SimonAndAmina

On 6/29/2017 at 7:23 AM, PL&SN said:

Hello – My  Fiancée  and I are trying to schedule a K1 interview in Nairobi and can’t seem to locate instructions on how to pay. We have created an account immigrant side https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-ke/iv , set our Courier location and are on the Payment screen. At this point is says “Your application requires 1 U.S Visa application (MRV) fee” But there is no link to get payment instructions. The screen also says No appointments are Available.

 

Has anyone run into this issue? If so how was it resolved?

Yeah, you have to keep checking the calendar every day until dates pop up. It can take a while, but they do open up. When they do, just be sure to pick a date that gives you enough time to do the medical exams before your appt with the Consular at the embassy. Also, if you don't live in Kenya, you can have someone who lives in the area make the payment for you as Postbank or using Mpesa. Hope this helps. 

On 3/27/2017 at 5:40 AM, KF & OS said:

Hi everyone, thank u for this thread. I am also from Uganda and our K-1 is in transit to the Nairobi consulate. I want to know how you guys made the MRV payment. Do i have to physically travel to Kenya to make the payment or I can use Mpesa from Uganda or Post Bank in Uganda? Also do I pay the equivalent of the visa fee in Uganda shillings or I have to pay it in dollars?

 

About the medical, what vaccinations do I have to have before i go to Nairobi? (Recently my doc said I cant have the Hep b vaccine coz I have ever been in contact with the Virus, is this gonna be a problem? I have read its not if I bring a medical report)

 

Thank you all and May God bless you all

We had a trusted friend that lives in Kenya make the payment for us at a post bank location. I believe it was in Kenyan currency. As far as medical questions, I would ask the medical place directly. They are very helpful there and typically respond to emails in less than a week. OM Nairobi Migration Health Assessment Centre - email address: iomnbomedical@iom.int

On 2/23/2017 at 7:08 PM, Ricktx said:

Hi SimonAndAmina, i was able to get an interview slot next month. There were two openings but I chose the one with a later date to allow more time for thorough preps. Thanks a lot guys!!

Alright! Please keep us posted on your progress!

On 2/22/2017 at 2:14 AM, Ricktx said:

Afric and Simon...thanks for the elaborate updates you shared. Your thread has been a great resource. I happen to be in the same boat as the Simons. My Fiancée is in Uganda.We have already completed all the stages of the K-1 visa....duly paid the visa fee in Nairobi at Post Bank mid Jan 2017 and are still waiting for the appointment slot for her interview. We also check simultaneously and randomly for available/ open interview dates on the website . My question I guess is if there is any other way we can know whether there are open dates to schedule the interview in Nairobi?

We got an appointment today.. there might still be a few available, I would check asap..! 

On 2/22/2017 at 2:14 AM, Ricktx said:

Afric and Simon...thanks for the elaborate updates you shared. Your thread has been a great resource. I happen to be in the same boat as the Simons. My Fiancée is in Uganda.We have already completed all the stages of the K-1 visa....duly paid the visa fee in Nairobi at Post Bank mid Jan 2017 and are still waiting for the appointment slot for her interview. We also check simultaneously and randomly for available/ open interview dates on the website . My question I guess is if there is any other way we can know whether there are open dates to schedule the interview in Nairobi?

We got an appointment today.. there might still be a few available, I would check asap..! 

1 hour ago, Afric said:

Great!!! finally, you paid the fee.Please Keep on checking for the open slots as many times as you could at some point it will open. 

We already have Visa's in our hands now, we thank God for that. Hope you will be through this process soon too. Be blessed 

We are registered on the green (imagrent) application page, but we are properly filed fot a K-1 now and it is showing us the scheduling calander, etc.. I know you had said we need to be on the blue/purple page. But, the Virginia office re-set up the page for us and it seems to be filed right and letting us check the scheduling.. do you think that's okay?

On 1/31/2017 at 1:01 PM, Afric said:

Hey, Simon. Us we just started medical, then next week is the interview. Please email the Us embassy Nairobi and tell them about the issue, their email address is  essa_contactus+ke+ivcasenumber+en@visaops.net  payment needs to be done first so long as it is K1 Visa before scheduling. Hope you will break through soon. Be blessed  

Hey afric, just checking in to see how things are going.. has there been progress on your case?

We were able to pay the fee and are now checking the website every day for scheduling dates.. was there anything special that you did to finally get a date scheduled, or did you just keep checking?

Blessings! Simon and Amina 

Hi Visa Journey friends,

My fiancee and I have been able to sort through some filing problems, and are now headed towards making our K-1 Visa appointment with the US Embassy in Kenya,

We do need to have an outside financial sponsor as my Church ministry wages are low, so I am curious as to what document is used for this? Is it an i-864 document? I might have to prepare the document myself this weekend, and want to do things right. 

I need to get this sponsorship docu together and DHL it to my Fiancee asap, so any quick info/advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

On 1/12/2017 at 8:43 PM, Afric said:

Hey Simon,

  Sorry for all this. When you are in the immigrant site( the site should be green in color, don't use the blue one because it is for nonimmigrant ).  When you create an account, you put your information, after that you click green button continue, when you continue you will enter the courier/DHL location where you will pick up your visa after it is approved (Location should be within Kenya there is a drop down button with places you can choose from). Click continue green button then go to the payment section (MRV fee), here you will see two options 1) Pay by cash (2) Pay by Safaricom M-pesa.  Here if you choose to pay by cash,  then click on "pay by cash" the pdf form  will appear then prompt you to print. That is the form will direct you to go pay at Post bank and the amount with the pin number. Also, remember this form expires in like 4 days, that means you have to make payment at the bank within the timeline.  They will update your account within 2 days, then you will see the calendar to schedule the appointment. Hope this will help. ( https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-KE/iv/users/sign_in ) this is the website. Be blessed 

             

Hi afric, so good news in that we have been able to sort out the filing problems. But, there is no pay options available, but the scheduling option is open (although it says no appointments available). It seems to be in reverse order than what you said, and the agent at the Virginia office said to schedule first, then pay. I wonder if they have changed the way its done, or if its different because my fiancee is from Uganda. Nevertheless, how are things going with your case progress? 

Due to some frustrating filing complications with our K-1 visa that seem impossible to fix with the US Embassy in Africa, my fiance and I are considering getting married in Uganda and applying for a USA Spouse Visa instead.

My question is as follows: Does the fact that we have a approved K-1 on file with USCIS hinder the ability to apply and get approval for a Spouse Visa from USCIS in any way?

Any info would be of great help.

thanks! 

On 1/11/2017 at 8:26 AM, Afric said:

Hey Simon,

 

Yes, you have to pay the visa fee at the Post bank or through Mpesa before scheduling. First, you have to create the account immigrant side, then follow the flow of the account up to payment then prompt you to pay the visa fee. Here it gives you option either cash which you pay it in Postbank or Mpesa.  If through cash it will prompt you to print out a paper which you will carry with you to make payment at Postbank (Kenya). Afterwards, will take 1 to 2 days to get updated in your account. Then from there you will see the calendar to schedule appointment.Hope you will get one soon.Be blessed  

Thank you! I sent this info to my fiancé and hopefully when we get our filing issue sorted out we will be able to pay and schedule the meeting. Take care! 

Thanks! We are trying to figure it out. Her status at the us visa Kenya Embassy web page says to pay the fee, but there are no instructions on how to do so and no paperwork to download, no specific file numbers to give to Postbank/M-pesa, etc.. 

Do you remember how you are able to get the paperwork / info needed to pay? Was it through the Kenya Embassy website, via email, in the mail, etc.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks! I just sent this to our legal team! (I hope you don't mind) We will keep you posted!

Congratulations! Blessings to you as you proceed. 

We are now filed as DS160, but there seems to be no option to make an appointment on the webpage. It just says to pay the visa fee. Did you pay the fee first before the appointment schedule opened up?

Hello again Afric, so now we have the proper DS160 filing,  but we are experiencing the same thing from the Virginia scheduling office, they have said no appointments available at this time. Have you been able to schedule an appointment yet? 

Hello again Visa Journey Community,

My Fiancee and I have been approved by USCIS for the K-1 Visa and we are in the final Consular stage of the process. She is a Ugandan citizen but is processing through Nairobi Kenya.

Our formal legal team committed a clerical error with our online application petition with the Embassy in Kenya. Even though our USCIS paperwork is correct and has us for K-1 Visa and DS-160 meeting status, we were errantly registered as a DS-260 immigrant Visa filing and our ais.usvisa account has us stuck registered as a DS-260 applicant. We are pretty much dead in the water as far as progress goes until this status error is fixed and made the proper DS160 application embassy meeting status. 

Any advice? Attain a new lawyer? Keep emailing/calling the embassy ourselves? Contact an Ombudsman? Call USCIS customer service? Other?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Afric, sorry for the delayed response. Taking care of Visa stuff over the holidays has slowed down a bit. Nevertheless, at this point, we probably don't have great scheduling advice as our case was misfiled as DS260 which has a different scheduling and payment process. Once we can get the filing sorted out and have any success after that point in scheduling, if I can, I will let you know if I lean anything that might be of help.

Hi again Afric, I made some headway speaking with scheduling agents at a US/Kenya Embassy bureau in Virginia today: this is the number 1-703-988-7112
Our issues are more than scheduling, so they referred me elsewhere. But they emphasized that they are there to help people with scheduling issues.

Hello,

Simon.

For K1 visa's need to fill the DS160. I am on this stage too. I fill up ds160, made payments at the post bank. But the problem is when I tried to schedule an appointment I couldn't get any date in the calendar, I have been calling them and trying online for the last one month, but I haven't gotten any. I email the Nairobi consular and they told me not to worry about the expiry, because mine is Jan. 27 2017.

My question to you is how did you guys schedule the first time. If you don't mind you can screenshot the website you schedule at. It is frustrating because there is no much information about US embassy Nairobi. Hope your case will be resolved soon.Thanks

Hi Afric,

Sorry to hear about your troubles in scheduling. My Fiancee was the one making the schedule appointments and changing them from time to time. But now our status has changed so the schedule feature is not available for us to access.

Perhaps this embassy scheduling instruction document pdf I recently found on line might be of some help:
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/kenya/231771/PDFs/consolidated_appointment_booking_form_aug2015.pdf

Blessings to you!

Hello Visa Jurney community! My fiancee and I have been going through the long process of the K-1 Visa to get her here from Uganda (processed through Nairobi Kenya) for us to get married here in the US.

Our case has been approved in the US by USCIS, and is essentially currently just sitting at the Nairobi Embassy. But, we have run into some appointment problems in Nairobi, and are wondering if anyone has any experienced advice as far as trouble shooting goes. My fiancee made it to her first appointment, but was not able to complete the interview and was told to come back after sorting out a few of the following issues.

First, we filed and were approved as a K-1 Visa as DS160 application. But, for some reason the Nairobi Embassy has us filed as a DS260 application at various checkpoints in their system. Has this confusion of filing numbers (DS160 and DS260) happened to anyone else?

The problem that this filing confusion (DS160/DS260) has caused is that Postbank won't accept our payment for the DS160 appointment as they have us in their system as DS260. Therefore, we have no way to pay and/or show receipt of payment to the Nairobi US Embassy. The lady at the bank could/would not give my fiancee the forms to pay because of the DS260 indication.

Also, our file status account at the ais.usvisa webpage is stuck as indicating that we have to submit further paperwork (when at this time that is not technically our case status) and is not letting us use the schedule feature. Do any of you out there know who would be the best entity/bureau to contact to fix this problem with the webpage? Or, would it just be best to try to manually re-schedule by phone or email? (My fiancee already went to the embassy once, but was not able to complete her interview do to lack of medical exam paperwork and appointment payment).

One last thing, our petition approval for her interview in Nairobi expires on Jan. 8 of 2017. With these newly encountered complex problems it seems as though they cannot/will-not be resolved before Jan. 8, so the question is the following: Does anyone know if the Embassy Consoler can/will just extend/revalidate our final K-1 visa Embassy appointment, or if there is some additional file extension process we need to look into for re-validation/extension?

Any and all information at this point would be greatly appreciated. We seem so close, yet still so far away from K-1 approval at this time.

We need to be as prepared as possible at the next appointment once we can get it all scheduled, as my fiancee has to travel from Uganda to Kenya at great financial expense in order to go to the Nairobi Embassy.