IR-1 Visa denied at consulate interview with 20 month old baby and Wife pregnant with baby #2

[Draco 0]

We had my Interview yesterday at the Bogota Embassy, I went with my wife who is my petitioner and was born and lived in the US for her entire life and our daughter who was born 20 months ago in Colombia but has already dual citizenship and has been visiting the US 3 times already. We are also expecting our second baby whose due is in April 2014.

First of all, my wife came to Colombia 3 years ago with the intention of working only for a year as a teacher and then go back to the United States but we fell in love and decided to get married after a few months of living together. I was previously married to another person for 2 or 3 months and divorced.

When we got married my wife and I decided that we wanted our kids to be raised in the US and we needed to start the process of obtaining my Resident Visa but at that moment before starting the process we found out that my divorce documents had mistakes made by the lawyer and we had to fixed them. It took us about a year to solve everything with those documents and be able to start the Visa process (we didn't want to look like if we were going to commit a visa fraud, so we wanted everything clear and corrected). At that time my wife had completed two years in Colombia and we already had our girl and seriously desperate to move back to the states. It has been a almost a year since we started our process, we started last november (2012) and just had the interview yesterday, Oct 29th 2013.

The the CO gave me the 221(g) form and told me and my wife that we don't have clear intentions of moving back to the US and she has to demonstrate that she has a domicile in the United States because that`s not clear either although in the process, this is something verified by the NVC previous to the interview appointment where she sent proof of having bank accounts, credit cards and even a driver`s license from the state of Indiana that she just renewed this year during one of our visits to the states.

My wife feels devastated, she even cried in front of the CO but he said It was nothing he could do. My wife doesn't even like Colombia, she has been looking forward to going back to the states from the beginning so Can anyone imagine how she feels after the CO told us that we don't have clear intentions of moving back?

We don't know what to do and I am really worried about my wife's health now that she is pregnant while felling so depressed. What else should we do if she already proved previously in the process that she has a domicile in the U.S and strong intentions of moving back?

I'll appreciate any advice!

[Harsh_77 718]

It seems your wife needs to move to US and start working in US and establish a domicile in US, I think that was missing in your case.

I am not sure if DCF was an option available to you, if yes I think you guys should had gone thru DCF.

[Darnell 8,479]

there are two paths when the uscitizen is an expat, for domicile:

1. prove up existing USA domicile or

2. prove up intent to re-establish domicile

for either one, it scans like she not provide enough proof. #2 is easier than #1, for most people.

Still, she has some time to submit proof of intent to re-establish domicile. There's other posts here on doing just that, please to find them - search terms 'domicile overseas establish' in the advanced search tool, upper right corner.

[Draco 0]

Thank you very much for the answers. I really appreciate your help guys.

[MRS.MONTILLA 4]

I think u should have filed dcf if it was avilable. It would have made more sence

[Draco 0]

My Wife and I are going to sent the following proof, please someone tell me if this is enough:

- Bank statements and certificates that she has kept since she was a child.

- 2013 drivers license. Valid until 2019.

- Certificate of birth abroad of our daughter.

- Car title.

- Cellphone she has kept active also with the same address as the bank statements and drivers license.

- applying for health insurance in the us.

- Register to vote in the state of Indiana.

- We also can show that in Colombia she has the right of having a resident visa for being a mother of a child born here but she refused to have it because she doesn't want to be a RESIDENT of Colombia and her current visa is the spouse one that expires on April 2014.

- We are going to open a new bank account in the US and transfer money from Colombia.

We could bring more proof from the states, this December we will be there visiting and maybe we could buy another car and have my mother in law writing a letter about living with her when moving back to the states but I really want to solve this problem right now and don't have to wait until next year.

[Ontarkie 14,450]

A job offer with a start date is the only other thing I can think of. Good Luck!

[Draco 0]

A job offer with a start date is the only other thing I can think of. Good Luck!

Would it be really necessary? She is pregnant, it is very unlikely that someone is going to hire her while being pregnant.

If we submit these documents, how long do you think they are going to take to process the visa?

[florida4life 29]

Can you She go to the clerk of court and get a certificate of domicle?

[Darnell 8,479]

a letter from a landlord or

a lease from a landlord or

a letter from the person providing free housing

and

a letter of offer of employment

---

those are things that I know are suitable for proving up intent to re-establish domicile.

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

You need concrete plans. So:

- Where are you moving to and why? Proof it. Such as planning to move to X town because she has family there, or Y area because there are good job opportunities etc.

- Where will you live when you move? Provide letter of lease/ deeds of home, or at the very least correspondance with realtors.

- If you think she will not work, how will you support yourselves? At least signing on with some job agencies would help- you, too, if the plan is for her to stay home with the kids.

- What will you do with the kids while you work? Can you enroll the older one in a pre-k, which would show intention to move to a specific place?

[Draco 0]

You need concrete plans. So:

- Where are you moving to and why? Proof it. Such as planning to move to X town because she has family there, or Y area because there are good job opportunities etc.

- Where will you live when you move? Provide letter of lease/ deeds of home, or at the very least correspondance with realtors.

- If you think she will not work, how will you support yourselves? At least signing on with some job agencies would help- you, too, if the plan is for her to stay home with the kids.

- What will you do with the kids while you work? Can you enroll the older one in a pre-k, which would show intention to move to a specific place?

Thanks,

Besides a contract for housing, and all the documents that we already have, we are going to need a new car when moving to the states next year,

- Do you think if we purchase a car this December when visiting family that would work for us as well?

- Do you think I can start applying for jobs in the US even though I still don't have my residence visa, and show that evidence to the embassy as a proof?

- Do you think we should also scan my wife's passport showing that she's been to the states twice a year in the last three years she's been living abroad, so we can show she's never been really out of the states for more than six months?

- When transferring money to the states who knows what would be the cheapest option? I have been researching about this too, and I see that opening an account in Citibank here in Colombia and other in the US and making an international transfer from COL to US has no Fees. Any other suggestion?

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

Yes, a car - anything like that, cell phone etc- is good.

You can start applying. Few employers will be interested, but it stil creates a paper trail and who knows, maybe gettign your name out there will even help.

No, unless those visits were recently and/ or have to do with maintaining domocile (suich as voting, looking after a property she owns etc), I don't think that will do much good.

That will depend a lot on your country and your US bank. When I transfer money from my Irish bank to my US one, the Irish side takes 5 euros and the US bank nothing. Keep an eye on exchange rates, it can make a big difference when you transfer a chunck of money.

[Draco 0]

I went to several banks here in Colombia and also to Western Union, all of them offered the same or similar rates, let's say that I am going to transfer USD 10.000 to USA, they will take 16% out of my money (USD 1.600). That is too much, then I have a new question:

- If we take USD 10.000 with us in cash to the US and deposit this money in my wife's bank account and send both transaction documents (withdrawal from Colombia and Deposit in the US) to the embassy, would that be a clear proof?

Although I know It would be better to show an international transaction from bank to bank, I'm not losing my money with these banks in Colombia.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Draco