Backlog in Bogota Embassy

[Boston_Gary 16]

Has anyone here looked into suing the Bogota embassy regarding K visa delays? They are not following the priority schedule as laid out. K visas are tier two, but business visas are being processed much faster at tier 4.  

 

 

While our consular sections, where possible, are scheduling some appointments within all four priority tiers every month, the following lists the main categories of immigrant visas in priority order:

• Tier One: Immediate relative intercountry adoption visas, age-out cases (cases where the applicant will soon no longer qualify due to their age), and certain Special Immigrant Visas (SQ and SI for Afghan and Iraqi nationals working with the U.S. government)
   
• Tier Two:  Immediate relative visas; fiancé(e) visas; and returning resident visas
   
• Tier Three: Family preference immigrant visas and SE Special Immigrant Visas for certain employees of the U.S. government abroad
   
• Tier Four: All other immigrant visas, including employment preference and diversity visas

Many embassies and consulates continue to have a significant backlog of all categories of immigrant visas.  This prioritization plan instructs posts to maximize their limited resources to accommodate as many immediate relative and fiancé(e) cases as possible with a goal of, at a minimum, preventing the backlog from growing in these categories and hopefully reducing it. However, the prioritization plan also instructs posts to schedule and adjudicate some cases in Tier Three and Tier Four each month.  The Department recognizes that visa applicants, particularly those in Tiers Three and Four, will face continued delays.  We further acknowledge that certain programs, including the diversity visa program, operate on a fiscal year basis as required by law.  The Department values the diversity visa program and is making every effort to process as many diversity visa cases as possible, consistent with other priorities, despite the severe operational constraints and backlog resulting from the COVID pandemic.  However, as a result of COVID the number of visas issued in lower-priority preference categories or in such programs as the diversity visa program likely will not approach the statutory ceiling in Fiscal Year 2021.   

Edited August 24, 2021 by Boston_Gary

[amarilloslick 13]

Is there a way to check the National Visa Center to see if we have a case # yet? We have received nothing and its been over a month. Thanks

[Seemoreglass83 18]

2 hours ago, amarilloslick said:

Is there a way to check the National Visa Center to see if we have a case # yet? We have received nothing and its been over a month. Thanks

You have to call them. You'll need your noa1 receipt number and your fiance's date of birth. (603) 334-0888

[mrveg 11]

On 8/24/2021 at 3:42 PM, Boston_Gary said:

Has anyone here looked into suing the Bogota embassy regarding K visa delays? They are not following the priority schedule as laid out. K visas are tier two, but business visas are being processed much faster at tier 4.  

 

 

While our consular sections, where possible, are scheduling some appointments within all four priority tiers every month, the following lists the main categories of immigrant visas in priority order:

• Tier One: Immediate relative intercountry adoption visas, age-out cases (cases where the applicant will soon no longer qualify due to their age), and certain Special Immigrant Visas (SQ and SI for Afghan and Iraqi nationals working with the U.S. government)
   
• Tier Two:  Immediate relative visas; fiancé(e) visas; and returning resident visas
   
• Tier Three: Family preference immigrant visas and SE Special Immigrant Visas for certain employees of the U.S. government abroad
   
• Tier Four: All other immigrant visas, including employment preference and diversity visas

Many embassies and consulates continue to have a significant backlog of all categories of immigrant visas.  This prioritization plan instructs posts to maximize their limited resources to accommodate as many immediate relative and fiancé(e) cases as possible with a goal of, at a minimum, preventing the backlog from growing in these categories and hopefully reducing it. However, the prioritization plan also instructs posts to schedule and adjudicate some cases in Tier Three and Tier Four each month.  The Department recognizes that visa applicants, particularly those in Tiers Three and Four, will face continued delays.  We further acknowledge that certain programs, including the diversity visa program, operate on a fiscal year basis as required by law.  The Department values the diversity visa program and is making every effort to process as many diversity visa cases as possible, consistent with other priorities, despite the severe operational constraints and backlog resulting from the COVID pandemic.  However, as a result of COVID the number of visas issued in lower-priority preference categories or in such programs as the diversity visa program likely will not approach the statutory ceiling in Fiscal Year 2021.   

Yea, that's absurd.  They've done over 4000 tier 4 visas a month.  It shows they have the capacity to finish all the K1 visas in a month if they wanted to.  Is there anyone we can contact?

[Boston_Gary 16]

57 minutes ago, mrveg said:

Yea, that's absurd.  They've done over 4000 tier 4 visas a month.  It shows they have the capacity to finish all the K1 visas in a month if they wanted to.  Is there anyone we can contact?

Nothing can be done. Only thing they understand is lawsuits unfortunately. I will contact my Congressman to help transfer out of Bogota. My reasoning will be this embassy refuses to open and the limited cases they are processing are not done as specified. Other embassies are processing two months after NOA2. Bogota is getting to two years at this point. There are effectively a non-entity now. 

[mrveg 11]

9 hours ago, Boston_Gary said:

Nothing can be done. Only thing they understand is lawsuits unfortunately. I will contact my Congressman to help transfer out of Bogota. My reasoning will be this embassy refuses to open and the limited cases they are processing are not done as specified. Other embassies are processing two months after NOA2. Bogota is getting to two years at this point. There are effectively a non-entity now. 

You cant just transfer can you?  You need to be a resident of any nation you want to transfer to?  It is so dumb because there are tons of other countries nearby (Caribbean, other south American) that are processing like normal.  They should shift all of Colombia there if Colombia isnt doing their job.

[amarilloslick 13]

Where are you guys getting your information? I would love to contact my congressman and senator (who I know) but I can't present them with hearsay evidence from VisaJourney. Where can I get real data that is verifiable? Whatsapp or Facebook groups are not reliable data.

Edited August 26, 2021 by amarilloslick

[Boston_Gary 16]

9 hours ago, amarilloslick said:

Where are you guys getting your information? I would love to contact my congressman and senator (who I know) but I can't present them with hearsay evidence from VisaJourney. Where can I get real data that is verifiable? Whatsapp or Facebook groups are not reliable data.

Please see the link from USCIS that shows what they are processing. You will see the largest visa processing rates are not even listed on the Priority List! We are being lied too so we will just shut up. I guess COVID does not apply to student visas. They processed over 2,000 student/exchange visas in June! In the same month they processed only 42 K visas. The reason given for the slow processing of K visas is they embassy employees do not feel safe because of COVID. Wow, just wow. 

 

The reason for the discrepancy is obvious. Colleges and Universities in the US have pressured the State Department to process student/exchange visas so they can get foreign students in so they can collect tuition.  They are clearly violating their own policy while lying and saying they can't process K visas because of COVID. 

 

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/nonimmigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-nonimmigrant-visa-issuances.html

[Boston_Gary 16]

9 hours ago, mrveg said:

You cant just transfer can you?  You need to be a resident of any nation you want to transfer to?  It is so dumb because there are tons of other countries nearby (Caribbean, other south American) that are processing like normal.  They should shift all of Colombia there if Colombia isnt doing their job.

Well, the Bogota embassy is now just a embassy in-being. They refuse to open up visa processing on a normal basis. As far as I'm concerned there currently is not an embassy in Colombia. We should be able to use the next available embassy for services. I mean Bogota is not functional at this point and they have put themselves in such a hole it will take years to get out. 

 

It seems it would be a great way to clear these backlogs. 

[stringtheory 2]

On 8/25/2021 at 10:12 PM, Boston_Gary said:

Nothing can be done. Only thing they understand is lawsuits unfortunately. I will contact my Congressman to help transfer out of Bogota. My reasoning will be this embassy refuses to open and the limited cases they are processing are not done as specified. Other embassies are processing two months after NOA2. Bogota is getting to two years at this point. There are effectively a non-entity now. 

Which embassy are you thinking about transferring to? I'm interested in any options including suing or transferring to accelerate my case but I'd hate to end up in a situation where I might unintentionally delay my case even more, kind of like changing lanes in traffic and seeing the lane you were in end up going faster. Also out of curiosity, is the info in your timeline listed correct? Have you received your NOA2 yet? 

[WEDO 5]

Wife's CR2 visa was approved on Aug. 31st in Bogota.

 

USCIS received the I 130 on June 15th 2020

Documentarily Qualified by NVC on Feb 9 2021

Interview in Bogota on Aug 31st. They kept her passport and told her to expect the visa within a week.

Notice from DHL giving the tracking number of the visa. Sept 2nd 2021. 

[waiting1234 25]

Just updating people on our K1. We just got a notification that our application is in transit to the embassy today. Our NOA2 was dated January 14th 2021.

 

Ill let people know what scheduling an interview looks like once we are able to.

 

our NOA1 was May 8th 2020.

Edited September 14, 2021 by waiting1234

[Seemoreglass83 18]

21 minutes ago, waiting1234 said:

Just updating people on our K1. We just got a notification that our application is in transit to the embassy today. Our NOA2 was dated January 14th 2021.

 

Ill let people know what scheduling an interview looks like once we are able to.

 

our NOA1 was May 8th 2020.

Congrats! Yup, looks like they sent a bunch of cases today up to noa2s of march. So check your cases folks looks like they are finally working through the backlog 

[Millikkl 15]

Advice needed:

My husband had his interview at the US Embassy in Bogota on June 25, 2021 for the CR-1 visa. Due to the issue with the labs, his case was put into "refused" and he was given a piece of paper requesting that he send in his passport once his labs were completed. His labs were competed the week of July 13. The last update on the case on CEAC was July 29th. Towards the end of August, I started emailing the embassy asking for an update on his case and they said they were reviewing his medical exams and would send a case status update in a few days. That was two weeks ago. Any additional inquiries were met with, "we cannot give you any information at this time". Well, come this past Saturday, he received an email that his visa application documents were ready to be picked up at the CAS in Bogota. The embassy also replied that his passport was sent via DHL and he would receive additional information regarding the status of his case at that time. 

 

He picked up his passport today at the CAS - no additional information. Embassy refuses to give additional information. Don't they have to supply a reason for refusal? We have literally been given nothing. Don't know what to do! Any advice is appreciated. 

[koblitzcam 5]

6 hours ago, Seemoreglass83 said:

Congrats! Yup, looks like they sent a bunch of cases today up to noa2s of march. So check your cases folks looks like they are finally working through the backlog 

Where did you get this information? Me and my fiance's Noa2 was March so this is very good news for us, but I'm thinking we may have missed it for this month because our case is the same status on CEAC. I also don't see anyone's information on the timeline search on VJ that had a Noa2 from March 2021.