09sno

(Background: I am Nigerian-American, born and raised here in the states. I\'ve traveled back and forth to Nigeria to see my dad\'s family several times. My fiance is Nigerian).

Our first Lagos experience was awful. My fiancé arrived for his interview yesterday, February 13th, 2012 with 3lbs of documentation: his K-1 visa forms, evidence of financial support, and most importantly, a large and bulky folder filled with evidence proving the authenticity of our relationship. Bulky yes, but neatly arranged and ordered too.

However, the officer refused to view the entire contents of our Evidence of Personal Relationship folder during the extremely short interview and, after requesting that my fiancé only pass her our photos together (Sept. 2009-March 2010; August 2011-September 2011) and extensive phone records detailing calls made several times a day, every day from May 2010-February 2012, she denied him a visa due to “lack of evidence.” She didn\'t ask him anything about me! I can understand if she made her decision after allowing him to pass the remaining contents of our evidence in smaller portions (to fit through the glass slot). It’s unfortunate, but it would mean that despite our preparation, something of significance was missing. Yet, when she requested the photographs and phone records my fiancé immediately asked if he could pass her the remaining documents. The officer refused, saying “That’s not necessary,” before proceeding to print the 221(g) letter. Also, her dismissive behavior—she never made eye contact with my fiancé, she simply flipped haphazardly through documents, not appearing to even read our new evidence—suggests she had already made up her mind to dismiss us before he got there.

My plane tickets from my most recent trip, August 22nd-September 11th, 2012, were in the evidence she refused to see. Explanation of why we chose to marry in the U.S. as opposed to Nigeria (which we could have easily done this past August during my 3 week stay with his family) was there too. Phone records, photographs, proof of marriage preparation, copies of passport visa stamps, ticket stubs, 70+ pages of email/facebook correspondence screenshots (it would have been 300 pages otherwise), etc—this is the evidence listed on the U.S. consulate website. This is what he carried with him. But we were denied, with a recommendation for revocation.

Immediately, that same morning my fiance gave me the horrible news, we sprang into action. I called my state\'s congressman and was sent back and forth until I finally got an answer. I also called all the gov\'t agencies: NVC, USCIS, the Lagos Consulate, and I emailed them to respectfully demand a full explanation as to what why we were denied. If we lacked evidence, then what was it? Our congressman was freaking amazing. He was constantly trying to get consular officials to tell us in writing how/why they made their decision. And it worked I copied the letter from a high up consular official down below. It\'ll definitely help those of you who are still preparing.

Amazingly, 2 wks later, my fiance got a call from the embassy. They asked him to bring his passport and return to the embassy. He asked if he should prepare more documents and was told no. But we were wary. According to our congressman, it looked like the adjudicating officer for our case was being reviewed...and because she couldn\'t exactly demonstrate without a doubt that my fiance deserved a denial, her superiors were calling us back! Even though the calling officer said to only bring the passport, my fiance and I prepared our documents/evidence again. Indeed, it was another interview; if we had not have prepared our evidence again, we would have looked so suspiciously unprepared. With another officer, my fiance joked and shared stories about our relationship and my friends, where I worked, what I did, what I hoped to do, what we did together during our visits, our marriage plans, etc. And he was immediately approved!!

Also, it\'s obvious that a lot of consular officers have made up their minds BEFORE you even walk in the door. Our problem was that the first officer only saw our original submission from May 2011 and consequently, did not see our new evidence from June 2011 through February 2012, including my 3 wk trip to Ibadan to see him. I was going to mail the new evidence to the NVC or consulate, but was told by a USCIS official that my fiance should just bring it to the interview. Yeah...that didn\'t work too good. But our nightmare\'s over! I\'m just waiting to be reunited with the most amazing husband to be!

Consulate Letter To Congressman

Dear Mr. M-----,

My apologies for the delay in responding to you. I asked our Immigrant Visa unit to review Mr. A--- case and was unfortunately out of the office when the reply came in. To address your questions, we find that applicants are sometimes under the impression that qualifying for an immigrant visa is simply a matter of submitting documents, but obviously there is also an analytical component to the process. For example (and without reference to this case in particular), our officers often review phone records, photos and correspondence as part of their efforts to determine whether a genuine relationship exists between the petitioner and beneficiary. There are many cases where phone records show a plausible volume of phone calls, but the calls are all of only one or two minutes’ duration. With photos, if they are evidence of only a single visit or if they appear posed or altered, that would understandably be something the officer would need to consider. A large volume of correspondence would in general be consistent with a genuine relationship, but there may be a concern in instances where it appears to be primarily focused, as it sometimes is, on immigration and the visa process.

With respect to this case, the adjudicating officer reviewed the case notes and agreed to offer Mr. A---- another interview. Our staff contacted Mr. A---- on February 28 and scheduled him for April 4, 2012 at 1:00 PM. Mr. A---- should come prepared to answer questions about his relationship with Ms. O-----. He should present documentation that demonstrates substantive communication over the course of the relationship; however please bear in mind that documentation alone is not satisfactory to demonstrate the validity of the relationship to the Consular officer. The applicant must also demonstrate such through his ability to speak about the petitioner’s life and interests.

I hope this information is helpful in responding to the concerns of your constituent. Please feel free to contact us again if you require further assistance.

Regards,

Consular Officer

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