So, not surprisingly, my husband's friends were denied their visa due to insufficient hardship evidence. The wife had submitted a waiver for a 3 year bar due to overstay etc. The husband is devastated and considering his next move.

He says that she was told she will get her visa next summer when her ban is fulfilled but that they have to re-apply and go through the whole process again, including vaccinations et.
Is that true? - I thought she could just let CJ know that the ban is served and then she would get her visa (assuming all the other requirements have already been fulfilled like evidence of legitimate marriage etc.)
If they have to reapply and go through the whole process again, doesn't that take about 2 years in CJ? In which case she is still about 3 years from getting here, right?

Other option they are considering is him moving to Mexico.
If he did this though, how do they both get back to live in the US in the future. Doesn't he have to establish domicile in the US for 6 months first, get a job to prove they have sufficient income etc? They would still have to prove evidence of ongoing marriage, comingled assets etc? So they would still technically be in the same situation as they are now - living apart until she gets her visa?

Can they do DCF in CJ? If so, what's the timeline likely to be?

Sorry for all the questions - just trying to understand better so they don't go making an emotionally-reactive decision now which could affect them even worse in the future.

Thanks for any advice and info you can give.

Do you mean that they were put to the backlog? Or were they not a part of the pilot program?



They don't have to go through the WHOLE process again, but they do have to do a new DS-230, medical exam, and possibly update their Affidavit of Support. She would not need the vaccinations again, just proof that she had them before. They would have to notify CDJ that they wanted to wait it out and see if they could request that CDJ kept their file there for the time being--usually it is a limit of a year, but this is not that much longer than that, it would probably be no problem.



The advice that I would actually give is that they check with an attorney, and if they were not in the pilot program the first time (i.e. they submitted and waited a long time for results) I would advise them to make a really strong packet, and try again. They would need to request a new interview, which would take a while to get, prepare the waiver, and then they could participate in the pilot program. This would mean that in a matter of weeks they would be allowed to submit their waiver and have it adjudicated on the spot. There are two REALLY good websites for you to get more info, just in case you don't already have them. Laurel Scott is an attorney that specializes in CDJ cases--and if all your friend has is one overstay without complications, it should be an easy case for her. Her website is at visacentral. net.

Immigrate2us.net has a lot of people in the same situation and a lot of info on the 601 packet. They could probably make a much stronger case, and maybe get approved this time. Good luck :-)