Daisy.Chain

Have everything at hand in preparation for the call -- case number of the denied B2, etc.
Pulling hard for you here.

Good question.  Part of me thinks this could just be a matter of rattling the right cages.  Do any of your local news stations have a consumer advocate/investigator?  Maybe that seems far-fetched, but anything that can draw attention to his case is worth a try!

I don't suggest this in frivolous fashion, but this is a legitimate crisis.  Call the U.S. Citizen service line of the consulate, and firmly request that your call be transferred to an American consul in the NIV (Nonimmigrant Visa) unit.  You'll get resistance.  Play the American card:  "Are you a U.S. citizen?  No?  Well, I am, and I insist that you transfer me to either the Nonimmigrant Visa Unit Chief or an American consular officer in that department who is there to pick up the phone."  Insist.  Upon further resistance, ask for the staffer's name and the name of his supervisor, then repeat your request.
 
Yes, this is completely against protocol, but it's likely a life-or-death matter.

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

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,

Here is an update on our progress in case anyone else goes through something similar or was interested :) : 
 
We are almost a month in to the kidney transplant process and Mr. Daisy has undergone the transplant evaluation and is -barring complications from the single remaining exam Monday- ready for transplant and to be listed! The medical expedite for a tourist visa for his siblings is done by going in to the B2 application in ustraveldocs (on a desktop, not a phone - at least not on my phone as of 12/23) and selecting "emergency request". The requirements on that website state:
Medical Emergency
Purpose of travel is to obtain emergency medical care, to accompany a relative or employer for emergency medical care, or to travel to be with an immediate family member (mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandparent, or grandchild) undergoing emergency medical care in the United States. Required proof: A letter from the doctor who is treating or will treat you or your loved one. The letter must describe the medical condition and the urgency of the situation. You must also present evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person. The medical letter is relatively easy to write - we have piles of medical things. The "evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person" - Could this be as simple as sibling's birth certificate and Mr. Daisy's, both showing the same parents? I am coming from K1 "evidence of relationship" where I included a TON of things, so that seems too easy.

Thank you!!
 
We tried patient services at Mayo and asked for people to help with the visa paperwork. I have to verify that we go to the actual department you listed since they transferred me and I'm not 100% sure. Regardless, though, both nephrology and the transplant center are willing to help make the documents BUT they won't until we have the initial transplant consult - and the first appt is in MARCH. (They restart their normal 8 week timer when our insurance changes 1/1/24 which is lame imho) (!!!) Not much time for visa paperwork even expedited although we'll stay on their schedule until we get a better solution.
 
I called about every transplant center all around and found one in our area with good stats that has a consult available Tuesday so I'm hoping they'll connect us with the right people for this as well! 

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,

Here is an update on our progress in case anyone else goes through something similar or was interested :) : 
 
We are almost a month in to the kidney transplant process and Mr. Daisy has undergone the transplant evaluation and is -barring complications from the single remaining exam Monday- ready for transplant and to be listed! The medical expedite for a tourist visa for his siblings is done by going in to the B2 application in ustraveldocs (on a desktop, not a phone - at least not on my phone as of 12/23) and selecting "emergency request". The requirements on that website state:
Medical Emergency
Purpose of travel is to obtain emergency medical care, to accompany a relative or employer for emergency medical care, or to travel to be with an immediate family member (mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandparent, or grandchild) undergoing emergency medical care in the United States. Required proof: A letter from the doctor who is treating or will treat you or your loved one. The letter must describe the medical condition and the urgency of the situation. You must also present evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person. The medical letter is relatively easy to write - we have piles of medical things. The "evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person" - Could this be as simple as sibling's birth certificate and Mr. Daisy's, both showing the same parents? I am coming from K1 "evidence of relationship" where I included a TON of things, so that seems too easy.

Hi everyone,

Here is an update on our progress in case anyone else goes through something similar or was interested :) : 
 
We are almost a month in to the kidney transplant process and Mr. Daisy has undergone the transplant evaluation and is -barring complications from the single remaining exam Monday- ready for transplant and to be listed! The medical expedite for a tourist visa for his siblings is done by going in to the B2 application in ustraveldocs (on a desktop, not a phone - at least not on my phone as of 12/23) and selecting "emergency request". The requirements on that website state:
Medical Emergency
Purpose of travel is to obtain emergency medical care, to accompany a relative or employer for emergency medical care, or to travel to be with an immediate family member (mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandparent, or grandchild) undergoing emergency medical care in the United States. Required proof: A letter from the doctor who is treating or will treat you or your loved one. The letter must describe the medical condition and the urgency of the situation. You must also present evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person. The medical letter is relatively easy to write - we have piles of medical things. The "evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person" - Could this be as simple as sibling's birth certificate and Mr. Daisy's, both showing the same parents? I am coming from K1 "evidence of relationship" where I included a TON of things, so that seems too easy.

Hi everyone,

Here is an update on our progress in case anyone else goes through something similar or was interested :) : 
 
We are almost a month in to the kidney transplant process and Mr. Daisy has undergone the transplant evaluation and is -barring complications from the single remaining exam Monday- ready for transplant and to be listed! The medical expedite for a tourist visa for his siblings is done by going in to the B2 application in ustraveldocs (on a desktop, not a phone - at least not on my phone as of 12/23) and selecting "emergency request". The requirements on that website state:
Medical Emergency
Purpose of travel is to obtain emergency medical care, to accompany a relative or employer for emergency medical care, or to travel to be with an immediate family member (mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandparent, or grandchild) undergoing emergency medical care in the United States. Required proof: A letter from the doctor who is treating or will treat you or your loved one. The letter must describe the medical condition and the urgency of the situation. You must also present evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person. The medical letter is relatively easy to write - we have piles of medical things. The "evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person" - Could this be as simple as sibling's birth certificate and Mr. Daisy's, both showing the same parents? I am coming from K1 "evidence of relationship" where I included a TON of things, so that seems too easy.

Hi everyone,

Here is an update on our progress in case anyone else goes through something similar or was interested :) : 
 
We are almost a month in to the kidney transplant process and Mr. Daisy has undergone the transplant evaluation and is -barring complications from the single remaining exam Monday- ready for transplant and to be listed! The medical expedite for a tourist visa for his siblings is done by going in to the B2 application in ustraveldocs (on a desktop, not a phone - at least not on my phone as of 12/23) and selecting "emergency request". The requirements on that website state:
Medical Emergency
Purpose of travel is to obtain emergency medical care, to accompany a relative or employer for emergency medical care, or to travel to be with an immediate family member (mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandparent, or grandchild) undergoing emergency medical care in the United States. Required proof: A letter from the doctor who is treating or will treat you or your loved one. The letter must describe the medical condition and the urgency of the situation. You must also present evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person. The medical letter is relatively easy to write - we have piles of medical things. The "evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person" - Could this be as simple as sibling's birth certificate and Mr. Daisy's, both showing the same parents? I am coming from K1 "evidence of relationship" where I included a TON of things, so that seems too easy.

Hi everyone,

Here is an update on our progress in case anyone else goes through something similar or was interested :) : 
 
We are almost a month in to the kidney transplant process and Mr. Daisy has undergone the transplant evaluation and is -barring complications from the single remaining exam Monday- ready for transplant and to be listed! The medical expedite for a tourist visa for his siblings is done by going in to the B2 application in ustraveldocs (on a desktop, not a phone - at least not on my phone as of 12/23) and selecting "emergency request". The requirements on that website state:
Medical Emergency
Purpose of travel is to obtain emergency medical care, to accompany a relative or employer for emergency medical care, or to travel to be with an immediate family member (mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandparent, or grandchild) undergoing emergency medical care in the United States. Required proof: A letter from the doctor who is treating or will treat you or your loved one. The letter must describe the medical condition and the urgency of the situation. You must also present evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person. The medical letter is relatively easy to write - we have piles of medical things. The "evidence of your relationship to the sick or injured person" - Could this be as simple as sibling's birth certificate and Mr. Daisy's, both showing the same parents? I am coming from K1 "evidence of relationship" where I included a TON of things, so that seems too easy.

This one would definitely work for early appointment expedite. You can request it yourself after you pick a date that's available (even if months later), or you can go through your congressional representative(s) for it. In either case, you have to have an existing appointment (sounds like you have one already) but as circumstances have changed you're now requesting an earlier appointment for medical testing purposes. Your congressional representative can work for you - you just provide as much information as possible to make it easy on all sides. Good luck! 

I didn't say go to DR/ I answered your post that said DR  wouldn't know how to do the pretest/i pointed out they do kidney transplants so they know the procedure to match one of his DR relatives for the transplant to be done  here.  
As u said , u have only 6 months.    you want a visa to bring someone in for match testing? 
what if they are not a Match?
another visa for other family member? 
and maybe another?
DR can do the testing for several members and then u go for the visa for the transplant with assistance from US Doctors for the emergency visa  a lot faster than trying to get one or more a visa to test them here
and yes,  the  kidney is not removed unless it is infected

Correct!  My husband has his shriveled non-functioning kidneys still.  The transplant is actually more anterior to regular kidney location, and the scar is on his right lower belly/side.
 
And I totally agree about sticking to your original plan.  Transplant medicine is very specialized, and you want the center/surgeons/program to have LOTS of experience, which would not be found in a country like the DR.
 
The paired donation is probs our backup plan, although I'm not sure what the age cutoff is to donate.  

Thank you! In comparison, my current transplant center does over 1,000 transplants of the kidneys alone per year. My husband has a rare condition that affects his kidneys but is caused by an autoimmune condition - so for example there is likely to be more complicated scarring on his kidneys (due to the cobdition before they operate, not due to the operation itself) so we're looking for an experienced surgeon who has seen s lot of complications.
 
If we go to the DR the trip alone risks his life as he is pretty fragile, but that is our backup plane if absolutely nothing else works. We are going to try paired donation where I give a kidney to someone else and their loved one gives Mr. Daisy a kidney first so I don't think we'll need to risk the journey. I am hoping for the best possible outcome which is generally from family, but we will consider other alternatives if needed.
.I never knew I'd need to do so much research on all this stuff. I learned not terribly long ago that kidney transplants don't remove the diseased kidney (in the condition my husband has). They just add a new one in this maintaining a little of the original function and adding to it. It makes sense but is weird. Some people have even more than 3 kidneys bc of this!

Aww, thank you! I definitely will.
 
 
 
We can do some of the testing in the DR but then I think we'd have to repeat it here in the US - maybe not if I csn figure out sone way to certify it?  This is one of my questions for the consult meeting!
 
If I can't figure out the expedite I am going to ask my rep/senator for sure.
 
Thanks again for the *hugs* and advice!

Yes, this is our backup plan but I have high hopes we can figure it out here. It would be a huge health risk for him to travel at this point in the disease progression and then restart the testing/donation at a center there. I'm planning paired donation (where I give one to someone else in need and their loved one gives a kidney to my husband) prior to that. Family is the best match though for a few reasons so it is our #1 choice.

Omg, sending love to you!  My husband has a kidney transplant, so I totally get it.
 
Just wanted to say that in the absence of a match in the family, there also may be the option for you to donate a kidney to a third party, and for your husband to receive an unrelated matched kidney.   Sounds like he does have potential family matches, though, which is excellent.  Can any of the potential donor testing be done in the DR?
 
Btw, I don't usually recommend this, but in your case it might be good to contact your US senator/congressional rep for assistance.  Especially given the time urgency.....and, they might be more willing to help because of the PR/human interest aspect.
 
Feel free to DM me if you want.  My husband received a sibling's kidney >20 years ago, and is doing great - even got through a COVID infection unscathed.  *Hugs*

@jan22 @milimelo going to tag these two in hopes one of them might be able to offer advice.
 
I did a quick search and got the PHIL ustraveldocs site, maybe it's similar for DR? 
https://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ApplyforEmergencyVisa.html

This might be a reason to reach out to your US senator.   

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.

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.

Also, I hope your reason for going to the hospital is better as well. Medical stuff is no fun.