Russian and recently interviewed in Warsaw Poland?

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

@Simplytex  The current delay is caused by a flood of recent applications, literally thousands or tens of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine, Russia and from other areas.  Before February 24, the normal non-expedited wait was maybe 2 weeks.  Other countries are available however rules vary from country to country so do your research of course. The Italian route was popular because of the cost, the short/efficient processing time and the high rate of approval.  Other countries will often have a lower rate of approval or take longer.

[Simplytex 387]

34 minutes ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

@Simplytex  The current delay is caused by a flood of recent applications, literally thousands or tens of thousands of people fleeing Ukraine, Russia and from other areas.  Before February 24, the normal non-expedited wait was maybe 2 weeks.  Other countries are available however rules vary from country to country so do your research of course. The Italian route was popular because of the cost, the short/efficient processing time and the high rate of approval.  Other countries will often have a lower rate of approval or take longer.

Sure thing. Italy was a choice of cost+convenience for the time being, but seems like that has changed. Also had been thinking of the Greek, Spanish, or Hungarian options... We'll see.

 

Alternatively, just to meet up, might go to Georgia.

[miller_Kay 5]

On 8/6/2022 at 6:45 PM, StevenInAtlanta said:

@miller_Kay  1 year visa was granted.  The Italian embassy is swamped so we used a service and paid an additional fee to have it expedited.  The expedite fee was close to $500 and it took less than 10 days to get the visa. Otherwise it was going to take 6-10 weeks.

 

@StevenInAtlantaYour original post says you got a Greece visa, but this one says Italy haha. Which one is it? And how long within that 1 year span, is she actually allowed to be inside that country? 

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

@miller_Kay It's an Italian visa, it was issued for a period of 1 year.

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

UPDATE FROM WARSAW POLAND US EMBASSY INTERVIEW COMPLETED, VISA ISSUANCE DELAYED

 

So we are now in Warsaw Poland, we completed the US Embassy interview last Tuesday, that was 1 week ago as I type this update.  The total interview time took about 2.25 hours.  Most of the time was just waiting for her number to be called once inside.  The interview was scheduled for 8am, we arrived at the embassy at 7:45am there were already about 30-40 people standing in line. There was a line coordinator working the line and we were separated into two lines one for the non-immigrant visa folks, and one for immigrant visa folks.  I was not needed/allowed to go inside with my wife during the interview. She was inside by 8:15.  I had to wait 2+ hours on the street outside.  Nowhere to sit, no coffee shop, no cafe near by.

 

While inside she was given a number. When called she presented her documents to an immigration officer, a woman that spoke good Russian, she reviewed the documents and said 'its all in order' gave her documents back and asked her to sit down again and wait for her number.  About an hour or more later she was called to the 2nd official, a man with not so good Russian.  He spent less than a minute reviewing her documents and asked her two questions:

 

1. How did you meet your husband

2. How long have you known your husband

 

Though she had every document requested in the instructions to be sure to bring with you, he asked her to return to the hotel and upload her updated birth certificate and police report and he indicated they would then process her visa quickly and she could pick it up at the mailboxes ETC.  We went back to the hotel, scanned and uploaded the two documents within 1.5 hours.  The need to do this was understandable since her original police certificate expired because of the long delay between moving her case from Moscow to Poland and the delay in obtaining an interview.  The need for the birth certificate update was because my wife decided she wanted a brand new birth certificate that was in perfect condition, her original was partially not perfectly readable in the area for her birth city....so she got a new one and the officer noticed they were different so its understandable to upload the new one.

 

LESSON LEARNED: If any of your documents expire or change, its a SUPER GOOD IDEA to upload them before your interview so that they are already in the system before your interview.

 

Why the official couldn't just copy and upload them or put them in a folder I don't know but its not part of their process apparently.  The official assured her that if she did this quickly (the upload) they would quickly process her visa and it would be available for pickup in a few days at the mailboxes etc.

 

THIS DID NOT HAPPEN....

 

We have extended our stay an additional week in Warsaw, and this has been expensive to change flights, get a hotel for an additional week, food, etc.

It's near impossible to get anyone on the phone that can tell you anything more than to just wait. We check the CEAC web site profile several times a day for an update, nothing after a week now.  No email communications from the embassy, no communications at all.

 

The Warsaw embassy has several ways to communicate with them. This includes live online chat, Skype and web phone call.

• The live online chat turned out to just be a robot and I was unable to actually get my chat routed to a human. I wasted about 30 minutes repeating my wife's name, passport number, birthdate and email address to the robot only to at the end be told it was a holiday.  It's Tuesday morning and not a holiday in US or Poland
• I got no response to the Skype message I sent even after adding the correct Skype account to my contacts, no response at all
• The web talk phone call just took me to the same voice response system that calling the number on the website provided
• Called the number on the site +48 22 307 1361 (see below)

Finally got a human on the phone this morning, talked for 20-30 minutes, he answered questions and was quite patient but could not indicate how long we might have to wait...that is how much longer we will have to wait. No indication whatsoever how much longer. 

 

The problem is that obviously we need to get back to work, we do not have unlimited funds to stay in Warsaw for an indeterminate time. To compound the issue, the embassy has my wife's passport and she obviously can not leave Warsaw/board a plane without it.

 

We can get her passport back by doing a request for it to be returned, this can take 2-3 days, and if we do that we (apparently) do not have to return for an interview, BUT she will have to submit her passport again using the correct form and the support agent told me several times that the passport can ONLY be mailed from the mailboxes ETC location in Warsaw!  It can not be mailed from any other location!  Are you sure I asked him several times!

 

MY level of frustration is just off the scale, apparently you can't just walk down to the embassy and explain your situation to anyone, there is no way to expedite your request or processing, you can only get your passport back and start all over or sit and wait an unknown amount of time.

 

If this is what happens when you have a simple immigration case where the parties have known each other for 7+ years, been married for 5+ years and appear with all original documents as requested, I can't imagine what a hard case must be like.

 

At this point we are wondering if we can stay an additional week....and the only advice we have to offer is to be sure if any of your documents changed to upload the updated version to the CEAC site well before the interview.  If they do not need to be updated, DON'T...they were already approved. There is no need to update documents that are not expired (like a police report) and that have already been accepted and approved.

 

Any sage advice would surely be appreciated.

 

[Zoothie 8]

WOW. Sorry to hear about all that pain...

 

I had a side question about Mailboxes...The embassy page says Polish citizens are to register, for that's how the embassy will mail back the passport. It has a side note that Belarus citizens need not register. I understand your spouse is a Russian citizen. When did they inform you to register? (My wife is from Belarus so we are a bit puzzled.)

[JayFromTexas 60]

What an awful, infuriating situation, Steve. Just when you were nearing the finishing line, they closed the track. I can understand your off the scale frustration. Unfortunately, and I know you know this, anger won't help, even though you are entitled to be very angry. I wish you good luck.

[Lynxyonok 316]

11 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

UPDATE FROM WARSAW POLAND US EMBASSY INTERVIEW COMPLETED, VISA ISSUANCE DELAYED

 

...

 

Any sage advice would surely be appreciated.

 

Wow, what a situation...

 

My only advice is to keep telling her you love her every few minutes. You're both wound up, stress levels have got to be through the roof. She needs to know you're still there for her. And hopefully she will respond in kind: I imagine you need the same kindness in return.

[TBoneTX 43,486]

18 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

Any sage advice would surely be appreciated.

Your story evokes memories of how Mrs. T-B.-to-be and I got hosed at our consulate.  That, however, was a case of gross incompetence, poor management, and evil.

 

I echo the post above, I respect you for your patience and persistence (your capabilities are among the elite on this site), and I'm pulling hard for you.

 

My only idea is to try what I tried:  contact via the U.S. Citizen Service unit (separate from the consular units) at the embassy.  I had to do this by phone, but you're there in person.  Tell them that you need to speak with the chief of the Immigrant Visa Unit.  The U.S. unit will try to blow you off, multiple times.  Play your ultimate trump, as many times as it takes:  "Are you a U.S. citizen?  No?  Well, I am, and I need to speak with the chief of the IV Unit now.  Please make sure that I'm connected with a human being and not a recording or voicemail."

[Simplytex 387]

On 9/6/2022 at 4:49 AM, StevenInAtlanta said:

UPDATE FROM WARSAW POLAND US EMBASSY INTERVIEW COMPLETED, VISA ISSUANCE DELAYED

 

So we are now in Warsaw Poland, we completed the US Embassy interview last Tuesday, that was 1 week ago as I type this update.  The total interview time took about 2.25 hours.  Most of the time was just waiting for her number to be called once inside.  The interview was scheduled for 8am, we arrived at the embassy at 7:45am there were already about 30-40 people standing in line. There was a line coordinator working the line and we were separated into two lines one for the non-immigrant visa folks, and one for immigrant visa folks.  I was not needed/allowed to go inside with my wife during the interview. She was inside by 8:15.  I had to wait 2+ hours on the street outside.  Nowhere to sit, no coffee shop, no cafe near by.

 

While inside she was given a number. When called she presented her documents to an immigration officer, a woman that spoke good Russian, she reviewed the documents and said 'its all in order' gave her documents back and asked her to sit down again and wait for her number.  About an hour or more later she was called to the 2nd official, a man with not so good Russian.  He spent less than a minute reviewing her documents and asked her two questions:

 

1. How did you meet your husband

2. How long have you known your husband

 

Though she had every document requested in the instructions to be sure to bring with you, he asked her to return to the hotel and upload her updated birth certificate and police report and he indicated they would then process her visa quickly and she could pick it up at the mailboxes ETC.  We went back to the hotel, scanned and uploaded the two documents within 1.5 hours.  The need to do this was understandable since her original police certificate expired because of the long delay between moving her case from Moscow to Poland and the delay in obtaining an interview.  The need for the birth certificate update was because my wife decided she wanted a brand new birth certificate that was in perfect condition, her original was partially not perfectly readable in the area for her birth city....so she got a new one and the officer noticed they were different so its understandable to upload the new one.

 

LESSON LEARNED: If any of your documents expire or change, its a SUPER GOOD IDEA to upload them before your interview so that they are already in the system before your interview.

 

Why the official couldn't just copy and upload them or put them in a folder I don't know but its not part of their process apparently.  The official assured her that if she did this quickly (the upload) they would quickly process her visa and it would be available for pickup in a few days at the mailboxes etc.

 

THIS DID NOT HAPPEN....

 

We have extended our stay an additional week in Warsaw, and this has been expensive to change flights, get a hotel for an additional week, food, etc.

It's near impossible to get anyone on the phone that can tell you anything more than to just wait. We check the CEAC web site profile several times a day for an update, nothing after a week now.  No email communications from the embassy, no communications at all.

 

The Warsaw embassy has several ways to communicate with them. This includes live online chat, Skype and web phone call.

• The live online chat turned out to just be a robot and I was unable to actually get my chat routed to a human. I wasted about 30 minutes repeating my wife's name, passport number, birthdate and email address to the robot only to at the end be told it was a holiday.  It's Tuesday morning and not a holiday in US or Poland
• I got no response to the Skype message I sent even after adding the correct Skype account to my contacts, no response at all
• The web talk phone call just took me to the same voice response system that calling the number on the website provided
• Called the number on the site +48 22 307 1361 (see below)

Finally got a human on the phone this morning, talked for 20-30 minutes, he answered questions and was quite patient but could not indicate how long we might have to wait...that is how much longer we will have to wait. No indication whatsoever how much longer. 

 

The problem is that obviously we need to get back to work, we do not have unlimited funds to stay in Warsaw for an indeterminate time. To compound the issue, the embassy has my wife's passport and she obviously can not leave Warsaw/board a plane without it.

 

We can get her passport back by doing a request for it to be returned, this can take 2-3 days, and if we do that we (apparently) do not have to return for an interview, BUT she will have to submit her passport again using the correct form and the support agent told me several times that the passport can ONLY be mailed from the mailboxes ETC location in Warsaw!  It can not be mailed from any other location!  Are you sure I asked him several times!

 

MY level of frustration is just off the scale, apparently you can't just walk down to the embassy and explain your situation to anyone, there is no way to expedite your request or processing, you can only get your passport back and start all over or sit and wait an unknown amount of time.

 

If this is what happens when you have a simple immigration case where the parties have known each other for 7+ years, been married for 5+ years and appear with all original documents as requested, I can't imagine what a hard case must be like.

 

At this point we are wondering if we can stay an additional week....and the only advice we have to offer is to be sure if any of your documents changed to upload the updated version to the CEAC site well before the interview.  If they do not need to be updated, DON'T...they were already approved. There is no need to update documents that are not expired (like a police report) and that have already been accepted and approved.

 

Any sage advice would surely be appreciated.

 

Any update @StevenInAtlanta?

[StevenInAtlanta 41]

We spent two extra weeks in Warsaw waiting for the embassy 'help desk' to respond and tell us what was happening. After 12 days we get a message insisting they ALSO want an IRS transcript which was not available to me at that time since I had filed my most recent tax form only a few weeks earlier.  We only got a true response from someone not on the help desk, but actually working visa/passport at the embassy when we entered a formal request to have my wife's passport returned so we could go home.  The help desk told us it had to be delivered to MailboxETC and it could take up to 3-5 business days. In reality, they will return it to you at the embassy, we picked it up the next day and were able to go home, all be it empty handed.

 

My bottom line is that had I KNOWN in advance that a transcript was going to be REQUIRED, I could have filed earlier or worked with my local IRS office to get the transcript earlier. Though we had not seen each other in almost a year, we effectively wasted $7,000+US on a trip and came home empty handed, no visa.

 

What's perhaps worse, is that now the Polish government is not allowing Russian tourist into the country.  So if she had to go back right now I'm not even sure they will let her in the country.  I asked the embassy if this was the case and their response after 4 days was that it was a matter for the Polish government and to ask them.  No indication was given how they are handling any other Russian citizens that may have interviews in queue at this time.  The one thing we were told is that she does not have to physically re-appear at the embassy to submit her passport to get her visa, an authorized agent (like me for example) could bring it to the embassy and then wait (again) for it to be processed, pick it up and then take it or send it to her.  Apparently there is an authorized agent process and form that would have to be followed and filled out and process/approved for that to be possible.

 

So  the status on the ustraveldocs.com web site is not apparently any indication where in the process your visa petition or the processing of same actually is. The only way we were able to actually talk to embassy personnel while waiting at the hotel was to request her passport be returned so we could go home.  Then we got a call from a very nice, well spoken woman that was from the embassy, she explained they needed the transcript to move forward but if it was not available, my wife could pickup her passport at the embassy the next morning showing only her 'green sheet' to the security officer at the door.  Which we did, they let her in without delay that next morning, and she was in and out in maybe 10 minutes.  The woman that gave her passport back to her at the embassy remembered my wife and she was the same woman that participated (assisted the embassy interview officer) during her interview which took all of less than 5 minutes and consisted of two questions:  How did you meet?, how long have you known him?

 

Months and months of planning and income document preparation, proof of a bonafide state of marriage, signed affidavits, and thousands of dollars spent...and we're initially rejected on the difference in two words AND & OR.

 

Also note that all the documents that we have prepared and submitted have a shelf life.  Depending on how long this process takes and how long it takes to nest egg another $7-10K for another trip and to what country we have to go and what the silly war is going to do next and those documents will expire.  We will then have to renew them at our cost, re-submit them and then go for the visa again.

 

#QuiteFrustrated

[TBoneTX 43,486]

2 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

we effectively wasted $7,000+US on a trip and came home empty handed, no visa.

Aw, man.  Man oh man oh MAN.

 

I wish that we here could do something -- anything -- to help.

 

It seems obvious that you need governmental intercession -- Congressman, Senator, someone at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, anybody.  Please reinvestigate these avenues.  And, above all, be 100% assured that absolutely all of us agree that this sucks as nothing has ever sucked before.

[Lynxyonok 316]

3 hours ago, StevenInAtlanta said:

Months and months of planning and income document preparation, proof of a bonafide state of marriage, signed affidavits, and thousands of dollars spent...and we're initially rejected on the difference in two words AND & OR.

Wow. I'm speechless, and I'm sure many other members of VJ community are too.

 

Steven, I realize it's not a panacea, but are you amicable to me sharing Mongolian telegram chats on here for some people to consider, as in attempting to get an interview through acquiring residency in Mongolia? As weird of a path that may be, it is slowly becoming more viable than anything in Europe.

 

Personally, I'm terrified though.

 

We are right back in 1938.

 

And this time we're on the wrong side of history.

[Simplytex 387]

59 minutes ago, Lynxyonok said:

Steven, I realize it's not a panacea, but are you amicable to me sharing Mongolian telegram chats on here for some people to consider, as in attempting to get an interview through acquiring residency in Mongolia? As weird of a path that may be, it is slowly becoming more viable than anything in Europe.

 

Maybe start a new thread about that topic? I'd be interested.

 

@StevenInAtlanta, you both have my sincere sympathy for your situation, I can't imagine the utter helplessness, anger, and disappointment in how the 'system' can really fail people who just want to live their lives together.

[Lynxyonok 316]

1 minute ago, Simplytex said:

Maybe start a new thread about that topic? I'd be interested.

Join in

 

From Russia to Mongolia - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus - VisaJourney