embassies during covid curfew's + spouse visa processing

[kelsw 0]

I'm hoping to hear some stories from people who have experience with embassies that stopped processing visa's due to curfew's and what happened after those curfew's were lifted. Sri Lanka is currently under curfew until at least the 14th and I believe they are only processing humanitarian, medical emergency, and IR/IH3, IR/IH4 (for adoptions?) visas.

My question is did your embassy start processing more types of visa's after the curfew was lifted?  I understand there is going to be a backlog, but I just want to hear other people's stories.

My husband had his interview on April 29th and we have a CR-1 petition. They requested different translations than the ones we brought. Apparently they only accept ones from sworn translators in Sri Lanka, even though the ones we brought were accepted and approved by the NVC. No where does it say on the embassy website that they require that as well and the NVC didn't say anything about it either.


Anyways, we dropped off the Sri Lankan translations May 4th. On May 11th our CEAC status was updated to "refused", and we haven't had any change since then. They haven't been responding to phone calls or emails. I do understand that even without the curfew we would still be in a "normal" time frame if we're in AP. But we can't even get confirmation from them that they received our documents.

Mentally I'm not doing well, but I'm more worried about my husband's mental health. The waiting for an unknown amount of time is killing. I'm looking for slivers of hope that spouse applications have continued at least at other embassies after curfew's were lifted. I know every embassy and country will be different. I'm just desperate for some hope. Married for 2 years as of May14th...

Whether or not you have any experience or hope to give, thank you for reading and understanding. I'm not expecting much in regards to personal experiences... I think I mostly just need to hear from others who understand this feeling.

Edited June 6, 2021 by kelsw

[abbafan 15]

Hey @kelsw, I am from Sri Lanka and we just got our approved K1 visa some time ago and are getting ready to fly to the US this month.

 

The curfew has been lifted since mid July for a while now and the embassy although they are not granting appointments for tourist visas such as B2 anymore (not sure when it will be lifted), they do interviews and issue visas for K1 and CR1.

 

If you can tell me what exactly is needed in your documentation for Sri Lanka, I can help out. Also, did you do the CR1 with an immigration lawyer or did you do it yourself?

 

Contact details for the US Embassy in Colombo are below:

 

Email: ConsularColombo@state.gov (they respond to this)

Number: +94 (0)11.249.8500

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the 

[kelsw 0]

On 8/2/2021 at 5:00 AM, abbafan said:

Hey @kelsw, I am from Sri Lanka and we just got our approved K1 visa some time ago and are getting ready to fly to the US this month.

 

The curfew has been lifted since mid July for a while now and the embassy although they are not granting appointments for tourist visas such as B2 anymore (not sure when it will be lifted), they do interviews and issue visas for K1 and CR1.

 

If you can tell me what exactly is needed in your documentation for Sri Lanka, I can help out. Also, did you do the CR1 with an immigration lawyer or did you do it yourself?

 

Contact details for the US Embassy in Colombo are below:

 

Email: ConsularColombo@state.gov (they respond to this)

Number: +94 (0)11.249.8500

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the 

We already turned in the documents they asked for on May 4th. They didn't like the translations that were approved by the NVC that our lawyer helped us get because they weren't from Sri Lanka. They asked for Sri Lankan ones, we already had some which is lucky because they kept our original marriage certificate and his birth certificate so we would have had no way of getting new ones. We didn't originally used those because our lawyer, who worked for the NVC in a non-legal position, said it didn't fit the format that the NVC likes. No where does the embassy say they require translations only from Sri Lanka so we were really blindsided and the NVC should have been aware.


They don't answer the phone, when I posted this they weren't answering emails. Then they answered 1 email we sent after the travel restrictions were lifted that said the consular officer had our case and would contact "the applicant asap". There have been no updates. We sent them an email a week ago asking again, this time an automatic response says "As of May 24, 2021, the United States Embassy in Colombo, has suspended most nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services. The Embassy is currently processing IH/IR3 and IH/IR4 immigrant visas and humanitarian and medical emergencies, and C1/D non-immigrant visas. While the United States Embassy aims to process cases as soon as practicable, there is likely to be increased wait times for completing such services due to substantial backlogs."

So now we can't even get a person to respond to emails. We've been married for over 2 years, I've seen others on here post about how they got their K1 and it's honestly devastating that they're leaving us in the dark. I understand they're very busy. I understand that we are not special, but if feels incredibly unfair.