Told by US Emb that its "illegal" for them to give B2 after K1 is submit

[yebo 0]

Dear Community Members,

I am currently living in Mozambique with my Mozambican fiancé. I submit a K1 for him in early August and short after discovered that I am pregnant and due at the end of March. We do not expect for his visa interview to be until May or June.

For this reason I looked into whether or not he would be able to visit me in the US as I plan on going back for work/to give birth in January at the latest. After investigating if it is possible to get a B2 after submitting a K1 I became convinced it is possible for the following reasons:

1) many people on visajourney have done it with no problem

2) several us embassy websites specifically address this situation and say it is possible

3) I emailed the us embassy in Mozambique and asked them if it was possible and they told me it was as long as he can show he doesn't plan to immigrate to the US on this "visit".

Once I was convinced it was possible we planned a trip for him to travel to the capital to interview for the B2 (which he had previously been granted to come and visit me and my family in the US). It was denied because, according to the consular officer it is "illegal" for them to grant a B2 with a K1 having been submit.

I am very confused and frustrated. It is possible that US law in Mozambique is different?? Does anyone have any ideas why we were told this or if there is any way we might appeal this decisiona since from the information I had gather, it does not seem to be "illegal" to travel with a B2 while waiting for a K1?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Bill and Vicky 25]

The B category visa is for visitors to the U.S. for a short period of time, with the expectation that they will go back at the end of the period. Your spouse has already made it very clear he plans to live here and not visit. So they are not going to grant him a visitors visa. He may be the kind of person who is legal and honest and would go back at the end of the visa period...but some people aren't so the rules apply to everyone. You're here and your new baby will be here, so he clearly has "incentive" to overstay a visitors visa.

Put a different way...if he enters on a B visa and doesn't ever go back, until someone catches him he doesn't have to do all of the other paperwork to stay here. They know that. How will they get all their money out of you if you don't have to do all the paperwork? (smile)

He has to stay until they say he's ready to immigrate here. Whether you choose to stay or come back is between the two of you.

And congrats on the pregnancy.

Regards,

Bill

[Elizabeth+Fred 35]

Hi yebo,

Although it is not *illegal* (the U.S. Embassy's email is correct) for a B2 visitor visa to be issued to someone who already has a K-1 visa pending, the actual decision whether to issue or not actually is with the Consular Officer who handles the request (and/or the interview) with the beneficiary.

In this case, the CO decided that the "risk" of your fiance NOT returning to Mozambique (after all.. he's in the U.S., with you, and, soon, with your baby, what more could he want??) is too great, and decided to deny the B2 visa. As said, he/she can do so, not much you can do about it.

Well...unless you (or, rather, your fiance) can *prove* to the CO that he has to return to Mozambique, because, for example, his boss wants him back there, there's an apartment to be paid for (rental lease), and so on. But, in this case, even that might not be enough, as he could just abandon the apartment, and/or leave his employer, because he has YOU !

So... however bad this is at the moment, this is a situation people oftentimes get in to when coming from countries like Mozambique ("high-risk countries") so I'd advise to just accept it, and hope they *will* grant the K-1 !

Do everything possible to prove that you two have a good relationship... having a baby 'in the works' definitely will help of course.

Good luck, and hang in there!!

--fred

[yebo 0]

Thanks for the replies.

I am aware that they can deny the B2 if they think he is a high risk for migrating there. However, that was not why they denied it, which is why I am frustrated and am trying to figure out if there is any way to appeal.

For one, they specifically said that they couldn't do it because its illegal for them to issue a second visa when the first is being processed. From my understanding, this is not correct since lots of people visit on B2s after submitting their K1. They even said that maybe we could call the us immigration and ask for an exception to this "rule" due to the pregnancy... so they didn't deny because of having a baby and him not coming back - they actually seemed sympathetic to the circumstances but are convinced that there is a rule that doesn't permit visiting while waiting for a K1.

So that is why I am perplexed and unsure as how to proceed from here. If they denied him because he was high risk to not come back to Mozambique for the K1 interview I would understand, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Any suggests on how to handle the situation...?

[KayDeeCee 4,896]

~ Moved from K-1 Process to Tourist Visas - topic about tourist visa process, not K-1 ~

[Jawaree 718]

Its up to the CO. not impossible but most times it will not be

issued with a petition pending due to immigrant intent, the

fiancé was not able to convince CO he would return home ,

many has done this who already have a visa jumping the line

you will have to wait on K1 approval

[jan22 3,064]

I assume you were not at the interview, so what you know about what was said is from your fiancé, right? Not saying he's lying about it, but there is clearly room for mis-communication/mis-understandings. It's possible that the visa officer said something along the lines of "The law says I have to believe you are going to go stay in the U.S. and you have not convinced me that you will not, since you have a visa that lets you immigrate to the U.S. in process. So, under the law, I cannot issue a visa to you while you are processing that one." That may sound like you are being told that it is illegal to issue the visa since there is a K-1 in process, when in fact what they are saying is that they don't believe he will return if the visitor visa is granted.

And, what they may have been saying about talking to USCIS is to ask for "Humanitarian Parole" into the U.S., which is a USCIS process to permit entry when someone does not qualify for a visa -- they are paroled in for a specific amount of time without a visa. (And, BTW, it is rare that they grant parole because of a pregnancy, unless there is a serious risk involved in the pregnancy or birth -- which I hope is not/will not be true).

Hopefully, your process will move quickly and he can join you, but it sounds like a visitor's visa is highly unlikely at this point.

[UnaMexicana 153]

Visa denials have no appeal. Did they provide you any document or INA section under which the denial was made?

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/general/denials.html

http://maputo.usembassy.gov/non-immigrant_visas.html

From the latter:

If you have already reviewed the frequently asked questions and still need more information you may reach consular staff atconsularmaputo@state.gov

Best,

UnaMexicana