Now where?

[JayFromTexas 69]

I filed I-130 applications for my Russian wife and stepdaughter back in March. I hope to be cleared into the NVC stage in the next few months. I've been following all the threads discussing the final interview with great interest, as you could imagine. It seems to be getting progressively more difficult to get the interview scheduled and to travel to whatever country you've got it scheduled in. Some here went to Almaty, but they seem to be less likely to accept a transfer. Israel was an option, but with the war going on, that's not an option. I haven't heard any recent stories where someone has navigated the Schengen minefield to attend an interview in Poland. Most have made the decision to not even try to get there.

 

With all that as a premise, where do we go now? Any thoughts?

[millefleur 5,046]

Serbia used to be an option, then they supposedly stopped. But now that there is a war in Israel, might be worth trying again?

[BenNomad 88]

I suspect that more people are getting to Warsaw for interviews than we think and they are just not posting about. The difficulty with the IR1/CR1 is the limited amount of time they give you, like around six weeks, from interview letter to the interview itself. If your wife can get her medical done and out of the way in Moscow after DQ but before the interview letter, then you can plan on applying for a Schengen immediately after getting the interview date. Italy takes about a month to process the visa (just one example). Has your wife had a Schengen visa in the past few years? Some countries are giving longer visa validity or multi-entry visas if it's not the first Schengen.

 

And if you can't get to the interview in Warsaw for whatever reason, there's always the possibilty to reschedule the interview for a later date. 

 

Serbia is designated for Russian student visa appplicants and the interview must be in English (no interpreters allowed). But like @millefleur suggested, they might be open to transfers in the current situation.

 

How about Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) or Dushanbe (Tajikistan)? I haven't heard of anyone trying to transfer there but they might be worth contacting. There's also an embassy in Turkmenistan but from what I read it seems a bit difficult to get there, even for Russian citizens (perhaps that's an advantage? meaning they probably get very few transfer requests).

Edited October 11, 2023 by BenNomad

[millefleur 5,046]

8 hours ago, BenNomad said:

Serbia is designated for Russian student visa appplicants and the interview must be in English (no interpreters allowed). But like @millefleur suggested, they might be open to transfers in the current situation.

 

Student visa might be held at a different unit (NIV) so the requirements for K-1's and spousal visas might be different?

[BenNomad 88]

14 hours ago, millefleur said:

Student visa might be held at a different unit (NIV) so the requirements for K-1's and spousal visas might be different?

I got my my passport renewed in Belgrade last summer and there were Russian students getting interviewed at the same time. Basically there's just one big waiting room with multiple windows. You could clearly hear the questions they were asking and the applicants' answers. I thought they usually do separate time slots for US citizen services and visa interviews, but at that time everyone was together. 

[millefleur 5,046]

12 hours ago, BenNomad said:

I got my my passport renewed in Belgrade last summer and there were Russian students getting interviewed at the same time. Basically there's just one big waiting room with multiple windows. You could clearly hear the questions they were asking and the applicants' answers. I thought they usually do separate time slots for US citizen services and visa interviews, but at that time everyone was together. 

Yes, that is the non-immigrant visa section.

 

Anyone applying for a K-1 or spousal visa will go to an entirely different section for immigrant visas. There are separate rooms with a closed door where you get interviewed one-on-one. This is because immigrant visas are treated with more scrutiny for security reasons. Anyone applying for an immigrant visa (or K-1) would not be in the same big open room with the student and tourist visa people, but in a completely different part of the embassy where they get called into a separate room one-on-one. 

 

Hope that's clear. In that case, they may allow someone to bring an interpreter. Need to check in with what they require.

[BenNomad 88]

13 hours ago, millefleur said:

Yes, that is the non-immigrant visa section.

 

Anyone applying for a K-1 or spousal visa will go to an entirely different section for immigrant visas. There are separate rooms with a closed door where you get interviewed one-on-one. This is because immigrant visas are treated with more scrutiny for security reasons. Anyone applying for an immigrant visa (or K-1) would not be in the same big open room with the student and tourist visa people, but in a completely different part of the embassy where they get called into a separate room one-on-one. 

 

Hope that's clear. In that case, they may allow someone to bring an interpreter. Need to check in with what they require.

Oh, I see. Got it. 

 

So I hear that a number of people with interviews scheduled in Jerusalem in the next month or so are considering requesting a transfer out of Jerusalem to somewhere else, or even back to Warsaw. Jerusalem made it clear that they would not transfer a case out once they received it, but that was before the war started and maybe they will change their stance on that. The point is, the number of people lining up for transfers is increasing. If your case is assigned to Warsaw, and your wife/fiancee is in Russia (or Belarus) where she can apply for a Schengen, then that may be your best option at this point. Even if you miss the first interview due to a rejected Schengen or other reason, you can reschedule the interview for a later date. 

 

Having said that, it takes very little effort to write to an embassy and request a transfer, and in my experience the rejections came back the same day, so only a little time was spent agonizing over what the answer would be.

[Chancy 6,241]

8 hours ago, BenNomad said:

So I hear that a number of people with interviews scheduled in Jerusalem in the next month or so are considering requesting a transfer out of Jerusalem to somewhere else, or even back to Warsaw. Jerusalem made it clear that they would not transfer a case out once they received it, but that was before the war started and maybe they will change their stance on that.

 

Update from https://il.usembassy.gov/visas/ -- "Due to the ongoing security situation, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv are not offering nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services at this time."

 

[millefleur 5,046]

41 minutes ago, Chancy said:

Update from https://il.usembassy.gov/visas/ -- "Due to the ongoing security situation, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv are not offering nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services at this time."

I see this as a green light for Russian beneficiaries to start asking around to other embassies. 

 

While it's technically possible to get a Schengen visa and then go to on to Warsaw from there, they need to understand others will get rejected for a Schengen and they need a place to send Russian applicants. 

[TBoneTX 45,266]

There remains a finite number of consulates with the space, personnel, and Russian-language capabilities to service every Russian who needs service.  Such a bummer.

[BenNomad 88]

13 hours ago, Chancy said:

 

Update from https://il.usembassy.gov/visas/ -- "Due to the ongoing security situation, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv are not offering nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services at this time."

 

Yeah it's really bad news. My wife just read that someone's interview which was supposed to be next week has been cancelled and automatically rescheduled for April! ☹️

[milimelo 4,477]

On 10/12/2023 at 10:12 PM, millefleur said:

Yes, that is the non-immigrant visa section.

 

Anyone applying for a K-1 or spousal visa will go to an entirely different section for immigrant visas. There are separate rooms with a closed door where you get interviewed one-on-one. This is because immigrant visas are treated with more scrutiny for security reasons. Anyone applying for an immigrant visa (or K-1) would not be in the same big open room with the student and tourist visa people, but in a completely different part of the embassy where they get called into a separate room one-on-one. 

 

Hope that's clear. In that case, they may allow someone to bring an interpreter. Need to check in with what they require.

That may be the case in extra large visa processing units (Manila maybe) but your regular embassy has the same set up for immigrant and non-immigrant interviews. Timing of slots may be different - NIV in the morning, IV in afternoon or different days of the week. When I interviewed for immigrant visa in Zagreb (back when you'd get your IV in the afternoon of the day of interview) it was two windows for IV and the rest (maybe 3 windows) for NIV. No one pulled me aside to a separate room - same process I went through for tourist visa, just for immigrant visa. Three questions and done. Separate room would flag for me something out of the ordinary or extra scrutiny needed, not your regular run of the mill procedure. Even for ACS (as I've done several passport applications and renewals), it's the same place, just a different day. 

[millefleur 5,046]

4 hours ago, milimelo said:

Separate room would flag for me something out of the ordinary or extra scrutiny needed, not your regular run of the mill procedure.

The Moscow Embassy had a totally separate area for IV applicants with separate rooms. I guess because it's a large embassy? That was my only experience so I just assumed it would be the same for others.

 

10 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

There remains a finite number of consulates with the space, personnel, and Russian-language capabilities to service every Russian who needs service.  Such a bummer.

I thought there was an exception in some cases where you could bring your own interpreter? This was the case with tourist visa interviews at least. 

[TBoneTX 45,266]

9 hours ago, millefleur said:

I thought there was an exception in some cases where you could bring your own interpreter? This was the case with tourist visa interviews at least. 

It's not only the communications, but the knowledge to be able to read, evaluate, and scrutinize documents in Russian that are provided as support.  If "Locally Engaged Staff" (formerly Foreign Service Nationals) -- natives of the local country who are employed by the consulate -- are present, they can tell certain things about the documents (and perhaps things about interviewees' answers to the interview questions) that non-natives could not.

 

This is probably one reason why Mongolia (e.g.) has not been an option for Russian interviewees.  The other reason is a very small official staff -- two COs maximum, and possibly just one officer.

[JPLaw 6]

Just adding my experiences here for others - we were DQ'ed from NVC August 15th and assigned at NVC to Tbilisi, Georgia (based on address on application). Our application is still at sitting at NVC and will be until Tbilisi has availability to schedule us on there end. Based on Telegram chats and other shared information this has been around an 8 month wait from being DQ'ed for others. We're estimating over 2.5 year total CR1 processing time given Tbilisi is so slow. Avoid Tbilisi, Georgia as I believe they only have 2 COs and will automatically deny all expedite requests and are not great at responding at all.

 

We attempted to tranfer to Kazakhstan last week (and failed to expedite in Georgia) based on medical reasons with documentation and were rejected. Kazakhstan would not accept us based on not being residents absent a life or death emergency. Serbia is a no go for non-residents as well. 

 

For folks earlier in this process, my view is that either Poland or quickly getting residency elsewhere (e.g., Costa Rica confirmed if I held a remote worker visa and my wife accompanied - she would be eligible as a "resident" to interview there) are currently the best options. Both are terrible, but this whole system and process is so gotta navigate it.