Our chaotic and strange K1 process (Viet Citizen living in Thailand)

[PedroDaGr8 245]

Figured this would be of some use for the random person that experiences this. 

 

First off, if you are going through this process, prepare your documents WAY in advance. The police report in Vietnam took a LONG time (5 weeks), unless you wanted to give a US$1k bribe, the Thai documents took around 2-3 weeks (bribe was impossible). To avoid a lot of the following stuff that we had to go through, get your documents validated by the Vietnamese Embassy. 

 

My fiancee is Vietnamese but interviewing at the Bangkok US Embassy, because she lives and works in Bangkok. The day before my fiancee's interview at the US Embassy, her interview appointment disappeared from the embassy website; it was wiped entirely off the schedule for that month. Surprised and unsure what to do, I posted on here if anyone had any experience with this. Nobody had encountered this happening before but the general consensus was to go to the interview anyways because we had not heard anything from the embassy. So she went to her appointment as it had been originally scheduled. Once there, they took all of her documents as if she was having her interview and there was no indication of anything wrong. She was asked the usual first round of questions when she gave the documents and then she waited 5 hours for her name to be called up for her interview. When she was called up, the officer simply said that they wanted to independently verify ALL of her official Vietnamese documents (the ones that she got directly from the Viet government) and as such there would be no interview today (his words). He gave her back her passport and a 221G with the only thing checked being "Other:" and it is filled in with "Administrative Processing of Vietnamese Documents". He refused to giver her any time frame, estimated time, or honestly any other details at all. This left us wondering how long it would take. The horror stories about 221G and Administrative Processing abound. After a couple of weeks she sent an email to the Embassy and they responded back:

 

Quote

Dear Sir/Madam: 

 

Thank you for your email.

It is our pleasure to inform you that your visa has now been approved. We are working with the preparation of your visa package at the moment which takes approximately ten business days. Applicant should refrain from making any irrevocable travel arrangements until he/she receives the visa package back in hand. Once the package is ready, we will mail it to the applicant's mailing address in his/her GSS profile. All of the original documents will be returned to the applicant with this package.

 

The tracking number of the package will not be available until it is sent off. You are welcome to check back with us in the next ten business days for possible update. 

Best Regards,

Immigrant Visa Unit

US Embassy Bangkok

This is strange, because she was literally told that she would not have the consular interview before, implying there would be an interview at a later date. Now here is where it gets even more weird: at this point, THEY DON'T HAVE HER PASSPORT! Wondering how they can process the packet without her passport, she emailed back. They responded to send it to the same address she sent her Packet 3 before. So she does this and it arrives there the day before the Songkran holiday. A couple days after the holiday she emails them and they said they are still working through the backlog from the holiday but will get to it shortly. Suddenly, two days ago (8 business days from the email) her CEAC status gets updated from Immigrant to Non-Immigrant and a new case date is submitted. Within 12 hours of this status change, her status flies through Ready-->Administrative Processing-->Issued. On top of that, checking her passport status yesterday shows that it has been submitted for shipping. Today when she came home from work her passport was there with the visa included! So they literally hit their 10 business days (if you ignore the days off for Songkran Holiday)

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

27 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Figured this would be of some use for the random person that experiences this. 

 

First off, if you are going through this process, prepare your documents WAY in advance. The police report in Vietnam took a LONG time (5 weeks), unless you wanted to give a US$1k bribe, the Thai documents took around 2-3 weeks (bribe was impossible). To avoid a lot of the following stuff that we had to go through, get your documents validated by the Vietnamese Embassy. 

 

My fiancee is Vietnamese but interviewing at the Bangkok US Embassy, because she lives and works in Bangkok. The day before my fiancee's interview at the US Embassy, her interview appointment disappeared from the embassy website; it was wiped entirely off the schedule for that month. Surprised and unsure what to do, I posted on here if anyone had any experience with this. Nobody had encountered this happening before but the general consensus was to go to the interview anyways because we had not heard anything from the embassy. So she went to her appointment as it had been originally scheduled. Once there, they took all of her documents as if she was having her interview and there was no indication of anything wrong. She was asked the usual first round of questions when she gave the documents and then she waited 5 hours for her name to be called up for her interview. When she was called up, the officer simply said that they wanted to independently verify ALL of her official Vietnamese documents (the ones that she got directly from the Viet government) and as such there would be no interview today (his words). He gave her back her passport and a 221G with the only thing checked being "Other:" and it is filled in with "Administrative Processing of Vietnamese Documents". He refused to giver her any time frame, estimated time, or honestly any other details at all. This left us wondering how long it would take. The horror stories about 221G and Administrative Processing abound. After a couple of weeks she sent an email to the Embassy and they responded back:

 

This is strange, because she was literally told that she would not have the consular interview before, implying there would be an interview at a later date. Now here is where it gets even more weird:  this point, THEY DON'T HAVE HER PASSPORT! Wondering how they can process the packet without her passport, she emailed back. They responded to send it to the same address she sent her Packet 3 before. So she does this and it arrives there the day before the Songkran holiday. A couple days after the holiday she emails them and they said they are still working through the backlog from the holiday but will get to it shortly. Suddenly, two days ago (8 business days from the email) her CEAC status gets updated from Immigrant to Non-Immigrant and a new case date is submitted. Within 12 hours of this status change, her status flies through Ready-->Administrative Processing-->Issued. On top of that, checking her passport status yesterday shows that it has been submitted for shipping. Today when she came home from work her passport was there with the visa included! So they literally hit their 10 business days (if you ignore the days off for Songkran Holiday)

 

Hah! I have heard and seen some easy interviews done on here like 3-4 minutes but not to even have one.

 

Well despite all the chaos glad to see it is done with and congrats on managing to keep your sanity during all the randomness.

[PedroDaGr8 245]

2 hours ago, Ben&Zian said:

 

Hah! I have heard and seen some easy interviews done on here like 3-4 minutes but not to even have one.

 

Well despite all the chaos glad to see it is done with and congrats on managing to keep your sanity during all the randomness.

Thanks and yeah we were both surprised. We actually believed that the email was in error, that maybe the mistyped the number or something. We didn't fully believe it until everything started updating, then boom it is all done. We had just never seen a approval without an interview and one where they approved it without them having the passport in hand. I mainly typed this up so that if someone else does a google search for a similar topic and finds this, they can see the results. 

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

Well glad to hear it, cause I believe I also had seconded everyone on just attending the interview as planned in the original post. So glad you followed up and let us know.

[Calvinf1 0]

Hi Pedro,

 

I have many question for you! What is you timeline from the point your fiance went to the interview to getting the visa?

 

My fiance is in similar situation as you, she is from Myanmar but works and lives in BKK. She works in a family flower business with her mom. 

 

I've been stuck in AP for over a month now. My fiance went for her interview on March 23. She got a 221g and they asked for a Thai police paper and my updated w2 (when I submitted my packet 3 I had not received my most updated w2). We hadn't obtain a Thai police but had a Myanmar police certificate. She also had to fill out additional paper on her family (for Myanmar nationals). No problem we can gwt this done fast. April 3 my fiance got the Thai police paper. I faxed her my w2 and she sent everything in. The post office confirmed delivery April 5th. Thinking we beat the Songkran holiday and hoping for good news after the holiday. Now on May 12 we are still stuck on AP. 

 

Her interview went really well and was told the additional documentation request are just formality. My fiance speaks perfect American English and answered everything they had asked. There are other applicants from that day that she befriended has already gotten their visa after they got the 221g that day. 

 

My dilemma is my fiance was in Thailand on a visitor visa that is about to expire. Shes been doing visa runs for several years now. The embassy is still holding her passport during AP. If we don't get the visa back soon then she will be paying 500 bht per day penalty. I would hate to ask for the passport back to further delay the process. But we dont get the passport then she can't extend her Thai visa and therefore become illegal in Thailand. 

 

I have emailed the embassy 2 times explaining the situation but only received canned response saying its still in AP and don't make travel arrangement. I guess no one cares at the embassy about peoples real life dilemma. I'm at a lost on what to do and my girl is going to be illegal soon. This is truly a nightmare. I know at this point there is nothing I can do and giving up is the only option. Don't want to put my fiance in danger with Thai laws. You are lucky you got everything so quickly. Makes me wonder what the eff are they doing or if they are still hungover from Songkran.

On 4/26/2017 at 2:09 PM, PedroDaGr8 said:

Figured this would be of some use for the random person that experiences this. 

 

First off, if you are going through this process, prepare your documents WAY in advance. The police report in Vietnam took a LONG time (5 weeks), unless you wanted to give a US$1k bribe, the Thai documents took around 2-3 weeks (bribe was impossible). To avoid a lot of the following stuff that we had to go through, get your documents validated by the Vietnamese Embassy. 

 

My fiancee is Vietnamese but interviewing at the Bangkok US Embassy, because she lives and works in Bangkok. The day before my fiancee's interview at the US Embassy, her interview appointment disappeared from the embassy website; it was wiped entirely off the schedule for that month. Surprised and unsure what to do, I posted on here if anyone had any experience with this. Nobody had encountered this happening before but the general consensus was to go to the interview anyways because we had not heard anything from the embassy. So she went to her appointment as it had been originally scheduled. Once there, they took all of her documents as if she was having her interview and there was no indication of anything wrong. She was asked the usual first round of questions when she gave the documents and then she waited 5 hours for her name to be called up for her interview. When she was called up, the officer simply said that they wanted to independently verify ALL of her official Vietnamese documents (the ones that she got directly from the Viet government) and as such there would be no interview today (his words). He gave her back her passport and a 221G with the only thing checked being "Other:" and it is filled in with "Administrative Processing of Vietnamese Documents". He refused to giver her any time frame, estimated time, or honestly any other details at all. This left us wondering how long it would take. The horror stories about 221G and Administrative Processing abound. After a couple of weeks she sent an email to the Embassy and they responded back:

 

This is strange, because she was literally told that she would not have the consular interview before, implying there would be an interview at a later date. Now here is where it gets even more weird: at this point, THEY DON'T HAVE HER PASSPORT! Wondering how they can process the packet without her passport, she emailed back. They responded to send it to the same address she sent her Packet 3 before. So she does this and it arrives there the day before the Songkran holiday. A couple days after the holiday she emails them and they said they are still working through the backlog from the holiday but will get to it shortly. Suddenly, two days ago (8 business days from the email) her CEAC status gets updated from Immigrant to Non-Immigrant and a new case date is submitted. Within 12 hours of this status change, her status flies through Ready-->Administrative Processing-->Issued. On top of that, checking her passport status yesterday shows that it has been submitted for shipping. Today when she came home from work her passport was there with the visa included! So they literally hit their 10 business days (if you ignore the days off for Songkran Holiday)

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by Calvinf1
Typos

[PedroDaGr8 245]

On 5/12/2017 at 3:59 PM, Calvinf1 said:

Hi Pedro,

 

I have many question for you! What is you timeline from the point your fiance went to the interview to getting the visa?

 

My fiance is in similar situation as you, she is from Myanmar but works and lives in BKK. She works in a family flower business with her mom. 

 

I've been stuck in AP for over a month now. My fiance went for her interview on March 23. She got a 221g and they asked for a Thai police paper and my updated w2 (when I submitted my packet 3 I had not received my most updated w2). We hadn't obtain a Thai police but had a Myanmar police certificate. She also had to fill out additional paper on her family (for Myanmar nationals). No problem we can gwt this done fast. April 3 my fiance got the Thai police paper. I faxed her my w2 and she sent everything in. The post office confirmed delivery April 5th. Thinking we beat the Songkran holiday and hoping for good news after the holiday. Now on May 12 we are still stuck on AP. 

 

Her interview went really well and was told the additional documentation request are just formality. My fiance speaks perfect American English and answered everything they had asked. There are other applicants from that day that she befriended has already gotten their visa after they got the 221g that day. 

 

My dilemma is my fiance was in Thailand on a visitor visa that is about to expire. Shes been doing visa runs for several years now. The embassy is still holding her passport during AP. If we don't get the visa back soon then she will be paying 500 bht per day penalty. I would hate to ask for the passport back to further delay the process. But we dont get the passport then she can't extend her Thai visa and therefore become illegal in Thailand. 

 

I have emailed the embassy 2 times explaining the situation but only received canned response saying its still in AP and don't make travel arrangement. I guess no one cares at the embassy about peoples real life dilemma. I'm at a lost on what to do and my girl is going to be illegal soon. This is truly a nightmare. I know at this point there is nothing I can do and giving up is the only option. Don't want to put my fiance in danger with Thai laws. You are lucky you got everything so quickly. Makes me wonder what the eff are they doing or if they are still hungover from Songkran.

 

Hey Calvin,

 

Sorry for the delay, we were travelling down to Portland over the weekend. That really really sucks, is there a reason she didn't want to process it in Myanmar? 

 

Here is our timeline by date:

• March 30th - She was scheduled to have her interview, receives the 221G
• March 31-April 4 - Case is continuously touched until the 4th. We have a suspicion our case was approved at this point and they never contacted us (they didn't have her passport either)
• April 10th (10 days later) she emailed them to inquire on if there was any updates and anything she could do to move things forward
• April 10th (about 3h) - received their response saying we were approved. 
• April 10th - During her afternoon break she shipped out the passport, in an attempt to beat Songkran (which failed).
• April 11th - They received her passport according to the Post Office
• April 17th -She emailed to confirm they received it. They issued an evasive answer about Songkran backlog (they love evasive non-committal answers)
• April 21st - The case shows its first time of being touched, after receiving the passport, without us emailing them. We assume this is when they processed receiving her passport.
• April 24th Evening - The case changes from Immigrant Visa to Non-Immigrant Visa and a new case created date is given
• April 25th morning (less than 12h later) - Case flies through Ready --> Administrative Processing --> Issued. We were surprised how fast we went from basically "Immigrant - Ready" to "Non-immigrant - Approved"
• April 26th - She receives her passport in the mail. No email with tracking info or anything was sent out. She just checked her mailbox and boom it was there.
• April 29th - She travels back to Vietnam to visit with family and friends.
• May 2nd - She arrives in the USA, without issue. 

 

Now, why are you emailing the embassy? This case is technically between her and the embassy, you are only tangentially involved at best. Which is why they won't even let you back in the interview area with her, even if you wanted to be. Your portion was taken care of here in the states with USCIS beforce it was transferred to the NVC. Did they touch your case when you emailed them? If not, then they weren't even looking at the info and were just giving you a generic answer since you aren't the principle party. She should be the one emailing them. Have her email the visabkkiv@state.gov (not sure which one you emailed) and include the case ID, which has the format BKK2016XXXXXX, in the subject line. They typically respond within 24h (often as fast as a few hours) and every time my fiancee emailed them, they touched her case, which means they actually looked at her details to give an answer.

 

Let me know if you have any other question.

 

Hope that this helps some. Cheers and Good Luck!

Edited May 16, 2017 by PedroDaGr8

[Mayhtut 0]

On 5/13/2017 at 5:59 AM, Calvinf1 said:

Hi Pedro,

 

I have many question for you! What is you timeline from the point your fiance went to the interview to getting the visa?

 

My fiance is in similar situation as you, she is from Myanmar but works and lives in BKK. She works in a family flower business with her mom. 

 

I've been stuck in AP for over a month now. My fiance went for her interview on March 23. She got a 221g and they asked for a Thai police paper and my updated w2 (when I submitted my packet 3 I had not received my most updated w2). We hadn't obtain a Thai police but had a Myanmar police certificate. She also had to fill out additional paper on her family (for Myanmar nationals). No problem we can gwt this done fast. April 3 my fiance got the Thai police paper. I faxed her my w2 and she sent everything in. The post office confirmed delivery April 5th. Thinking we beat the Songkran holiday and hoping for good news after the holiday. Now on May 12 we are still stuck on AP. 

 

Her interview went really well and was told the additional documentation request are just formality. My fiance speaks perfect American English and answered everything they had asked. There are other applicants from that day that she befriended has already gotten their visa after they got the 221g that day. 

 

My dilemma is my fiance was in Thailand on a visitor visa that is about to expire. Shes been doing visa runs for several years now. The embassy is still holding her passport during AP. If we don't get the visa back soon then she will be paying 500 bht per day penalty. I would hate to ask for the passport back to further delay the process. But we dont get the passport then she can't extend her Thai visa and therefore become illegal in Thailand. 

 

I have emailed the embassy 2 times explaining the situation but only received canned response saying its still in AP and don't make travel arrangement. I guess no one cares at the embassy about peoples real life dilemma. I'm at a lost on what to do and my girl is going to be illegal soon. This is truly a nightmare. I know at this point there is nothing I can do and giving up is the only option. Don't want to put my fiance in danger with Thai laws. You are lucky you got everything so quickly. Makes me wonder what the eff are they doing or if they are still hungover from Songkran.

 

Hi Calvin, 

 

I am in the same situation like your fiance. I am also from Myanmar, and applying visa in Bangkok. The status always displays "Administrative Processing".  Do your fiance get visa now? Thank you. 

[Calvinf1 0]

5 hours ago, Mayhtut said:

Hi Calvin, 

 

I am in the same situation like your fiance. I am also from Myanmar, and applying visa in Bangkok. The status always displays "Administrative Processing".  Do your fiance get visa now? Thank you. 

No we are still in AP. We were told the BKK US Embassy had to send the documents except the Myanmar passport to the US embassy in Yangon for additional processing and its waiting on them for the determination  and send everything back. My fiance had to get her Myanmar passport back to do a visa run and send the passport back to the embassy. Now its just more waiting.

[PedroDaGr8 245]

On 5/30/2017 at 3:13 AM, Calvinf1 said:

No we are still in AP. We were told the BKK US Embassy had to send the documents except the Myanmar passport to the US embassy in Yangon for additional processing and its waiting on them for the determination  and send everything back. My fiance had to get her Myanmar passport back to do a visa run and send the passport back to the embassy. Now its just more waiting.

I'm glad you were able to get it back to do the run. The wait sucks, I hope that the embassy in Yangon hurries up for you.

[Calvinf1 0]

3 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

I'm glad you were able to get it back to do the run. The wait sucks, I hope that the embassy in Yangon hurries up for you.

Thank you for sharing your story!

Edited June 1, 2017 by Calvinf1
Typo

[Calvinf1 0]

15 minutes ago, Calvinf1 said:

Thank you for sharing your story!

Thank you for sharing your story! We chose to do this in Bangkok because she has family here. She is originally from Shan State so she is really far away from Yangon. If she process through Yangon then she would have to travel back and forth. In BKK she can stay with her mom and don't have to travel. It just made logistically easier. Didn't think it would take this long but now we understand details a bit more. When my fiance went to pick up her passport (for the visa run) they explained the situation to her so we understand and feel a bit better about it. I guess the good thing is she got to skip out on the Northeast winter for this year.

[Mayhtut 0]

11 hours ago, Calvinf1 said:

Thank you for sharing your story! We chose to do this in Bangkok because she has family here. She is originally from Shan State so she is really far away from Yangon. If she process through Yangon then she would have to travel back and forth. In BKK she can stay with her mom and don't have to travel. It just made logistically easier. Didn't think it would take this long but now we understand details a bit more. When my fiance went to pick up her passport (for the visa run) they explained the situation to her so we understand and feel a bit better about it. I guess the good thing is she got to skip out on the Northeast winter for this year.

Hi Calvin, 

Thank you for your reply. Actually,  it takes me longer than your fiance. I was interviewed since Oct, 2016. I was asked for additional documentation, and I did prepare and submitted it. I think what they explained is correct because they also told me that there was some documents required by US embassy in Yangon. So, I submitted again on Feb, 2017. Now I am in the AP process, and I sent email once a week, and they replied to me that just keep patient and wait. Please let your fiance know that I am the same situation like her, and I also chose to apply visa in Bangkok because I am working here and it is easy for me. If not, I will have to fly back and forth to Yangon. So, we just need to keep waiting. I hope it will be fine. Thanks.