US Immigration from Portugal

I've been trying to schedule a visa interview (K-1) at the U.S. Embassy in Paris for 2 weeks now and can't find any available slots. I've filled out the DS-160 and created an account on the ais website, but can't even pay the fee because there are no times available. Is anyone else going through this as well? Should I get worried?

I've phoned the embassy multiple times and they've told me to "just keep checking." Do time and dates get posted at a particular time of day that I don't know about and "sell out" in a couple of minutes?

I'd really love your help, thank you!

I am an American citizen living and working in Maryland, and my fianc is a Portuguese citizen, and we are working towards his K-1 visa.

On May 5, 2021, my fianc had his K-1 visa interview in Paris (as the U.S. Embassy in his home country of Portugal closed due to COVID-19). After the interview, the interviewer told my fianc that they had everything they needed for the time being aside from his medical exam results, which were being mailed from Portugal due to the exam documents not being ready by his interview date. Still, the consular took his paperwork & his passport and instructed him that this would all be mailed to his home address in Portugal once the visa was processed/approved.

We haven't heard anything since. We have reached out multiple times to the Embassy (via online contact form, phone, emails to the embassy at multiple email addresses relating to visa processing -- such as ParisIVProcessing, ParisVisas, etc.), but neither ourselves nor our immigration attorneys have received any clear update as to what exactly is going on with our case and his visa.

After months of trying and failing to get an update about our case from the U.S. Embassy in Paris, earlier this month I called the National Visa Center, which was able to confirm from their end that the U.S. Embassy in Paris has received all of the required documents for his case (they said his medical exam arrived about mid-May). The NVC was unable to give me further details and told me to call the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

I called the Embassy s Non-immigrant visa appointment line a few weeks ago (the only way I could reach someone, as there is no one I could get in touch with specifically for inquiring about visa issues), and the appointment line representative told me to check the status of our visa on ceac.state.gov. However, nothing showed up (just said "No Status" for our case).

I called the Non-immigrant visa number again, and I was given a new email address to contact (fae_contactus+fr+courier+en@visaops.net) and told to explain our situation in a message and that they might be able to help more.

Upon my initial correspondence (about two & a half weeks ago), I received an automatic reply that my message had been received, and then the next message I received (about a day after the first) was an apology for the inconvenience and said our case had been escalated to the appropriate department. However, I received another email shortly after that stating they had no information/updates that they could give me.

I received another response last week (July 19) from that same email address saying that on May 25, the status of my fianc s visa was updated to "Refused", but they said that this can also mean that the Embassy is still processing your case. We have no other information or contact details to give you. That was the end of our email chain and the only real correspondence we've had with the Embassy in months.

I called the NVC, and they were able to confirm it was a "soft refusal" under the 221(g), but they said they didn't know why and to contact the Embassy. We still aren't able to get in touch with anyone who can provide any updates regarding our case.

Our immigrations lawyers suggested I contact my state senators for advice, so I did last week & they had me fill out a form and confirmed that they submitted an official inquiry to the Embassy.

I am just wondering if anyone else is in this position with the U.S. Embassy is Paris and/or if anyone has had any luck getting in touch? I have been reading forums where I saw other Portuguese citizens had their interviews on May 5 as well...any insight on timelines? Is there any way to find out what may still be needed from my fianc ?

Thank you so much in advance!!

Hello!

I would like to share my experience with the group about my recent expedite request for a work permit (EAD).

Short story. I arrived in May based on a K1-Visa. I submitted my packet for AOS/EAD on June 16th. I asked for an expedite trough Senator's Bennet office for my EAD (I-765) on Monday July 12th. Today the immigration's Liaison from their office called me to inform me that USCIS set up a biometrics appointment for me for August 16th. She mentioned that it was slight weird that they got back so fast to her and that they set my biometrics.
The reason to expedite, was due to waiting to get a K1-visa since 2019 (had to wait over a year until they restarted K1's), and the fact that I was already working for a US company (as a contractor outside of the US), and my work is related with vehicle critical safety systems (it's a very specific area where I'm the only one working on it for the company).

I don't think they approved the expedite. I think they just moved the biometrics for me and then they will read the expedite request, because on the email that I received they request to resend the expedite letter after the biometrics.

Hope this helps!

HELLO I AM PLANNING TO APPLY FOR MY US CITIZENSHIP

APPLY ING FOR RENTAL ASSISTANCE CAN IT AFFECT MY APPLICATION ???

Over the past two months it appears that the Paris embassy is not doing anything for K1 applicants. Passports being held onto, interviews not being scheduled, radio silence from the embassy when users contact them. Its been growing into more than just a concern, but its difficult to track what is going on.

We're making this thread in hopes to gather all the information regarding the embassy during the pandemic but also for posterity.

Importance of having and updating the Visa Journey Timeline:

When you create and update the Timeline, your information (namely dates) will be available to give an average on getting the NoA2 (based on others also providing their timelines) but will also show other couples with similar timelines and even when their interviews are scheduled (among other details).
Since Embassies don't have any information on how they are progressing, this is the closest we have to check and track their progress. Keep in mind that not everyone applying for the visas are in this forum.

With that said, US Embassy in Paris deals with residents from France and Portugal (since 2012), so we check for both countries for the K1 and the CR1/IR1 visas:

K1 visas France: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=France&op1=5&op2=d&op3=1&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0
K1 visas Portugal: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=Portugal&op1=5&op2=d&op3=1&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0

CR1/IR1 visas France: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=France&op1=i&op2=&dfile=No&op3=5&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0
CR1/IR1 visas Portugal: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=Portugal&op1=i&op2=&dfile=No&op3=5&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0

Note: Even though this shows the results for both countries, doesn't mean that everyone is residing in the country and for that you check by looking at what consulate is chosen for the interview on the couples' page.

Finally, one last information regarding the Embassy is their working days. All Embassies enjoy the days off from US and their respected country. This page shows the dates for the French US Embassy: https://fr.usembassy.gov/holiday-calendar/