Parents visa

[millefleur 5,046]

6 hours ago, October 2022 said:

They don't want people finding ways to circumvent it.

How would letting people know to bring documents if it applies allow them to circumvent AP? 

[October 2022 26]

6 hours ago, millefleur said:

How would letting people know to bring documents if it applies allow them to circumvent AP?

Informing individuals beforehand about potential scrutiny into certain aspects of their background essentially encourages deception, as it prompts them to tailor their information accordingly...

[millefleur 5,046]

2 hours ago, October 2022 said:

Informing individuals beforehand about potential scrutiny into certain aspects of their background essentially encourages deception, as it prompts them to tailor their information accordingly...

Anyone who does that would risk getting a permanent ban for misrepresentation. 

[October 2022 26]

12 hours ago, millefleur said:

Anyone who does that would risk getting a permanent ban for misrepresentation. 

The system's imperfection is clear here. Bad actors don't care about getting caught and banned, leaving law-abiding folks to suffer.

[millefleur 5,046]

5 hours ago, October 2022 said:

The system's imperfection is clear here. Bad actors don't care about getting caught and banned, leaving law-abiding folks to suffer.

That's true of the entire process though. Extended AP only applies to certain applicants, I've only seen a handful of Russian male applicants here on VJ get subjected to it. It's a profiling process for anyone who might be a threat to national security. 

[October 2022 26]

7 hours ago, millefleur said:

I've only seen a handful of Russian male applicants here on VJ get subjected to it.

Considering the political situation, I anticipate this will become increasingly frequent, reaching levels that significantly impact applicants from the Middle East.

[rikko 84]

I guess telling people ahead of time to bring their birth certificate, prison records, police certificates, and divorce certificates to the interview encourages people to falsify information, too. I also guess some of us know more than the official US Embassy in Israel! 

Our immigration process discourages fraud at every point. Cost of applying, wait time for applying, harsh punishments for fraud, and a long vetting process. If "law-abiding" folks are suffering (from what, wait times?) you can't just blame it on "bad actors." There will always be bad actors. There will always be fraud. You need the process to vet out the fake applications, and if embassies have higher workloads than they can handle, you need to hire more workers or just let wait times get bad. 

There is a chance had my fiancé been told to bring his education and research papers to the interview, the officer would have been able to make a decision on the spot. Maybe she would find some other reason to send us into AP, I don't know. I think other Americans with educated fiancés should be advised to bring their research/conference/education info with them. After all, if they avoid the AP process this way, that also frees up time and resources for the embassy to process other applicants!

[millefleur 5,046]

1 hour ago, rikko said:

There is a chance had my fiancé been told to bring his education and research papers to the interview, the officer would have been able to make a decision on the spot. Maybe she would find some other reason to send us into AP, I don't know. I think other Americans with educated fiancés should be advised to bring their research/conference/education info with them. After all, if they avoid the AP process this way, that also frees up time and resources for the embassy to process other applicants!

Yep, I'm thinking of making a stickied post/thread basically letting people know if you're Russian and you have a STEM education/background/experience or anything remotely related to government or military or even handling firearms/weapons, you should prepare a CV and/or explanation letter in advance to hand over at the interview. 

 

Since the invasion it does seem like they're going harder on AP for certain Russians, which is understandable. It never hurts to come over-prepared and anything that can speed up the process is a net benefit. When I get a chance, maybe you can help me draft something for the post @rikko?

 

 

[rikko 84]

2 hours ago, millefleur said:

When I get a chance, maybe you can help me draft something for the post @rikko?

Sure, I don't mind. I think the website itself is a good starting point and it may just be worth copy-pasting their suggestions of what applicants should bring to their interview.

You also mentioned applicants with military background or weapons experience, I have no idea what papers they should be bringing. Finding examples of military-related AP and what those applicants were asked to bring would be good to include in the sticky.

 

Regarding technical backgrounds, I recall a Cuban biologist on VJ being put in AP, and Chinese graduate students being put in AP - a lot of US universities actually have pages on AP for international students who get flagged. However, it's not always the beneficiary who (likely) causes the case to go into AP - BeauH was the petitioner for his Russian fiancé, had a government job, and was put in AP. It may be worth reminding applicants to look at themselves, too, not just their beneficiaries.

Beyond petitioner/beneficiary red flags for AP, and suggestions on what to bring to the interview, I don't think there's much else to add. Maybe relevant VJ threads relating to AP?

 

[hidden_traffic 1]

I am Russian with American citizenship, and we had our interview done in Poland, Warsaw in January 2024 for my Russian fiancee.

 

We have tried to change embassy from Poland, even wrote a representative, however we were not able to do it.

 

When we got to embassy, they asked her couple questions and within short time gave out 221g white slip, and wrote two additional requirements:
Beneficiary Resume and Work History

All Travel history together.

 

It's funny how we had all documents prepared and they didn't even looked at them, except for Affidavit of Support, which they took.

 

I do have IT work, nothing classified and fiancee work at call center.

 

 

Emailing embassy gives same answer as for everyone else...

This seems to be the pattern for Russians.

[millefleur 5,046]

39 minutes ago, hidden_traffic said:

When we got to embassy, they asked her couple questions and within short time gave out 221g white slip, and wrote two additional requirements:
Beneficiary Resume and Work History

All Travel history together.

This seems to be happening more and more. Dept of State might be flagging Russians for extended AP now. 

 

Since it's DoS, I doubt going through another embassy would matter. It seems like they're targeting Russia nationality and the embassy where you apply doesn't affect it.

 

Please update us here on your case. The background doesn't seem to have any other red flags, call center job history doesn't seem suspicious. I hope they will conclude her AP quickly. Was she born in a "closed city" or does she have relatives who live/work near there or for the military?

[rikko 84]

2 minutes ago, millefleur said:

This seems to be happening more and more. Dept of State might be flagging Russians for extended AP now. 

 

Since it's DoS, I doubt going through another embassy would matter. It seems like they're targeting Russia nationality and the embassy where you apply doesn't affect it.

 

Please update us here on your case. The background doesn't seem to have any other red flags, call center job history doesn't seem suspicious. I hope they will conclude her AP quickly. Was she born in a "closed city" or does she have relatives who live/work near there or for the military?

Do you think Russian applicants are heading toward the Turkey/Iran/Middle East route of "never-ending AP/DS-5535"?

Also, is the pinned post in the works? Or do you think if it's a DoS decision, they'll just find new excuses for AP?

[millefleur 5,046]

18 minutes ago, rikko said:

Do you think Russian applicants are heading toward the Turkey/Iran/Middle East route of "never-ending AP/DS-5535"?

I'm hoping it won't be that bad but it's hard to say, I think it's worse in countries that have less functional bureaucracies and governments (harder to obtain proof, documents or paper trails etc.) The US embassy in Moscow being closed significantly reduced (it's not technically "closed") might be contributing, if it's becoming harder for the American DoS do to the "research" they need inside Russia. However, Russia does keep records and there is still some diplomatic back and forth between the two countries so let's hope we're not looking at Iran levels of AP just yet.

 

19 minutes ago, rikko said:

Also, is the pinned post in the works? Or do you think if it's a DoS decision, they'll just find new excuses for AP?

I haven't had a chance yet, will probably get around to it in the next few weeks hopefully. Especially now that it seems to be more and more common for Russians.

 

The problem with DoS is they're way more opaque and mysterious than USCIS. We don't really know how and why they make decisions, it's all kept more behind closed doors compared to USCIS. AP is a "higher up" thing which possibly passes by "other eyes" inside the US security sectors, hence why they're so tight lipped about it. I doubt the lower level embassy case reviewers even have an idea of what goes on with some long AP checks. 

 

[JayFromTexas 69]

I hope it isn't a change in the process for Russian immigrants. The 2 recent AP cases that we've seen here have both been K1 visas. Maybe they are scrutinizing them more than IR/CR1 cases? 

 

As I commented in another thread about a possible change, I'm working with a woman who helps 5-10 cases per month and she hasn't noticed an uptick in AP outcomes. My wife is currently in the NVC stage and will be interviewing soon, so I guess we'll find out firsthand.

[millefleur 5,046]

1 hour ago, JayFromTexas said:

I hope it isn't a change in the process for Russian immigrants. The 2 recent AP cases that we've seen here have both been K1 visas. Maybe they are scrutinizing them more than IR/CR1 cases? 

This thread started because OP's father (so IR-5 visa) also got hit with extended AP and I can recall a few times I've seen it for spousal visas as well. I don't think the visa type really affects AP too much. Tourist visa applicants can also get hit with it if they check any of the boxes DoS looks for.

 

1 hour ago, JayFromTexas said:

As I commented in another thread about a possible change, I'm working with a woman who helps 5-10 cases per month and she hasn't noticed an uptick in AP outcomes. My wife is currently in the NVC stage and will be interviewing soon, so I guess we'll find out firsthand.

That's good to hear. It might just be that some people are getting flagged (like the person born in the "closed city" etc) if they check a certain box. On the other hand, it's not odd to consider they would give AP to Russians more often since the Ukraine invasion started. Let us know what happens with your wife and if she gets the 221 slip.