Jerusalem Embassy Not Returning Passport For Travel

[HLC6567 0]

Hello Everyone,

 

My wife had a CR-1 interview with the IV unit in Jerusalem on November 3, 2022. The case is now in 221g administrative processing.

 

We had a request for a joint sponsor and then a request for an additional verification document which we submitted December 1, 2022.

 

Our problem is that my wife is not an Israeli citizen and is there on a tourist visa. She arrived on October 27, 2022. We think her visa expires on January 24, 2023.

 

What should we do? I've sent the unit a weekly e-mail starting December 14. Each week I've made it clearer and clearer we need her passport back with or without a decision but have not gotten a single reply -- not even to acknowledge my concern.

 

Obviously we want the passport with a visa. If you look through our case, you might guess that we want it very badly. It's been a hellish year. These aren't competing objectives, but I suppose our top priority is to get her passport back and leave the country? 

 

I sent Jerusalem IV an e-mail from a second account without case number and name and they are definitely triaging e-mails. Around Christmas, my wife sent her own e-mail which was a sob story about her medical scare during the holidays and received a standard reply to wait. 

 

Should I even be worried yet? 2 weeks seems like a very short time left to arrange the return of a passport.

 

I'm tempted to send some e-mails from a second account, but it seems like it would annoy whoever is ignoring the e-mails from my primary account. Is it worth it to annoy them?

 

My congressman has opened a casework case for us. Should I ask her to badger Jerusalem IV immediately? I can and will fly to Jerusalem. But can I do anything there?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

[HLC6567 0]

It's interesting to me that nobody had any ideas. Maybe it was too specific or unbelievable. 

 

Sending an e-mail from a second account worked! I was actually able to get two replies from them. One focused on why our case was stuck, and another about retrieving the passport.

 

I swear I did not pester them or write overly long e-mails! The last one didn't even ask for them to process our visa, but just how to get the passport back. 

 

It's ridiculous that I should be happy about this. I think the DoS has us in some kind of Stockholm syndrome now. 🤣 

[Nour zeyad 0]

On 1/12/2023 at 3:44 AM, HLC6567 said:

Hello Everyone,

 

My wife had a CR-1 interview with the IV unit in Jerusalem on November 3, 2022. The case is now in 221g administrative processing.

 

We had a request for a joint sponsor and then a request for an additional verification document which we submitted December 1, 2022.

 

Our problem is that my wife is not an Israeli citizen and is there on a tourist visa. She arrived on October 27, 2022. We think her visa expires on January 24, 2023.

 

What should we do? I've sent the unit a weekly e-mail starting December 14. Each week I've made it clearer and clearer we need her passport back with or without a decision but have not gotten a single reply -- not even to acknowledge my concern.

 

Obviously we want the passport with a visa. If you look through our case, you might guess that we want it very badly. It's been a hellish year. These aren't competing objectives, but I suppose our top priority is to get her passport back and leave the country? 

 

I sent Jerusalem IV an e-mail from a second account without case number and name and they are definitely triaging e-mails. Around Christmas, my wife sent her own e-mail which was a sob story about her medical scare during the holidays and received a standard reply to wait. 

 

Should I even be worried yet? 2 weeks seems like a very short time left to arrange the return of a passport.

 

I'm tempted to send some e-mails from a second account, but it seems like it would annoy whoever is ignoring the e-mails from my primary account. Is it worth it to annoy them?

 

My congressman has opened a casework case for us. Should I ask her to badger Jerusalem IV immediately? I can and will fly to Jerusalem. But can I do anything there?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

Hello

can you till me when was your wife DQ please?

how long time between dq and interview at Jerusalem embassy?

[HLC6567 0]

Hi!

 

Most likely you will want to check cases more similar to your own, but to answer your questions:

 

My Russian wife was documentary qualified at NVC on November 11, 2021 and the case was originally sent to Moscow.

The interview in Jerusalem was November 3, 2021, after the EU denied her a Schengen visa.

 

I will leave you to fill in the gaps.

 

You are able to look through VJ timelines to find cases similar to your own. For instance, here are CR1 timelines for *Israelis*:

 

https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=Israel&op1=&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=