Officer approved the visa at the interview but now it says refused- Almaty Consulate

[lemonpie 0]

Hi there,

 

My fiancé had his K1 visa interview last Thursday, and the officer asked basic questions. Then, she said, 'Congratulations, your visa is approved, handed him a paper with instructions on how to collect his passport, and said he should receive it in 3-5 days. The status changed to 'refused' on Tuesday, and they contacted us on Wednesday, stating that the case is in ongoing administrative processing, and requested copies of his old passports -he holds two citizenships-, which he had not used since 2011. So we did, now I am concerned about why they asked for that, and how long does this usually take? 

 

Note: the officer asked to see the requested passport in the interview, so he told her it had expired, but here u go. She saw it and gave it back. 

[appleblossom 4,512]

Unfortunately a verbal approval means nothing. Which citizenships does your fiance hold? 

[lemonpie 0]

He is Russian and also Syrian. never been to Syria since 2011, and he left Russia only to visit the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia for tourism and family purposes. never served in any military and has no criminal record. that's why I am concerned.

 

[OldUser 10,071]

24 minutes ago, lemonpie said:

He is Russian and also Syrian. never been to Syria since 2011, and he left Russia only to visit the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia for tourism and family purposes. never served in any military and has no criminal record. that's why I am concerned.

 

Being a citizen of those two countries is good enough to cause trouble and slow down in immigration to the US

[smilingstone 640]

Refused doesn't mean denied. They're just doing additional checks. No knowing how long it will take. 

[appleblossom 4,512]

8 hours ago, lemonpie said:

He is Russian and also Syrian. 

 

Ah, that will be it. 

[netsinb 1]

As someone said, refused does not mean denied. You probably got a 221(g)? lately if you are not aware already, they are asking applicants for their social media handles to be made public. So it could be that. It's a hassle but not impossible to overcome. It will be approved once he submits all the documents. 

I have seen some posts here where people from certain countries (like Russia) go through additional vetting. So it's entirely possible that's what is happening in your case.

Edited yesterday at 03:08 PM by netsinb

[mam521 2,590]

1 minute ago, netsinb said:

As someone said, refused does not mean denied. You probably got a 221(g)? lately if you are not aware already, they are asking applicants for their social media handles to be made public. So it could be that. It's a hassle but not impossible to overcome. It will be approved once he submits all the documents. 

At some point, most people find their status says "refused" at some point.  This is while AP is taking place.  It doesn't apply to only those that have received a 221(g).  

 

As for the social media - the applications have been asking for that information for a long time now.  Many years.  It seems to be investigated more thoroughly now though.  

 

The bigger issue is your fiancé is a dual national of 2 countries that are under additional scrutiny.  The approval will likely come in time, but the AP checks will dig into the past as well as the present.  If he was missing documents, then yes, it will come after those documents have been reviewed. 

[lemonpie 0]

6 hours ago, mam521 said:

At some point, most people find their status says "refused" at some point.  This is while AP is taking place.  It doesn't apply to only those that have received a 221(g).  

 

As for the social media - the applications have been asking for that information for a long time now.  Many years.  It seems to be investigated more thoroughly now though.  

 

The bigger issue is your fiancé is a dual national of 2 countries that are under additional scrutiny.  The approval will likely come in time, but the AP checks will dig into the past as well as the present.  If he was missing documents, then yes, it will come after those documents have been reviewed. 

HI, thank you so much for ur reply. Yeah, he wasn't handed a 221(g), and we genuinely thought everything went fine. We submitted the handles of his social media. He doesn't use them much anyway. 

 

According to the officer, no documents were missing. He had his expired Syrian passport with him, and the officer just looked at it; we didn't think they would request that. 

We were well-prepared, had proof of our relationship, wedding invitations, and all the necessary items, along with additional items, but they hadn't requested anything. 

 

Now, since they didn't return his passport to him, is that a good sign? Does that mean that it won't be too long? 

[lemonpie 0]

7 hours ago, netsinb said:

As someone said, refused does not mean denied. You probably got a 221(g)? lately if you are not aware already, they are asking applicants for their social media handles to be made public. So it could be that. It's a hassle but not impossible to overcome. It will be approved once he submits all the documents. 

I have seen some posts here where people from certain countries (like Russia) go through additional vetting. So it's entirely possible that's what is happening in your case.

Hi, thank you. The visa was a K1, and I believe they asked everyone who was applying for B and F visas to have their social media public.

We submitted the document the day they asked for it. On CEAC, it shows the latest update was Thursday, so I am hoping they got to see what I sent and it gets resolved soon.