K-1 Transfer to Different Embassy

[Sdsailer 0]

Hello,

 

My fiancé is a Russian citizen currently living in Kazakhstan. We are an LGBT couple and he is afraid to return to Russia. We have been trying to transfer our case to Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, and Thailand and each have told us no. He does not have residence in any other country. 
 

Our validity period ends on November 5th and we still haven’t found an embassy willing to let him interview there. 
 

1.) Is it possible to get a Schengen visa outside of Russia?

2.) Does anyone know of any embassies currently accepting non-residents for K-1 interviews?

3.) A lawyer told us to request that the embassy in Warsaw extend our validity period, but they told us it would be up to the consulate who gives us an interview whether to extend it or not. Are we screwed?

 

Thanks everyone for your help. Exhausted and frustrated beyond belief. This process seems setup for us to fail. 

 

[Used to be broken 147]

I have been out of the loop on this stuff for quite some time but we did transfer in the other direction from Warsaw to Russia way back when because the knucklehead at the Polish Consulate in Belarus asked for,  then insisted to see the "envelope" for the visa interview apt which came via  email and would not issue the Shengen VISA to attend the appointment.  I had no luck actually speaking to anyone in Warsaw   to try to get a resolution so we asked for a transfer to Moscow. (I know this is not an option at this time)  I do not think this is the optimal time for getting in touch with Polish Embassy Consulate regarding Shengen VISA's ... they are overwhelmed with the Ukraine situation. I forget which Embassy in Germany deals with cases but its  a hassle to get a Shengen VISA there all reservations have to be prepaid ect ..but it is doable if they accept the case and the German Consulate has a process ... very strict and methodical of issuing VISA's so you will get an answer on a reasonable timeline if you have the massive amount of evidence for the VISA they will request.

[rikko 84]

5 hours ago, Sdsailer said:

1.) Is it possible to get a Schengen visa outside of Russia?

2.) Does anyone know of any embassies currently accepting non-residents for K-1 interviews?

3.) A lawyer told us to request that the embassy in Warsaw extend our validity period, but they told us it would be up to the consulate who gives us an interview whether to extend it or not. Are we screwed?

1. Yes, if you have residency. My fiancé has Armenian residency, we applied for a multi-entry Schengen visa to Spain, received a single-entry Schengen that lasted one week. Apparently you can still enter Warsaw on a single-entry Schengen but that's a lot of money to spend on potentially being denied, and it's misrepresenting your intent of travel. 
2. Not that I am aware of. Jerusalem did but Israel is now at war and a lot of people got screwed from that. Bishkek is apparently accepting but it's a slow embassy, Manila might have accepted us but they've been really bad at even understanding what we are asking for. At least their response time is really fast.
3. It should be extended. No matter how much this process has set us up to fail, I think most people understand that Russians have trouble entering a country that has banned entry to Russian nationals and issuing visas to them. And that Israel is at war. And that Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan are not accepting transfers. Feel free to DM me if you have more questions.

[millefleur 5,046]

50 minutes ago, rikko said:

And that Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan are not accepting transfers.

Did anyone try reaching out to Serbia again? They were taking transfers, then stopped. Just curious if they might be willing again now since almost all other avenues are closed.

 

The pluses about Serbia: Russias do not need a visa and there are direct flights to Serbia from Russia.

[rikko 84]

4 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Did anyone try reaching out to Serbia again?

Serbia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Georgia all denied transfers.

[TBoneTX 45,273]

I really think that the Bureau of Consular Affairs should be consulted about what to do and how to proceed.

[millefleur 5,046]

20 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

I really think that the Bureau of Consular Affairs should be consulted about what to do and how to proceed.

I agree. The situation is getting untenable. I think perhaps contacting senators + representatives and maybe even doing it as a mass request (i.e. get multiple people to pool together) might be the best bet at this point.

[pechenka 2]

2 hours ago, rikko said:

Bishkek is apparently accepting but it's a slow embassy

That might be a good alternative!

By slow you mean it takes time to schedule an interview or something else?

[Sdsailer 0]

1 hour ago, millefleur said:

I agree. The situation is getting untenable. I think perhaps contacting senators + representatives and maybe even doing it as a mass request (i.e. get multiple people to pool together) might be the best bet at this point.

I’m down if you all are, i have no idea what else to do at this point and have sunk thousands into this 

[BenNomad 88]

4 hours ago, pechenka said:

That might be a good alternative!

By slow you mean it takes time to schedule an interview or something else?

They told me they couldn't guarantee an interview date before the end of the year.

[Sdsailer 0]

I just want to say to everyone responding, thank you all for restoring my faith in humanity. Can’t seem to get any help/advice to these questions without a fee from a lawyer so very happy for all of your kindness. I’m looking into all of these options 

[rikko 84]

@Sdsailer If Israel finishes this war soon, I am sure Jerusalem will resume accepting transfers, unless they will resume working at reduced capacity. Many people in this forum transferred their case from Warsaw to Jerusalem. 

[pechenka 2]

11 hours ago, BenNomad said:

They told me they couldn't guarantee an interview date before the end of the year.

That's totally fine with me, as long as they can provide an opportunity for an interview in the near future (next 3-4-5 months). Our NOA2 was issued 4/19, so you can imagine it already expired in August, so it has to be extended, but we really don't want to push it past 2 extensions (passing the 1 year mark) because anything past that is an unknown territory where we could be turned around to redo the whole I-129F approval process from the start. Just trying to play this safe.

[Sdsailer 0]

26 minutes ago, pechenka said:

That's totally fine with me, as long as they can provide an opportunity for an interview in the near future (next 3-4-5 months). Our NOA2 was issued 4/19, so you can imagine it already expired in August, so it has to be extended, but we really don't want to push it past 2 extensions (passing the 1 year mark) because anything past that is an unknown territory where we could be turned around to redo the whole I-129F approval process from the start. Just trying to play this safe.

Can i ask how you got it extended?! Poland told us they don’t do that..

[BenNomad 88]

22 hours ago, Sdsailer said:

Poland told us they don’t do that..

FYI if the messages you get from Warsaw start with "We understand you want .... blah blah blah" and end with the sentence "We hope you found this information useful" then it's just a pre-formulated reply (and maybe even AI-generated imo). If the reply has typos then you know you're dealing with a thinking human. 

 

My wife ended up with two different interview dates scheduled in Warsaw (one that we scheduled ourselves and one that they scheduled automatically) and it took two tries emailing them at ustraveldocs this week to sort it out.

 

So, make sure you're getting a genuine reply from Warsaw. I don't know anything about extending a K-1 but it sounds like it can be extended even after the four months expire.

 

From Travel.state.gov:

My Petition Expired – Can It Be Extended?

 

The I-129F petition is valid for four months from the date of approval by USCIS. A consular officer can extend the validity of the petition if it expires before visa processing is completed.