US Immigration from Belarus

Greetings all,

What country can my Belarusian wife get a Shengen visa in, in order to enter EU to get her vaccination? Poland is impossible atm. I heard Croatia is an option, but do they require vaccination upon entry or just quarantine you for 10 days like in Poland?

Any advice from someone who went through with this would be greatly appreciated.

We were considering Dubai, but I think they've shut down their vaccination programs for non-nationals.

We received a refusal at the time of interview and I'm confused as to what the issue is or what the next step is as the instructions seem to tell her to return to the embassy on one form, but on the second to submit additional information by email and wait for a response.

I'm entirely at a loss as to what the issue could be as our case was incredibly straight forward simple. Her passport which she had at the interview is valid for several years, and I have no idea why they would need additional information for her administrative processing as there is essentially no difference between the required history on the DS-160 and the additional 10-15 year requirements on the additional information page besides an additional address of residence within her home country. She received no DS 5535 so I don't know if this is a good sign or just they find it easier to give a document asking the same questions. So far all our experiences with the embassy stage of this has been complete hell, between non response to support emails, all our information and documents being sent to the wrong place, and now this we just don't know what to do anymore. The only thing I can think of is that the wrong email address they had on file for her from well over 5 years ago they are assuming is still in use and maybe they believe this is omitting information. But this email was lost in a data breach over 5 years ago and we have no way to recover it.

Does anyone have any input or know what our next step is, or are we in the perpetual black hole of administrative processing at this point?

Due to incomplete documentation, you are ineligible to receive an immigrant visa under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Please be advised that for U.S. visa purposes, including ESTA Electronic System for Travel Authorization, this decision constitutes a denial of a visa. Please submit the following documents within one year of the original interview with the consular officer, otherwise your application will be subject to the termination process prescribed by section 203(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

In order to provide the following documents you should.

[X] Return to the Embassy with the items listed below from Monday through Thursday between 8-10 a.m. Before you come, please check the closure notice on our website at pl.usembassy.gov for days on which the Embassy will be closed. If visas are approved the citizens of Belarus receive them only the day after the interview at 3.00pm in the Immigrant Visa section of the U.S. Embassy (window 13).

Before the consular officer can make a final decision, you must submit the document(s) checked below:

[X] Passport (should be valid for at least 8 months).

However there is a second form provided that also requests the following:

VISA PROCESSING: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REQUIRED

Your visa requires additional administrative processing.

Send the following information to XXXXXXX@state.gov

1. Your travel history over the last 15 years, including source(s) of funding for travel;

2. Names and dates of birth of any siblings (include any half-siblings and step-siblings), children (include step-children and adopted children), current and former spouses (include civil or domestic partners);

3. Addresses of residences from the last 15 years, if different from current address

4. Phone numbers and email addresses used during the last five years;

5. Prior passport numbers and country of issuance;

6. Prior occupation(s) and employers (plus a brief description if applicable) for the past 15 years;

7. Public-facing social media platforms and usernames/identifiers/handles used during the last five years. This includes any websites or applications you have used to create or share content (photos, videos, status updates, etc.) as part of a public profile.

The required information must be provided in english.

We will contact you when processing is completed

If we do not contact you within 30 days of submitting your information you can call +48 XX XXX XXXX to check the status of your administrative processing.

Greetings all,

I have a question about my spouse and 2 kids. I filed an I-130 for my spouse and adopted daughter on June 20th, 2021 (the forms are in active review status at the USCIS atm). My son is a US citizen through CBR and has a US passport, but no SSN.

I was filing my taxes all these years as single, thinking that since my wife has no status in the US, that's the way to go. Apparently, I was wrong.

I want to get an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) for her since she's a nonresident alien atm. Do I also have to get one for my adopted daughter? What about my son, I read somewhere that I can't file for ITIN for him since he's a US citizen. My daughter is 13 and my son is 7.

The issue is that me and my wife are residing in Belarus right now. I read in the W7 instruction sheet that her documents can only be validated by a CAA. The only one we can find is in Moscow, Russia.

However I found a site https://flextcg.com/services/itin-application-checkout/ that claims to have a CAA and I can just attach my wife's Belarusian passport, pay $300 and they'll file everything for me. Is this legit? Do you guys know any other online service where I can do this without traveling somewhere?

I also spoke with my immigration attorney, she said that since I filed taxes as a single, even though it's wrong, NVC might not pay any attention to it and if they do, I can always explain that I didn't know and I couldn't travel to Poland or Russia because of COVID.

I also plan to file 1040X forms with the IRS to amend my filing status to Married, filing separately once I get the ITIN number for my wife (and kids if this is needed).

Please advise,

Thank you!

Asking now that Johnson & Johnson was recommended for a booster two months after the first dose. I also saw a quote today from someone (I think) on the FDA board saying it should've been a two-shot process the whole time, which sort of detracts from its value of being a one-component vaccine. This is a bit puzzling to me scientifically because I thought Johnson and Johnson came out recently with results showing decent immunity several months after vaccination, and the company didn't believe boosters were that necessary. Suggesting it should be given two months after the first almost implies it should be treated the same as every other vaccine.

Regardless, does this have any implications for the medical exam? I know Pfizer has already approved booster shots, but are we (foreseeably) still considering 'fully vaccinated' to be the original requirements, that is, two shots for mRNA and one shot for Johnson? A lot of people got Johnson because they wouldn't have been able to return for a second dose. From my understanding, certain European Union countries (I'm thinking Croatia) say that a person with Johnson is considered protected 270 days from the first dose, so the fact we're implying 60 is shocking. Maybe it's too early to tell, but from what we've gathered about the Pfizer boosters, will medical exams require people to be fully-fully vaccinated with boosters?

Thank you kindly!

Hi, everyone! Thanks for being so hepful all the time! We sent our AOS package in August and got mail that it was received.

Later on USCIS sent mail is says they need us must submit a copy of my birth certificate issued by appropriate civil authority in my country of birth. We sent only a copy of that and it was denied.

The thing is we have it translated in my country only electronic version because at the interview for visa CO took my translation, so USCIS say we can send this scan by email, what we are going to do. My question:

1 Will it be accepted electronic version with stamps and apostile?

2 will we have to bring an original translation on interview for AOS?

3 if yes can we still translate it here or we will have to send my BC back home and translate again?

Have a good day all!