Advice please about K1 denial for multiple petitions

[Ratty and C 13]

I've posted about this before, so some of you will be familiar, but to recap and give an update about what's going on....and ask for advice.

Our case seemed so simple, neither of us has ever been married, no kids, we're 43 and 29 so not a huge age difference, and i've met her twice in the last 7 months.

On 5/20/2013 my fiancee attended the interview at Manila embassy and was denied. She was told the case would be returned to the USCIS for them to resolve an old petition from 7-8 years ago, and it should actually only be a temporary delay, and given a form with 221g and the text 'Multiple Petitions' written. Unfortunately i live in California so we're being processed at USCIS-CSC, so petitions returned for further processing are simply added to the end of the line and allowed to expire, finally after a long wait at the end of the line being sent a denial.

The previous petition for her was from 2005-2006, so long expired, she did not attend the interview, he married since and so is no longer eligible to have a petition on her behalf, and multiple petition's isn't grounds for denial, it should just be resolved by USCIS. The whole thing just seemed like it was so irrelevant until we got screwed.

The consular officer said it looked like a bona-fide relationship and that all our paperwork was in order. The only reason he gave for the denial is for multiple petitions with her as beneficiary. The previous petition was in 2005-2006, we don't know the exact date or the USCIS receipt number or the MNL#, they were not supplied to her.

So far I have

1. Written an email to the embassy, who have yet to write back.

2. Spoken to an aide at my Congressmans office, and supplied a detailed explanation of our case - they are helping find out why the old petition would affect our current petition, as they are supposed to expire after 4 months, and it's so long ago now. They don't think it should have interfered with our case, but they're trying to find out more. The congressman's office has contacted the embassy who said they will return the case to USCIS. They're trying to do more to help and have been great so far - thank you Congressman Duncan Hunter and staff, you're our best hope.

3. Written an email to Mike Ellis and his associate Mr Lam - unfortunately their advice so far hasn't been very helpful, but it sounds like they are travelling a lot.

4. Found a Nevada county recorders office record of her ex-fiancee's 2009 marriage, thus obviously he isn't eligible to have a K1 visa for her.

5. Confirmed with my fiancee that she never attended the interview or came to the USA and was not issued the K1.

6. Contacted her ex fiancee. He won't help by giving us the USCIS receipt number or MNL number, and he won't write to withdraw the old petition. She said he was always nice to her, but i can tell he's a nasty piece of work, so although he's no help at least i can be thankful my fiancee did not end up with him, she's definitely better off without him.

7. I have read about FOIA for their previous petition - just to try to get the receipt number etc, but information regarding visa applications is only possible with the petitioner and beneficiary's permission. He won't cooperate of course,

8. Written but not yet send a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) for the consular notes for our case, 'cos i read somewhere that it can slow the whole process down while the FOIA officer gets all the documents, so i'll likely do this later when it looks like the case will be expiring anyhow.

Is there anything else i can do proactively at the moment?

Any advice on changing from K1 to CR1 post-interview?

Generally, any advice or suggested articles i could research about this? I've searched a lot, but the's so much information here and on the internet it's possible i have missed something useful. There were some great articles by Mike Ellis.

After a week in shock we've collected our wits and have decided that if the there's no progress toward resolving this in the next 3 months then we would like to get married and re-file later for a Spousal Visa. I read that it's not a good idea to request withdrawl of our K1 case after the denial at the interview 'cos it could look like we're trying to avoid a fraud investigation - which we aren't, we're just in love and want to be married and just start our lives as husband and wife. I bought the rings last weekend So, life moves on, just for now sadder and lonelier - but with plans afoot so something to look forward to.

Thanks for any help and good luck to all in your own applications

[littlej 23]

how frustrating for you

[nicolasandres 6]

sorry for all that the sad things that happen to you both .congrats and many many blessings

[fantonledzepp 159]

This is so weird. I hope you can solve this quickly. I don't know what else you can do proactively. Do you have the USCIS number for the petition, the WAC or EAC number and have her write a withdrawal? It might be futile, but you never know if that'll work. Try it.

[Pinkrlion 2,713]

I understand you want to be married, but again, it is another petition being filed, and you still have not resolved the issue of being denied for multiple petitions.

[julitathomas0810 30]

I've posted about this before, so some of you will be familiar, but to recap and give an update about what's going on....and ask for advice.

Our case seemed so simple, neither of us has ever been married, no kids, we're 43 and 29 so not a huge age difference, and i've met her twice in the last 7 months.

On 5/20/2013 my fiancee attended the interview at Manila embassy and was denied. She was told the case would be returned to the USCIS for them to resolve an old petition from 7-8 years ago, and it should actually only be a temporary delay, and given a form with 221g and the text 'Multiple Petitions' written. Unfortunately i live in California so we're being processed at USCIS-CSC, so petitions returned for further processing are simply added to the end of the line and allowed to expire, finally after a long wait at the end of the line being sent a denial.

The previous petition for her was from 2005-2006, so long expired, she did not attend the interview, he married since and so is no longer eligible to have a petition on her behalf, and multiple petition's isn't grounds for denial, it should just be resolved by USCIS. The whole thing just seemed like it was so irrelevant until we got screwed.

The consular officer said it looked like a bona-fide relationship and that all our paperwork was in order. The only reason he gave for the denial is for multiple petitions with her as beneficiary. The previous petition was in 2005-2006, we don't know the exact date or the USCIS receipt number or the MNL#, they were not supplied to her.

So far I have

1. Written an email to the embassy, who have yet to write back.

2. Spoken to an aide at my Congressmans office, and supplied a detailed explanation of our case - they are helping find out why the old petition would affect our current petition, as they are supposed to expire after 4 months, and it's so long ago now. They don't think it should have interfered with our case, but they're trying to find out more. The congressman's office has contacted the embassy who said they will return the case to USCIS. They're trying to do more to help and have been great so far - thank you Congressman Duncan Hunter and staff, you're our best hope.

3. Written an email to Mike Ellis and his associate Mr Lam - unfortunately their advice so far hasn't been very helpful, but it sounds like they are travelling a lot.

4. Found a Nevada county recorders office record of her ex-fiancee's 2009 marriage, thus obviously he isn't eligible to have a K1 visa for her.

5. Confirmed with my fiancee that she never attended the interview or came to the USA and was not issued the K1.

6. Contacted her ex fiancee. He won't help by giving us the USCIS receipt number or MNL number, and he won't write to withdraw the old petition. She said he was always nice to her, but i can tell he's a nasty piece of work, so although he's no help at least i can be thankful my fiancee did not end up with him, she's definitely better off without him.

7. I have read about FOIA for their previous petition - just to try to get the receipt number etc, but information regarding visa applications is only possible with the petitioner and beneficiary's permission. He won't cooperate of course,

8. Written but not yet send a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) for the consular notes for our case, 'cos i read somewhere that it can slow the whole process down while the FOIA officer gets all the documents, so i'll likely do this later when it looks like the case will be expiring anyhow.

Is there anything else i can do proactively at the moment?

Any advice on changing from K1 to CR1 post-interview?

Generally, any advice or suggested articles i could research about this? I've searched a lot, but the's so much information here and on the internet it's possible i have missed something useful. There were some great articles by Mike Ellis.

After a week in shock we've collected our wits and have decided that if the there's no progress toward resolving this in the next 3 months then we would like to get married and re-file later for a Spousal Visa. I read that it's not a good idea to request withdrawl of our K1 case after the denial at the interview 'cos it could look like we're trying to avoid a fraud investigation - which we aren't, we're just in love and want to be married and just start our lives as husband and wife. I bought the rings last weekend So, life moves on, just for now sadder and lonelier - but with plans afoot so something to look forward to.

Thanks for any help and good luck to all in your own applications

Have you tried the Freedom of Information Act ? You may be able to find out some information on your own . You may still need the permission from that person though . I would check into that and see what you can find out .

My glasses are out dated I missed that you looked into that DOH!

Edited June 1, 2013 by julitathomas0810

[Eric-Pris 1,606]

Why didn't you resolve the previous petition before filing? Did you know about the previous petition or did you find out when you heard about the denial?

Edited June 1, 2013 by Eric-Pris

[Ratty and C 13]

Thank you all for the replies.

LittleJ - Yes, it is frustrating! The day we were denied i felt like i aged 5 years.

NicolasAndRes - thanks the the kind message

FantoniedZepp - We don't have the old case number or receipt number, and we have no way of getting them. Her ex probably has them but he point blank refuses to help. We may write to the USCIS, NVC and Embassy to ask for them to withdraw the case, but she isn't even clear when it was filed, 2005 or 2006. late 2005 makes the most sense based on other things that we have firm dates for.

Pinkrlion - yeah, i understand about it being another petition, that's why we're leaving 3 months to see if there is any hope of progress with this application first. If there's the slightest hint of a chance it'll go ahead we'll delay marriage to give the K1 its best chance.

I just wrote to an immigration lawyer requesting information about a consultation. Has anyone (is it okay to ask this?) used or heard of Feldman, Feldman and associates in San Diego?

Thank you all again, and if you happen to think of any more advice of course please have your say - the more the merrier, if an idea has a 1% chance of helping us it's worth pursuing.

[Ratty and C 13]

Why didn't you resolve the previous petition before filing? Did you know about the previous petition or did you find out when you heard about the denial?

I was really very very thorough about all our paperwork and the consular officer said everything is in order except for this one issue.

I heard of the previous petition before we filed, it was not kept from me but i didn't give it much weight because of several reasons:

1. Old petitions expire after 4 months, this is from 7-8 years ago.

2. The ex fiancee since filed for a K1 for a different fiancee from the Philippines and married that beneficiary - so surely his petition for my fiancee is not still in the system as it did not mess up his application.

3. There's no questions in the 129f etc about previous petitions on her behalf.

4. Old K1 visa applications are not grounds for denial, it just needs resolving and we did not know when we applied that the USCIS-CSC does not do their job of reviewing cases returned by the embassy.

5. She was never granted the visa because she didn't attend the interview. She never received information from him such as Case number, Receipt number. Those pieces of information seem to be necessary to file a withdrawl. Most of the withdrawl procedures refer to the petitioner making the withdrawl, not the beneficiary.

The immigration specialist for my congressman thinks it's strange this is happening, so do you think i should i have thought this would be a problem when it's my first experience with this type of visa? The problem is really caused by USCIS-CSC not reviewing returned petitions as they are supposed to - when you first file, do you know not only what you should do but what parts of the immigration system further down the line are not functioning as intended depending on which address you happen to live at? That could be any number of things, it's simply not possible to know not only what you are supposed to do but also what the exact internal procedure of every step of the process is. That's why there's articles like this

http://www.ilw.com/articles/2006,0323-ellis.shtm

and

http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/40923-noids-at-california-service-center-update/

And also bear in mind it seems like they keep tweaking their procedures, so information available is not always current.

So, that's why.

[Ratty and C 13]

Have you tried the Freedom of Information Act ? You may be able to find out some information on your own . You may still need the permission from that person though . I would check into that and see what you can find out .

My glasses are out dated I missed that you looked into that DOH!

haha yeah, no problem, my post was kinda long so i had to read it a couple of times to make sure i put in all the pertinent information. Thanks for the advice though.

I am really hoping the congressman's office can help resolve the problem - even if it's just to know it won't happen again if we re-file.

[Inky 1,110]

You could also maybe try sending a very well detailed email to the ombudsman.

[julitathomas0810 30]

This is so tough to read these postings . I really feel for you and pray for the two of you . Its great to see the strength you two have together during this process . In the end it will all be worth it as I am sure you already know

[Ratty and C 13]

This is so tough to read these postings . I really feel for you and pray for the two of you . Its great to see the strength you two have together during this process . In the end it will all be worth it as I am sure you already know

Thanks

Yeah, it's really the worst thing we've been through together so although it's tough for us at least we can see from this how committed we are to each other. I would wait forever (hopefully sooner!) for her, we will find a way to make it work in the end i know.

Next time she goes for the interview i will attend it. This time when she got back to the hotel skype was so bad we had to resort to texting and it's so hard to show how supportive you are via text. During her interview i wrote her a nice supportive email just in case of the worst-case to let her know i am hers forever.....and of the 1000's of emails we've sent back and forth, that is the one email Yahoo sent to spam. I guess that's why they have the '!' on Yahoo! So next time, even if it doesn't contribute toward a successful petition, i will be there for her. Tears in my eyes now just thinking how she must have felt. Well, i did at least pay for her sister to fly to Manila to support her, so she was not alone. But next time yeah, i will attend for sure - and i'd suggest anyone who can attend should do so, it's going to be easier to ask questions there and then if there's 2 of you and one is a native English speaker - rather than contacting the embassy later.

You could also maybe try sending a very well detailed email to the ombudsman.

Yeah, i considered that for the first time last night. First i will consult with a lawyer to make sure doing something like that won't just slow everything down.

Great idea though, so thank you

[del-2-5-2014 1,339]

Sorry that this is happening. I was physically sick when my then Fiancee called me to tell me that she was denied. It's totally not a cool feeling.

Others have covered most of what i wanted to say but I would just say to be open minded about the Ex, you weren't there and didn't know the dynamics of that relationship. For example I drove 800 miles round trip to help my 1st Ex move apartments but I will not cross the street to pee on my 2nd Ex Wife is she was on fire.

Seems that you need this Guy so I would not be disrespectful to him, not saying you are or were.

[LuImee 0]

I would highly suggest you get the services of Atty. Gurfinkel. He has a high rate of resolving problematic immigration issues. Your fiancé might have heard of him and I'm sure the USEM-Manila is well acquainted with his work. Wouldn't hurt to look him up.... Goodluck!