Anyone reapply after denial for drug/alcohol?

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My husband applied for his K-3 (?) visa 3 years ago at Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. He was denied his visa because he admitted to smoking marijuana within 3 years prior to the appointment.

His 3 years are up now and we have our new appointment scheduled for December, this time for his green card.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has been in the same situation and then reapplied. I know we are supposed to bring evidence that he went to "treatment." We also have tox screen results that we paid for during the last 3 years.

However, when my husband went for his "treatment," they wouldn't really do anything for him because he wasn't an addict and couldn't even be said to be abusing drugs or alcohol then or at any time in the past. (For those of you who don't know, there are basically 3 levels of drug/alcohol problems - use, abuse, and dependence in order of severity from lowest to highest. I'm going to vent here - the consulate basically told him he was an addict for smoking pot 12 times over the previous 6 years and doing coke a few times when he was 18, and told him he needed rehab. That's pretty much what the law says, too. I'm a social worker/mental health counselor and I know that's a load of #######, but what are you going to do.)

So anyway, we have receipts from the treatment center visits and the lab results but not much else. I'm afraid we'll get there and they'll say it's not enough. I'm trying to be prepared ahead of time. The treatment center won't write a letter stating they "cured" him because they really didn't - he just went 8 or 9 times because the consulate told him he had to, and basically wasted the center's time. I've spoken with the treatment center personally about this. I think I have a letter somewhere stating that he was seen there, and the dates he was seen, but that's it.

If anyone could give me some advice based on personal experience, I'd really appreciate it.

Also, on a side note, am I really not going to be allowed to go into the consulate with him? I went in with him 3 years ago.

Thanks -

JG

[bora bora 1]

My husband applied for his K-3 (?) visa 3 years ago at Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. He was denied his visa because he admitted to smoking marijuana within 3 years prior to the appointment.

His 3 years are up now and we have our new appointment scheduled for December, this time for his green card.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has been in the same situation and then reapplied. I know we are supposed to bring evidence that he went to "treatment." We also have tox screen results that we paid for during the last 3 years.

However, when my husband went for his "treatment," they wouldn't really do anything for him because he wasn't an addict and couldn't even be said to be abusing drugs or alcohol then or at any time in the past. (For those of you who don't know, there are basically 3 levels of drug/alcohol problems - use, abuse, and dependence in order of severity from lowest to highest. I'm going to vent here - the consulate basically told him he was an addict for smoking pot 12 times over the previous 6 years and doing coke a few times when he was 18, and told him he needed rehab. That's pretty much what the law says, too. I'm a social worker/mental health counselor and I know that's a load of #######, but what are you going to do.)

So anyway, we have receipts from the treatment center visits and the lab results but not much else. I'm afraid we'll get there and they'll say it's not enough. I'm trying to be prepared ahead of time. The treatment center won't write a letter stating they "cured" him because they really didn't - he just went 8 or 9 times because the consulate told him he had to, and basically wasted the center's time. I've spoken with the treatment center personally about this. I think I have a letter somewhere stating that he was seen there, and the dates he was seen, but that's it.

If anyone could give me some advice based on personal experience, I'd really appreciate it.

Also, on a side note, am I really not going to be allowed to go into the consulate with him? I went in with him 3 years ago.

Thanks -

JG

I haven't been through this, but can the center state that your husband IS NOT an addict? I mean like an affidavit that he is clean, and has been for years...

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"I haven't been through this, but can the center state that your husband IS NOT an addict? I mean like an affidavit that he is clean, and has been for years..."

The center won't do that - I asked. Either because they don't want their "professional opinion" ending up in a U.S. government agency or because they don't know my husband well enough to say that he has been "clean" for years. They know he was not high the times he was at the center, and they know he reported that he wasn't using drugs and had never abused drugs, but that's all they know. They only drug-tested him once, the first time he went.

I personally wouldn't write a letter like that about one of my clients, because all I know is what they tell me. I don't know what they do when they're not in my office. If I wrote a letter like that for one of my clients it could come back to bite me and my professional competence would be questioned. So, I understand why they won't do it. It's still annoying though.

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My husband´s visa was approved Friday night at Ciudad Juarez consulate Here´s the story:

We went to Centro Medico Internacional Thursday morning. There was a really long line but it went fast and he was in by 6:30 (don´t get there later than 5am). He had his medical exam and got 4 vaccinations and then they sent him straight to the clinic´s psychologist since of course he had to admit to past drug use again. She found his file from 3 years ago, interviewed him for 20 minutes and told him he would get his visa as long as he complied with what he was told to do last time (which he had). My mom and I waited for him for about 4 hours behind the clinic where they had some chairs and heaters behind a couple of plastic sheets.

He was done before noon and they told him to come back the next morning at 10:30 for his results. They said it wouldn´t be a problem that his interview time was way before his results would be available but as you can imagine, knowing U.S. consulates, we were worried anyway.

Next morning we were in line by 5:00 but the security guards kicked my mom and I out 5 minutes after we got there. They had the applicants line up by appointment time, so the first group was the 6:30 time, my husband´s group was the 7:30, and there was an 8:30 group behind him. He finally got into the consulate around 7:30 or so and they sent him right back out because he didn´t have his medical results yet. They told him to come back when he had his results and he wouldn´t have to wait in line again. We sat around in a little cafe across the street until 10:00 and then went to the clinic. There were a lot of people there who had had to wait until that day for their results (I guess most people are given their results the same day they have the exam, in the afternoon, but since my husband had to see the psychologist it took longer). They called his name at 10:45 and he ran over to the consulate and got right in.

Then my mom and I waited outside for hours. It was cold, windy, and dusty and I´m glad my mom was with me because I would have been very nervous about standing around there by myself. There were hundreds and hundreds of people standing around across the street from the consulate waiting for family members to come out. We stayed there because we thought maybe the CO would want me to come in but they never called me. We were approached by several men, Mexican and American, wanting money. It was a nerve-wracking day.

Finally around 6pm when there were only a few people left across the street waiting, we walked across to the consulate and were about to ask the security guard if my husband was still in there when he came out. He was one of the last 10 people out. You can tell the people who are granted their visas because they come out carrying a manila envelope with the corner cut off and a stack of stapled white papers sticking out of the corner. My mom and my husband and I cried and hugged and then got the hell out of there. All in all we waited 13 hours that day.

We got a taxi up to the border (pay attention to what the manila envelope says on the front because it tells you which bridge you have to cross) and went to an office inside the border station and waited for another 2 hours while they did something to his visa and stamped his employment authorization on it. Then we got back into the taxi and drove across, it took a whole 1 minute for the border guard to check our passports, they didn´t even look at our luggage.

A few recommendations for those of you traveling to Juarez for a visa:

1. Don´t bring any jewelry or carry large amounts of cash on you.

2. If you can, bring someone with you. I can´t even say how grateful I am that my mother took the time and spent the money to come with me. She

was a great distraction and I felt so much safer not having to wait alone both days.

3. If you can get to Juarez 2 days before the interview do it. It´s better to have the medical exam 2 days before the interview in my opinion.

4. Bring lots of warm clothes and dress in layers. It got up to 55 during the day but it was very windy, and very cold in the mornings and evenings.

5. If you get your visa, make sure you cross at least 6 hours before your flight leaves from El Paso if you travel by plane. The first time you cross it

takes a long time to get across the border because of having to wait in that office plus during the day there is a long line of cars waiting to cross into

the U.S. Apparently you have to cross for the first time between Monday and Friday because the envelope they gave my husband says the office is

only open M-F, although that seems strange to me. We should have asked while we were there but we forgot.

If anyone has any questions send me a private message and I´ll get back with you. Good luck to everyone!

Jen