Expediting K1 visa - Russian fiance (split)

[Boiler 45,733]

6 minutes ago, To_the_moon said:

Didn't you just prove my point by saying the same people who got denied before are now being expedited? I was talking about VJ members who mentioned other ongoing (and past) wars not being a valid reason to USCIS for an expedite. So it's not the definition of war that has changed but the policies about handling such cases.

The Policies about handling Ukrainian cases have changed. The war is irrelevant, you can be in Paris and be Ukrainian and still get an expedite.

 

Perhaps I should qualify as far as we can tell.

[Mike20090622 45]

2 minutes ago, millefleur said:

I just haven't seen any examples of a Russian beneficiary's case being expedited due to the war yet. I asked @Mike20090622 for an update on his situation but it seems he did not get the expedite approved yet. Every expedite is decided individually so it will depend on the circumstances of each request.

Our case was in expedited processing, my arguments for expedited processing request are: 1, I have supported my fiancé family expenses 1000$ monthly over the past year through WesternUnion which I can provide history, I can’t transfer money to her anymore due to the sanctions. That’s a severe financial loss to her. 2. My fiancé lives in belgorod which is just 40 miles from Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine and she hear helicopters flying over her head every day and explosions now and then and she is in the war zone which falls to emergency and humanitarian category, so our case falls into two categories for expedited processing excuses and 3. I have worked for the federal agencies including DOD for the past 15 years and I have an active public trust clearance 

[millefleur 5,047]

2 minutes ago, Mike20090622 said:

Our case was in expedited processing,

Thanks, it's just still unclear: did they approve your expedite request? Or are you still waiting for a response?

[Mike20090622 45]

1 minute ago, millefleur said:

Thanks, it's just still unclear: did they approve your expedite request? Or are you still waiting for a response?

They approved our expedited processing request last Tuesday 

[millefleur 5,047]

15 minutes ago, Boiler said:

The war is irrelevant, you can be in Paris and be Ukrainian and still get an expedite.

That is my understanding as well.

 

6 minutes ago, Mike20090622 said:

They approved our expedited processing request last Tuesday 

That's great to know. I hope others will have luck with expedites.

Edited March 29, 2022 by millefleur

[Mike20090622 45]

4 minutes ago, millefleur said:

That is my understanding as well.

 

That's great to know. I hope others will have luck with expedites.

It’s better than nothing. The letter says it will take up to 45 days to make a decision, and we don’t know how long it will take for my fiancé to get the package 3, and apply for Schengen visas and medical examinations in Moscow are very costly and she may not have enough money for her and her two kids, anyway it’s frustrating 

[SalishSea 17,970]

14 hours ago, To_the_moon said:

There is actually a way to expedite your case for a Russian fiancée due to financial hardship, if you can prove that you were financially supporting your partner in Russia and now cannot do that due to bank sanctions. I was trying to find a post by another VJ member that I saw a couple of days ago about his case getting expedited due to this particular reason. Maybe @millefleur can help me navigate and find that thread. 

 

Other than that, as other people already mentioned, the "risk" and "potential escalation" is not going to get your case expedited. 

No.  The 'financial hardship' applies to the USC, not to the unrelated alien fiance.

[slavaskii 886]

1 hour ago, To_the_moon said:

Didn't you just prove my point by saying the same people who got denied before are now being expedited? I was talking about VJ members who mentioned other ongoing (and past) wars not being a valid reason to USCIS for an expedite. So it's not the definition of war that has changed but the policies about handling such cases.

I think I was more referring to people noting that "fear" wasn't a reason for expedite; that there needs to be something that actually happened. In this case, that would be the start of the war. In regard to past instances of conflict, however, you're right that didn't seem to be sufficient. We also are nearly unified in thinking the harm must be to the petitioner, and not beneficiary, so any conflict in a third-country would be presumably off-limits. 

 

Nonetheless I'm not entirely confident there's a new expedite standard at USCIS. If anything, this is part of the administration's attempt to address Ukrainian refugees; why not expedite those already in line? I also don't think we've seen a 'total war' in a very, very long while. Civil wars or breakaway conflicts are often relatively isolated and don't affect the whole population. I can't, for example, see an Ethiopian filer getting an expedite while living in Addis Ababa solely because of Tigray. The massive effort to accommodate everyone out of the country is relatively unprecedented.

 

That being said, I'd be interested in two things to 'confirm' whether there was a policy change or not: (1) how were Syrians treated in 2015 and (2) are Ukrainians living in, say, Lviv, being expedited as often as ones from Mariupol. I concur with the other posters, though, that I think a Russian has a limited chance unless the war has exacerbated some situation that falls clearly under the existing expedite criteria.

[millefleur 5,047]

10 minutes ago, slavaskii said:

I concur with the other posters, though, that I think a Russian has a limited chance unless the war has exacerbated some situation that falls clearly under the existing expedite criteria.

My hunch is it is about the totality of circumstances. For example in Mike's case (who posted above) his fiance is living very close to the warzone where there is active fighting. Someone living in say Vladivastok may not have the same luck requesting an expedite. We won't really known until more Russian applicants try to apply for expedites and get responses back.

Edited March 29, 2022 by millefleur

[To_the_moon 94]

On 3/28/2022 at 10:49 PM, .yana said:

I believe he misspoke. Read his other posts. Also that would be the first time when someone’s expedite got approved the same day as it was filed.

 

 

[Ontarkie 14,306]

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