Daisy.Chain

This was long ago now but thank you everyone for your help. At what felt like the last minute one of my siblings donated to a kidney to my husband and they are both -finally- doing great! I am grateful that it worked out for us that KS to the generosity of my brother and the grace of God but I am frustrated that the US did not approve travel visas for 3 weeks so that my husband's siblings could donate to him (an American citizen) to save his life despite being granted the emergency visa interview with the medical documentation we submitted, and each having jobs, children and a stable international travel history. Meanwhile, we know of others who have walked across the border with no permission and receive apartment/schooling/hospital benefits/food etc. It makes one lose what little faith one might have had in the immigration system. I know that visas are not guaranteed but you would hope that for a medical emergency they would be approved. I thought we were done messing with visas and permissions after citizenship. (For my husband we are but needed to try to figure out which things we could do to help his siblings be present to donate) I hope anyone who sees this seriously considers becoming an organ donor!

There is a section for humanitarian parole for organ donation on the USCIS website! I already have the medical documentation -piles of it. I am unsure if it can be done at the border - it looks like an application with a time period. Do you know for sure it can? I will update if I find out more info.

I don't know but will find out. I figure that getting the word out might help attract an altruistic donor even if they can't help with the visa.. or could they? I have never heard of a case in which a B2 denial was reversed ever. The applicant could apply again, I guess. In fact, the person who denied her said she could apply again - which seems odd to say as she was being denied.

I'm currently reading everything I can. Is this currently a possibility? How do you know? I'm googling it. I thought I had exhausted the medical expedite option - can it be different at POE? It is so frustrating to not be able to search for similar stories - it feels like we're working blind not only in the medical situation but also in the medical visa part.

The rep's office got a reply from the consulate that the request would be noted in their file and -after the interview- told me that it had been denied. They are now requesting the specific reason why but I don't have high hopes. I hadn't thought of escalating it within the office - do you think there's a chance that would help? I'm not sure if they can do anything if it's been denied - would we the have to do a new tourist visa? Yes, he's a USC.

Not frivolous at all imo! I didn't know this existed but am calling tomorrow. Thanks for the idea. I will be persistent and let everyone know how it goes. We have NO qualifying donors so far - so far no one we know has even qualified for paired donation and at the same time his family members have done the pre-testing they can the DR and are likely to be good matches. In the past 3 weeks my husband has gone from being at a stable-ish decline to tanking- he was a big strong guy and now is in pain, has fatigue to where taking care of himself is hard, can't walk around the block and this week the nausea was so bad he vomited/tried to multiple times trying to brush his teeth. From "normal" to this within a year is a scary decline for a spouse to watch. We have to get this figured out ASAP because it truly is life or death without a different donor. We are Christians and he is not afraid of dying but obviously we are exhausting all other options prior to.

Yes, they got the 214b denial. I meant that there was not a specific reason given.

No reason, just the general denial - not even a comment from the person who gave it to her. She said the woman who called her up looked irritated before she even got to the window. I asked our rep to request the "why" and they did but I haven't heard yet. I'm less sure about expedited through the Dominican legal system but BIL is moving as quickly as he can! 😕

Update for anyone else in the same situation: The emergency expedite process was comparatively straightforward. The person applying just goes I to US travel docs and hits "apply for expedite", upload documents and write a brief description of the situation. Both siblings' medical expedite appointments were approved within 24 hrs, and given about a week in which to schedule (although you could schedule out farther, you had to do the scheduling within a week). After the appt approval but before the appt I also had our state rep call the embassy. That was not helpful or a smooth process - they are used to calling for potential immigrants, not for B2 medical visas and I explained a LOT of times but still wasn't sure they understood the process-. One visa was denied for no specific reason and the other was delayed (they kept the passport) while the sibling gets some legal documents together that require a judge and could take months which is longer than we currently have available, health-wise. I'm pretty bummed about the denial -Mr. Daisy is not doing well at all- and also am hoping the getting-the-documents process somehow goes quickly. I understand that there are NO immigration guarantees but am so frustrated to see so many people -even people we distantly know- walk across the border or abuse/overstay their B2 tourist visas having had that plan all along and then have free housing, food tickets, work etc with no immediate consequences. We try the legal way with stable 40+ yr old siblings who have traveled internationally, have good jobs and what the heck? Lots of disillusionment this week. If anyone is A+ or O+ and is interested in kidney donation, please reach out! 😭

Hi everyone! New fear unlocked - can anyone help with this? This emergency medical visa is quite a process! The doctor's signatures are taking longer than I thought to get. Fortunately Mr. Daisy is on a new medication that might help extend things a few weeks (although it makes him feel like #######) As far as the expedite is concerned.. both siblings that are potential kidney donors already have a B1/B2 visa in progress and have for a few months. They were going to come to visit/for tourism until this came up. So now when I need the expedite for a different reason - medical- do I need to RESUBMIT (and pay both fees again) for a B2 visa (medical) visa? Or is that included in the B1/B2 visa? Travel.state.gov says "Visitor visas are nonimmigrant visas for persons who want to enter the United States temporarily for business (visa category B-1), for tourism (visa category B-2), or for a combination of both purposes (B-1/B-2)" BUT on the DS-160 it specifies: I'm not sure if resubmitting would help or confuse the issue. What do you think? #tbonetx #Boiler

Hi everyone, Mr. Daisy became a US citizen through a k1 a few years ago - thank you all for your help. I'm coming back with another question for you. Mr. Daisy has a rare really aggressive autoimmune disease that affects his kidneys. It is not the traditional kidney disease where sometimes dialysis is an effective time buyer while you wait for a donor kidney. He went from "fine, slightly high bp" to where we are now (level 5 kidney failure) in less than one year. We knew he was sick but Mayo Clinic this week gave him 6 months if we can't find a donor. This is after we're doing EVERYTHING possible to slow this down. Family is the most likely shot at a match and we have lots of family volunteers in the DR that are possible matches. but the processing time for a B2 is longer than he has. We have tons of documentation and I'm hoping this qualifies for a medical expedite for them to come and get tested/possibly donate in the same visit. Is there any guide for an emergency medical B2 visa of what or how to submit for an expedite? I am looking but some of the links I've found don't work and I don't want to do it wrong. Is it just a normal B2? If so, how do I request an expedite? I apologize is this is somewhere on here that I've missed. My brain about to go crazy. At least one of my husband's siblings is a very possible match -we're testing OOP as much as possible in the DR with plans to repeat in the US- and already applied for a tourist visa a few months ago for unrelated (wanting to visit) reasons but the appt is several months away. Is there a way to request an expedite of this existing B2 application? Our last ditch scenario is to attempt it in the DR but my husband is deteriorating really fast and is currently fragile. Doctors would never let him travel but if we ignored them and did anyway it would be really dangerous...and we'd have to start all over there with the transplant evaluation and I don't know if we have enough time. 😞 Thanks everyone in advance.