K1 Visa Issuance Affected by EO after all?

[Ollieh97 20]

6 hours ago, JCP said:

Sorry if my question is stupid but does this mean k1 visas are not being processed? It’s been 3 months and I haven’t got the noa2. 

It took 3-4 months before COVID to receive your noa2. I’m sure COVID has slowed this down but I believe uscis are still processing k1s.

[geowrian 22,336]

7 hours ago, JBF said:

If they’re processing those, why can’t they process K1s? Because it seems to be quite contradictory, considering how K1s are even family based visas.

Many of those were diplomatic and similar visas (A/G/NATO), which meet the requirements for emergency processing. An interview is often not even required, so there is little/no risk of spread.

Many of the rest were employment visas (H/KL/O) - presumably people who were overseas with the lockdown and needed to renew. Or who qualified for an emergency. C/D visas also kind fit in here.

The few F-1 and J-1 visas likely met emergency criteria.

The only confusing ones to me at the B visas...34 is kinda significant compared to the total so all emergency cases seems unlikely at first. Then again, take into account that the number of B visa applications is often order of magnitudes greater than that of the other categories here, that is not such a stretch anymore.

None of the visas in that list were family-based.

 

5 hours ago, JBF said:

If an embassy in the Schengen area has done it, others could do it as well. It’s getting ridiculous, really. 

Visas are handled on a a case by case basis. If people in one area qualify for an emergency, that means nothing for people in another area.

Or local conditions could be different.

The point is that because, for instance, Germany does something does not mean the UK should as well. The US does not have the same "they're all the same" policies that tend to be more common among countries in that region.

 

1 hour ago, goldhex said:

Why not? Surely a ban is a ban, no? There should be no outliers in a situation like this.

One case implies a very possible case for qualifying for an exemption. Without knowing the details of that case, there's no way to know. There are several possible exemption cases in the EOs. They don't fit most cases, but surely it's not unreasonable that 1 person could qualify.

Edited June 20, 2020 by geowrian

[HRQX 4,145]

42 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Many of the rest were employment visas (H/K/O)

I think you meant "(H/L/O)"

[geowrian 22,336]

3 minutes ago, HRQX said:

I think you meant "(H/L/O)"

LOL yes! Thanks.

K/L are next to each other so I'm writing this up as a typo and not a brain fart.

[JBF 116]

2 hours ago, geowrian said:

Many of those were diplomatic and similar visas (A/G/NATO), which meet the requirements for emergency processing. An interview is often not even required, so there is little/no risk of spread.

Many of the rest were employment visas (H/KL/O) - presumably people who were overseas with the lockdown and needed to renew. Or who qualified for an emergency. C/D visas also kind fit in here.

The few F-1 and J-1 visas likely met emergency criteria.

The only confusing ones to me at the B visas...34 is kinda significant compared to the total so all emergency cases seems unlikely at first. Then again, take into account that the number of B visa applications is often order of magnitudes greater than that of the other categories here, that is not such a stretch anymore.

None of the visas in that list were family-based.

 

Visas are handled on a a case by case basis. If people in one area qualify for an emergency, that means nothing for people in another area.

Or local conditions could be different.

The point is that because, for instance, Germany does something does not mean the UK should as well. The US does not have the same "they're all the same" policies that tend to be more common among countries in that region.

 

One case implies a very possible case for qualifying for an exemption. Without knowing the details of that case, there's no way to know. There are several possible exemption cases in the EOs. They don't fit most cases, but surely it's not unreasonable that 1 person could qualify.

Thank you for your response, and agree on the fact that those B visas are quite interesting considering the circumstances. 

[Sarahbmalvin 49]

On 6/19/2020 at 4:30 PM, goldhex said:

Those of us that had K1 visa appointments scheduled for July at the US Embassy in London have received cancellation notices today. In addition to this, the below email has also been received:

 

 

The text of this email suggests that as K1 visas are issued by the Immigrant Visa unit they are unable to process them at this time. Has anyone being processed by other embassies received similar correspondence?

I’ve been following this and some other topics and I feel like that’s not what this email is saying. In my opinion, this is saying that they are ONLY processing the visas that are considered mission critical or emergency under the EO and K1 processing will resume when routine processing resumes because it is not considered emergency or mission critical. 
 

Also, unrelated to that but not really, my fiancé was able to schedule an interview for August 7th yesterday. 

[Ah96 17]

With this proclamation ending tonight hopefully we have some good news about the routine services resuming, especially the UK with the relaxing of lockdown measures and the health alert level dropping 🤞

[Sarahbmalvin 49]

28 minutes ago, Ah96 said:

With this proclamation ending tonight hopefully we have some good news about the routine services resuming, especially the UK with the relaxing of lockdown measures and the health alert level dropping 🤞

Fingers crossed!! Have you had your interview already? 

[Ah96 17]

Just now, Sarahbmalvin said:

Fingers crossed!! Have you had your interview already? 

Sadly not. Had one booked for March 27th which got cancelled then had another for July 6th and that got cancelled too.

[Sarahbmalvin 49]

1 minute ago, Ah96 said:

Sadly not. Had one booked for March 27th which got cancelled then had another for July 6th and that got cancelled too.

Were you able to schedule another after that? We were able to Schedule one yesterday for August 7th. And what about the medical? 

[goldhex 21]

2 hours ago, Sarahbmalvin said:

I’ve been following this and some other topics and I feel like that’s not what this email is saying. In my opinion, this is saying that they are ONLY processing the visas that are considered mission critical or emergency under the EO and K1 processing will resume when routine processing resumes because it is not considered emergency or mission critical. 
 

Also, unrelated to that but not really, my fiancé was able to schedule an interview for August 7th yesterday. 

From whats been said in this thread and elsewhere, it appears you're correct. I wish they would've worded that email better though and made it abundantly clear, too much recently has relied on reading between the lines and inflection. 

 

With regards to the medical and interviews, I had my medical March 20th, and have subsequently had 3 cancelled interviews with another one scheduled for August 4th.

Edited June 22, 2020 by goldhex

[Sarahbmalvin 49]

2 minutes ago, goldhex said:

From whats been said in this thread and elsewhere, it appears you're correct. I wish they would've worded that email better though and made it abundantly clear, too much recently has relied on reading between the lines and inflection. 

 

With regards to the medical and interviews, I had my medical March 20th, and have subsequently had 3 cancelled interviews with another one scheduled for August 4th.

Ugh yes agreed. It has been beyond frustrating trying to decipher what is actually going on with the K visas. No clear answers anywhere and just when you think you’ve figured it out, another wrench is thrown at you. 
 

We’re attempting to schedule the medical for July, since the website said it was still taking appointments so 🤞🏻We can at least get that done. We scheduled an interview for August 7th but I’m not going to hold my breath that it won’t get cancelled although 🤞🏻🤞🏻 Even more thats not the case. 

[Fabercham 22]

So someone I know called the embassy today. They said they are closed until July 31st

[goldhex 21]

13 minutes ago, Sarahbmalvin said:

Ugh yes agreed. It has been beyond frustrating trying to decipher what is actually going on with the K visas. No clear answers anywhere and just when you think you’ve figured it out, another wrench is thrown at you. 
 

We’re attempting to schedule the medical for July, since the website said it was still taking appointments so 🤞🏻We can at least get that done. We scheduled an interview for August 7th but I’m not going to hold my breath that it won’t get cancelled although 🤞🏻🤞🏻 Even more thats not the case. 

Absolutely, the communication has been shocking to be honest.

 

Good luck with the medical, for me it went great, absolutely nothing to worry about as long as you have all your documents in order. I was in and out in less than an hour. Be sure to post over on the United Kingdom forum afterwards with how it went.

Edited June 22, 2020 by goldhex

[Sarahbmalvin 49]

5 minutes ago, Fabercham said:

So someone I know called the embassy today. They said they are closed until July 31st

Meaning they will resume routine processing after July 31?! That would be incredible if that’s true!

5 minutes ago, goldhex said:

Absolutely, the communication has been shocking to be honest.

 

Good luck with the medical, for me it went great, absolutely nothing to worry about as long as you have all your documents in order. I was in and out in less than an hour. Be sure to post over on the United Kingdom forum afterwards with how it went.

Awesome thanks, good luck to you as well on the interview! Would also love an update if it gets cancelled or follows through. Hopefully for all of us this is all over soon.