My Girlfriend in Belarus

[harvardiv 5]

Hello Folks:

 

I have met someone in Belarus, and have questions about the difficulty of getting a fiance' visa from there.  Is it very difficult to coordinate getting their Schengen in Poland and the whole consular process in the USA?

 

Thanks!

[TBoneTX 46,860]

Country-specific thread is moved to the Russia/Ukraine/Belarus regional forum, where many threads on this topic are.

[EatBulaga 454]

4 hours ago, harvardiv said:

Hello Folks:

 

I have met someone in Belarus, and have questions about the difficulty of getting a fiance' visa from there.  Is it very difficult to coordinate getting their Schengen in Poland and the whole consular process in the USA?

 

Thanks!

Belarus citizens may find it challenging to travel to Poland, but they can travel to China easily because of the visa free agreement. Have you considered US consulates in China?

 

Are you looking for K1 or CR1?

Edited Wednesday at 09:18 PM by EatBulaga

[harvardiv 5]

3 minutes ago, EatBulaga said:

Belarus citizens may find it challenging to travel to Poland, but they can travel to China easily because of the visa free agreement. Have you considered US consulates in China?

 

Are you looking for K1 or CR1?

Hi EatBulaga;  Thanks for the idea.  I have not considered much yet, since I have barely started on this whole thing.  My question would be isn't this the Embassy's choice to send her wherever they think is appropriate?  How can that be changed to a different location?

[EatBulaga 454]

23 minutes ago, harvardiv said:

Hi EatBulaga;  Thanks for the idea.  I have not considered much yet, since I have barely started on this whole thing.  My question would be isn't this the Embassy's choice to send her wherever they think is appropriate?  How can that be changed to a different location?

For K1, you can choose the consulate for the interview. Not sure about CR1.

 

We did the K1 interview choosing Taiwan consulate instead of the Philippines.

Edited Wednesday at 09:49 PM by EatBulaga

[Crazy Cat 43,457]

18 minutes ago, EatBulaga said:

For K1, you can choose the consulate for the interview. Not sure about CR1.

If another consulate (in your case it was the American Institute in Taiwan) agrees to accept a case. 

Edited Wednesday at 10:04 PM by Crazy Cat

[TBoneTX 46,860]

Consulates accepting cases from elsewhere need to have personnel (consuls and locally engaged staff) familiar with the spoken & written language of the originating country, and with the content, format, and officially valid nature of documents submitted.

[harvardiv 5]

14 hours ago, EatBulaga said:

For K1, you can choose the consulate for the interview. Not sure about CR1.

 

We did the K1 interview choosing Taiwan consulate instead of the Philippines.

Hi EatBulaga; In this case, it would be for the K1.   When is this option made available?  It's interesting.        

[Crazy Cat 43,457]

15 minutes ago, harvardiv said:

Hi EatBulaga; In this case, it would be for the K1.   When is this option made available?  It's interesting.        

You must have a DOS case number from NVC in order to request a transfer. Transfers are at the complete discretion of the receiving consulate.  I assume you have read @TBoneTX comment above about the language requirements.

Edited 23 hours ago by Crazy Cat

[EatBulaga 454]

1 hour ago, harvardiv said:

Hi EatBulaga; In this case, it would be for the K1.   When is this option made available?  It's interesting.       

You make the request in the I-129F. For the latest I-129F form version, Consular Processing Information is Part 2, Item 62.a and 62.b.

https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f

 

As @Crazy Cat and @TBoneTX said, the consulate has to have the staff for the K1 interview and the consulate has to accept your case.

 

Of the five US consulates in China, I think only Guangzhou does K1 interview. If the consulate does not accept your case, then you may have to wait for the DOS case number during NVC to request a transfer. I would do some research for which countries Belarus citizens can easily travel to with US consulates that are processing K1 interviews if Poland becomes an obstacle.

Edited 22 hours ago by EatBulaga

[harvardiv 5]

3 hours ago, EatBulaga said:

You make the request in the I-129F. For the latest I-129F form version, Consular Processing Information is Part 2, Item 62.a and 62.b.

https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f

 

As @Crazy Cat and @TBoneTX said, the consulate has to have the staff for the K1 interview and the consulate has to accept your case.

 

Of the five US consulates in China, I think only Guangzhou does K1 interview. If the consulate does not accept your case, then you may have to wait for the DOS case number during NVC to request a transfer. I would do some research for which countries Belarus citizens can easily travel to with US consulates that are processing K1 interviews if Poland becomes an obstacle.

And what if you guess the wrong one?  What do they do then?  

[EatBulaga 454]

3 hours ago, harvardiv said:

And what if you guess the wrong one?  What do they do then?  

By "guess the wrong one", do you mean what if the consulate does not accept your case? 

 

Then, you jump the hoops to the consulate in Poland.

 

There is no guarantee any consulate will accept, or not have a long wait time. The only time that I saw any consulate not openly accept cases was during Covid due to consulate closure. But do your due diligence research to find the best option. 

[harvardiv 5]

1 hour ago, EatBulaga said:

By "guess the wrong one", do you mean what if the consulate does not accept your case? 

 

Then, you jump the hoops to the consulate in Poland.

 

There is no guarantee any consulate will accept, or not have a long wait time. The only time that I saw any consulate not openly accept cases was during Covid due to consulate closure. But do your due diligence research to find the best option. 

With that said, for the purposes of prudent planning, what is the approximate wait time between the notification of an interview and the interview.  If > or+ to 1 month, I think its possible to get the Schengen in time.  Is the delay a month or more?   

[EatBulaga 454]

2 hours ago, harvardiv said:

With that said, for the purposes of prudent planning, what is the approximate wait time between the notification of an interview and the interview.  If > or+ to 1 month, I think its possible to get the Schengen in time.  Is the delay a month or more?   

Here are some stats to get you started.

https://www.visajourney.com/times/k1-fiance-visa-historical/

 

This is an old Warsaw estimate for approximate wait time.

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/794226-nvc-past-case-approval-timeline-no-welcome-letter/?tab=comments#comment-10780534

 

The current data may be different. 

 

Our K1 wait time estimates and how I calculated using VJ data was recorded here (follow the links).

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/758635-march-2021-k1-i-129f-filers/page/156/?tab=comments#comment-10665858

My estimate for our case was fairly close to our actual approval date.

 

VJ has a lot of data for you to dig around and put together wait time estimate. You just need to do your due diligence for prudent planning. 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by EatBulaga