K1 Embassy Refusal: Do Wee Need to Re-apply?

[MBMRes 0]

We submitted our K1 visa application in June. Everything was approved at USCIS and NVC with no problems and no Requests for Evidence. We were told 1 month ago by the Bangkok embassy that my fiance will not be given an interview and that our application would be sent back to USCIS because they need "clarification" about the IMBRA criminal conviction that I have from 12 years ago that I disclosed in the i-129F. I do not see what other "clarification" there could possibly be, as we did follow all of the instructions in the i-129F and we never Received a request for Evidence.

We called USCIS and we were told that applications sent back from the embassy are automatically forced to expire. We were told they are automatically held for 6 months, which is obviously less time than it would even take to apply for a new visa.

I contacted my local Congressman and the senior Senator from my state. These were their responses:

Most recent response from conrgressional office:

" I received the following response from the National Visa Center over the weekend:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the K1 (fiancée of a United States citizen) petition filed by XXXX on behalf of YYYYY with case number BNKXXXYYY.

According to Department of State’s records, YYYY visa was refused by the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. Her petition appears to be currently located at the U.S. Embassy and is in the process of being returned to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) via the NVC. The National Visa Center has no record of receiving this petition at this time. Please allow more time for this case to be transferred to our office. Upon receipt of YYYY petition it will be forwarded to USCIS, accordingly. Any further inquiries should be directed to USCIS at that time. The receipt number for this case is XXXXYYYY.

Our liaison requested more time for the U.S. Embassy in Thailand to return the petition. Once the embassy sends the petition to the NVC, then they will forward it along to USCIS. Once the NVC or USCIS has the returned petition, then our office should be able to determine the reason why your fiancée’s visa was refused. I will follow up with the NVC in a few days to see if they have received the petition and to see what options are available to expedite it if things don’t seem to be moving."

Most recent response from senate office:

"To give you a quick update. The Embassy in Bangkok says they have sent the file back to USCIS for “review” they do not say it has been denied. I have contacted CSC but they have not received the file yet so they cannot provide any additional information at the moment. The National Visa Center has confirmed the case is in the process of being returned but has not arrived there yet. (The Embassy will send the file to the NVC, who will return it to USCIS). I am going to keep checking in with them until the file is received and we can get more information. The NVC suggested we check back in 2 weeks.

CIS can renew the expiration date, they don’t when the Embassy has denied the visa, that does not appear to be the case here. I am hopeful, that once they get it back they will renew the date while it is being reviewed. Most of the time when a file is sent back from the Embassy it means the case has been denied, that does not appear to be the issue here. Once the file is back with CIS we will be able to find out more."

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We were given the news from the Bangkok embassy more than a month ago. If they re just going to decline this (or wait for 6 months), then it sounds like we should have re-filed immediately and just hoped for the best -- although I don't see any reason why the exact same thing wouldn't happen again.

I cannot see how this is fair at all. We followed all of the instructions and paid all of our fees. We were never even given an interview and our application is just being thrown in the garbage.

There is no real reason for a denial here. The IMBRA conviction was a non-violent, 3rd degree misdemeanor that occurred 12 years go (when I was in college). This is not an Adam Walk Act issue in any way.

What should we do at this stage? Just wait for them to tell us we are delayed/expired/denied?

[MBMRes 0]

Just to clarify, the email from the congressional office was the more recent email of the two.

[Pitaya 2,577]

~Moved from K1 Process to K1 Progress Forum~

~Inquiry about case status~