Approved without Military Clearance!

[allierivero 0]

Hello!

So my fiance has been trying to get the military clearance form (one of the necessary docs for the interview) from the Cape Verdean government for over 6 months. The whole process has been an absolute sh** show. Long story short, Cabo Verde has a selective service that he was excused from in 2008 because 1) He was moving to a different country for college and 2) He is legally blind. Everything goes fine. Now this summer when we are gathering all the evidence for the interview, they say he never showed up in 2008 and they refuse to give him anything until he does A, B, and C.

The US Embassy is aware of all this because I made sure they knew why we were taking such a long time to gather all the documents. They say it is no problem and that they will schedule an interview when they are ready. Fast forward to this month when they call my fiance and tell him that they have the interview set for him. He asks again if it is okay to come to the interview without the military certification and they say yes, it isn't a problem and they can just conduct the interview and then he can send it later on.

He has his interview on the 30th of January and everything goes smoothly. He does his interview in English and the guy asks him a few questions. It was very relaxed and we already knew it would be since they have seemed to be a little disorganized throughout this whole process. The thing is, the officer does not mention the military registration and neither does my fiance. The officer actually says that everything is in order and hands him a piece of paper to bring back to the embassy the following week to pick up his passport with the visa. So there is still a chance they might request the military certification in the next couple days but if they don't...

Will this matter when my fiance arrives at the POE? Truthfully, we are not concerned with what the Cape Verdean military will do because they are so useless and disorganized and the whole interaction with them has been useless. We just want to know if the US side of things will notice that he doesn't have the certification. For example, is that something that is usually in the sealed packet that the customs officer will search for? He does not need this certification to leave CV in general so not having it should not be a problem upon his exit. Also, I have told the embassy about his trouble procuring this document and they basically said that they don't really care about and that it is just on the list of things to bring.

Sorry for the long post, this problem is very unique to us since CV is such a small country and not really represented in this group. I don't expect anyone to know much since the embassy didn't know what to do and they have seemed to have forgotten that they requested it in the first place.

Thanks and good luck to everybody in their own Visa Journeys <3

[Darnell 8,478]

here's what i think:

1. iv unit issues the visa, well, he's got a visa. can travel into the usa.

2. say the iv unit changes their mind after visa packet sent out - they will call him to come back with the visa packet. [via telephone]

3. say it's issued, visa packet in hand, and the final 'catch up review' is done the day he gets on the plane. a flag will be made in the CBP computer to hold him at the POE for further ICE stuff.

But to be honest, if Vice-Consul review process has outcome of 'no other paperwork required' then some bright boy made a determination that since your fiance is blind, he's not eligible for the military service, AND has read all of your written letters of attestation about it, that you've already submitted that describes that paperwork snafu.

[allierivero 0]

here's what i think:

1. iv unit issues the visa, well, he's got a visa. can travel into the usa.

2. say the iv unit changes their mind after visa packet sent out - they will call him to come back with the visa packet. [via telephone]

3. say it's issued, visa packet in hand, and the final 'catch up review' is done the day he gets on the plane. a flag will be made in the CBP computer to hold him at the POE for further ICE stuff.

But to be honest, if Vice-Consul review process has outcome of 'no other paperwork required' then some bright boy made a determination that since your fiance is blind, he's not eligible for the military service, AND has read all of your written letters of attestation about it, that you've already submitted that describes that paperwork snafu.

That's pretty much what I think too. It is difficult because there is no organization or professionalism in the Cape Verdean military, that's why we have this problem in the first place. They have lost his paperwork multiple times and this whole thing was supposed to be resolved in September. I just know that the only reason they are messing with my fiance in the first place is because they are eager to act like they know what they're doing when they obviously don't. They wouldn't have even noticed this snafu if he didn't contact them this summer for the doc. I guess we will wait and see what happens this week as the embassy gets ready to send out his packet and visa. After all this stress and hardship, I hope things go smoothly. I got a gray hair from this whole mess! Thanks for your advice.