Expired K1 Visa Reissuance Processing Delays

[Busybees 0]

Hello, I hope you are all having a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

 

My fiancee (from Nepal) was unable to use her approved K1 visa to travel earlier this year due to the lockdowns, and it has since expired in August. We have been in contact with the US embassy in Nepal via emails in order to have her visa reissued. One officer from the consular section called my fiancee and asked her to visit the embassy within two days to make the payment for the reissuance with cash. She met with the Embassy on October 6th. While submitting her passport and Visa package and making the payment, she was told she would receive her documents with the reissued Visa within 2-3 weeks of completing her medical exam. Her medical exam was completed on October 9th and the report was sent by the medical center to the embassy on October 13th of this year.

 

It has since been over seven weeks since she completed her medical exam and there has been no indication on the part of the embassy where her visa is along in the process. We have called and emailed the embassy support team several times but they refuse or are unable to give us any update. Lately they have not been responding at all to our requests for a status update over emails. We understand that the whole COVID19 situation has severely affected workloads, however the simple lack of communication on the part of the embassy is very frustrating.

 

Is there any way for us to find out when we can expect her visa to be reissued or what the hold up is specifically on our case? The fact that my fiancee was asked to visit the embassy urgently back in early October and no response from them after the formalities on the part of my fiancee was completed (payment of reissuance fee, submitting of documents and retaking the medical examination and vaccination) is something we are simply unable to understand.

 

Also, we have heard that K1 visa processing has been routinely suspended since March or so this year, but can't find any concrete evidence of this. Is this class of visas no longer being processed? If so, what are our legal options at this point?

 

Thank you for any and all responses in advance.

[HRQX 4,145]

13 minutes ago, Busybees said:

Also, we have heard that K1 visa processing has been routinely suspended since March or so this year

That's old news: https://web.archive.org/web/20200320180048/https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/suspension-of-routine-visa-services.html

 

Updated info: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/phased-resumption-routine-visa-services.html

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Most embassies will reissue expired visas even if the class is not currently being processed for new visas. It’s odd that you are getting zero information from the embassy. In the absence of any response from the embassy, it might be worth trying to get your congressperson to enquire on your behalf... they may be more responsive. 

[Greenbaum 12,259]

The best place to be engaged to the status is at ceac.state.gov. Since the visa was once issued, the information may not be relevant to the reissue but it's better to try then not at all.  

 

K1 from many embassies are being processed. Your embassy wouldn't make you redo the medical and pay another fee if they were not going to issue the visa. We can never fully understand the workings of USCIS, NVC or any embassy as they keep you in the "cloak of darkness" intentionally. That's just our opinion. This is a waiting game. Good luck and stay engaged.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Greenbaum