CR-1 denied under 221g in Ghana. NOW WHAT?

[luvofghana 3]

I filed a k-1 in 2014 and we were denied under 221g at the Ghana embassy they never gave us a reason and only responded to my numerous emails with generic responses and responses that didn't even pertain to our case. They held it at the embassy for 4 months until it expired then returned it to USCIS. In 2015 I returned to Ghana and married my fiance. After returning to the states three months later I filed the I-130 petition for my now husbund and 12 yr old step son. I front loaded at USCIS and sent 8 pounds of evidence to accompany my husbund to the interview. We had whats app chats, skyoe, Facebook, Hangouts, Viber, call logs, tons of cards and trinkets and postcards. We also had numerous joint accounts, utility bills in both names, life insurance with him as beneficiary, he and my step son on my mefical dental and vision plan, as well as home owners insurance. I sent in close to 200 pics, wedding pics, traditional Muslim wedding pucs, reciepts, itenerary, boarding passes from both trips, wedding invitations, ect ect.... I sent in so much evidence. My husbund and step son arrived for their interview on December 22nd 2016 the white male CO asked my husbund five questions, he answered each one fully and good detail. As he was answering the last question the CO pushed the white 221g letter under the window and told him he didn't believe our relationship was real. Odviously he had decided this before the interview had even started. He didn't even acknowledge my step son or ask him any questions. What can we do now? Ghana is notorious for denying couples under 221g even when supplied more than enough evidence. Their statistics for issuing visa's is way below the majority of other countries. Our family has been through hell and back and anyone going through this immigration journey knows how hard it is but to go through it now twice and being denied twice we are at our wits end. Does anyone have any advice for us or what we can do? I've already contacted my Senator waiting for a reply and I've emailed the embassy requesting a supervisory review.

[Oguntise 0]

Sorry to hear this has happened to you twice. But didn't you guys have genuine marriage certificate and other genuine documents? There must be a valid reason for this happening again. You need to find out.

[Unlockable 7,306]

Condolences on your situation. Especially during this time of year. It looks like you had sufficient evidence. You can inquire to have a reconsideration or appeal. I have seen some cases where they were looked at by a manager and the decision was reversed. You can try to search VJ for those cases.

Other than that you can see if you can find out exactly why the CO does not believe your relationship is real.

Stay strong for your family and you will overcome.

[Penguin_ie 5,985]

I am so sorry. You are right that yours is one of the most difficult embassies to get approved through. It sounds like you maybe only visited once, to get married, between the K1 denial and this one? The more visits, and the longer they are, the better.

There is a few things you can do:

1. You may be able to call them and ask for another interview, and fly down there to be with your husband for it.

2. Contact the immigration expert at your local Congress rep's office and ask them if they can find out more as to why you were denied.

3. Wait until the case is sent back to USCIS, and send them more evidence (try to visit as often as you can in the meantime), thouhg it sounds like you sent a ton.

4. Move over to him, live together a while then re-apply.

[mallafri76 1,012]

boarding passes from both trips.

I take that to mean you got engaged on your first visit, filed for k-1, it got denied. You then flew over again, you got married on your second visit and filed for cr-1. Visits are the strongest bona fida evidence you have. The kind of fast timeline you have is not gonna work on a difficult embassy like Ghana.

[Boiler 43,429]

You mention 2 trips, how long were they for?

[f f 725]

sounds like you need more time together and not just chatting online. also joint utility bills and having him on medical insurance is pretty pointless since they are not with you to use the benefits or really be held for the liabilities. if you have a joint bank account is it one that you both use and have access to since it again does not mean much to have both names on it but only one person use it.

[luvofghana 3]

You mention 2 trips, how long were they for?

I was there 25 days my first trip and 30 days my second trip.

[luvofghana 3]

Condolences on your situation. Especially during this time of year. It looks like you had sufficient evidence. You can inquire to have a reconsideration or appeal. I have seen some cases where they were looked at by a manager and the decision was reversed. You can try to search VJ for those cases.

Other than that you can see if you can find out exactly why the CO does not believe your relationship is real.

Stay strong for your family and you will overcome.

Thank you. I will do that.

[USC1961 251]

From my perspective it sounds like you tried too hard to prove a legitimate relationship here. In this case sending in just enough evidence to prove a relationship, while keeping the rest close to the vest is smart. No doubt there are inconsistencies in 8 pounds worth of evidence, legitimate or not. That is just giving the CO extra ammunition to deny the case.

[amkhan 108]

sending 8 pounds evidences does not mean uscis sending these all to nvc or embassy we sent alot but nothing come up in my file while CO opened my case file so he requested in interview to show me evidences.... visa refused is 1 side statement there must be some mistakes done by ur hubby or in ur case please review these again.

[USC1961 251]

sending 8 pounds evidences does not mean uscis sending these all to nvc or embassy we sent alot but nothing come up in my file while CO opened my case file so he requested in interview to show me evidences.... visa refused is 1 side statement there must be some mistakes done by ur hubby or in ur case please review these again.

This is the first time I've heard that all of the submitted evidence is not forwarded to the embassy. Maybe someone else here can confirm or deny this. However I would be surprised if this is indeed the case, since they are the ones who make the final determination on issuing the visa.

[Makafui 15]

Do your own investigation to see if the beneficiary is either living together with his son mother or not because the US Embassy always do much investigation about the relationship between the beneficiary and their babies mothers or fathers. This happened to alot of Ghanaian without them knowing that the embassy do such background check..If you go and lives with him in a motel,that will also be a major suspicion because USA embassy know that,single Ghanaian living on their own without having any relationship with anyone will take their fiance or fiancee to their rental,owned or family house. Do your own investigation.. I'm talking from experience I had with them some years ago. Thanks

[LionessDeon 2,060]

OP, you will receive an NOIR/NOID listing the reasons for denial and will have a chance to refute them.

Please contact Ebunoluwa. She is very experienced with this.

You can use the search tool to read other posts about this. It's been discussed quite a bit here.

I don't think an appeal is the correct route right now.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=search&section=search&do=search&fromsearch=1

Edited December 26, 2016 by LionessDeon

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Here is a post from Ebunoluwa explaining the process:

The process for a returned CR/IR petition is :

1. Embassy sends petition to USCIS with recommendation to review or revoke.

2. USCIS sends a NOID/NOIR letter to petitioner listing the reason(s) why the visa was refused.

3. Petitioner has 30 days for a response rebuttal.

4. USCIS if satisfied with the response rebuttal and relevant evidence, re affirms petition and sends it again to the embassy with recommendation to approve the visa.

5. Embassy interviews beneficiary a second time.

The bad news is this entire process can take 12-18 months, some less some more.

Filing another petition with the previous one being still very much alive will cause more problems, you pay again and probably end up

with the same result of refusal and return.

Wait out the process, visit more, gather more relationship evidence, ask your spouse for the exact and detailed questions

and answers during the interview.