jan22

Passports can be denied or revoked for a variety of reasons, including seriously delinquent taxes, unpaid child support, law enforcement purposes (outstanding warrants, etc). If outside the US, even if a regular passport is denied, a US citizen can be issued with an extremely limited validity passport that authorizes direct return to the US. I think it's important to note that -- even if a passport is denied -- the individual remains a US citizen with all the rights to return to and live in the US.

Sorry -- I missed the birth in Taiwan part of your post. But, as @SalishSea said, the conviction would have to be reported on the ESTA application. Frequently, with a criminal conviction, USCIS will deny ESTA and require the person to apply for a visa so it can be reviewed. Something to ask him about to know how to proceed, IMO.

You will likely not get any further "guarantee" about a Hindu speaker from the Consulate. Every consular officer position in the world has a language requirement designation, i.e., what language(s) are needed to be assigned to that position. These designations are usually based on the official language(s) of a country and the main langusge in areas specific of the country. In countries with multiple languages and multiple Consulates, the language-designated positions are assigned based on the primary the Consulate serves. (For example, the Consulate in Montreal will have some officers who speak French, while the one in Calgary will all be English-only positions, even though French is an official language of Canada.) Kolkata is a small Consulate with only a few consular cinsular (3 or so). I suspect that there is only one of those positions designated with a language other than English. Because of the primary language in the area, that is Bengali. However, having said that, there may well be other officers there who have served at other posts in India or who have Indian heritage who do speak Hindi. And, if not, it is almost a guarantee that there are members of the local staff that support the officers in the consular operation that do speak Hindi. So, even if you do not get a guarantee from anyone, I think you can reassure your parents that their language needs will be met.

You mentioned that your father has visited the US after his probation ended. Has he visited after filing the I-407 and giving up his green card? If so, I assume he was then issued a B2 tourist visa. If so, did he mark "yes" to the DS-160 questions on arrests/convictions? If he did, and it was discussed during that interview, it appears that the consular officer has determined that his criminal record did not make him ineligible and, therefore, issued the B2 visa. So, it shouldn't cause an issue now. If he did apply for a visa after the conviction and did not reveal the conviction on the application it could further complicate his case now. If you choose for your mother file a petition for him, she will have to either move back to the US ahead of him or present information that clearly shows her intent to re-establish domicile in the US after 10 years of living abroad.

Sorry -- even if the PD is current, it is based on an estimate of the demand/availability. An actual visa number is not assigned until after a case is DQed and assigned an interview date. They are counted against the fiscal year total (used) only when the case is sent to interview, with an individual visa number being used for each applicant in the case.

This is all frustrating, but it is undoubtedly related to the unavailability of a visa number. The Priority Date (PD) is set in anticipation of the number of cases that might become qualified in the fiscal year, to keep a steady stream of applicants. It is never an exact calculation for several reasons. For example, until the visa application forms (DS-260) are actually filled, there is no count of the derivatives that will take up extra visa numbers above and beyond the principal applicant. Backlogs created by COVID, with months where no F2Bs were issued, made it all much more complicated. There are only about 114,200 F2 visas available each fiscal year. Only 23% of that total (26,266) can be F2Bs. Add in the 7% per-country (no country can receive more than 7% of the 366,000 total family-preferences based and employment-based visas), and it boils down to there likely being less than 2,000 total F2B visas available to Filipinos every year. An Embassy does not ask for specific cases; rather, they tell NVC the number of appointment slots (per category) that they have available for the specific month. NVC then goes down the list of DQed cases on the waiting list (in the order they were DQed) and schedules that number of appointments. Only then will they forward the case to the Embassy. The waiting list can have more cases than can be seen in a month; the remaining cases stay on the list until the next month's number of appointments are requested by the Embassy and the cycle repeats. The PD for F2Bs is moving at a glacial pace, especially for countries like the Phillipines which is over-subscribed (i.e., more applicants per year than the 7% allows to be processed). For example: October 2020 Current PD was 01 Aug 2011 January 2021 Current PD was 15 Aug 2011 (2 week advancement in 4 months) May 2021 Current PD was 15 Sept 2011 (1 month advancement in 1 month -- highly unusual!) June 2021 Current PD was 15 Oct 2011 (another 1 month advancement in 1 month) Aug 2021 Current PD was 22 Oct 2011 (a one week advancement in 2 months) And there the Current PD still sits today -- no adancement in 21 months. This could likely be a result of applicants not filing documentation during COVID because they couldn't get it or didn't see any reason to do so when the case would not move forward anyway. It may have appeared that the PD needed to be advanced more quickly (resulting in the out-of-tbe-norm advancements in May and June 2021) to increase the pool of applicants ready for interview. Then, suddenly -- a rush of people submitted all at once, making the DQed list far exceed the available visa numbers. As frustrating as it is, NVC clearly has your case on the list to be scheduled and will do so when it reaches the top of the list. Not what you want to hear, but possibly an explanation for the prolonged wait. Hope it clears soon!

The parole portion of the announcement is not a DOS initiative -- DOS has no authority to parole people into the US. As stated in the part you quoted, it is a DHS (USCIS) program, so it's highly unlikely that the DOS spokesperson would be discussing it at a press conference.

No apology needed -- just wanted to clarify so the information about your case is clear and you can get the best answers possible.

First, a clarification of your subject line -- USCIS did not approve your K-1 visa. USCIS does not issue or deny visas; that is done by the Department of State at Embassies/Consulates abroad. USCIS approved your petition, which means your fiance can nIw proceed to apply for a K-1 visa. Words matter, especially in immigration. Usually, if a petition is returned to USCIS from NVC it is to have a procedural or documentation error corrected, e.g., missing a USCIS seal, missing a USCIS adjudicator signature, etc.

The "several" is not completely true but, more importantly, the languages they speak -- unless they are at the Embassy where the official language(s) is/are that of the visa applicant -- may not match what the applicant speaks. What nationality is your husband? This may be a factor. Normally, you need some tie stronger than just a tourist visa to transfer your case to another country. A major exception right now is Russian applicants, which I believe is your husband's nationality, but wanted to pose the question, just in case.

I'm sorry, but I think your concern about this may be a little early. You said the Priority Date (PD) was 2010. The current PD for an F4 is 22 April 2007. There is still a long wait for a 2010 PD (no matter the month) to be current. The F4 PD advanced only 1 month in the past 22 months (since September 2021). Some of that was because of COVID backlogs, but, historically, the PD for an F 4 has only advanced an average of 4-6 months per year. At the rate the F4 PD has been progressing, it will likely be at least 3 to 5 years before a 2010 PD is current. A lot can happen in that time period. Just to double check, are you sure the PD -- the date you filed the petition -- is 2010, or is that the year that USCIS approved the petition? Also, there is no such thing as a humanitarian visa. USCIS has "humanitarian parole" but it is not used in immigration cases to circumvent immigration law and cannot lead to permanent residency in the US.

Agree. This is most likely the fastest, cheapest path to take.

Most likely. That is the only official way to do it that I am aware of. Their lawyer should certainly know what to do -- although he/she should also have known not to file the I-485 until the I-824 had - at a minimum - already been filed.

If the i-130 had already been sent to NVC when the I-485 was filed, USCIS could not adjudicate the I-485, as they no longer had the supporting I-130.

Signing the US passport application, under penalty of perjury, is clearly a false claim to citizenship. However, I would argue -- if I wanted to make the case -- that booking an urgent need appointment for a US passport (an appointment which can only be used by you, cannot be transferred to anyone else, and can only be attended by a US citizen) can also be perceived as such. False claims do not have to be made in writing. Just my thoughts.

I may just being paranoid, but, I would be very cautious about booking a passport application appointment before you've even had your naturalization interview. This might be viewed by some strictly "by the book" officials as a false claim to US citizenship (since you know as you are booking the appointment that you are not yet a US citizen and non-citizens can't have an urgent need for a US passport) -- which has disastrous consequences. If you'd had the interview and told you were approved, I wouldn't be too concerned, but before that...? You certainly don't want to mess up anything at this point! Edit -- I just saw that randomstairs beat me on posting this concern, so I'm glad I'm not the only one to see this as an issue!

There are extremely limited reasons an Embassy can waive State Department non-immigrant visa application fees only. They have no authorization to waive USCIS fees. According to the US Embassy Cuba website, fees must be paid in cash in either US dollars or Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC) on the day of the appointment. https://cu.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/immigrant-visas-consular-fees/

The I-130 fee is the same and must be paid at the time of filing, just like all USCIS and State Department fees.

I believe people are confusing the USCIS and State Department parts of the process. Certain non-immigrant visa fees will increase on May 30, 2023. That increase does not have anything to do with USCIS petition fees or immigrant visas.

And, even if he were in the US it is not an option, as his Priority Date is not current.

Not if the Embassy requires it and you want the immigrant visa to be issued. I believe one reason for this is to have the documentation of the family for verification of the relationship in the future "chain migration" petitions. For example, a parent gets an IR-5 vIsa and, within a few days of entry into the US, petitions for three children left in the home country. There is absolutely no problem with doing this if, in fact, they are their actual children. In high fraud countries, extra children can suddenly appear to be petitioned. Having prior documentation of the family can help sort it all out.

It DOES apply -- to all immigrant visa applicants. All IVs are processed vIa the MIV system.

Small clarification. It's "paperless processing" -- for the Embassy -- not a paperless visa system. US has talked for years about issuing paperless visas, but is still far away from it.

Incorect. Escalate means that this is a question/situation that the contract employees at the information Center cannot answer. They have, therefore, "escalated" (moved up) the question to someone at the Embassy who can answer. I know it's too late in this thread to really be needed, but wanted to correct this for anyone reading this in the future who then assumes their information has been updated when it may not have been.

If I understand your post, you would be asking South Korean immigration to authenticate a South African document. That is not possible -- only the issuing country could authenticate an official document. There are clear procedures on the police clearance needed and how to obtain it that you must follow.