Polish couples

[agataa 88]

7 minutes ago, David and Anna said:

I'm reading it (I could be wrong of course) as you have to apply for an NIE to go with a valid Visa or ESTA.  And that the NIE will only be approved if you meet one of the conditions listed.  I *think* you are saying that if you enter the USA from a third country other than Poland (say Turkey) then you don't need the NIE and can enter the USA with your regular B1 or ESTA. That's possible, but not clearly addressed in the new language, so you would have to investigate...they didn't say if these NIE's are needed for any Polish passport entering the USA regardless of where the flight originates or not...

I’m sorry, I’m on my 50th hour of work this week so I’m a little braindead, I’m sorry if I’m not explaining this well

 

So, yes, the way I see it is that if you want to travel on a b1/ESTA, you need to apply for the NIE. But we’re working under the assumption that you will be traveling from the Schengen zone, because this is the Polish embassy, so of course those are the rules that apply to us, they won’t post about hypothetical situations where someone would travel to a 3rd, non-banned country first. The ban isn’t on certain nationalities or passports but the country of where the “journey” starts, according to the CDC website: 

 

I will try to call our favorite embassy on Monday to make sure, but there have been posts on this forum about people arriving on tourist visas after going to a 3rd country for 14+ days, so I think it’s possible:) of course everything depends on whether or not the person at the POE will let you in, but that’s a different story

[David and Anna 118]

2 minutes ago, agataa said:

I’m sorry, I’m on my 50th hour of work this week so I’m a little braindead, I’m sorry if I’m not explaining this well

 

So, yes, the way I see it is that if you want to travel on a b1/ESTA, you need to apply for the NIE. But we’re working under the assumption that you will be traveling from the Schengen zone, because this is the Polish embassy, so of course those are the rules that apply to us, they won’t post about hypothetical situations where someone would travel to a 3rd, non-banned country first. The ban isn’t on certain nationalities or passports but the country of where the “journey” starts, according to the CDC website: 

 

I will try to call our favorite embassy on Monday to make sure, but there have been posts on this forum about people arriving on tourist visas after going to a 3rd country for 14+ days, so I think it’s possible:) of course everything depends on whether or not the person at the POE will let you in, but that’s a different story

thanks, you are being clear.  I get what you are saying, it is possible the NIE is solely to get around the travel ban.  The crazy thing is that the travel ban is well past its practical usefulness given the relative covid rates in many EU countries vs the USA.  This whole thing is starting to weigh very heavily on those of us who have been forced apart by this...each day the strain gets more difficult.  K-1's should be treated as spousal and allowed to go forward.  Its unclear if the people writing (and enforcing the EO's) either simply didn't think of K-1s, or if they did and decided "eh, screw em".

[agataa 88]

3 minutes ago, David and Anna said:

thanks, you are being clear.  I get what you are saying, it is possible the NIE is solely to get around the travel ban.  The crazy thing is that the travel ban is well past its practical usefulness given the relative covid rates in many EU countries vs the USA.  This whole thing is starting to weigh very heavily on those of us who have been forced apart by this...each day the strain gets more difficult.  K-1's should be treated as spousal and allowed to go forward.  Its unclear if the people writing (and enforcing the EO's) either simply didn't think of K-1s, or if they did and decided "eh, screw em".

Yeah I agree that this is really an absurd situation now, and the fact that we don’t have not only any dates, but not even criteria as to how it will be lifted is truly breaking my heart. That’s probably why I’m so hellbent on this crazy plan with Turkey, I’m worried we will be stuck in this situation until 2021

[xxlian 100]

1 hour ago, David and Anna said:

I read thru the "potentially allowed" visa persons list in the revised EO and it comes no where near mentioning family or fiances.  This non-immigrant visa "opening" is for students and people with important work in the USA mostly.  My take is that the fiances and family is covered by the other EO and that, rightly or wrongly, many embassies are grouping K-1's with immigrant visas.  And thus I fear that we are not only awaiting the removal of the EU travel ban, but also the removal of the stop on immigration. (I know that the EO neither includes nor excludes K-1s in its scope - its that lack of clarity in the EO that is leading to much guessing and contradictory replies from various embassies about whether K-1's can move forward or not).

Embassies have confirmed that they're only waiting for the travel ban to be lifted. Their general idea is that there is no point in issuing a visa that cannot be used. Then they'd have to deal with countless visas that they'd just have to reissue at some point after they expire.

[David and Anna 118]

6 minutes ago, xxlian said:

Embassies have confirmed that they're only waiting for the travel ban to be lifted. Their general idea is that there is no point in issuing a visa that cannot be used. Then they'd have to deal with countless visas that they'd just have to reissue at some point after they expire.

I truly hope you are right!  (can you link to such communication?  Anything from the Polish embassy?)

 

There has been confusion and some embassies have said K-1's are not allowed even when normal processing is resumed and the travel ban is lifted.  Some of course have said what you suggest.  Given that K-1's are not mentioned either way in the relevant EO's, its not possible to feel very confident.

Edited July 18, 2020 by David and Anna

[agataa 88]

@xxlian is right! I wrote to the embassy in June when the new EO came out and at first they told me that issuing of k1 visas is suspended until 2021, but when I asked them to explain it to me because I couldn’t see anything about that in the PP, they sent this reply: 

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by agataa

[agataa 88]

Ngl, the email where they told me k1 processing was suspended took off 5 years off my life, but basically we have to wait until the travel ban is lifted. Question is when

[agataa 88]

Sorry for triple posting, but this: makes me more sure that the problem with arriving on a b1/ESTA is the country of origin (or the last 14 days)

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/national-interest-exceptions-from-certain-travelers-from-the-schengen-area-uk-and-ireland.html#.XxDYpqo0BLo.twitter

[xxlian 100]

38 minutes ago, agataa said:

@xxlian is right! I wrote to the embassy in June when the new EO came out and at first they told me that issuing of k1 visas is suspended until 2021, but when I asked them to explain it to me because I couldn’t see anything about that in the PP, they sent this reply: 

 

Thank you. I had forgotten who had posted this. This was the email I was referring to. 

 

I read awhile back that the Schengen Area travel ban will probably be lifted mutually, with the EU re-evaluating their travel bans every two weeks. Unfortunately, I just don't know how/when things will get better again here in the U.S., which does continue to worry me. 😕

[agataa 88]

15 minutes ago, xxlian said:

Thank you. I had forgotten who had posted this. This was the email I was referring to. 

 

I read awhile back that the Schengen Area travel ban will probably be lifted mutually, with the EU re-evaluating their travel bans every two weeks. Unfortunately, I just don't know how/when things will get better again here in the U.S., which does continue to worry me. 😕

Oh yikes, if it’s supposed to be mutual then I truly don’t think it will happen this year, unless a miracle happens or Trump just decides to reopen everything completely on a whim

[xxlian 100]

7 minutes ago, agataa said:

Oh yikes, if it’s supposed to be mutual then I truly don’t think it will happen this year, unless a miracle happens or Trump just decides to reopen everything completely on a whim

That's not a definite, but it was one of the possibilities that were mentioned. I'm not sure what's going to happen.

[David and Anna 118]

thanks to both of you for posting here and clarifying.  

[xxlian 100]

I hope all of you are doing well. I happened to look at the current visa appointment wait times at the Warsaw embassy, and I expected to see it listed as "999 calendar days," which would indicate that they're not currently processing those visas except in emergency situations (source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas.html). However...

 

 

[Kasia & Damian 22]

I know we are in this together. I saw many people trying to travel from Schengen to other - allowed countries like Croatia, Turkey or Mexico, stay there 2 weeks and visit United States. 
 

I’m in touch with a girl who is now in Croatia and will be flying to the US on 30th of August (on tourist visa). She found few people who made it this way and entered US without any problem. 
 

you might see more couples seeing each other on the Facebook group called ‘couples separated by travel bans’. Some people are even posting their videos and it’s so positive 💖

[agataa 88]

On 8/14/2020 at 5:05 PM, Kasia & Damian said:

I know we are in this together. I saw many people trying to travel from Schengen to other - allowed countries like Croatia, Turkey or Mexico, stay there 2 weeks and visit United States. 
 

I’m in touch with a girl who is now in Croatia and will be flying to the US on 30th of August (on tourist visa). She found few people who made it this way and entered US without any problem. 
 

you might see more couples seeing each other on the Facebook group called ‘couples separated by travel bans’. Some people are even posting their videos and it’s so positive 💖

Oh hey, I’m in the same group!  yeah, seeing all those couples reunited cemented my decision to try my luck in September via Turkey!

 

@xxlian, this would give me hope except that even countries that are not under the Schengen ban still aren’t processing k1s  at this point I’m pretty positive nothing will happen until at least the end of the year...