jan22

All they can be told is that the case is in required administrative processing -- at that point, they will know there is nothing they can do and Iet you know that. The Embassy/Consulate will also not tell you anything about the case and its status. Per Section 222(f) of the INA, visa records are confidential and they will only discuss the case with the applicant (or the applicant's parents if the applicant is a minor).

Re your response #6 -- I would submit a formal request to Jakarta, placing emphasis on why you are seeking to apply there, i.e., having to go outside your husband's country because of the US Embassy closure there and that he is unable to go to the designated processing post of Warsaw because of his inability to return to Belarus to apply for the required Schengen visa. Within his home region, Baku (Azebaijan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), or Tashkent (Uzbekistan) might be a possibilities. I would also try Turkey and Israel, even though you have heard things, as they have been willing to accept cases from Ukraine and Russia without residency requirements. I would also take another look at the countries he can travel to without a visa and focus on countries you are willing/able to go to that have larger US Embassies with larger consular staffs. They are often more able/willing to accept an extra case or two than smaller posts that might only have a couple of consular officers. If you do seek out another Embassy, be sure to include info about why you can't go to his country of nationality because of Embassy Belarus's closure (yes, they should know that, but it may be read first by someone who doesn't know and then not get sent to the right decision-maker) and about not being able to go to Warsaw for processing due to Schengen visa issues. For example: Abu Dhabi (UAE), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lima (Peru), Panama City (Panama), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

The age of an IR-2 (child of a US citizen) is frozen on the date the petition is filed. So, for US immigration purposes, you are still the same 20 years old you were when the petition was filed. No worries.

I'm sorry you are having this trouble. It must be particularly frustrating when you thought you were so close to the finIsh line. Please bear with me if this becomes a long post as I think through things. Sometimes understanding how things reached the current state can help unravel the knots, so it might be helpful to know/think about the following to try to see a way to possibly get things straightened out: You said you spent about a year in Indonesia. Did you list Indonesia as your current address when you submitted the I-130? That would explain the assignment to Jakarta. And, once NVC assigned it there based on your address and scheduled the interview there, the Embassy would not have been asked to formally accept the case and likely had no idea you were not resident in Indonesia until the medical appointment. NVC -- which it seems may have been the official cause of the problem or, at a minimum, a large contributor to it -- cannot change the Embassy to which a case is assigned based on the I-130 unless the request is based on citizenship or residency of the beneficiary or it was assigned incorrectly. Appears NVC was not willing to accept that they assigned it incorrectly and left you in a situation where you could not meet the requirement for the other way to get it re-assigned at NVC (showing residency in another country). If NVC had assigned it correctly, though, the default would have been Warsaw, as it is the designated processing post for Belarusians. You said your husband could not go back to Belarus to apply for a Schengen visa, right? I assume that is because of the security situation there that led to the suspension of services at the US Embassy. But, is there another reason that might somehow affect his vIsa processing there or anywhere else? That left you with the only other option for reassignment -- requesting another Embassy to take your case, and if/when they agreed they would request the case file from jakarta. To clarify, you said that no other Embassy would accept your case, but only mention Kazakhstan as having said no and then describing your concerns about processing in several other countries. Did you formally request countries other than Kazakhstan to take your case and were told no or did you rule them out based on your concerns (just trying to clarify -- not making any judgments)? Which Embassies have you formally asked? Someone might be able to offer other suggestions. Since you and your file were already in Jakarta, they could have exercised their discretion and proceeded with your case. They may not have done so because of workload issues, especially right after the month of September when appointnents for other immigrant visas might get reduced to ensure Diversity Visa applicants get interviewed and issued by the end of the month. I assume you made a formal request to US Embassy Jakarta that, since the Embassy in Minsk is closed, they accept your case for processing without requiring formal residency, and request they schedule/reschedule your appointment? If not, I would try it. If you did, and got a negative response, I would try to foward the original e-mail and the response to the Consul General and/or the Ambassador's office. They would likely refer your inquiry back to the Consular Section for response, but that response might be different given that you've now gotten higher level interests involved. If you make a second request for assistance from your Congressional representatives, I would also include a request that they ensure your case is brought to the attention of the Ambassador, to ensure he is aware of your case and the interest in it.

Clearly, the subject line is correct -- this is for DV 2023, which ends in a month. As stated in the post, the principal and one derivative have already been issued. I'm assuming they have already entered the US, since their visas were issued in November 2022. OP: As others have said, the September 30 deadline is for all DV applicants. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to send an e-mail inquiry with "URGENT: DV 2023" and your case number in the subject line to the Consulate.

A J-1 has no more likelihood of being approved than an F-1. There are relatively few paid internships available in the US. Odds are against you receiving one of them from an entity that also has standing to issue the DS-2019.

Good! If any were over 18 when you married, you would not have been able to file petitions for them.

For what type of visa did you submit the DS-160?

Just to check -- were all of the children under the age of 18 when you and your wife got married?

What response, if any, did you get to your previous efforts in May to expedite? Perhaps the responses saying you're within the expected processing timeline is their way of telling you they are not going to expedite the case?

Your sons will also be able to subtract approximately 7 1/2 years from their actual age when your PD becomes current and the visas are being processed.

Others have already discussed your Priority Date (PD), which is the reason you haven't received an interview appointment, so I won't. There is one piece of somewhat good news from the dates you provided, though. Given your PD and the length of time it took USCIS to approve your petition (about 7 1/2 years, from April 2015 to Oct 2022), your daughter has some breathing room before she ages out. The amount of time taken for petition approval is subtracted from her actual age when calculating when she would no longer qualify for an immigrant visa. So, she will still be under 21 for visa issuance purposes until she is about 28 1/2 years old in real years.

When (the full date) did your mother file the petition for you? When did it get approved? Can't give a good answer to you without knowing this.

Most of the form has been translated into Spanish (and other languages). You can see the translation of a question by hovering your mouse over it. There is information about this and the choice of languages at the beginning of the form. But there's no problem with your help, as long as she "signs" the form by submitting it herself.

The following are general comments -- not enough information to know their applicability to your indivdual case, but I'm posting them here to perhaps give you another perpective. The consular officer doesn't just look at salary. They try to look at the totality of the individual's situation. While current income is very (the most?) important and usually rules, if you're in a new job with a much higher salary that does not at least somewhat follow the pattern of your employment history or for which there is a clear reason why it doesn't (e.g., it's in the same field where you have a progression of increasingly more responsible positions; you've recently finished school and this is your first position in the profession for which you've studied; you've recently returned to the US after living overseas for several years; etc) the officer might question the legitimacy of the job/pay stubs, or question how long you might keep this job, or think about the coincidence of getting such a higher-paying position just a few weeks or so before you filed the I-864, etc., and want to see more. Remember -- many (most, in some countries) consular officers have seen a wide variety of bogus claims and documents in visa cases and need to be sure everything is carefully reviewed. You have "read plenty of times" that it will be "okay" during the interview and clearly have already accepted that is the only correct answer to your inquiry here. That is quite possible -- it all might be fine. Unfortunately, there is no way anyone here or on any other public fora can say that for sure, as none know the full scope of your situation. I would urge you to give some thought to what people are saying here about a possible negative outcome and consider if there is anything you can provide to your wife in addition to additional pay stubs (for example, evidence of a new savings account that you've been able to open and put money into given the big boost in earnings; a probationary period performance evaluation indicating successful completion for continued employment; documentation of any assets you night have, etc) or anything to explain to her that she can then share with the officer about the timing or situation with the new job that helps show it is your new norm and not just a one-time earnings fluke. She's, I'm sure, already going to be nervous during the interview, so anything you can do to help prepare her for a possibly difficult question would be helpful. Hope all goes well for you/her.

No problem. There are also nationalities where the maximum validity for a B2 is 3 years (e.g., Russian Federation) and, the most restrictive I remember -- 3 months 1-entry (e.g., Cuba, Iran, Sudan), 3 months 2-entry (e.g., South Sudan), and 3 months, multiple entries (e.g., Syria). Of course, bottom line, the length of the visa's validity can also be limited by the consular officer to whatever time frame they think is appropriate. But, the maximum is limited -- as seen in the above examples -- by the reciprocity table: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country.

The maximum validity of a tourist visa (B2) for a Vietnamese citizen is 12 months. So, she would need to use the visa within that time period, i.e., before the expiration date on the visa.

Unless the visit you are referring to is more than a year away, there is essentially no chance of another interview appointment that would get a visa in time, even if it were approved (which is highly unlikely, IMO). The wait times for a visitor visa interview (B1/B2) appointment at the IndIan posts range from 400 days (Chennai) to 582 days (Mumbai). The other three have wait times of 428, 539, and 409 days.

Possibly. Is the visa applicant Colombian? If so, when did the Embassy tell you it would be ready when they approved your request to pick it up? It usually takes a minimum of 24 hours to get all of the security checks, etc. processed after the interview. The visa can only be printed after that.

You provide the correct documentation from the country in which the marriage occurred. As I understand your post, you complied with all of the civil procedures to get legally married in Turkey and your marriage is recognized by tne Turkish government, right? If so, you submit the Turkish marriage certificate as described at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Turkey.html. It does not matter to the US government if the marriage is recognized in Iran or not, as long as it is a legal marriage in the jurisdiction where it was performed. Just to clarify -- the reciprocity table information describing the required documents is for the "nationality" of the document -- tbe country that issued it -- not the nationality of tbe person to whom the document was issued.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but wanted to respond to this, in case others now or in the future are trying to get information to apply to their own case. Re your Point 1: Your statement that my answer about NVC not having approved your case was not accurate is, itself, inaccurate. I had no doubt that you had an I-140 approved by USCIS. You wouldn't have been to a visa interview if you hadn't. But, I was addressing your statement to Boiler in the response I quoted, "The NVC has already approved my case." The USCIS approval of your I-140 petition was based only on documents submitted by you and your lawyer. While an approved petition is prima facie evidence that the applicant is qualified for the visa, it is the consular (not counselor) officer's right -- actually, their duty -- to review that information with the applicant, confirm the accuracy of it, address anything else that might come up in the interview, and reach an independent decision on the applicant's qualifications for the visa. The decision would 100% be based on your qualifications, even if it differed from the USCIS. Just discussing the process here, not your case specifically. The officer in your case, of course, also found you were qualified; if they hadn't, your case wouldn't have been sent on for additional processing. Re Point 2: While we agree that the need for adminstrative processing was the individual officer's decision, we don't agree on what that actually means. With all due respect to Harvard et al that you refer to, their list is a compilation of what they believe the criteria to be. There are other areas that, for security and other reasons, may not be as obvious to the compilers of the list. I think it most likely that it is based on your PhD field or more recent research, but -- especially since you haven't responded to questions about your PhD field -- that is only a guess on my part. (Which might explain the difference between this application and your 2018 visa -- especially the topics of your research since then, although the security and other checks are also often more stringently applied for an immigrant visa than a short-term visitor's visa). I am sure that the "not knowing" is extremely frustrating for you and your family. And, this is made ever worse by the non-responsiveness to your inquiries, which is completely unacceptable, IMO. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of recourses available, except to wait and continue to try to get an Embassy response, as others have indicated. The final section of your post -- although I may be reading it entirely wrong -- makes it seem that you think posters here are enjoying or laughing at, or are unsympathetic to, your situation. I have been on VJ for several years, and I can honestly say that I don't believe that is the case. Sometimes, when trying to respond, there can be a mis-interpretation of the tone or intent of a post. I hope you get positive news very soon!

A point or two for clarification: NVC did not, and never does, approve your case. NVC is basically a paperwork clearinghouse -- they are checking that you have paperwork for all the required documents. They do not evaluate the quality of the information nor your qualification for the visa. The NVC "approval", i.e., stating that you've met the documentary requirements, means only that -- you have the documents you need to move forward. While it is the decision of the individual consular (not immigration) officer at the Embassy -- with his/her supervisor's concurrence -- that a case needs further administrative processing, it is a decision made within fairly strict parameters that limit the officer's choices. This is especially true in some STEM areas -- basically, officers are told that when a case meets these conditions, you must send it for further processing/review, making it really not the officer's choice/decision.

The only way to file a DS-160 for a tourist visa now -- and has been for 15-20 years -- is on-line. Even if an individual qualifies for an interview waiver (which the individual here would clearly not), the DS-160 is done on-line and the passport and any required supporting documents (I-20, DS-2019, etc) are then sent into the Embassy/Consulate. And, BTW, the officer may or may not actually look at other, not required, documents even if they could be mailed in.

This suggestion is impossible to do. There is no mechanism to add documents to a DS-160 visa application. She can take the documents with her to the interview, but they may or may not even be looked at by the consular officer.

It'll be several years (+4 years, at least) yet. The current Priority Date for an F3 petition (married daughter of US citizen) is 08 Jan 2009.