how our relationships are scrutinized! I think any of us would stay in Nigeria with our love's if we had the ability to, however in real life it is hard to juggle a huge trip like that. Especially when we have responsibilites here. All we can do is visit as much as possible, try to be present at the interview, make sure our husband's know us well, and collect plenty of evidence........and PRAY God help all of us!

Amen!

[Dana and Divine 61]

dwheels76, NigeriaorBust and LoveNigarmostyle, very informative discussions and clearly defined outlines of how much harder we need to work on our cases and the many factors we need to consider. We may not ever have a clearly defined answer to this question, but we can always email the embassy and ask.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Dana and Divine

[Thomas&Cleofe 358]

dwheels76, NigeriaorBust and LoveNigarmostyle, very informative discussions and clearly defined outlines of how much harder we need to work on our cases and the many factors we need to consider. We may not ever have a clearly defined answer to this question, but we can always email the embassy and ask.

Yes....I mentioned that to debbie long ago, but she ignore me.

[dwheels76 5,468]

Sorry had to jump in with God news with Mozeze got appoved. Another Victory for Nigeria. We are rollin ya'll (well in the VJ world and thats all that matters). wooo whoo. Okay let me catch up.

[dwheels76 5,468]

Yes....I mentioned that to debbie long ago, but she ignore me.

Thomas my bad. I have emailed the embassy (well not on this. I ain;t tryin to get my named memorized ya know. no cry now.

[Thomas&Cleofe 358]

Thomas my bad. I have emailed the embassy (well not on this. I ain;t tryin to get my named memorized ya know. no cry now.

I can definately understand that...I have sent 2 emails specific to our consulates procedures and requirements. They always reply to my questions, even though it takes about 5 days.

I was just suggesting to you......did you get your husband's case number yet?

[dwheels76 5,468]

I can definately understand that...I have sent 2 emails specific to our consulates procedures and requirements. They always reply to my questions, even though it takes about 5 days.

I was just suggesting to you......did you get your husband's case number yet?

Calling soon as my phone reboots for like the 3rd time its been down all day. my husband can text me but I can't text him. But i can text anyone else on earth. LOL

Okay NVC here I come.

I know if I did email and aske them they will never say oh yes we require 21 days. ha. Never they will say " we look at the totalilty of the entire relationship. Blah blah and also sen dtheir FAQ.

[dwheels76 5,468]

dwheels76, NigeriaorBust and LoveNigarmostyle, very informative discussions and clearly defined outlines of how much harder we need to work on our cases and the many factors we need to consider. We may not ever have a clearly defined answer to this question, but we can always email the embassy and ask.

Thank you I only posted to get a conversation going. Maybe we can effect policy who knows. But if nothing else if it be required or subjective, it is something that all need to be thinking of when petitioning. I have seen many who are going through process now the secong or third time and one of the denial bullets said short vivit or married and left kind of thing.

Lets keep in going with more good talk. There's more approvals coming ya'll. Yeah Nigeria.

[Dana and Divine 61]

Yes....I mentioned that to debbie long ago, but she ignore me.

:rofl: :rofl:

Sorry had to jump in with God news with Mozeze got appoved. Another Victory for Nigeria. We are rollin ya'll (well in the VJ world and thats all that matters). wooo whoo. Okay let me catch up.

Hallelujah!!!