K1 Refused (AP) in Warsaw

[Pirozhok 29]

Howdy all,

 

I am currently in Warsaw with my Russian fiancée and wanted to share our experience so far, since I've spent so much of the past few months reading about others' here.

 

We came to Warsaw via Hungary. She had several EU visits and Schengen visas prior to covid, and I provided a pretty thorough sponsorship letter/documentation, so we were lucky enough to receive one valid for about 6 months. That was one of the worries we had early on, but it turned out to be a non-issue getting here.

 

Her interview was on July 15. Went well, and after a 3-4 hour wait + 10 minutes of asking simple questions, she was told she'd be approved and have her passport back in 3-5 business days. I'm typing this in a hotel room in Warsaw, so that didn't happen.

 

Instead, we're in AP. Pretty routine from what I can tell: the CEAC status shows "refused" and the USTravelDocs page shows "Document Delivery Information:" without further details. 

 

I reached out a bit over a week later specifically because we had previous issues receiving emails from them (the appointment instructions were sent to an old email address that only appeared in the part of the DS-160 where they ask for all emails/social media from the past 5 years. She forgot the pw and stopped using it 4ish years ago). In their response, they confirmed the case is undergoing routine administrative processing, no additional documents/information were required from us, and all there is to do is wait until they contact us. That was on July 24.

 

As others before me, I'm having to cancel flights, extend stays, etc. while I enjoy an prolonged "vacation" in Warsaw. Because of this, I check the CEAC status regularly hoping for news. This is why I've noticed something I haven't seen much of and was hoping someone has seen a similar experience that I have not found while searching: the "case last updated" date isn't changing. It updated once after the interview, once when they replied to my email, and that's it. Others seem to have it updating several times before the visa is approved (at least when it takes this long), so I'm curious whether anyone has seen something like this and has an anecdote indicating whether it's likely to suddenly jump to "issued" one day, still probably has a few behind-the-scenes changes to wait through, or maybe just fell behind someone's desk and isn't getting looked at at all?

[Boiler 46,760]

I am not surprised that Russians would have extended AP

[myliobatiformidae 1]

It is extremely common for Russians to have extended APs due to security concerns and background checks. There should really be a pinned message explaining this, and people whose fiancé's belong to countries of non-proliferation or high fraud should be specifically advised to pursue CR1 over K1, honestly. I believe the current wait time for Russians who enter AP is like 10-16 months according to forum Vinskogo. That being said, you may just have a normal administrative processing that is truly just paperwork. 

[millefleur 5,050]

  On 8/2/2024 at 4:00 AM, myliobatiformidae said:

It is extremely common for Russians to have extended APs due to security concerns and background checks. There should really be a pinned message explaining this, and people whose fiancé's belong to countries of non-proliferation or high fraud should be specifically advised to pursue CR1 over K1, honestly. I believe the current wait time for Russians who enter AP is like 10-16 months according to forum Vinskogo. That being said, you may just have a normal administrative processing that is truly just paperwork. 

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It didn't used to be common, it's fairly recent that Russians being put in extended AP has become the norm. Even at the beginning of the invasion, extended AP didn't appear to be common unless you had a military background, were from a "closed city" or had some special training that got flagged. Within the last year or so, however, it seems everyone is getting hit with it.

 

We considered doing a pinned thread in the past but I was not sure how widespread it was becoming. The only info I'm getting about this is anecdotal stories from people here on VJ posting about it. I havent' checked Vinskogo but if what you're saying is correct, it seems this is a new blanket protocol for most Russian nationals. I will consider making a pinned thread on the topic soon, I just wish I had a better source for it beyond just these individual reports. 

[Pirozhok 29]

Quick update for anyone interested: the embassy reached out via email yesterday (the 6 week mark since the interview) and told her to come by and pick up her passport (without the US visa).

 

When picking it up, they were very friendly and blamed the delay on computer problems. They made it sound like the case isn't actually in AP, and they're just waiting for a system they don't fully understand to spit out the visa.

[TBoneTX 46,823]

Thanks for returning to report this.  Good luck toward a positive resolution.

[hidden_traffic 1]

  On 8/27/2024 at 12:07 PM, Pirozhok said:

Quick update for anyone interested: the embassy reached out via email yesterday (the 6 week mark since the interview) and told her to come by and pick up her passport (without the US visa).

 

When picking it up, they were very friendly and blamed the delay on computer problems. They made it sound like the case isn't actually in AP, and they're just waiting for a system they don't fully understand to spit out the visa.

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Same embassy but we are 10 months in, no resolution for us yet. 

[Pirozhok 29]

  On 10/8/2024 at 7:03 AM, hidden_traffic said:

Same embassy but we are 10 months in, no resolution for us yet. 

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That sucks. I guess it's nice knowing we're not alone in the waiting, but it all seems to pointless and unnecessary.

[rikko 93]

  On 10/8/2024 at 7:03 AM, hidden_traffic said:

Same embassy but we are 10 months in, no resolution for us yet. 

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  On 10/8/2024 at 7:14 AM, Pirozhok said:

That sucks. I guess it's nice knowing we're not alone in the waiting, but it all seems to pointless and unnecessary.

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Any updates on either of your ends?

[Pirozhok 29]

  On 10/31/2024 at 9:08 PM, rikko said:

Any updates on either of your ends?

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Nothing useful. Reached out to the congressional office at the 90-day mark, but they just received the same copy/pasted response I did from the embassy.

[C&K2022 8]

Hey, we're in the same boat. Fiancee interviewed in Poland earlier this year and we've been in AP for about 6 months. We filed a WOM at the 4 month mark and we're supposed to hear back from the defendants within a couple weeks from now. I'll post updates in case anyone is interested in how this works out for us.

[rikko 93]

  On 11/30/2024 at 2:02 AM, C&K2022 said:

We filed a WOM at the 4 month mark and we're supposed to hear back from the defendants within a couple weeks from now. 

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hoping for good news! 

[Pirozhok 29]

  On 11/30/2024 at 2:02 AM, C&K2022 said:

Hey, we're in the same boat. Fiancee interviewed in Poland earlier this year and we've been in AP for about 6 months. We filed a WOM at the 4 month mark and we're supposed to hear back from the defendants within a couple weeks from now. I'll post updates in case anyone is interested in how this works out for us.

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It's been more than a couple weeks since you posted this, did you ever hear anything back?

[C&K2022 8]

  Quote

  On 12/26/2024 at 2:54 PM, Pirozhok said:

 

It's been more than a couple weeks since you posted this, did you ever hear anything back?

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Yes, the defendants filed a Motion To Dismiss (MTD) early December, exactly two months after we filed the lawsuit. Our lawyer then filed a response (called a Memorandum in Opposition to the MTD)  a week later, picking apart their argument piece by piece very nicely (it seemed to me the defense just copy/pasted standard paragraphs with little coherence in their MTD). There is a hearing set beginning of February for the judge to either approve the MTD or reject the MTD and require the defendants to adjudicate our visa. 

[Pirozhok 29]

  On 1/1/2025 at 9:44 PM, C&K2022 said:

(it seemed to me the defense just copy/pasted standard paragraphs with little coherence in their MTD)

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Possibly the least surprising detail ever, as that seems to be a popular approach to much of this process.

 

Good luck!