GJF

In Brazil at least the US consulate acts in a "pass-fail" fashion regarding any kind of visa. If they tell you that you are approved, you are approved.
Seems like terrible practice for me the officer changing his mind after retaining the person's passport. That should not be acceptable by any means and should not be considered normal. It does not matter if it is written somewhere in the consulate-embassy or USCIS terms or not. Something being legal does not mean it is moral.
In a philosophical way, I'm really afraid of a society that does not question something like that. It is like admitting that everything the government do is ok just because is the government doing it. We should remember that USA itself was created by people that questioned excessive abuse of power and bureaucracy by the britain government.
So yes, you should complain. Not because you are likely to get a refund (you are not), or because they are going to change their mind (they probably will not). You should complain because it is the right thing to do.

You are once again using the legal standpoint. I'm questioning the moral standpoint.
If the officer said that the visa would be approved and the person did not get the visa there are only two possibilities regarding the officer's moral behavior:
He changed his mind
He lied (because since the beginning he knew the process and he knew that it could not be approved)
Neither are acceptable. And the second tends to be even worse than the first one because it gives the person false reassurance.

In Brazil at least the US consulate acts in a "pass-fail" fashion regarding any kind of visa. If they tell you that you are approved, you are approved.
Seems like terrible practice for me the officer changing his mind after retaining the person's passport. That should not be acceptable by any means and should not be considered normal. It does not matter if it is written somewhere in the consulate-embassy or USCIS terms or not. Something being legal does not mean it is moral.
In a philosophical way, I'm really afraid of a society that does not question something like that. It is like admitting that everything the government do is ok just because is the government doing it. We should remember that USA itself was created by people that questioned excessive abuse of power and bureaucracy by the britain government.
So yes, you should complain. Not because you are likely to get a refund (you are not), or because they are going to change their mind (they probably will not). You should complain because it is the right thing to do.

I'm not being judgemental at all, just doing a simple exercise of logics:
If you intent to marry someone, it is suposed to be the love of your life.
If you never met that person physically, the reasonable thing would be doing that before the marriage decision.
If you cannot take some time off to visit the person that you think is the love of your life, that is a HUGE red flag.
An immigration official would never aproved a visa to him or her in that situation, not even a tourist visa. The officer wants to see a solid relationship.
Unfortunatelly, USCIS does not have a "Dating Visa". It has a Tourist Visa or a Fiancee Visa. The first is for tourism, the second is for someone that wants to get married. If you are dating or engaged and try to get the Tourist visa you are probably going to be denied, because they know your intentions might be different from the ones that the visa was made for. So your best choice and the reasonable thing to do is applying straight to the K1 visa. But for that it is important that you provide more evidence of your relationship.
The reasonable thing to do if you are really interested is you going there. If your job is that bad that does not allow you 5 days off, consider getting another job.
If you cannot fly all the way there, try to visit some country in between. Met the person, take pictures together.

In Brazil at least the US consulate acts in a "pass-fail" fashion regarding any kind of visa. If they tell you that you are approved, you are approved.
Seems like terrible practice for me the officer changing his mind after retaining the person's passport. That should not be acceptable by any means and should not be considered normal. It does not matter if it is written somewhere in the consulate-embassy or USCIS terms or not. Something being legal does not mean it is moral.
In a philosophical way, I'm really afraid of a society that does not question something like that. It is like admitting that everything the government do is ok just because is the government doing it. We should remember that USA itself was created by people that questioned excessive abuse of power and bureaucracy by the britain government.
So yes, you should complain. Not because you are likely to get a refund (you are not), or because they are going to change their mind (they probably will not). You should complain because it is the right thing to do.