millefleur

Confusing. What is a "privacy petition"?

I was mistaken, for some reason I thought it said you could contact them in advance. It appears the option is just show up at the border as you said. Edited my post so as not to confuse. Either that or apply in advance via USCIS. Not an easy feat for a Belarusian passport. Apparently they require visas to Mexico even. Definitely one of the harder cases I've seen here. Even Russians can get to Mexico without a visa.

I still think there is a very strong case here to fly to the US and have him be admitted under humanitarian parole. You only have 3 months before his passport expires, call CBP and see if they can arrange it. The situation is beyond your control, both his country's laws and the US Embassy and DoS have created barriers. https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/humanitarian-parole/parole-processing

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-1639?language=en_US I have never seen it done here on VJ but you can contact your desired Port of Entry and try to arrange Humanitarian Parole in advance.

You could try having your husband enter under humanitarian parole. Since this mess has been caused by USCIS + DoS and it is beyond your control, I think there's a fair case.

**Moved from Tourist Visas to RUB regional forum**

It depends on the scenario, we have seen immigrant visa cases where they helped. Non-immigrant visa seems unlikely since there is no direct connection to a US citizen. I do not thinking attempting will hurt you in any way, they just may not be able to do anything for your relative.

How far are you in the process? Were you assigned a case number? If so, what are the first 3 letters? Example: MOS123334etc, MOS for Moscow etc. It denotes which embassy your case is assigned to. Did you go there for the interview and they turned you away?

Non-immigrant visas are processed entirely by the Embassy/DoS. There is no USCIS processing center stateside that is involved. AP is something the embassy carries out, everyone goes through it but some get more scrutiny than others for various reasons. I don't see how asking a congressperson about someone else's F-1 application would jeapordize your own naturalization. Unless there's some suspicious connection it seems totally unrelated.

She got a new 3 year visa, same duration as her previous visa. In case anyone wants to know, she had only 1 visit to the US on her old visa and that was her only visit to the US ever. She stayed about 1 month.

Great news! Thanks for updating us, it's always nice to hear DCF success stories.

Finally. This seems like a huge improvement over trying to navigate their awful phone tree menu (which will just auto disconnect if you don't say the right thing.)

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Updating this regarding pickup info: There are 2 options, DHL versus picking up at the visa center. The DHL option did not work for us because you have to pay a fee for this and the ePay site was not working. See this thread for info on that: If you are going to be in KZ for a few days after the interview, just select the visa center pick up option. It is free unlike the DHL choice and is way more straightforward.

So....she was able to pick up her passport at the visa office but only after some very confusing steps. First, she went to the visa office since the ePay site wasn't working and thus DHL pick up would not work. (Apparently there are two pick up options, DHL or the visa center) but the visa center said because you selected DHL on the application, they can't do anything. You need to email the US Embassy and explain that you want to switch to the visa center pick up. So she emailed the embassy and about 30 minutes later, she went back to the visa pick up office and got her passport. It also cost nothing to do this option, if you are staying in KZ for a week or so there is no reason to select the DHL option. Hope this helps. We never got the ePay to work so not sure what the issue was.

Incredibly weird....unfortunately we don't know anyone from Belarus. Russian MIR cards and none of our US cards work, nor my SIL's EU card. If going to the visa center does not help, we will have her try this.

OK please let me know what she did!

My MIL is going to the visa office on Timiryazev St to ask about this, it's absurd. The only thing I can think of is buy a prepaid card from a Kazakh bank and the attempt to pay with that? @powerpuff if you have any advice we would appreciate it.

This is the problem we have. We tried multiple US banks cards from different banks, as well as a EU bank card. None of these work.

@HashWad actually we're in the same boat. We also have to pay via ePay so she can pick up her passport and it is not working!! Very frustrating...

Huh strange. My MIL just applied at Almaty for a tourist visa and they told her to just come back and pick it up a few days later. She resides in Russia. Seems they have different rules for immigrant visas.

In divorce court or other such areas, maybe it could be used as some kind of leverage, since it implies a "moral obligation" and could make you look bad if you refuse to uphold it? But as far as USCIS and immigration is concerned, not enforceable.

Can you contact the embassy and switch it to pick up instead?

Update: B visa approved in Almaty! Background: MIL had a 3 year B visa prior, visited once on this visa and stayed in the US for one month. Three questions were asked: 1.) What is the purpose of your trip? - To visit my son 2.) How long has he been living in the US? - A long time, he is a US citizen now 3.) Where does he live? - Answers with name of the city/metro area And the visa was approved. The interview was conducted in Russian. She was given a piece of paper with info where to pick up her passport. They do not mail the passport back to Russia, you must wait in Kazakhstan and then go pick it up.

In any case, no matter what country it is, be sure to bring documentation that this is your money and was acquired lawfully (bank statements etc.) Even if you are a few dollars under the allowed "green channel" amount, they can still question you and pull you into the "red channel" if it is a large amount. In case you get questioned by customs, it will make everything so much easier. This happened to us stateside where we had cash slightly under $10k and the CBP guy made us open our suitcases and turn our pockets inside out to show that we did not have over $10k, in addition to be grilled and asked about paperwork for this money (which we stupidly did not have.) So just be sure to over-prepare in the worst case. Russia customs officers could easily do the same thing if they wanted.