Transfer K1 visa between embassy

[Pavel-Olga 0]

Hello all,

I received an email this morning that we have a interview for out K1 visa at the Moscow embassy on January 28. This is longer than I would like, but I understand that you have to wait your turn in line. This comes as a huge blow to my fiancee however. She was counting on interviewing in Kiev, her hometown, rather than Moscow, her current place of residence. So now that we have an interview date (after Christmas), she wants me to try to transfer the application to Kiev in hopes of getting an earlier (before Christmas) date. I am concerned that all the possible red tape involved in transferring could slow things down even more. A look at the averages in the VJ database suggests that Kiev embassy is giving interviews about 40 days earlier than Moscow right now. But will we lose more than 40 days transferring? Anyone had experience with this? Also, I have read other posts which seem to indicate that you can transfer just by emailing the embassies involved. Is this correct?

Thanks, Ryan

[Stephen + Elisha 92]

embassy question - moving to US Embassy and Consulate forum

[Waitinggent 2]

I contacted Ryan because I am in the exact situation he is, with a Ukrainian fiancee who is temporarily living in Russia. He suggested that I call NVC before my case is sent out, and I have learned from this call that although we requested the Kiev embassy in the I-129f packet, we have a Moscow case number :-( So it seems this is standard operating procedure to simply ignore the request and the citizenship of the beneficiary and look at the address. I also learned from this call that my case is held for additional processing. :-( It was certainly a depressing phone call. The operator did suggest an email requesting a switch to Kiev. I will certainly try it and I will report on what happens on how that goes.

[Pavel-Olga 0]

Thanks for moving this to the right place

embassy question - moving to US Embassy and Consulate forum

[JosMeg12 0]

Hey guys.. just want to tell you that that happened to me. My fiances home country is the Philippines but has been living in Aruba for 10 years. His work permit expired and he was appealing it through Aruba.. so we knew that he had to travel back to the Philippines for the interview process. NVC sent our case to Caracas, Venezuela because he lives in Aruba..instead of Manila. We had to e mail both embassy offices and request our file be transferred. It was electronically transferred the same day and we were able to schedule our interview a few weeks later. I was so frustrated and sad because we had no answers. No one even replied to our e mails I called the Dept of State and they told us it had already been in Manila for a week! So, dont worry. We have a CRS # instead of a MNL# but that doesnt matter at all. We are all set for our interview on Dec 21 Just thought I would share..

Good Luck

Megan

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I contacted Ryan because I am in the exact situation he is, with a Ukrainian fiancee who is temporarily living in Russia. He suggested that I call NVC before my case is sent out, and I have learned from this call that although we requested the Kiev embassy in the I-129f packet, we have a Moscow case number :-( So it seems this is standard operating procedure to simply ignore the request and the citizenship of the beneficiary and look at the address. I also learned from this call that my case is held for additional processing. :-( It was certainly a depressing phone call. The operator did suggest an email requesting a switch to Kiev. I will certainly try it and I will report on what happens on how that goes.

On your letter from NVC is directions to request a change of consulate. I am positive it will take longer than just waiting the difference in time between the two cosulates. According to what the consulates are reporting to the State Dept. right at the moment, Moscow has a waiting time for interview 6 days longer than Kiev. I cannot sy if that is true in practice.

While it is true that a citizen of one country, living in another country, has a "choice" the NVC has "first choice". Possesion, in this case, being 9/10ths of the law.

[missmissy 38]

Once our visa reached NVC, we requested a change from Denmark to Republic of Congo. It was done in about 8 days. What I was told by the DOS is this - IF it had reached Denmark then the embassy in Copenhagen has to formally petition the Republic of Congo to accept it, they have to wait for the acceptance and then it can be sent. Neither of these are terribly busy so the most we could have lost was probably a month. Lars' interview is set for Thursday and hopefully a week from today he'll be here.

[Waitinggent 2]

I contacted Ryan because I am in the exact situation he is, with a Ukrainian fiancee who is temporarily living in Russia. He suggested that I call NVC before my case is sent out, and I have learned from this call that although we requested the Kiev embassy in the I-129f packet, we have a Moscow case number :-( So it seems this is standard operating procedure to simply ignore the request and the citizenship of the beneficiary and look at the address. I also learned from this call that my case is held for additional processing. :-( It was certainly a depressing phone call. The operator did suggest an email requesting a switch to Kiev. I will certainly try it and I will report on what happens on how that goes.

On your letter from NVC is directions to request a change of consulate. I am positive it will take longer than just waiting the difference in time between the two cosulates. According to what the consulates are reporting to the State Dept. right at the moment, Moscow has a waiting time for interview 6 days longer than Kiev. I cannot sy if that is true in practice.

While it is true that a citizen of one country, living in another country, has a "choice" the NVC has "first choice". Possesion, in this case, being 9/10ths of the law.

I have received no letter from NVC yet. At what point in the process is this letter sent out, since I am in AP. I have not even received my letter from CSC saying that my I-129f is approved, which the website says was sent to me on October 30th.

[mrsjohnsonscat 7]

Down and Dirty: She was born in Uzbekistan, but lives and has lived in Moscow for some time. Has a Moscow address, even has a Russian passport. We requested Moscow, NVC decided Uzbekistan. We tried to get the embassy changed before it left NVC, but they denied it. Reason, she was born in Uzbekistan, no amount of discussion could sway them.

After speaking with the Tashkent embassy, they gave us a turn-around time of up to 2 months to transfer it to Moscow. Something to think about, if you're going to change locations.

I haven't received my letter from NVC yet either. I called a few days after I received NOA2, if you look at my timeline, you can see how fast it was between NOA2-NVC in and NVC out. So I wouldn't wait for that letter, i would start calling.

[Waitinggent 2]

Down and Dirty: She was born in Uzbekistan, but lives and has lived in Moscow for some time. Has a Moscow address, even has a Russian passport. We requested Moscow, NVC decided Uzbekistan. We tried to get the embassy changed before it left NVC, but they denied it. Reason, she was born in Uzbekistan, no amount of discussion could sway them.

After speaking with the Tashkent embassy, they gave us a turn-around time of up to 2 months to transfer it to Moscow. Something to think about, if you're going to change locations.

I haven't received my letter from NVC yet either. I called a few days after I received NOA2, if you look at my timeline, you can see how fast it was between NOA2-NVC in and NVC out. So I wouldn't wait for that letter, i would start calling.

Seems you got the opposite treatment. They wanted your fiance interviewed where she was born, despite holding a Russian passport, and they didn't want mine interviewed where she was born, even though she holds a passport only for the country where she was born.

[Pavel-Olga 0]

Hello all,

I received an email this morning that we have a interview for out K1 visa at the Moscow embassy on January 28. This is longer than I would like, but I understand that you have to wait your turn in line. This comes as a huge blow to my fiancee however. She was counting on interviewing in Kiev, her hometown, rather than Moscow, her current place of residence. So now that we have an interview date (after Christmas), she wants me to try to transfer the application to Kiev in hopes of getting an earlier (before Christmas) date. I am concerned that all the possible red tape involved in transferring could slow things down even more. A look at the averages in the VJ database suggests that Kiev embassy is giving interviews about 40 days earlier than Moscow right now. But will we lose more than 40 days transferring? Anyone had experience with this? Also, I have read other posts which seem to indicate that you can transfer just by emailing the embassies involved. Is this correct?

Thanks, Ryan

Well that answers that ... I called the NVC who confirmed that the proper course of action was to contact the Kiev embassy and see if they would take the case. I received an email this morning from the Kiev embassy which stated that they would not accept the case from Moscow. I probably could pursue it and maybe even be successfully, but more and more time will be just be lost that way. My fiancee has overcome her initial distress and accepted that the date will be January 28. I plan to spend Moscow an email periodically asking if they have any cancellations. So I guess it's time to learn the meaning of the saying: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Thanks, Ryan

[Waitinggent 2]

Hello all,

I received an email this morning that we have a interview for out K1 visa at the Moscow embassy on January 28. This is longer than I would like, but I understand that you have to wait your turn in line. This comes as a huge blow to my fiancee however. She was counting on interviewing in Kiev, her hometown, rather than Moscow, her current place of residence. So now that we have an interview date (after Christmas), she wants me to try to transfer the application to Kiev in hopes of getting an earlier (before Christmas) date. I am concerned that all the possible red tape involved in transferring could slow things down even more. A look at the averages in the VJ database suggests that Kiev embassy is giving interviews about 40 days earlier than Moscow right now. But will we lose more than 40 days transferring? Anyone had experience with this? Also, I have read other posts which seem to indicate that you can transfer just by emailing the embassies involved. Is this correct?

Thanks, Ryan

Well that answers that ... I called the NVC who confirmed that the proper course of action was to contact the Kiev embassy and see if they would take the case. I received an email this morning from the Kiev embassy which stated that they would not accept the case from Moscow. I probably could pursue it and maybe even be successfully, but more and more time will be just be lost that way. My fiancee has overcome her initial distress and accepted that the date will be January 28. I plan to spend Moscow an email periodically asking if they have any cancellations. So I guess it's time to learn the meaning of the saying: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Thanks, Ryan

I will wrap up this thread, as my experience with an embassy transfer will not be useful to others. Friday evening, I sent an email to NVC requesting they send my case (currently held at NVC for "Additional Processing") to Kiev instead of Moscow. I learned today that my case was sent off yesterday to Moscow. Given that I sent the email off on Friday evening, my case was probably sent off to Moscow before the email was seen and acted upon. So I can't say whether it would have made a difference. Now I am again in the same situation as Ryan, and I have also decided to accept that the interview will be in Moscow, as my fiance took this change much better than I expected, and I am simply happy that our case wasn't held for more than a few days for additional processing at NVC. Thanks all and good luck Ryan.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I contacted Ryan because I am in the exact situation he is, with a Ukrainian fiancee who is temporarily living in Russia. He suggested that I call NVC before my case is sent out, and I have learned from this call that although we requested the Kiev embassy in the I-129f packet, we have a Moscow case number :-( So it seems this is standard operating procedure to simply ignore the request and the citizenship of the beneficiary and look at the address. I also learned from this call that my case is held for additional processing. :-( It was certainly a depressing phone call. The operator did suggest an email requesting a switch to Kiev. I will certainly try it and I will report on what happens on how that goes.

On your letter from NVC is directions to request a change of consulate. I am positive it will take longer than just waiting the difference in time between the two cosulates. According to what the consulates are reporting to the State Dept. right at the moment, Moscow has a waiting time for interview 6 days longer than Kiev. I cannot sy if that is true in practice.

While it is true that a citizen of one country, living in another country, has a "choice" the NVC has "first choice". Possesion, in this case, being 9/10ths of the law.

I have received no letter from NVC yet. At what point in the process is this letter sent out, since I am in AP. I have not even received my letter from CSC saying that my I-129f is approved, which the website says was sent to me on October 30th.

You will probably get your NOA2 notice this week. The letter from NVC is sent when the petition is forwarded to the consulate and it will have your consulate case number on it (MOS number for Moscow) it has directions on which forms to file to change consulates.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hello all,

I received an email this morning that we have a interview for out K1 visa at the Moscow embassy on January 28. This is longer than I would like, but I understand that you have to wait your turn in line. This comes as a huge blow to my fiancee however. She was counting on interviewing in Kiev, her hometown, rather than Moscow, her current place of residence. So now that we have an interview date (after Christmas), she wants me to try to transfer the application to Kiev in hopes of getting an earlier (before Christmas) date. I am concerned that all the possible red tape involved in transferring could slow things down even more. A look at the averages in the VJ database suggests that Kiev embassy is giving interviews about 40 days earlier than Moscow right now. But will we lose more than 40 days transferring? Anyone had experience with this? Also, I have read other posts which seem to indicate that you can transfer just by emailing the embassies involved. Is this correct?

Thanks, Ryan

Well that answers that ... I called the NVC who confirmed that the proper course of action was to contact the Kiev embassy and see if they would take the case. I received an email this morning from the Kiev embassy which stated that they would not accept the case from Moscow. I probably could pursue it and maybe even be successfully, but more and more time will be just be lost that way. My fiancee has overcome her initial distress and accepted that the date will be January 28. I plan to spend Moscow an email periodically asking if they have any cancellations. So I guess it's time to learn the meaning of the saying: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Thanks, Ryan

I cannot speak for the Moscow consulate, but I know how Kiev handles cancellations. They just open up that day again and the next person that calls can have that date if they want it. They do not have a list a people waiting to be called for other openings. You can call periodically, every day if you want and ask if any other dates prior to that have opened, if anything is available they will let you change. Of course, you will have to be prepared for an earlier date.

We speak with a lot of people that have gone through Moscow. Alla does a lot of translations and this usually results in her making the acquaintance of a lot of finacees. Moscow does not seem to be any more difficult a consulate than Kiev from what people tells us (though they seem to ask more "softball" questions, Alla says because Russians like to "balh, blah, blah" more than Ukrainians...which I doubt!!!!!!!!) The only drawback at thispoint seems to be the time until interview and the fact that they do not allow the USC in the interview (if you intended to go)