Hi, I'm new and also extremely worried!

[Karen_L 1]

Hi Karen!

I was so excited to read your post because my fiance is also an Albanian citizen currently residing in Italy! He lives in Florence and I live in New England... I wish you both the best of luck and hope your journey is as smooth as possible!

Your fiance should have a "permisso di soggiorno" (permit of stay) from the local police force if he is legally living in Italy. This document will allow (and I believe require) him to process through Naples. A good thing to find out is when this expires, and if it is cutting it close, look into extending it (jumping through the hoops is much easier in Italia than America, this shouldn't be a problem).

He will have is medical in Naples either the day before or the day of. If he is missing a vaccine that they do not provide, I believe he can go to his primary care physician to have it done and bring a proof of vaccination with him to Naples.

We also thought we would be going through Tirana, but were actually excited to learn that it would be Naples because the interview stage is very easy at this consulate! The biggest piece of advice I've been given so far is to be sure to be pro-active when you are waiting on an interview date. It will take many phone calls and faxes to be sure the Naples consulate informs you of your interview date, some people do not receive Packet 4 in the mail but eventually get it via email after bugging them.

Hi! I sent you a PM

[Kajikit 65]

Firstly, they usually do the interview and process the case in the country where the person is currently a legal resident. He doesn't have to be a PERMANENT resident to qualify. He's there on a student visa and has no plans to go home in the immediate future, so it's perfectly allowable for him to interview in Italy. They're not going to be biased against him because he's not Italian.

And secondly, you do NOT have to have the vaccines before they will give you a K1 visa. If you don't have them all they'll just mark the form 'incomplete' and then give you the visa. He will have to have the varicella shot once he gets to the US, and before he applies for AOS. But it's not a black mark against him now...

So relax!

[kaydee457 13]

Firstly, they usually do the interview and process the case in the country where the person is currently a legal resident. He doesn't have to be a PERMANENT resident to qualify. He's there on a student visa and has no plans to go home in the immediate future, so it's perfectly allowable for him to interview in Italy.

Only the Consulate can declare this with certainty. It would absolutely behoove you to get an answer from the Consulate themselves.

There are countries that require sponsorships whereby the applicant gives up his/her passport for the term of the sponsorship; that being so, many students, and others, choose not to give up their passports but rather exit/enter the country every 90 days or so and therefore are not recognized by local U.S. consulates as eligible to interview.

Is this the case in Italy?

[missycuk2 0]

You could seek legal advice about this, but since it has gone to Italy, it may possibly be okay to do the interview there - I think if I was you I would consult a lawyer - there are many other sites on the internet which offer some legal advice in the form of a forum - you can do a search, then locate an immigration lawyer on them - takes a bit of time, but worth it to get a more detailed opinion.

The Varciella vaccination is not needed until you are married and file for your AOS so dont worry about that for now -

Good luck and try to relax,

Carol

[Karen_L 1]

Firstly, they usually do the interview and process the case in the country where the person is currently a legal resident. He doesn't have to be a PERMANENT resident to qualify. He's there on a student visa and has no plans to go home in the immediate future, so it's perfectly allowable for him to interview in Italy.

Only the Consulate can declare this with certainty. It would absolutely behoove you to get an answer from the Consulate themselves.

There are countries that require sponsorships whereby the applicant gives up his/her passport for the term of the sponsorship; that being so, many students, and others, choose not to give up their passports but rather exit/enter the country every 90 days or so and therefore are not recognized by local U.S. consulates as eligible to interview.

Is this the case in Italy?

I actually e-mailed the consulate and explained everything and they told me it "shouldn't be a problem." I printed out the e-mail and Im going to send it to him so that if he goes to the interview and they tell him he can't do it there or something, he can show them that we got an okay on it. I've also been told that the Tirana embassy will likely refuse the interview anyway, so it seems we have no choice anyway.

-- Karen

[Karen_L 1]

Firstly, they usually do the interview and process the case in the country where the person is currently a legal resident. He doesn't have to be a PERMANENT resident to qualify. He's there on a student visa and has no plans to go home in the immediate future, so it's perfectly allowable for him to interview in Italy.

Only the Consulate can declare this with certainty. It would absolutely behoove you to get an answer from the Consulate themselves.

There are countries that require sponsorships whereby the applicant gives up his/her passport for the term of the sponsorship; that being so, many students, and others, choose not to give up their passports but rather exit/enter the country every 90 days or so and therefore are not recognized by local U.S. consulates as eligible to interview.

Is this the case in Italy?

As to the second question -- I think the Italian government is on top of immigration. My fiance has to go every few months to the local police station to update his Permesso di Soggiorno because if he doesn't keep it up-to-date he can be deported. When I studied there, I had to get a Permesso di Soggiorno too and I had to go once to renew it too. My fiance has his passport, so I don't think immgrants/residents need to give their passports up upon entering Italy. He also didn't have a sponsor -- I believe that, in order to be eligible for an Italian student visa, you have to show that you and your family have like... more than 5,000euro in the bank or something.

So... Im starting to think that it's okay that he's doing this in Italy after all

[kaydee457 13]

Firstly, they usually do the interview and process the case in the country where the person is currently a legal resident. He doesn't have to be a PERMANENT resident to qualify. He's there on a student visa and has no plans to go home in the immediate future, so it's perfectly allowable for him to interview in Italy.

Only the Consulate can declare this with certainty. It would absolutely behoove you to get an answer from the Consulate themselves.

There are countries that require sponsorships whereby the applicant gives up his/her passport for the term of the sponsorship; that being so, many students, and others, choose not to give up their passports but rather exit/enter the country every 90 days or so and therefore are not recognized by local U.S. consulates as eligible to interview.

Is this the case in Italy?

As to the second question -- I think the Italian government is on top of immigration. My fiance has to go every few months to the local police station to update his Permesso di Soggiorno because if he doesn't keep it up-to-date he can be deported. When I studied there, I had to get a Permesso di Soggiorno too and I had to go once to renew it too. My fiance has his passport, so I don't think immgrants/residents need to give their passports up upon entering Italy. He also didn't have a sponsor -- I believe that, in order to be eligible for an Italian student visa, you have to show that you and your family have like... more than 5,000euro in the bank or something.

So... Im starting to think that it's okay that he's doing this in Italy after all

Hey, that's the point! You need to be sure that every thing's okay.....Looks like you did your homework and in turn you're confident that you'll get no surprises, or bad advise.

Good for you !

Edited April 28, 2006 by kaydee457