Embassy Assigned to Us doesn't want to take us

[MasterCarrot 9]

26 minutes ago, jan22 said:

I'm sorry you are having this trouble.  It must be particularly frustrating when you thought you were so close to the finIsh line.  Please bear with me if this becomes a long post as I think through things. Sometimes understanding how things reached the current state can help unravel the knots, so it might be helpful to know/think about the following to try to see a way to possibly get things straightened out:

1. You said you spent about a year in Indonesia.  Did you list Indonesia as your current address when you submitted the I-130?  That would explain the assignment to Jakarta. And, once NVC assigned it there based on your address and scheduled the interview there, the Embassy would not have been asked to formally accept the case and likely had no idea you were not resident in Indonesia until the medical appointment.
2. NVC -- which it seems may have been the official cause of the problem or, at a minimum, a large contributor to it -- cannot change the Embassy to which a case is assigned based on the I-130 unless the request is based on citizenship or residency of the beneficiary or it was assigned incorrectly. Appears NVC was not willing to accept that they assigned it incorrectly and left you in a situation where you could not meet the requirement for the other way to get it re-assigned at NVC (showing residency in another country).
3. If NVC had assigned it correctly, though, the default would have been Warsaw, as it is the designated processing post for Belarusians. You said your husband could not go back to Belarus to apply for a Schengen visa, right?  I assume that is because of the security situation there that led to the suspension of services at the US Embassy.  But, is there another reason that might somehow affect his vIsa processing there or anywhere else?  
4. That left you with the only other option for reassignment -- requesting another Embassy to take your case, and if/when they agreed they would request the case file from jakarta.
5. To clarify, you said that no other Embassy would accept your case, but only mention Kazakhstan as having said no and then describing your concerns about processing in several other countries.  Did you formally request countries other than Kazakhstan  to take your case and were told no or did you rule them out based on your concerns (just trying to clarify -- not making any judgments)?  Which Embassies have you formally asked?  Someone might be able to offer other suggestions.
6. Since you and your file were already in Jakarta, they could have exercised their discretion and proceeded with your case.  They may not have done so because of workload issues, especially right after the month of September when appointnents for other immigrant visas might get reduced to ensure Diversity Visa applicants get interviewed and issued by the end of the month.  I assume you made a formal request to US Embassy Jakarta that, since the Embassy in Minsk is closed, they accept your case for processing without requiring formal residency, and request they schedule/reschedule your appointment?  If not, I would try it. If you did, and got a negative response, I would try to foward the original e-mail and the response to the Consul General and/or the Ambassador's office.  They would likely refer your inquiry back to the Consular Section for response, but that response might be different given that you've now gotten higher level interests involved.
7. If you make a second request for assistance from your Congressional representatives, I would also include a request that they ensure your case is brought to the attention of the Ambassador, to ensure he is aware of your case and the interest in it.

 

Hello, I will try to go through each question step by step; 

1. When we applied to USCIS we lived in Indonesia, and we asked for our consulate to be in Warsaw, when applying and filling out papers for NVC our living address was in Georgia. 

3. My husband cannot go back mostly due to mandatory army service, before the war he was exempt due to health issues, mostly with his heart. After the war had started the government had already tried to hand his parents a red slip for him to show up for army service a few times. The most recent was about a month ago when they tried to hand the slip to workers in their store. 

5. We had tried to apply to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan but got the same rejection from all of them basically saying that they only take residents. 

6 We did not ask Jakarta to take us, they just sent us an interview letter with the date for our interview and we flew out to SE Asia to be closer to the Embassy. When I tried to apply for the medical, the hospital called the embassy, and then we received an email saying the embassy did not want to take us. We will try to write a formal request but we had replied to their email, twice explaining the situation but had basically only gotten a one-sentence reply saying "Send proof of residency". 

**We just really did not think that it was possible to get an interview letter and then run into this issue. We had assumed an interview letter meant that we were accepted and that was the end of the story. While trying to transfer our case we got the Interview letter and basically assumed that was that. 

Edited September 1, 2023 by MasterCarrot

[jan22 3,043]

3 minutes ago, MasterCarrot said:

Hello, I will try to go through each question step by step; 

1. When we applied to USCIS we lived in Indonesia, and we asked for our consulate to be in Warsaw, when applying and filling out papers for NVC our living address was in Georgia. 

3. My husband cannot go back mostly due to mandatory army service, before the war he was exempt due to health issues, mostly with his heart. After the war had started the government had already tried to hand his parents a red slip for him to show up for army service a few times. The most recent was about a month ago when they tried to hand the slip to workers in their store. 

5. We had tried to apply to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan but got the same rejection from all of them basically saying that they only take residents. 

6 We did not ask Jakarta to take us, they just sent us an interview letter with the date for our interview and we flew out to SE Asia to be closer to the Embassy. When I tried to apply for the medical, the hospital called the embassy, and then we received an email saying the embassy did not want to take us. We will try to write a formal request but we had replied to their email, twice explaining the situation but had basically only gotten a one-sentence reply saying "Send proof of residency". 

**We just really did not think that it was possible to get an interview letter and then run into this issue. We had assumed an interview letter meant that we were accepted and that was the end of the story. While trying to transfer our case we got the Interview letter and basically assumed that was that. 

Re your response #6 -- I would submit a formal request to Jakarta, placing emphasis on why you are seeking to apply there, i.e., having to go outside your husband's country because of the US Embassy closure there and that he is unable to go to the designated processing post of Warsaw because of his inability to return to Belarus to apply for the required Schengen visa.

 

Within his home region, Baku (Azebaijan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), or Tashkent (Uzbekistan) might be a possibilities.  I would also try Turkey and Israel, even though  you have heard things, as they have been willing to accept cases from Ukraine and Russia without residency requirements.

 

I would also take another look at the countries he can travel to without a visa and focus on countries you are willing/able to go to that have larger US Embassies with larger consular staffs.  They are often more able/willing to accept an extra case or two than smaller posts that might only have a couple of consular officers.  If you do seek out another Embassy, be sure to include info about why you can't go to his country of nationality because of Embassy Belarus's closure (yes, they should know that, but it may be read first by someone who doesn't know and then not get sent to the right decision-maker) and about not being able to go to Warsaw for processing due to Schengen visa issues.  For example:  Abu Dhabi (UAE), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lima (Peru), Panama City (Panama), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

[MasterCarrot 9]

8 minutes ago, jan22 said:

Re your response #6 -- I would submit a formal request to Jakarta, placing emphasis on why you are seeking to apply there, i.e., having to go outside your husband's country because of the US Embassy closure there and that he is unable to go to the designated processing post of Warsaw because of his inability to return to Belarus to apply for the required Schengen visa.

 

Within his home region, Baku (Azebaijan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), or Tashkent (Uzbekistan) might be a possibilities.  I would also try Turkey and Israel, even though  you have heard things, as they have been willing to accept cases from Ukraine and Russia without residency requirements.

 

I would also take another look at the countries he can travel to without a visa and focus on countries you are willing/able to go to that have larger US Embassies with larger consular staffs.  They are often more able/willing to accept an extra case or two than smaller posts that might only have a couple of consular officers.  If you do seek out another Embassy, be sure to include info about why you can't go to his country of nationality because of Embassy Belarus's closure (yes, they should know that, but it may be read first by someone who doesn't know and then not get sent to the right decision-maker) and about not being able to go to Warsaw for processing due to Schengen visa issues.  For example:  Abu Dhabi (UAE), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lima (Peru), Panama City (Panama), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

Thank You so much for your reply!! We will try to email the embassies provided and hopefully, someone will take us. 

[TBoneTX 45,155]

MasterCarrot, you can trust jan22 wholeheartedly regarding anything consular-related.  (He has been awarded two VJ Award Badges just for his responses here.)  Keep us all closely apprised of everything that happens.

[BenNomad 88]

On 9/1/2023 at 6:57 PM, jan22 said:

submit a formal request to Jakarta

As a practical matter, just how does one go about contacting an embassy with a formal request? Embassy websites on their contact pages only publish a telephone number and a physical address. You can find email addresses for departments like American Citizen Services (JakartaACS@state.gov) but an email that goes directly to the ambassador? Will they give you his email if you call and ask for it?

 

I'm thinking of writing an email to the State Department and the Embassies in Moscow and Warsaw (and I would include Jakarta too) reminding them that there are U.S. citizens with Russian or Belarusian spouses who still need help. The decision to open Almaty and Tashkent only benefitted IR-5 applicants and those in other categories need a better option than Warsaw.

 

If @MasterCarrot had indicated from the start and continued to show a current physical address in Belarus, they certainly would have been assigned to Warsaw. But then they'd still be in the same situation as everyone else who has fled with nowhere to go (except as tourists) and who don't want to risk returning to Belarus/RF for the sake of getting a Schengen visa. When the immigration forms ask for your "current physical address" the natural response is to answer in a truthful and literal way. When you've been living somewhere for a few months months or more, even as a tourist, that place does start to feel like your current address.

Edited September 3, 2023 by BenNomad

[MasterCarrot 9]

6 hours ago, BenNomad said:

As a practical matter, just how does one go about contacting an embassy with a formal request? Embassy websites on their contact pages only publish a telephone number and a physical address. You can find email addresses for departments like American Citizen Services (JakartaACS@state.gov) but an email that goes directly to the ambassador? Will they give you his email if you call and ask for it?

 

I'm thinking of writing an email to the State Department and the Embassies in Moscow and Warsaw (and I would include Jakarta too) reminding them that there are U.S. citizens with Russian or Belarusian spouses who still need help. The decision to open Almaty and Tashkent only benefitted IR-5 applicants and those in other categories need a better option than Warsaw.

 

If @MasterCarrot had indicated from the start and continued to show a current physical address in Belarus, they certainly would have been assigned to Warsaw. But then they'd still be in the same situation as everyone else who has fled with nowhere to go (except as tourists) and who don't want to risk returning to Belarus/RF for the sake of getting a Schengen visa. When the immigration forms ask for your "current physical address" the natural response is to answer in a truthful and literal way. When you've been living somewhere for a few months months or more, even as a tourist, that place does start to feel like your current address.

We filled out our papers with the help of a lawyer who had told us to list every address we had been at for whatever time span was asked. At the nvc phase we basically went along with that principle. 

 

My husband can't return because of risk of being taken in for mandatory military service. Ironically we had waited so long for the i130 that now there really is no way he can go back. He used to be exempt because of his heart issues but now that also comes under question. There is also a chance that they can arrest him for showing support for something other than the current regime. So basically super risky. In Belarus the only real way to enter Poland is through a work permit but that's also not fool proof as people have been stopped and their polish "employers" would he called only to verify that the person does not actually work for said firm. 

 

It honestly seems like a no-win situation where you're always putting yourself at risk. Especially russian and belarusian men who are applying for the spouse visa. I could fly into Belarus at this moment and no one would care. 

 

[millefleur 5,046]

14 hours ago, MasterCarrot said:

My husband can't return because of risk of being taken in for mandatory military service. Ironically we had waited so long for the i130 that now there really is no way he can go back. He used to be exempt because of his heart issues but now that also comes under question. There is also a chance that they can arrest him for showing support for something other than the current regime. So basically super risky. In Belarus the only real way to enter Poland is through a work permit but that's also not fool proof as people have been stopped and their polish "employers" would he called only to verify that the person does not actually work for said firm. 

You could try having your husband enter under humanitarian parole. Since this mess has been caused by USCIS + DoS and it is beyond your control, I think there's a fair case.

[MasterCarrot 9]

8 hours ago, millefleur said:

You could try having your husband enter under humanitarian parole. Since this mess has been caused by USCIS + DoS and it is beyond your control, I think there's a fair case.

Never considered this option, will look into this if the embassies around us in accessible countries don't reply.

[MasterCarrot 9]

Update: Jakarta has rejected us even with our explanation and their interview letter attached, we are now waiting on Vietnam, and Malaysia. I have filled out the form for my congressmans help and are waiting to hear a reply from him as well. Also around January his passport will have less than 6 months left on it which is a nice bonus because Belarus embassies also don't want to renew passports abroad and especially when the army is waiting for you back home. 

Edited September 5, 2023 by MasterCarrot

[millefleur 5,046]

1 hour ago, MasterCarrot said:

Never considered this option, will look into this if the embassies around us in accessible countries don't reply.

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-1639?language=en_US

 

I have never seen it done here on VJ but you can contact your desired Port of Entry and try to arrange Humanitarian Parole in advance. 

[BenNomad 88]

6 hours ago, MasterCarrot said:

Belarus embassies also don't want to renew passports abroad

Not even a question now of them wanting or not. It's now the rule by order of Lukashenko.

Белорусам, проживающим за границей, больше не будут выдавать белорусские паспорта (zerkalo.io)

 

 

[MasterCarrot 9]

10 minutes ago, BenNomad said:

Not even a question now of them wanting or not. It's now the rule by order of Lukashenko.

Белорусам, проживающим за границей, больше не будут выдавать белорусские паспорта (zerkalo.io)

 

 

Yes we just saw the news. Honestly, we are in total shock. Everyone is shocked. This is just insane, there are so many people who will now be stranded and in horrible situations because of this. 

Edited September 5, 2023 by MasterCarrot

[BenNomad 88]

For what it's worth, I just sent the following message to the State Dept via the inquiry form on their contact page. It's seems almost comically futile to use that contact form, but I don't know who else to write to, except perhaps to a senator or congress person. 

 

"Family-based immigration applicants from Russia and Belarus in need of urgent help through a top-level State Department decision

 

Please issue guidance immediately to all U.S. embassies worldwide that they temporarily waive the residency requirement for all family-based (and fiancee) immigration applicants from Belarus and Russia. 

A decision was made earlier this year to open Almaty and Tashkent as processing posts for IR-5 applicants. But those in other visa categories remain assigned to Warsaw, and for some applicants, Warsaw is impossible to reach without facing risky situations. Applying for a visa to the Schengen zone (of which Poland is a part) is possible only in one's home country or where one has permanent residence. For draft-age male citizens of Belarus and Russia who have already fled their home countries and don't have permanent residence anywhere else, returning to apply for a Schengen visa is not an option. A few applicants have been able to transfer their cases to other U.S. embassies by contacting those embassies directly, but many have received rejections, from numerous embassies, based on the fact that they do not have residency in that country.

Please keep in mind that this situation also puts many U.S.-citizen family members in difficult situations.  Many of those who followed U.S. State Department warnings to immediately leave Belarus and Russia are not able to travel to the U.S. with their loved ones until the completion of the consular interview. "

 

 

[BenNomad 88]

I just sent the above message to one of my senators, so we'll see if that goes anywhere. It's seems like a situation that really needs to be solved in a policy-level way, expecially given the reluctance of most embassies to help.

 

In the meantime, I hope you get a positive answer from Vietnam or Malaysia!

[MasterCarrot 9]

3 minutes ago, BenNomad said:

I just sent the above message to one of my senators, so we'll see if that goes anywhere. It's seems like a situation that really needs to be solved in a policy-level way, expecially given the reluctance of most embassies to help.

 

In the meantime, I hope you get a positive answer from Vietnam or Malaysia!

Thank you, hopefully we'll get some good news soon. 

I will also reach out with a similiar message to yours and try to get others to also reach out. Maybe if more people bring this issue to light they'll take it more seriously.