Official Executive Order for Suspending Entry of Immigrants

[geowrian 22,335]

Just now, Paul & Mary said:

I'm sure there are a few ready in the 9th district.  But it is pretty hard due the emergency conditions.

Until the consulate starts handling routine cases, nobody has standing to bring suit. They tried this already and it was shot down (I was on the call).

Once there is at least somebody who is actually impacted by the EO and brings suit, then they would look at the urgent need / harms + the likelihood of success and possibly order an injunction, pending actual merits of the case being argued.

[NatashaK1 158]

12 minutes ago, BlackAfrodyte said:

At first they said they do not consider it as a non immigrant visa, which I disagreed. I spoke with several individuals there but comes back the same. In the order it states "The consular officer shall determine, in his or her discretion, whether a nonimmigrant has established his or her eligibility for an exception in section 3(b) of this proclamation." According to them, "k1 isn't non immigrant" and they believe it's part of the ban. Who knows anymore. Things keep changing. 

Well, in February this was the same confusion when Trump issued a Travel ban on all immigrant visas in Nigeria and other countries. The issue was whether the K1 visa was an immigrant visa which would mean it was included in the travel ban. It was at my interview in March that I confirmed that K1’s were either approved or denied and other immigrant visas were told to wait for a waiver to be approved before a decision can be made on their visa due to the ban on immigrant visas. So the K1 was treated as a non immigrant visa....I can assure you that. You can’t check out “Trumps mega travel ban” thread on here. 
 

i believe we will get more clarity when the embassies open up but for now, let’s all be positive and hope for the best. 

[BlackAfrodyte 73]

7 minutes ago, NatashaK1 said:

Well, in February this was the same confusion when Trump issued a Travel ban on all immigrant visas in Nigeria and other countries. The issue was whether the K1 visa was an immigrant visa which would mean it was included in the travel ban. It was at my interview in March that I confirmed that K1’s were either approved or denied and other immigrant visas were told to wait for a waiver to be approved before a decision can be made on their visa due to the ban on immigrant visas. So the K1 was treated as a non immigrant visa....I can assure you that. You can’t check out “Trumps mega travel ban” thread on here. 
 

i believe we will get more clarity when the embassies open up but for now, let’s all be positive and hope for the best. 

I pray we do get clarity asap. 

[TiEy 69]

I really do not know how hard it is to clearly mention K1 in these proclamations. Even the embassies seem to be confused. K1 is so much headache.  It seems to be always totally forgotten. 

[BlackAfrodyte 73]

27 minutes ago, geowrian said:

^This.

 

There's certainly confusion among general staff. I've been watching the FAM to see if there is any official guidance, as well as any memos I can find.

It simply will not be covered by the ban in one area and not in the other. If that were to even start to happen, I would expect a fairly quick injunction. The issue right now is a lack of clear guidance.

 

Note that this is separate from interview priorities. The consulate can prioritize certain categories over others, although a direct, indeterminate hold is more questionable.

 

This is also separate from holding on processing cases for which they believe one would be inadmissible, such as K-1 applicants in regions covered by a 14 days physical presence ban.

While technically those can still be issued and used (under the provision that the individuals will reside 14+ days in a non-banned country), the consulate may choose to hold their interviews as a means to enforce compliance with those EOs. Expecting people to take that approach may be deemed unreasonable.

Whether or not this would hold up to a legal challenge is a different matter...I'm unsure which way this would go.

 

Yes, the CO determines if an exception from section 3 applies.

They do not get to arbitrarily determine what visa classes are covered by section 1 of the EO.

Thanks. Seems like the closer we get, the harder things get. 

Just now, TiEy said:

I really do not know how hard it is to clearly mention K1 in these proclamations. Even the embassies seem to be confused. K1 is so much headache.  It seems to be always totally forgotten. 

Exactly my thoughts. 

[Keeb 8]

3 minutes ago, BlackAfrodyte said:

Thanks. Seems like the closer we get, the harder things get. 

Exactly my thoughts. 

My fiances in Australia and was issued a k1 visa may 29th just waiting on a flight exemption so I guess k1s are still good to go

[BlackAfrodyte 73]

8 minutes ago, Keeb said:

My fiances in Australia and was issued a k1 visa may 29th just waiting on a flight exemption so I guess k1s are still good to go

Awesome

[geowrian 22,335]

28 minutes ago, NatashaK1 said:

Well, in February this was the same confusion when Trump issued a Travel ban on all immigrant visas in Nigeria and other countries. The issue was whether the K1 visa was an immigrant visa which would mean it was included in the travel ban. It was at my interview in March that I confirmed that K1’s were either approved or denied and other immigrant visas were told to wait for a waiver to be approved before a decision can be made on their visa due to the ban on immigrant visas. So the K1 was treated as a non immigrant visa....I can assure you that. You can’t check out “Trumps mega travel ban” thread on here. 
 

i believe we will get more clarity when the embassies open up but for now, let’s all be positive and hope for the best. 

Yup, and the FAM was updated to reflect that K-1s were exempt from the ban on Nigerians (https://fam.state.gov/FAM/09FAM/09FAM030214.html "K Visas:  K visas are nonimmigrant visas and therefore are treated as such for PP 9645 purposes and not subject to PP 9983.  Therefore, if a K visa applicant is subject to restrictions under PP 9645 as a nonimmigrant applicant, he/she must either qualify for an exception or waiver before a visa may be issued.")

 

19 minutes ago, TiEy said:

I really do not know how hard it is to clearly mention K1 in these proclamations. Even the embassies seem to be confused. K1 is so much headache.  It seems to be always totally forgotten. 

It's not mentioned as it is not being treated differently. They don't say if A or G o NATO or TN or [whatever] visas are impacted either, because there is no change to them.

[dee&vee 79]

Does this EO apply to Family members already in the US and waiting to apply to adjust their status?

[Cilllah 470]

26 minutes ago, Keeb said:

My fiances in Australia and was issued a k1 visa may 29th just waiting on a flight exemption so I guess k1s are still good to go

Me too but I doubt I will hear back for another two weeks as they seem to approve it last minute

[Keeb 8]

Just now, Cilllah said:

Me too but I doubt I will hear back for another two weeks as they seem to approve it last minute

Hers she didn't put a flight number because she didn't want to spend money and them not exempt her. So she put the reason why she needs one and doesn't plan on returning. We put august 1st havent heard anything yet its been 3 weeks so last min is prob true

[geowrian 22,335]

6 minutes ago, dee&vee said:

Does this EO apply to Family members already in the US and waiting to apply to adjust their status?

It does not apply to AOS cases. It only applies to consular processing (to get a visa).

[Cilllah 470]

Just now, Keeb said:

Hers she didn't put a flight number because she didn't want to spend money and them not exempt her. So she put the reason why she needs one and doesn't plan on returning. We put august 1st havent heard anything yet its been 3 weeks so last min is prob true

Everyone here and who I have seen on FB have gotten approved literally a day or two before so I would expect that to hold for us. My flight is the 14th of July so I will let you know how I get on. I already booked my one way flight as I figured it would help my case AND United had a deal where if you booked before May 31st you could change it unlimited times in the year and I figured with the exemption that was a good option.
I was annoyed they made you write a return date in the exemption lol

[Keeb 8]

2 minutes ago, Cilllah said:

Everyone here and who I have seen on FB have gotten approved literally a day or two before so I would expect that to hold for us. My flight is the 14th of July so I will let you know how I get on. I already booked my one way flight as I figured it would help my case AND United had a deal where if you booked before May 31st you could change it unlimited times in the year and I figured with the exemption that was a good option.
I was annoyed they made you write a return date in the exemption lol

Yea i know I was mad because this whole process we go through  and now its her government  slowing it down now not the US this time lol

[JacobP 185]

20 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Yup, and the FAM was updated to reflect that K-1s were exempt from the ban on Nigerians (https://fam.state.gov/FAM/09FAM/09FAM030214.html "K Visas:  K visas are nonimmigrant visas and therefore are treated as such for PP 9645 purposes and not subject to PP 9983.  Therefore, if a K visa applicant is subject to restrictions under PP 9645 as a nonimmigrant applicant, he/she must either qualify for an exception or waiver before a visa may be issued.")

 

It's not mentioned as it is not being treated differently. They don't say if A or G o NATO or TN or [whatever] visas are impacted either, because there is no change to them.

I feel like this just makes things even more confusing. Why are some consulates convinced that this affects K-1s when there's pretty clear precedent to treat it as a non-immigrant in similar cases? Why have they not issued any tangible guidance for K-1s in this case? Sure, there's travel bans and the universal halt on routine processing, but it seems like on here that some consulates in areas not subject to a travel ban are not even sure if they're allowed to issue K1s in emergencies or not.