Transferring k1 from one embassy to another--cuba to russia or mexico---how to do this?

[jan22 3,018]

The State Department will identify an Embassy for processsing of immigrant visas for Cuban nationals if the personnel reduction goes on, aso ithe seems that ithe will.  It will not be Russia, as the Embassy staff there has also been reduced because of issues with the Russian government. 

 

Until they announce where that is, you would have to submit a request to the Embassy where you want the visa to be processed, asking them to accept your case. Depending on their workload, they may or may not be able to do that.  If they agree, they will then request the case file.  A post in a  non-Spanish-speaking country is unlikmely to agree to take the case.

[Sarah&Michel 6]

It seems like the US Embassy in Havana will be transferring immigrant visa requests to the Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.  No official statement has been made but this article was posted:

http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/national/cubans-seeking-move-to-us-must-get-visas-in-colombia-now/2340910

 

[ronnypupo 1]

hi this is the las update of u.s. embassy on cuba the visa interview will be on bogota colombia .

Dear visa applicants,

Due to the suspension of immigrant visa services at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, the U.S. Department of State has designated the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia to process immigrant visas for residents of Cuba. At this time, we are determining when we can begin scheduling Cuban applicants for interviews at Embassy Bogota. If NVC has not scheduled your case at Embassy Havana, they will schedule your visa interview at Embassy Bogota. NVC will send you, your petitioner, and your agent/attorney (if applicable) an email or letter noting the interview location, date and time. Please contact NVC through the Ask NVC online contact form for your updated status.

If Your Case Has Been Sent to U.S. Embassy Havana and You Have NOT Been Interviewed

You will be contacted with further instructions in the future.

If You Have Already Been Interviewed

If you were already interviewed you will be contacted by U.S. Embassy Havana with further instructions in the near future.

If USCIS has not yet approved your petition(s),

Please contact USCIS for your updated status.

Frequently Asked Questions on Limited Visa Operations

[MehgandMarcos 4]

So does anyone have an idea on the process or what is needed for Cubans to get a visa to Columbia?  On another post saw the Dominican Republic may be another option too....

[EmilySF 6]

On 10/10/2017 at 8:47 PM, Mocuepa25 said:

Any info anyone finds out will help... this seems to be getting more and more complicated. 

I was in Havana on 10/16 and was able to enter the embassy. I work for the school district so am used to bureaucracy and how to be ridiculously assertive. It's not worth the fight, but here's the scoop:

 

all "packets" are digital so don't need to be picked up in person, they can be transferred to another embassy digitally.

 

all visas will be automatically transferred to Bogota. Yes, Cubans need a visa to travel to colombia. It's an online application and then an in-person consulate visit by the Cuban fiancé to finalize the visa and pick up. Still unsure about that step, but I believe you have to have the "I have an interview date in Bogota" proof in hand so it lessens the burden for Cuban fiancé to prove they have a bank account/property etc and won't overstay in Colombia.

 

also Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago are no-visa-for-Cubans options and there are ppl on other threads on this website requesting interviews at those locations (in a Georgetown, someone has successfully requested a translator for the interview). Copa air flies from Havana to T&T, relatively pain-free, no visa, no vaccinations.

 

To use those embassies, you have to request your case be transferred to one of them: email asknvc@state.gov w your Case # in subject line and names + DOB from both petitioner and beneficiary. I haven't done this yet.

 

if you're in havana waiting, my opinion is to come back to the U.S to have phone and wifi to figure it out. I think this will take months to get an interview date. I'm preparing myself for after the new year. Plus with travel bookings and gettin an Airbnb for Bogota, it'll be easier in the U.S plus cheaper to wait on hold for the NVC line 603-334-0700 

 

hope that helps, it's been a real roller coaster for us love birds ❤️

 

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by EmilySF

[rudajojo 1]

On 10/8/2017 at 1:04 PM, pukka said:

Hello all. My fiancé is cuban and we have filed for k1. Our case was at the havana embassy ready for interview and we were ready to go as well, but we learned just two days before our interview date that all consular services are now shut down indefinitely due to the recent us-cuba political situation. So all interviews have been cancelled with no possibility of rescheduling. We are together in havana now trying to decide what to do. Unfortunately the embassy offers no refunds for the interview payment. They are suggesting we go to an embassy in another country instead and in the email we received it says we should go back through usatraveldocs and pay another fee and set an appointment. The only country i can think of where are cuban can enter without a visa is russia (cuba and russia have an agreement). So we are thinking about going to russia. This is incredibly frustrating...
Some questions--
-- i need to get into the usatraveldocs site and pay for another interview and get an appointment. However, when i log in, it only allows me to select "havana". Does anyone know how to change this--how to get an interview in a country other than where the beneficiary is from? The email i received from the embassy offers no instructions on this...just says they will do so "at a later date". Unfortunately each day is costing me more and more money as we were already here and ready for the interview when we found out and now we dont know where to go or what to do.
-- does anybody know how to get the packet currently at the havana embassy sent from there to another one (such as russia)? Currently the havana embassy is operating on very low staff and nobody will answer the phone or return my emails. Since we are here in havana i tried going in person but they wont let me inside to speak to anyone. Would the nvc be able to request this? Or would the packet me sent automatically? Would be stupid to fly all the way to russia and they dont even have our documents.
--anyone know how far out russia interviews are? Would it be possible to get one within the next month?
--in russia would it be possible for them to do an interview with myself and my fiance if my fiance only speaks spanish? would i also have to have his documents (police report, birth cert, etc) translated to english? In havana this wasnt a problem obviously. 
--how does an american get into russia? I think i will need a tourist visa. Can i say i am going to go to the us embassy for a visa interview? My fiance has never been on a plane and only speaks spanish, i cant let him go alone. There is a russian embassy here in havana--can i do this here?
--do american credit cards work in russia? I have no cash left so i have no other choice. We would need to buy warm clothes and pay for food and accomodation.
I realize russia is not ideal for a cuban in terms of distance and language barrier but unfortunately cubans cant go to many other countries without a visa and soliciting a visa for another country is quite difficult/long process. US embassy is not issuing any visas whatsoever currently. 

--we are also thinking about tryin in mexico---but not sure how we can get visa for cuban for this--anyone have any experince going to mexico embassy for interview for fiance not from Mexico? 
Thank you very much to anyone who can help. I realize some of these questions may seem lazy but in cuba internet and phone access is very limited and incredibly slow -- international calls are prohibitively expensive and pages take forever to load. So i am hoping vj community can help point me in the right directions on these topics. I am cross posting this is another forum too. 
Thank you in advance!!!

I sponsored my husband as  a fiance during the improved times in US- Cuban relations ( 2 years ago) and he was denied, we are waiting now for our interview date after being approved by NVC. In current climate, I doubt any fiance from Cuba can be approved for the visa so choose the nearest US embassy if you want to try. I pray to God that wherever they'll send us ( I'll go with him),  he will be approved. To qualify for the visa to Mexico or any other "hot" Spanish speaking destination, they need to have a good income in Cuba, own the house, money on the account...Good luck!

[Raulandlisa 0]

I just got back from Havana yesterday, while there I visited several embassies to confirm whether my Cuban husband did or  did not  need a visa to visit. Guyana, Russia, and Dominica (not  Dominican Republic) did NOT  require  visas. Now that  I am back in the US, I too need to find out how  to choose a different embassy for the interview. This is a hot  mess. 

[FieraSalsera 2]

So I was able to get our petition transferred to Buenos Aires (my fiance is there for work. He was supposed to go back to Cuba after the first of the year and we were to continue the medical/interview process then but thanks to Trump we figured it'll be easier to do it from Argentina). It was a pretty painless process.. I emailed the embassy at Buenos Aires last week asking if it was possible. First they told me that there was no way I can transfer the visa and we would have to apply again, but after I sent them verbiage from the US Embassy website in La Habana they sent me an email this morning stating they've received our petition and sent us the Packet 3 information with the copies we need to send the embassy before they send us a letter with the interview date.

 

It shouldn't be too much trouble getting petitions transferred to other embassies as needed. I did speak to someone through the US Embassy chat and he stated that I had to physically ask the Bogota embassy to accept the transfer to their embassy, even though everything should be sent to them anyway.. I'm not sure how informed he was.

[YandJ 40]

Hi, I have a k1 process and I'm an October filer. Th embassy made an announcement that they were on the works to have the cases routed to the US embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. This is so odd because Cubans need a visa to go to Colombia but thats what they said. They also said the are not scheduling appointments as of right now, as they were working out details. It is frustrating because you don't know if they would have to go there, if they need to apply for a visa or if when you are able to schedule the interview the US embassy will send something to the Colombian embassy in Cuba, it's a mess. Before that I was looking into México, as the visa is somehow easier to get and Guyana because they don't need a visa to go there. 

[AriSmith 11]

Yaoooo good news mi gente! We scheduled our K1- visa interview in BOGOTA. yUP. SURE Did. 

 

So we emailed the NVC for a case update, "what is the status of my case" https://secureforms.travel.state.gov/ask-nvc.php 

And they emailed us back with the same info on the NOA2 BUT changed it from Havana to Bogota. 

 

So then I emailed the bogota embassy with this new updated email showing us that we're approved to interview in bogota.

 

If you want more instructions on how we did this, here's the link to our FB page where we posted the deets: 

 

 

 

 

[pukka 11]

11 hours ago, AriSmith said:

Yaoooo good news mi gente! We scheduled our K1- visa interview in BOGOTA. yUP. SURE Did. 

 

So we emailed the NVC for a case update, "what is the status of my case" https://secureforms.travel.state.gov/ask-nvc.php 

And they emailed us back with the same info on the NOA2 BUT changed it from Havana to Bogota. 

 

So then I emailed the bogota embassy with this new updated email showing us that we're approved to interview in bogota.

 

If you want more instructions on how we did this, here's the link to our FB page where we posted the deets: 

 

 

Thank you for this! But I assume your case was only in the NVC stage when the scandal broke, not already in Havana? So the NVC sent your case directly to Bogota rather than it ever going to Havana?

I am so jealous as now it seems people who filed after me will end up scheduling their interview before me,  and for professional reasons we are really in a pinch to schedule the interview ASAP. But it appears I can't do anything until Bogota contacts me directly to schedule it, but they haven't even entered it into their system yet. Our case is currently somewhere between Havana and Bogota, according to the NVC. They transferred it electronically a month ago, but still haven't "received" it in Bogota, and e-mailing doesn't help at all.

When you scheduled the interview for Dec 28, did you see other dates available? What were the appointments looking like?

Also, did you get instructions for your fiance to get the Colombia visa? What is the cost, process, requirements?

Thanks so much! And even tough I am jealous I can also say congratulations!

 

11 hours ago, AriSmith said:

 

 

[AriSmith 11]

13 hours ago, pukka said:

 

 

Actually our petition WAS in Havana at the time of the 'drama'. Yes, other dates were available. We could've schedule it sooner but I can't get off work so soon. 

Yule (el amor de me vida) is actually in the process of getting the Columbian visa to travel. I'm going to post that process later this week on our FB page. https://www.facebook.com/chicagomeetshavana/

And don't worry, you will get there too! 

[AriSmith 11]

Edited November 28, 2017 by AriSmith
mistake

[pukka 11]

3 hours ago, AriSmith said:

Actually our petition WAS in Havana at the time of the 'drama'. Yes, other dates were available. We could've schedule it sooner but I can't get off work so soon. 

Yule (el amor de me vida) is actually in the process of getting the Columbian visa to travel. I'm going to post that process later this week on our FB page. https://www.facebook.com/chicagomeetshavana/

And don't worry, you will get there too! 

Thanks so much for your replies. I have called NVC twice about it to see if I can get my letter and I explained "someone I know said they did this..." and they say no, that's not the process, that I just need to wait for Bogota to contact ME. I don't get it! Trying to figure out the difference between our cases. Did you already have an interview scheduled in Havana that was cancelled?? Or was it just in Havana already but you hadn't scheduled the interview yet?

[AriSmith 11]

Yeah everytime I called the NVC, I got a different person who told me different . I swear. They don't even know what to do. So frustrating. 

Try just following the process on the link I gave you above. Also, I'm working on a document that outlines the exact steps, from scheduling your visa interview, to getting your Columbian visa to travel, and what's needed to interview in Bogota. 

 

Instead of calling the NVC, just email them and ask for a case update. It does NOT take a month to transfer a case from embassy to embassy. It's all electronic. People are lying! LOL.