K1 visa

[KrashC 9]

Why does uscis approves but embassy denies.? Does this even makes sense ? 

[Crazy Cat 41,906]

9 minutes ago, Kaymc said:

Why does uscis approves but embassy denies.? Does this even makes sense ? 

USCIS approves the relationship petition, not the visa.  The embassy (consulate) is the approval authority for visas.

[Illiria 980]

USCIS and embassy are two different processes. The 129F petition only requires that the petitioner is a us citizen, that they and the beneficiary have met once and they have submitted an intention to marry. The K1 visa requires you to show a bonafide relationship, financial ability to support, and the intent to marry needs to be confirmed. So whilst the petition can only be denied if there is a factual issue such as not having met, not being a us citizen, or not having submitted intention or being able to marry the visa can be denied if the embassy thinks the person doesn’t have a bonafide relationship, is going to be a public charge, or something else that is less cut and dry than at the USCIS level. 

[Sugarlegetiti 566]

28 minutes ago, missileman said:

USCIS approves the relationship petition, not the visa.  The embassy (consulate) is the approval authority for visas.

Very well explained,  I found out the hard way when my fiance (hubby now) K1 visa was denied, it was a shock to me because I thought when USCIS aprroved a petition that means visa will also be approved 

Edited August 29, 2018 by Sugarlegetiti

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

Guessing the OP isn't going to give any further information; but as most above, the two processes are seperate. USCIS mainly verifies you meet the requirements while the CO and the embassy determine legitimacy of the relationship itself.

[JFH 12,190]

USCIS approves the petition - all that means is that the USC is found to be a US citizen, unmarried, not committed any crimes that bar him/her from petitioning, has met the ntending immigrant at least once in the past two years and intends to marry said immigrant within 90 days of his/her arrival. 

 

USCIS does not determine whether the intending immigrant is eligible for a visa. All they are bothered about is that there are grounds for a visa application to be made. Basically they are answering the question "does this American qualify to bring this foreigner into the country as a fiancé?" Not the question "is this foreigner eligible to come to the USA". Two different questions. 

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

Because USCIS and the embassy/embassies are two totally different things and group of officers/reviewers.

 

Your application/petition being approved does not indicate you are approved for the visa, which I believe is even stated on those Notice of Action letters for the application. (You don't say what you applied for, K1 or CR1, so generalizing here.) The petition being approved is the approval of your ability to move forward. You are still responsible for meeting the additional requirements applicable to your particular visa that you applied for. Failing to meet those requirements at all will get you denied at the embassy level, regardless of the fact that the initial petition/application was approved.

 

It's like an interviewing process for a job. You may clear the initial phone screen and move on to a face to face interview, but you can still bomb the face to face interview, or the employer can still determine at the face to face interview stage that they will not be hiring you for whatever reason, regardless if you did okay during the phone screen.

[KrashC 9]

3 hours ago, Sugarlegetiti said:

Very well explained,  I found out the hard way when my fiance (hubby now) K1 visa was denied, it was a shock to me because I thought when USCIS aprroved a petition that means visa will also be approved 

What did you do when he was denied ?

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

4 hours ago, Kaymc said:

What did you do when he was denied ?

 

Main thing is depending especially on where the beneficiary is from, such as a "high fraud" country, most will say you need to make sure first he was denied the visa, then the petition will return to USCIS to expire basically.

 

Most will say just marry and file for a CR-1 (spousal) visa; but key thing is first to find out exactly why you were denied the visa originally. Just marrying doesn't solve or fix anything. So if they don't believe the relationship is real maybe do to lack of in person meeting(face time), or large age difference which is abnormal for that culture, difference in religions... you have to address that first.

[EandH0904 1,184]

5 hours ago, Kaymc said:

What did you do when he was denied ?

Our petition wasn't denied, but it wasn't approved. He got put in Administrative Processing (AP) and - as you know the K1 validation date is only 4 months after the NOA2 - so after being put in AP - ours was returned to the US and was expired. 

 

We waited, had several more visits (filed K1 after 1 visit) and got married 4th visit. Now doing CR1. 

 

Try to figure out why your fiance visa wasn't approved (usually you can tell based on the questions they asked, things they focused on - common reasons being not much time spent together, large age difference, beneficiary not meeting petitioners children, etc) - and overcome those things. In our case we had only visited each other once so we wanted to have more visits. Hopefully this attempt will be successful. 

 

[Jay Jones 261]

I see why the poster asked this question.  It would be great if there was one organization that did the entire process.  Most of us feel that when we receive the NOA2 that it's a done deal after that.

[felipeTAYA 18]

On 8/29/2018 at 9:42 AM, Kaymc said:

Why does uscis approves but embassy denies.? Does this even makes sense ? 

USCIS mainly approves the USA citizen (verify that the person is indeed an USA citizen) and the relationship. The embassy checks the relationship, medical exam and criminal record among other things.