My fiancee had her K1 interview yesterday at the Thailand Embassy and we received a 221(g) refusal white paper:
"This office regrets to inform you that it is unable to issue a visa to you because you have not been found qualified to receive a visa under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act or regulation issued pursuant thereto. Further consideration will be given to your visa application after you obtain and present the documents listed below (only the marked sections apply to you)"
X Evidence of your relationship with petitioner (i.e. photographs, letters, e-mails, phone bills, old household registration books etc.)
We were both shocked by the decision and by how short the interview lasted before the CO left and then came back with the 221(g) document and ended the interview. She had come to the interview with a mountain of evidence to prove our relationship and other necessary docs including:
26 photos taken during three different trips all over various locations in Thailand, including photos of us at dinner with her Mom, Dad, Sister and several other family members
A photo of us taken on the night when we were engaged and she is wearing a 1 Ct engagement ring which I used when I proposed to her. This is the same ring she is also wearing at the interview
Several hotel bills from several different locations throughout Thailand
Evidence of three different airline itineraries for trips taken to see here three times in the last 13 months
A stack of Skype phone calls showing that we talk on the phone at least every day for the last 15 months and another stack of MSN chat logs from between 1 and 2.5 years ago
A wire transfer document from my bank in USA showing that I wired $4,000 USD to her which she then transferred to her father's account for a down payment on our wedding later this year after the AOS is completed (I hope!). This was done after I proposed during our 2nd trip but before my most recent trip.
All sorts of my financial documents like last three years of tax returns and W2's, Employment verification including salary on company letterhead, final pay statement from 2012. Her pay stubs and letter from her employer in Bangkok showing high performance reviews.
Thai police record and medical transcript document
She did the interview in English as her language skills are quite good. She works in an office as an accountant and handles transactions by computer and over the phone in English with foreign clients and she has a stable employment record and a decent salary for a Thai person of her age and education (college degree) working in her field. She had documentation of all that too. The CO only glanced at a couple of the photos and did not look at any of the other documents mentioned above before beginning to attack her regarding the legitimacy of our relationship and told her that he did not believe that we had a real relationship. She told him that we initially met almost 3 years ago in 2010 on a Thai dating website but we were not really that interested in each other and things did not really click until 2011 (all completely true) after which we started to chat and then speak on the phone regularly until we first met id Sept 2011.
He told here that "...your fiance has many, many women and he is a player! He doesn't love you and he's not going to marry you. Do you know that he has filed many K1 petitions for women in the past? Why would you think that he is ever going to marry you? I don't believe that you are telling the truth about going to the US to marry this man"
The truth of the matter is that I filed one K1 in the past and it was almost 5 years ago, in 2008. That relationship ended amicably before any visa was issued and in actuality. immediately after the NOA2 was issued in Dec. 2008 she just got cold feet about leaving her family and sent me a letter telling me that I was a great guy and we should stay friends... blah blah blah. I correctly noted this previous I-129 in the appropriate section in in my most recent I-129F filing but since it was more than 2 years ago and there was only one, I thought I was fine under IMBRA Act. I have never been married before and have no dependents. I received an RFE to explain the previous K1 filing and did so in great detail explaining all of the above and showing the cancelled petition statement from her embassy. They reviewed my RFE and issued the NOA2.
My fiancee tells me that the CO seemed to have disdain for her from the start of the interview. I think that she was asked to put a finger up to do a fingerprint scan and she placed two fingers or her index finger and the CO said "You just told me that you can speak English but you can't even understand a simple command?" Well she was nervous, and the CO continued to berate her throughout the short interview of only approximately 5 minutes and as stated, he never looked at any of the documents except a couple of the photos. He did retain all of the documents including the photos and only returned to her personal items such as passport and ID card.
The way she was treat really makes me upset, but I realize that these CO's have absolute authority and there is nothing that you can do except play the game. By the end of the interview she was almost in tears and frankly I don't think she is used to telling someone in a position of authority that, "Look, you're wrong and here's why. Look at this!", and so she never really asked him to consider any of the documents that she had brought.
I've done quite a bit of reading on the 221(g) on this website and other places, and realize that its somehwat considered a 'soft denial' while the K1 is going through Additional Processing. they have asked for more documents to be presented by registered mail, but what more can we give them to prove that we are in a committed relationship and plan to marry? have heard that Thailand is very heavily weighting applicant on photos and if it's photos they want we can provide 50 more. Does it help for me to write some sort of letter stating all of the reasons why I love my fiancee and assure them that I will marry and file AOS within a week after she arrives in US? Is there a way to request another interview or drop off the follow-up documents in person and ask for a Thai interview in the hopes that she will get someone more reasonable and rationale?
I told her that this is probably just a tactic employed by this CO to rattle her and make us lose hop and that submitting more photos and documents will get us past this 221(g) but would really appreciate any guidance from other VJer's familiar with a similar situation of denial due to a previous K1 filing and what other document may help besides the obvious, which I've read is a lot of photos. After all, he didn't even look at the current stack of documents and they still need to be reviewed by somebody.
Any help is greatly appreciated!