Interview gone HORRIBLY wrong!

[rebeccajo 14]

JenK - May I ask you a couple of questions?

Is your fiance a native of Sweden or was he born elsewhere?

Does he travel much internationally?

Edited January 24, 2008 by rebeccajo

[eau_xplain 2]

Jenn, try to get your family and friends who have already met your fiance to write letters attesting that your relationship is real.

Wishing you the best of luck and hoping that your AR will be brief.

Edited January 24, 2008 by eau_xplain

[KimS 0]

At the moment we are gathering up EVERYTHING we can find, regardless of how minute, personal or whatever it might be, to be sent in as more evidence.

At the embassy, hearing the councul say what he did. It was like being hit in the face with bricks. yet hearing the words "are you ok".

Work today has been really depressing, for the first time since I started. Can't focus on anything else but what happened at the embassy.

[rebeccajo 14]

Kim - Can you answer the questions I posted to Jen above in Post #16?

[jodee 30]

What about any Valentines card/presents, birthday cards, Christmas cards,..etc etc that were sent to each other,...

[Minya's wife 24]

Kim - Can you answer the questions I posted to Jen above in Post #16?

RJ,

Do you think the answers to your questions would explain the situation further? I'm interested for myself....as this same thing happened to us and I've never really found an acceptable explanation for why the CO focused on the validity of our relationship.

-P

[rebeccajo 14]

Kim - Can you answer the questions I posted to Jen above in Post #16?

RJ,

Do you think the answers to your questions would explain the situation further? I'm interested for myself....as this same thing happened to us and I've never really found an acceptable explanation for why the CO focused on the validity of our relationship.

-P

Possibly. Let's see what the answers are first.

PS - Even if we don't get the answers here, we can have the convo later here. But let's give see what the OP says first.

Edited January 24, 2008 by rebeccajo

[bichon82 0]

That is pretty strange behavior from the embassy staff, especially since it is Sweden. I hope things can be worked out for you.

Yes it is, it is quite unusual. My lawyer, in 14 years of practice, has not dealt with a case like this. And thank you all for the advice and support, it is definitely needed and appreciated!

I am trying to find evidence of our last visit together from July through September this year. We didn't DO anything, lol, we just spent a lot of time hanging out together. I have pictures of the engagement ring before he gave it to me, and pictures of me wearing it. I have pictures of him at my daughter's 14th birthday party, with my daughter and son in the picture also. That is a picture I definitely know the date of. The credit card I got in his name is dated 4/07 to 4/10, and we were engaged in 4/07. I am trying to find ANYTHING with DATES but that is hard to do! They seemed to be totally preoccupied with dates at the consulate. I am rummaging through my apartment trying to find anything I can. I want to try to make them so certain of our relationship that they CANT doubt it, if that is possible.

Thanks for caring and for listening!

In all honesty I do not see how showing that you issued credit cards in his name makes your relationship more real. In my view submiting this even amplifies the red flag , notably because you issued the card at the same time as your engagement. I also understand the CO's concern since you do not have any tangible proof of the two of you being in a relationship which most other couples have such as birthday cards, emails, telephone calls... at least one. Also, if you use prepaid phone cards you can still kinda show that you call often by showing them the numbers and times at which you have called the phone card dial up number which SHOULD be on your phone bill. Especially due to the time difference it should be possible to link the two by showing that you make phone card calls at regular hours when your fiance gets out from work.

Kim - Can you answer the questions I posted to Jen above in Post #16?

RJ,

Do you think the answers to your questions would explain the situation further? I'm interested for myself....as this same thing happened to us and I've never really found an acceptable explanation for why the CO focused on the validity of our relationship.

-P

Possibly. Let's see what the answers are first.

PS - Even if we don't get the answers here, we can have the convo later here. But let's give see what the OP says first.

I do think that this might have something to do with it. I mean all factors taken apart they have no real effect (notably the age difference, the lack of phone calls letters or emails, and above all the fact that you were married when you started dating) however together I think that this is why the suspecion arose. The only thing that you can do now is get together as much information as possible including ALL your chat logs... from the first to the last and send them in together with all the other stuff and letters from friends and family showing that they met your fiance and that they have met you....

Good luck on this!

Edited January 25, 2008 by bichon82

[rebeccajo 14]

bichon -

I would like for Jen to answer my questions before we speculate any further.

[bichon82 0]

also, a photo of your engagement ring is not proof of anything... however a receipt in his name is. If he does not have the reciept you can always go back to the store and get the employees to track the purchase and write a letter (or just print out your credit card statement if it was payed by credit/debit card). Same goes for the wedding dress i guess.

bichon -

I would like for Jen to answer my questions before we speculate any further.

Right!

[JenK 0]

JenK - May I ask you a couple of questions?

Is your fiance a native of Sweden or was he born elsewhere?

Does he travel much internationally?

Hi there, he is a native of Sweden, and no, his trips here to see me were his first trips EVER outside of Sweden.

I Fed-Ex'd more evidence today, although... on our 221(g) it ONLY says it is for Administrative Processing and did NOT ask for any other evidence. However, the consular officer said to send anything we could that would help our case. He did not say what specifically. So we sent:

1. Chat logs from 2 months of conversations on MSN Messenger with dates and times

2. A few e-mails we mailed each other over the past 2 years (there are not many)

3. A receipt from my wedding dress and pictures of my dress

4. An application to book the hall for our wedding

5. Copy of the credit card in his name linked to my acct (my lawyer said that was ok)

6. Paperwork from my apartment complex showing that during his stay here, he was on my lease

7. A post office receipt from a package I mailed to him in October of 2007

8. A letter from a friend of Kim and mine written on our behalf

9. More pictures of us together

Our lawyer knows someone from the senator's office so they inquired as to what the reason for our AP was. Here was his reply:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the above-named K-1 visa application. Ms. ***** and Mr. ****** can rest assured that their experience has been that of the normal interview and administrative process for an Immigrant Visa. All K-1 petitioners and applicants are interviewed by the Consul in order to rule out potential concerns regarding the relationship.

At this time, the Consul is reviewing the final statements from the petitioner and beneficiary and we hope to notify Mr. ***** by the end of next week.

Please let us know if you have further questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am not sure what all that means, but it seemed pretty vague to me, with no explanation. What do you make of that reply?

The information I sent should reach the consulate on Monday. It is addressed to this consular officer directly. I just hope he gets it, and READS it, and doesn't just throw it on a desk somewhere. I am not sure how to go about finding out if he has it. I might see if my lawyer can have the woman from the senator's office contact them again on Monday.

Now all we can do is hope for the best. Thank you all for your suggestions and advice, I will keep you all posted.

Jennifer

[JenK 0]

What about any Valentines card/presents, birthday cards, Christmas cards,..etc etc that were sent to each other,...

He brought a few of those with him on the interview and apparently he didn't even WANT them. Why, I dont know!

Jennifer

[rebeccajo 14]

Well...

It just sounds like one of those things to me, you know?

All you can do is what you have done. Send more proof of the relationship. You weren't there at the interview - it's hard to say what happened. Your man may not have answered the questions as convincingly as the CO would have liked. Who knows.

The Swedish consulate is certainly not my area of expertise. I have no way of knowing if they periodically 'get tough' with applicants. Have you ever researched it?

[JenK 0]

Well...

It just sounds like one of those things to me, you know?

All you can do is what you have done. Send more proof of the relationship. You weren't there at the interview - it's hard to say what happened. Your man may not have answered the questions as convincingly as the CO would have liked. Who knows.

The Swedish consulate is certainly not my area of expertise. I have no way of knowing if they periodically 'get tough' with applicants. Have you ever researched it?

Yes, apparently they do 'get tough' with applicants, and my lawyer has another lawyer friend dealing with a case from this embassy where apparently the CO went 'nuts' and REALLY gave the people a hard time. My lawyer says that they must have nothing to do there, they are bored, so they choose to give us a hard time as something to do. Who knows. Sounds as good of an explanation to me as any.

I wish I could have been there for the interview, then we would not be going through this. However, I am in the middle of taking a college course with mandatory attendance. You miss one day, you have to repeat the entire class over. There was no way I COULD go at this time unfortunately.

Jennifer

[rebeccajo 14]

Well...

It just sounds like one of those things to me, you know?

All you can do is what you have done. Send more proof of the relationship. You weren't there at the interview - it's hard to say what happened. Your man may not have answered the questions as convincingly as the CO would have liked. Who knows.

The Swedish consulate is certainly not my area of expertise. I have no way of knowing if they periodically 'get tough' with applicants. Have you ever researched it?

Yes, apparently they do 'get tough' with applicants, and my lawyer has another lawyer friend dealing with a case from this embassy where apparently the CO went 'nuts' and REALLY gave the people a hard time. My lawyer says that they must have nothing to do there, they are bored, so they choose to give us a hard time as something to do. Who knows. Sounds as good of an explanation to me as any.

I wish I could have been there for the interview, then we would not be going through this. However, I am in the middle of taking a college course with mandatory attendance. You miss one day, you have to repeat the entire class over. There was no way I COULD go at this time unfortunately.

Jennifer

If it's a typical 'consular scenario' then difficult as it may be, I would try to remain calm, send them what they wanted, and think positive.

A lot of people here seem to think that all the hard-core interviewing happens in the Middle East or Manila. This is actually an interesting story and a good reminder to all readers to research their consulate and take nothing for granted. For ages my mantra has been 'know thy consulate' and this situation just seems to reinforce that.

Don't beat yourself up for not being at the interview. You don't know for sure that your presence would have made things different. It's all armchair quarterbacking.

I wish you only the best of luck. Please report back to us with your result.

Edited January 25, 2008 by rebeccajo