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| Bucharest, Romania |  Review on June 18, 2006: |
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I'm an Asian, then 38, living in the USA, who found a lovely medical student, then 25, in Chisinau, Moldova over an internet dating website, something I could never find in the Land of Opportunity. I visited her twice - only one visit is required for filing of fiance(e) visa petition. She was interviewed by an Alabaman, Ann Marie Everitt, a consular official at the US Consulate at Bucharest, Romania, who denied her a visa, stating "No proof of relationship" as reason for visa denial on OF-194. Mind you that proof of relationship is not only part of the petition adjudication process, proof of relationship was presented at interview also, and they had the option of asking for more. When I called the Consulate, Everitt answered the phone calmly until I identified myself. Then hastily "I'm busy" and hung up. That day Everitt and her deputy consul general, James P. Theis, hustled to prepare the petition revocation memo (Memo) to get the petition out, so when I called next, both told me that petition had already been returned, and there was nothing they could do, and there was no need to mail them any additional proof of relationship. Theis said "Don't call us, call whoever has the petition, call the NVC, call the CIS, call whoever.." I involved 3 Congressional offices. The first Congressional inquiry wasn’t responded to for 1 ½ months, because it was one thing for them to feed me with baloney over the phone, and quite another to write it down on Embassy’s letterheads, addressed to Congressional offices, so Theis shelved the dirty job for the new-coming consul general, Bryan W. Dalton, who had enough federal hours logged to know that he could write whatever to whoever without any consequences. I called the visa office (VO), who referred me to the US Ambassador to Romania. I mailed him over a 100 pages of printed emails from my fiancee, some 3 pages long, but his office forwarded it to the consular section, from where Dalton wrote to me that he had reviewed the additional proof of relationship, and stood by Everitt's decision (No proof of relationship), which is an indirect but compelling self-admission that statements on OF-194, Memo and letters in response to Congressional inquiries are false. Theis told me that consular officials can do whatever they please until courts tell us otherwise. Consulate ignored our mutual depression, domestic abuse suffered by her at the hands of her brother over household finances, that she was motherless and my loneliness. I really miss her.
While the rest of us have to behave for the fear of consequences, US federal government officials can neither be fired nor prosecuted. If you litigate in federal court, showing 4 legal violations and 10 regulation violations, the best that you can hope for is a summary judgment. All litigation against the federal government is defended by the US attorneys, who will make-up just about anything to bail out federal officials, and such falsification of facts is legal under the federal law. Exemption to 18 USC 1001(a) (Fraud & False Statements) states:
”Subsection (a) does not apply to a party to a judicial proceeding, or that party's counsel, for statements, representations, writings or documents submitted by such party or counsel to a judge or magistrate in that proceeding.”
Below is a copy-paste of another complaint concerning the same consulate, which suggests that reasons may be more sadistic, rather than racial:
"Now I find out the Bucharest Romania has a reputation for being perhaps the least accommodating embassy when it comes to fiancée visa applicants. When your turn comes you are called to stand before a bullet-proof panel of glass and to speak to your belligerent and uncooperative interviewer as he/she barks questions, refuses to explain procedures and is likely to send you off on a wild goose-chase for more documentation at a whim. Evidently Bucharest has had a lot of complaints and people who are familiar with the Ukrainian Embassy mention the stark contrast between it and the embassy in Romania. I have to send my fiancée and her Russian speaking mother there in a few months. There is no way I can make another trip to accompany her. And, it seems, that Bucharest officials are known for arbitrarily deciding that a fiancée visa application is a sham, especially if the American fiancé isn't there. So how do I get all the luck?"
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #646