US Embassy in Paris K1/CR1

[JobbinsKnobbins 240]

Over the past two months it appears that the Paris embassy is not doing anything for K1 applicants.  Passports being held onto, interviews not being scheduled, radio silence from the embassy when users contact them.  Its been growing into more than just a concern, but its difficult to track what is going on.

We're making this thread in hopes to gather all the information regarding the embassy during the pandemic but also for posterity.

Importance of having and updating the Visa Journey Timeline:

When you create and update the Timeline, your information (namely dates) will be available to give an average on getting the NoA2 (based on others also providing their timelines) but will also show other couples with similar timelines and even when their interviews are scheduled (among other details).
Since Embassies don't have any information on how they are progressing, this is the closest we have to check and track their progress. Keep in mind that not everyone applying for the visas are in this forum.

With that said, US Embassy in Paris deals with residents from France and Portugal (since 2012), so we check for both countries for the K1 and the CR1/IR1 visas:

K1 visas France: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=France&op1=5&op2=d&op3=1&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0
K1 visas Portugal: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=Portugal&op1=5&op2=d&op3=1&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0

CR1/IR1 visas France: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=France&op1=i&op2=&dfile=No&op3=5&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0
CR1/IR1 visas Portugal: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=Portugal&op1=i&op2=&dfile=No&op3=5&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0

Note: Even though this shows the results for both countries, doesn't mean that everyone is residing in the country and for that you check by looking at what consulate is chosen for the interview on the couples' page.

Finally, one last information regarding the Embassy is their working days. All Embassies enjoy the days off from US and their respected country. This page shows the dates for the French US Embassy: https://fr.usembassy.gov/holiday-calendar/

[Gloom 1]

Thank you for posting this.

 

For the record, I’m one of the people with both an approved K-1 visa and a passport currently being held with no explanation by the embassy. My medical was approved on June 7th, and my case status reads “administrative processing” since June 11th, the same day I got an email from the embassy requesting my passport (which I still had with me and had to post to them) because they were ready to print my visa. Since then, nothing. 

[neto-66 42]

I just came on to see if anyone else is having as much trouble as we are. We first started emailing the embassy to ask for a reschedule in early May, right when we received a June appointment date. They did not respond to any inquiries whatsoever. Because of this, the appointment was missed. This was an entire month ago, and we haven't heard back about getting a new appointment. The "Missed Appointment" request is still "queued", despite the website saying it should take a maximum of 5 days to receive a response. Between my fiancé and I, we have sent over 30 inquiry emails in the last 3 months of our cases being at the embassy. 

 

We had a consultation with a firm specializing in immigration on Monday, and they said that there is nothing they can do that we haven't already done other than a Mandamus, which they quoted at $7500. I am now reaching out to my congressional representative here in the states, and emailing the embassy every weekday.

[JobbinsKnobbins 240]

Another information to add; according to the French government site, since 1st July, they are changing the number of days working from home to a minimum of 2 days per week: https://www.gouvernement.fr/en/coronavirus-covid-19

Don't know how many days it was before. Maybe someone from France could enlighten us outsiders.

The weird thing about all of this, is not the fact that they are not scheduling interviews, is the lack of contact from them. Even working at home, employers should be able to reply to emails.
Also, what is keeping them from sending the visas? Portuguese even have to get a special envelope and bring it to the interview to get their visas sent to Portugal.

[Jess.s 3]

Hi, I'm so glad to see a topic about the K1s at the Paris embassy! My case has been ready for an interview since April 29th. In April, they were  processing A LOT of cases and some cases that arrived at the embassy a week or two before mine got processed. That same week (when my visa arrived) they stopped processing visas!  I am still waiting for an interview and have been trying to reach out to them since April 29th. I haven't received A SINGLE answer, and I sent at least 15 e-mails. A few people were able to get answers saying "we'll reach out to you sson for an interview" but haven't heard since then. They're not giving interviews and they're not even responding! 

[Gloom 1]

2 hours ago, Jess.s said:

Hi, I'm so glad to see a topic about the K1s at the Paris embassy! My case has been ready for an interview since April 29th. In April, they were  processing A LOT of cases and some cases that arrived at the embassy a week or two before mine got processed. That same week (when my visa arrived) they stopped processing visas!  I am still waiting for an interview and have been trying to reach out to them since April 29th. I haven't received A SINGLE answer, and I sent at least 15 e-mails. A few people were able to get answers saying "we'll reach out to you sson for an interview" but haven't heard since then. They're not giving interviews and they're not even responding! 

 

Oh, wow. We got contacted on the 19th of April telling us my interview was scheduled for May 5th, and because we had absolutely nothing prepared and it would be so expensive to travel with such short notice (I'm in Portugal), we requested a reschedule. They insisted I should keep the original schedule and said if I did not show up, it would probably take months to reschedule. So, I managed and traveled to Paris to have my interview on the 5th. All went well and finally, after my medical, my visa was approved in early June. They've gone silent on me since June 11th, but now I see they were already ghosting a bunch of people since around the time they contacted us about my interview.

Edited July 17, 2021 by Gloom

[JobbinsKnobbins 240]

2 hours ago, Jess.s said:

They're not giving interviews and they're not even responding! 

On the VJ Timeline, it shows one CR-1/IR-1 couple that went to an interview on the 1st July.

Visually this is what the scheduled interviews at the embassy have been.
(All dates from VJ Timelines and a post from someone that doesn't have dates on their Timeline)

 

[Jess.s 3]

On 7/18/2021 at 1:07 AM, JobbinsKnobbins said:

I'm in a FB group for K1s in Paris and a lot of interviews were conducted in April/beginning of may. In the statistics they say that they gave 84 K1visas in May! (April interviews). Not sure why they stopped! 

 

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On the VJ Timeline, it shows one CR-1/IR-1 couple that went to an interview on the 1st July.

Visually this is what the scheduled interviews at the embassy have been.
(All dates from VJ Timelines and a post from someone that doesn't have dates on their Timeline)

 

 

[neto-66 42]

I called the VAC again today to push for a response. As expected, they couldn't help me. They said that the embassy is in a terrible situation now, and they're having to cancel even expedited interviews because they are so overwhelmed with cases. They told me that they have a number of appointment requests higher than they have ever seen before. I asked if there really isn't anything else I can do, and they said that there is nothing other than wait on a response from ParisIVPending. No other emails, no other phone numbers, no other contact forms. 

 

Really wish we could go back and have forced our original interview date to work. They made it seem like a reschedule wouldn't be a big deal. Now I'm starting to accept that we might not be done with this until next year. 

[Jess.s 3]

They have a lot of cases that's for sure, but I thought K1s were supposed to be prioritized? Looking at the numbers, they're not! There's also no explanation to why they gave 86 visas in april and have been MIA since then. It's also not an excuse to not answer to e-mails. It's incredibly frustrating to try to contact them for 3 months and not receive a single answer. 

Let's just hope that a big part of that is them being understaffed due to vacation. Administration is super slow in France in June,July and August. 

I'm almost sure that we won't hear from them at least until September. 

[JobbinsKnobbins 240]

2 hours ago, Jess.s said:

They have a lot of cases that's for sure, but I thought K1s were supposed to be prioritized?

K1's are Tier 2 on the prioritization.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/immigrant-visa-prioritization.html

But agree with you on the emails.

[Christian And Van 6]

Quote

 

Hello everyone - Just chiming into this conversation - I have already spoken to some of you in private... but we are also in a similar boat with everyone...and thanks to everyone here also for putting their situations out there too.

We have had our visa pending for interview since early June... and of course as everyone else we get absolutely no response from anyone that we have tried to contact. (Living in Portugal, interview in France)

Through someone that I know that has a relative working in an embassay......they have advised to expect extremely little to be done because of the summer ### Jess.s was saying. 

Such a frustrating last year.
 

Edited July 25, 2021 by Christian And Van

[neto-66 42]

I just got a response to my 33rd email asking for a reschedule.

 

"Good Afternoon, 

 

Thanks for your email. We're expreiencing an incredibly high number of requests due to covid. We appreciate your patience as we work to reschedule your appointment.

 

Best Regards, 

US Embassy Paris "

[Cameron2005 3]

It does wonders to know you aren't alone in something, though I am so sorry for everyone else dealing with this situation & lack of contact from the U.S. Embassy in Paris. My fiancé had his interview nearly 3 months ago, and they took his passport & everything and were just waiting on the medical exam (which arrived no more than two weeks after his interview). We haven't heard anything from the Embassy since, though our case did get updated the other week to "Refused" for administrative processing (side note: who in the world decided to lump cases still undergoing admin processing in with the "refusal" category?!)

[neto-66 42]

On 7/27/2021 at 8:46 PM, neto-66 said:

I just got a response to my 33rd email asking for a reschedule.

 

"Good Afternoon, 

 

Thanks for your email. We're expreiencing an incredibly high number of requests due to covid. We appreciate your patience as we work to reschedule your appointment.

 

Best Regards, 

US Embassy Paris "

Weirdly enough, we got an interview date assigned today.

 

October 20th, 2021