K-1 visa status update: REFUSED -- Can't contact U.S. Embassy in Paris to find out why?

[Cameron2005 3]

I am an American citizen living and working in Maryland, and my fiancé is  a Portuguese citizen, and we are working towards his K-1 visa.

 

On May 5, 2021, my fiancé had his K-1 visa interview in Paris (as the U.S. Embassy in his home country of Portugal closed due to COVID-19). After the interview, the interviewer told my fiancé that they had everything they needed for the time being aside from his medical exam results, which were being mailed from Portugal due to the exam documents not being ready by his interview date. Still, the consular took his paperwork & his passport and instructed him that this would all be mailed to his home address in Portugal once the visa was processed/approved.

 

We haven't heard anything since. We have reached out multiple times to the Embassy (via online contact form, phone, emails to the embassy at multiple email addresses relating to visa processing -- such as ParisIVProcessing, ParisVisas, etc.), but neither ourselves nor our immigration attorneys have received any clear update as to what exactly is going on with our case and his visa.

 

After months of trying and failing to get an update about our case from the U.S. Embassy in Paris, earlier this month I called the National Visa Center, which was able to confirm from their end that the U.S. Embassy in Paris has received all of the required documents for his case (they said his medical exam arrived about mid-May). The NVC was unable to give me further details and told me to call the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

 

I called the Embassy’s Non-immigrant visa appointment line a few weeks ago (the only way I could reach someone, as there is no one I could get in touch with specifically for inquiring about visa issues), and the appointment line representative told me to check the status of our visa on ceac.state.gov. However, nothing showed up (just said "No Status" for our case). 

 

I called the Non-immigrant visa number again, and I was given a new email address to contact (fae_contactus+fr+courier+en@visaops.net) and told to explain our situation in a message and that they might be able to help more.

 

Upon my initial correspondence (about two & a half weeks ago), I received an automatic reply that my message had been received, and then the next message I received (about a day after the first) was an apology for the inconvenience and said our case had been escalated to the appropriate department. However, I received another email shortly after that stating they had no information/updates that they could give me.

 

I received another response last week (July 19) from that same email address saying that on May 25, the status of my fiancé’s visa was updated to "Refused", but they said that this “can also mean that the Embassy is still processing your case. We have no other information or contact details to give you.” That was the end of our email chain and the only real correspondence we've had with the Embassy in months.

 

I called the NVC, and they were able to confirm it was a "soft refusal" under the 221(g), but they said they didn't know why and to contact the Embassy. We still aren't able to get in touch with anyone who can provide any updates regarding our case.

 

Our immigrations lawyers suggested I contact my state senators for advice, so I did last week & they had me fill out a form and confirmed that they submitted an official inquiry to the Embassy.

 

I am just wondering if anyone else is in this position with the U.S. Embassy is Paris and/or if anyone has had any luck getting in touch? I have been reading forums where I saw other Portuguese citizens had their interviews on May 5 as well...any insight on timelines? Is there any way to find out what may still be needed from my fiancé?

 

Thank you so much in advance!!

[JobbinsKnobbins 240]

Olá Cameron.
You're not alone on this, we have a thread where we are putting our journeys with the US Embassy in Paris, join us: 

The Portuguese don't go to the US Embassy in Lisbon/Ponta Delgada to deal with the visas since 2012 (unfortunately), not due to Covid 19.

And yes, don't be scared about the part saying refused, it is part of the system that it starts as refused when they are working on the case. It will be ok, you guys will have to wait a bit more.

Edited July 29, 2021 by JobbinsKnobbins

[Chancy 6,243]

*** Moved from K1 Process & Procedures to Progress Reports ***

 

[Cameron2005 3]

2 hours ago, JobbinsKnobbins said:

Olá Cameron.
You're not alone on this, we have a thread where we are putting our journeys with the US Embassy in Paris, join us: 

The Portuguese don't go to the US Embassy in Lisbon/Ponta Delgada to deal with the visas since 2012 (unfortunately), not due to Covid 19.

And yes, don't be scared about the part saying refused, it is part of the system that it starts as refused when they are working on the case. It will be ok, you guys will have to wait a bit more.

Thank you so much for this link!! Glad (and sad, lol) to hear I'm not alone in what has been the most frustrating situation I've seen. Thank you for the much-needed words of hope