Delay After Approval: Requesting Documents that Don't Exist

[Blue Raven 3]

Dear Community,

I am seeking advice. On April 18th, I flew to Barbados with my fiance. We were asked a few questions and his K1 Visa was easily approved. We've been together for over four years. I meet the financial criteria. He has come to the United States several times throughout his life (with a valid visa which he never overstayed). Neither of us have any criminal records anywhere in the world (Federal, State, Local, anywhere)

Since then, they have contacted my fiance with additional questions. (Aside: we spent all that money to go to Barbados with our mountain of documents, why didn't you ask these then??) Were you really a student all that time? Yes. A PhD takes 10 years and he (and the government) could verify that he had been in the country legally that entire time on his student visa.

An email said that someone named "Post" in the Barbados embassy is asking him for Arrest and Court Records from an Arrest in the United States. (?) So once, he purchased a gas card in Texas. He went to the pump. The gas card did not work. He went back in to tell the gas station attendant. Even with the receipt and given the fact that had she chosen to, she could have verified his words, she wouldn't give him a new card nor refund his money. Then she told him to leave or she would call the police. The police took him from the gas station without even listening to his story or looking at the receipt. They later reviewed the surveillance video, verified that he didn't do anything wrong & Valero gave him the new gas card. These were a few unpleasant hours out of my fiance's life.

The only thing the embassy background check saw is that Texas Law Enforcement did a background check with his fingerprints. He was not charged with anything. The police did not read him his miranda rights. He was not indicted. He did not go to court. There is nothing.

To comply with the Embassy's request for information, though, my fiance contacted the courthouse to see if they had anything at all they could provide. Of course, they had no record of any interaction. He called the police station, who said that they didn't see anything but to file an open records request, which he did. However, they couldn't guarantee that they would find anything and said that the process might take weeks.

He is 100% clean. Even with the resources of the federal government, they could not find anything & now they are putting this burden on us to produce records that don't exist.

Have any of you had any similar experiences?

What should I do?

Can any random person call the police on a legal immigrant and mess up his immigration status, even if the police themselves say it is unfounded?

Do I need to get an immigration attorney over this?

Thanks,

A

Edited April 27, 2016 by Arlinda

[baron555 934]

Have any of you had any similar experiences?

Everyone undergoes additional AP following the interview.

What should I do?

Wait

Can any random person call the police on a legal immigrant and mess up his immigration status, even if the police themselves say it is unfounded?

The immigration status is not messed up.

Do I need to get an immigration attorney over this?

Only if you have extra money you want to part with; nothing they could do anyways, except take your money.

Did the Embassy keep his passport? If so, then just sit tight.

[Blue Raven 3]

Thank you Baron,

I'll try to calm down. They said 5 business days. It's been longer than this and it is making me quite nervous. Especially considering that while I was there, one of the agents (handling shorter term visas) was denying everyone under 60.

But if they do this to everyone, everywhere, I'll just be a bit more patient.

Thanks,

Arlinda

[LionessDeon 2,060]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/113-waivers-i-601-and-i-212-and-administrative-processes-221g/

You may want to read up in the AP forum. Seems to be a trend of more extensive background check and longer AP

[Mollie09 1,543]

If he was taken from the gas station by police and fingerprinted, he was technically arrested even if not charged or taken to court. Should have those records and answer form questions accordingly.

[EM_Vandaveer 2,438]

I'd say he was at least "detained" by the police, if not arrested. Is there a question on the visa application form about ever being detained by police?

[Caykay1 71]

This is a very tough spot to be in. Anytime I know the police gets called on a person, it's some type of detain/arrest. I'm sure they at least asked for his name when they arrived and or where he lives. I can't help you in any way but good luck and get an attorney asap when your guts tell you so. Don't waste time before you regret it.

[Blue Raven 3]

The DS-160 asks if you have been arrested. In hindsight, he should have said yes. But he didn't think to because when they saw the surveillance they knew he had done nothing and dismissed everything.

I am sure this will workout soon. I am ready to begin our lives here.

A

[tnbrit59 0]

The DS-160 asks if you have been arrested. In hindsight, he should have said yes. But he didn't think to because when they saw the surveillance they knew he had done nothing and dismissed everything.

I am sure this will workout soon. I am ready to begin our lives here.

A

If the police were called to that gas station, there will be a record of it. When somebody calls the police for anything, they generally go thru a police dispatch center, and the dispatcher takes the details of the call and enters it into a CAD system. Regardless of the final outcome/disposition, there will be a record in the computer. There's not always a police report generated, but the call will have been recorded in the CAD, and you should be able to get a copy of that, from whichever law enforcement agency has jurisdiction over that gas station. It may be the local police, or it may be the county sheriff (it could also be TX DPS - but probably not). If you know the exact date and approx. what time the incident occurred, and the location (exact street address) you can call the police dept (ask for dispatch) in whatever city it occurred in, and if it's not their jurisdiction, they'll tell you whose it is. (if u don't know the street address of the gas station, look it up on google maps, or something similar) That's how it works in the states that l've worked in, and l doubt that it's any different in TX. Good luck.

[N and J 88]

There has to be a record of the call. All calls are recorded and the police officers who were there have to write a report on the call even if no arrest took place. Is he still in the United States? If so you can easily get his police record by calling the local police department and seeing if they do a personal background check. They can pull up his record and you can send that in. You can also go through the FBI but according to their website they are pretty backed up and it can take a while. I just recently had one done because I was going to get married in Morocco. You do not check off if arrested if you were never arrested. Arrested implies being charged with something, even if the charges were dropped in court a person was still arrested. There is a major difference between being detained and arrested. "detained" is a nice way of putting questioning a person. Many people are detained and it does not go on the person's personal criminal record. The reason why they are seeing his fingerprints pop up is because now 99% of police departments and law enforcement agencies use the digital fingerprinting system which logs it in through a national database. I will come up for having my prints ran recently for a personal background check....The NJ State Police did it. You can write a letter and explain what happened. If he did something wrong he would have been in taken into custody and booked in jail. However, there has to be a record of that situation by both police officers and whoever took the call.

[Blue Raven 3]

The open records request just came back and they did find the initial call report. So we do have something to send over. Everything was as my fiance described point for point. The only official charge was "Resisting Arrest" which was dismissed based on the video. The call report said he asked something like "what did I do wrong?". They never said that they answered him. The evidence log had 3 DVDs of the surveillance which were officially destroyed once the charges were dismissed. Amazing how that works....

So I am sure this will work out. I will let you all know if we have any hiccups.

[Blue Raven 3]

You can write a letter and explain what happened.

He wrote a letter explaining what happened. This was not enough for the embassy, but the police produced the initial call report, so we should be fine.

[N and J 88]

He wrote a letter explaining what happened. This was not enough for the embassy, but the police produced the initial call report, so we should be fine.

Good glad they gave it to you. I know whenever I call the cops on my drunk neighbor even though they only "talk" to him they write up a report. I get one from each call so I can give it to my landlord. Good luck!! Keep us updated!!

[TBoneTX 47,359]

*** Thread is moved from the K-1 Process forum to the K-1 Case Progress subforum. ***

[EM_Vandaveer 2,438]

Just as a sidebar, not pertaining to OP's situation. I doubt that being arrested equals being charged with something. It should (police should not arrest people unless they committed something that they can be charged with), however unfortunately sometimes police makes arrests trying to "make something up later" to charge them with. If this does not work out for them (in a situation like that, it usually does not) then there was an arrest but no charge.