US Immigration from Mexico

Hello, my mother is processing a Visa K1 fianc (Mexico to USA). She received a mail from the consulate from Ciudad Juarez that she should pay the visa fee to schedule her interview, it took my mom 4 days to fill her DS-160 and pay the fee, when she enter the portal it said that her interview was that day at 8 a.m. (so in theory she missed the date), but we understand that an interview date cannot be scheduled without having paid the fee. She contact the consulate but they told her that she has a penalty of 1 year because she missed the interview although it was the system fault. Can this be fixed? She is very upset about this situation and doesn't know what to do. I would appreciate your advice.

Wondering if anyone knows this. If I file MFJ for CA it appears i have to report and pay on her income due to community property laws.

~If we file MFS, does she need to file a return, not being a resident?

Hi all. I hope I am posting in the right place! I have a few questions regarding C1 and B2 Visas. I have tried looking online and through the forums for several hours, on this and other websites. While I see the topics I have questions about discussed, I have not found a "clear" answer yet. So I do apologize if this topic has been discussed previously, I just remain a litle confused.

So first a little background. I'm an American citizen living in Rosarito, Mexico. I run a California based nonprofit organization that helps people with addictions, and I pay both California and Federal taxes. My passport is in good standing, and I have Global Entry. I moved to Mexico during the pandemic. Explaining the reasons would make for too long of a story. But the simplest version is that life is short, and I wanted to live closer to friends - my best friend lives in Rosarito, and I have many other friends in the area as well. Most of my other friends have scattered throughout the US and Europe over the years. I intend to eventually buy a house in Rosarito as my retirement home (though I am 20+ years away from retirement lol).

I live with my girlfriend (Laura) and her 16-year-old daughter (Valeria). Laura and I have been together close to 3 years and consider ourselves married, but for reasons not relevant to this discussion we cannot legally get married for another year or two. Like me, Laura and Valeria are happy where we live. Valeria is entering high school, and we hope she will go to college here as well.

TLDR: None of us plan to move to the US, so a K1 or CR-1 visa would not make sense.

However, we very much want the ability to travel - both TO and THROUGH the US. For "TO" the US, obviously there are many great vacation cities. It's also a lot more affordable than international travel lol (remember, I run a "nonprofit!"). But besides that, I have to travel for work occasionally, and I hate having to be apart from Laura for extended work trips.

For "THROUGH" the US... again a TLDR here. Tijuana "international" airport only flies to Phoenix. For us to travel to any foreign country, we must first fly 4 hours southeast to Mexico City. It adds 12 - 18 hours to most trips, creating travel days of up to 30 hours or longer for travel to Europe or Asia. It's also 2 or 3 times the price of flying out of the US - sometimes more.

We have spent over a year preparing Laura to apply for a B2 visa. We've gotten her passport, switched her work to direct deposit so everything is tracked and taxed, and imported her car (which had US plates), among other steps we've taken. But even if she can be approved (no guarantee, and our relationship probably hurts her) - the wait time for an appointment in any city in Mexico is over 2 1/2 years. I've spoken to several immigration services but had concerns that they were making false promises. Some have suggested we apply for an appointment at an office in Europe or Asia, where the wait times are shorter - others have said that will likely cause her to fail her interview. Some promise they can get us an appointment in a few months, others want thousands of dollars to "monitor her application every day." I've tried looking online (for hours!) but also always wind up confused.

So, this brings my VERY long post to my three specific questions I could not figure out:

1) Can a C1 Visa be used to "link" two plane tickets? I.e. if we buy tickets from Tijuana to Phoenix, and then Phoenix to an international destination on a separate airline, can a C1 Visa be used? Also, would we need a 2nd C1 visa (each, for Laura and Valeria) for the return flight?

2) If applying for a B2 Visa, does your application get denied if you travel to an international destination for the interview?

3) Is it true that services can help get a B2 Visa application sooner, or is that just likely a scam?

To anyone who read this novel. THANK YOU. I've spoken with 3 immigration services and done many hours of online searching... we would have no problem paying an expert for advice, but we cannot figure out whose advice we can trust. So, thank you all again for your time!

I logged on last week and it was at 2 months and had been steadily reducing for months. Today it says 8 months until a decision. We filed March 24th 2023.

Wondering if anyone else had noticed that the dates start changing when your case is being worked on behind the scene or saw it change then got their noa2 shortly thereafter.

Thanks all,

K&M

Hello fellow members of this journey.

I've been waiting for an appointment at Juarez since April 2022, my priority date is April 2019, my category is F2A(now Fx1) because my wife is petitioning me.

I decided to call on Feb/5/2024 to see whyi haven't received my appointment and what a surprise, they told me that my appointment was schedule for february 1st, i didn't get any email or letter from NVC telling me so.

I immediatly filled the public form to ask for an appointment reschedule, two days ago i received an email telling me that they have received my request and that they will place me again in queue for an appintment.

Do you know how would that take?

Has anyone experienced the same?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Have a nice day!