StevenInAtlanta

@blakezero When it became clear to us that we were not going to get her visa on that trip, we contacted the Embassy help line via the online message system and requested that her passport be returned because we had already been there 3 weeks, we were running low on $$ and I was tired of extending flights and hotel accommodations. We spent easily an additional $3-5,000 while waiting. We got an actual phone call the next day from someone at the embassy that works in the immigration area and she was trying to help us, trying to get our package processed but because I could not produce my federal income tax TRANSCRIPT for the current year we could not meet the "we want that IRS transcript document also" request. Knowing that we could not produce the last minute document requested, she told us to just go by the embassy anytime, show the guard at the door her 'green sheet' and they will let her in and she could pickup her passport. And we did, and we left the Warsaw embassy and Poland the next day empty handed. I am still totally PO'd about this entire last minute while we are already here IRS transcript request and I had no way to solve the problem while I was there. The IRS has no expedite my request for a transcript option and it was not available to me online because I had filled my most current return just days before the trip. All that being said, I know exactly what you are going through and if you send them a note or if there is a number at the Israel US embassy to actually call, you can request them to return the passport and if they operate like Warsaw, she can just go pick it up right away. It is also possible that telling them you can not wait any longer and must go home MIGHT get your petition to the top of the stack and it will mysteriously get processed and hopefully approved. You are basically powerless against the embassy personnel, if they want "it", your petition will be held till they get "it".

Breakfast at "Relax" just across the street from Trattoria. Seating upstairs is best! Great pastries, casual, friendly service, comfortable. Relax na Wilczej

Samples from Trattoria Italian resturant

@RogerVA8928 I don't know if it applies to you but I believe that Poland is not currently allowing Russian citizens into the country. The embassy was no help in trying to help us determine if she could return to complete our petition and get her visa (IR1). They told us that we would have to contact the Polish government to see if it was even possible. So....the US embassy system moves petitions from Moscow to Warsaw, and because of the war, they close the door to Russian citizens. Now the rumor is that they are going to begin to resume processing of IR1 visas at the Moscow embassy...but this has not occured yet as far as I know. It may never occur, but we have fingers crossed and pray.

Hello @RogerVA8928 If you read through this thread you will find the answers to many of your questions, my wife and I recently went through this process in Warsaw and mostly due to the war in Ukraine it was a lot of extra trouble since she is a Russian citizen living in Moscow. Airline restrictions, banking sanctions, boarder policies, and timing of interview, travel, hotels and documentation are all issues you have to face. So here is what we have learned: === Q:If interviewing in Warsaw is the only acceptable option, I'm wondering how much time they give you to prepare for the trip when they schedule the interview? A: In our case, the Warsaw office got our petition and within 90 days we were contacted with the appointment date/time. It was 3 weeks in the future. The war had just started and airline sanctions made that date not workable for us. My wife needed to get her Schengen visa (from Italy) and at that time there was a long line due to the imgrant surge out and around Europe and Russia. We paid our visa service an additional fee (like $350 if I remember correctly) for an expedited service but there was still no guarantee it would come in time for the interview. As it turned out, we got it in about 2 weeks. The visa service insisted there was no guarantee how fast but we were very pleased. Q: I've heard getting the Schengen Visa can take a few weeks and once received for whichever country (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc...) it's only valid for 30 days. A: Depends on which country and how long the line is in that country. The Schengen visa we purchased was good for 1 year....if I remember correctly. It may have been 2-3 years, I'll check w/my wife. Again, we opted for the Italian visa because they offered or made available an expedite service whereas the others did not. This expedite service was offered by the visa service we used in Russia, not by the Italian government. A visa service is familiar with how things work, they have inside contacts and they have people to go stand in line for you...that is what you are paying for. Q: So hoping there is at least a 2 month window for planning purposes and not a 3-4 week window as that would not allow enough time for processing her Schengen and traveling. A: I've chattted with a number of others here that went through Warsaw. Their experience seems pretty consistant with ours, you get about 3 weeks notice. Q: If they schedule with a small window, does anyone know the rescheduling process? A: Yes, we rescheduled our appointment, moved it to the first available slot in the future. That slot was about 3 months after our initial interview date. Availability is entirely based on how many people are applying and how many people are in queue. There is a website that you use to reschedule your appointment. The process was easy, we just picked a new date online and a few days later we got a confirmation of the reschedule. Note that when we did this there was a note in the system to not reschedule untill after your appointment time had passed which I did not understand...and I ignored the note. We were still easily able to reschedule our appointment and I hope that our slot was marked available and someone else got it. Q: Can we log in to reschedule the date they provided to one maybe 6-8 weeks later or would it be months to reschedule? A: See above. You can login and reschedule, how long a wait or when the next slot is available depends on the current queue of applicants. Some important lessons learned: 1. Be certain to bring every piece of documentation that you submitted, originals. And they need to be an exact match to what you submitted. Don't get new copies or updated copies, bring the ones you submitted. They will compare the originals you bring to the images of those you submitted at the interview. If there is a difference, they will send you back to the hotel to upload images of the changed documents and you will wait (in our case) 6 additional days before they confirm the new documents have been accepted. 2. Though the instructions clearly indicated to bring your most recent IRS tax form 1040 OR your IRS tax transcript, bring both! I submitted my original 1040 for the previous year, that I had just filed and the embassy asked for the transcript also. I responded that the instructions said "OR" not "AND" but they insisted. The IRS had not fully processed my return and the transcript was not yet available online. It took an additional 6 days to work with the embassy on this item. So by that time we had been in Warsaw 2 weeks. 3. There are plenty of places to stay right near the embassy. We stayed in an AirBNB, they were great places and quite affordable. Most of them were about $100 - $130 a night. We stayed at 2 different properties run by "OompH " They set a new standard! Because of our extended stay caused by having updated documents that didn't match perfectly what was submitted, we stayed in Warsaw 3 weeks. It's a 5 minute walk to the embassy. 4. You will not be allowed in the embassy. You have to wait outside, I waited approximately 3 hours. There is no place to sit at all and they will not let you loiter in front of the embassy. You have to stand across the street or find another place to hang out. There is no coffee shop or diner near the embassy. You have to walk a bit down the street. The interview itself took only 5 minutes. The officer was very brief, asked my wife 2-3 questions, flipped hurridly through all the supporting documents we brought, like proof of income, proof of financial support for 5+ years, pictures together, email and text streams, etc....he was only interested in what had been submitted and they had to be an exact match. The rest of the documents he hardley even gave a glance...though it was quite relevant. 5. The entrance to the embassy has two service windows and a door. You take your papers and printed interview confirmation to the window first, then you get in line for the door. If you do not have your printed original appointment confirmation with the bar code on it, you are not getting in, period. We saw several people get turned away because of this. There is an official at the door that checks your papers when you enter. You can NOT take your cell phone inside. If you have a bag of any type it will be searched. Best to just not take anything. 6. Below there is a map or two of Warsaw. I have circled two resturaunts, the embassy and the red line shows the street we stayed on (Wilcza). We stayed in 3 different places, one different each week for 3 weeks. Had we known we would have been there for 3 weeks, we would have saved a little by booking the 1st place for 3 weeks. As it turns out though, we got to stay in 3 really nice places. I suggest searching out the "OompH " managed properties. They are super nice, updated, clean, and they provide coffee, cerials, a welcome basket and are very responsive if you have any needs at all. Trattoria Rucola is fantastic Italian...it's maybe the best I've had. Great service, the pistachio moose is a MUST TRY. Across the corner is Tran Tran asian...another great choice. Food prices are quite reasonable and portions are generally generous. Be sure to take your wife to Lelou jewelry store! This is fashion jewelry, not real expensive, I bought my wife the most amazing scarf there, it's one of their signature products. We walked by many times and saw it in the window, each time it was calling to us to go inside. I finally did stop and invited my wife in. It's beautiful scarf, I think her favorite now. Great memory too. 7. As far as sight seeing goes...there is a LOT to see. Near the embassy there is not much but there is shopping and plenty of places to eat. About a 10-15 minute walk is a large park you can spend all day in and if you are up for it, a 45 minute walk down the boulevard is strongly suggested to get to "Old Town Square". The Old Town is a must see, it's going to be on your list of favorite places ever visited. There is a bus, take the walk, there is so much to see along the way to Old Town. From where we stayed near the embassy, it's a straight walk, it would be really really hard to get lost. Old Town is dripping with charm, there is a photo-op at every corner, it's beautiful, food everywhere and the best shopping. Many many many gift shops filled with fine goods, not your typical Disney motif junk. The largest deposits of amber are in Poland, so there are many amber shops with beautiful pieces made of amber. You'll be amazed. There is also what you might consider "downtown". It is North and a bit west of the property we stayed at. Not even a 30 minute walk, a straight shot. Just head for the tallest building in town, you will know it when you see it. There is a very interesting mall there. Just Google Hard Rock Cafe...you'll find it.

@Lynxyonok yeah....I found it hard to believe considering the current world climate, but one can hope. Judging from just the last two years in history, it's near impossible to predict what is going to come next.

Something new just popped up on the family rumor mill radar screen. My wife has just heard that a US official just announced that IR1/immigration visa interviews are going to resume in the Moscow embassy. Has anyone heard anything at all about this or have any resources or links to share for verification or further research. I've checked the US Russian embassy website news and there wasn't anything found there, did several Google searches, nothing.

It’s a good question and I can add that it was the NVCs decision to move the case from Moscow to Warsaw because of the unrest at the US Embassy in Moscow and the suspension of visa processing so after Covid lockdown Warsaw agreed to take Russian IR1 and other petitions for processing. Neither she (the Russian and beneficiary) nor I the US citizen and petitioner have any friends or family in Warsaw.

We spent two extra weeks in Warsaw waiting for the embassy 'help desk' to respond and tell us what was happening. After 12 days we get a message insisting they ALSO want an IRS transcript which was not available to me at that time since I had filed my most recent tax form only a few weeks earlier. We only got a true response from someone not on the help desk, but actually working visa/passport at the embassy when we entered a formal request to have my wife's passport returned so we could go home. The help desk told us it had to be delivered to MailboxETC and it could take up to 3-5 business days. In reality, they will return it to you at the embassy, we picked it up the next day and were able to go home, all be it empty handed. My bottom line is that had I KNOWN in advance that a transcript was going to be REQUIRED, I could have filed earlier or worked with my local IRS office to get the transcript earlier. Though we had not seen each other in almost a year, we effectively wasted $7,000+US on a trip and came home empty handed, no visa. What's perhaps worse, is that now the Polish government is not allowing Russian tourist into the country. So if she had to go back right now I'm not even sure they will let her in the country. I asked the embassy if this was the case and their response after 4 days was that it was a matter for the Polish government and to ask them. No indication was given how they are handling any other Russian citizens that may have interviews in queue at this time. The one thing we were told is that she does not have to physically re-appear at the embassy to submit her passport to get her visa, an authorized agent (like me for example) could bring it to the embassy and then wait (again) for it to be processed, pick it up and then take it or send it to her. Apparently there is an authorized agent process and form that would have to be followed and filled out and process/approved for that to be possible. So the status on the ustraveldocs.com web site is not apparently any indication where in the process your visa petition or the processing of same actually is. The only way we were able to actually talk to embassy personnel while waiting at the hotel was to request her passport be returned so we could go home. Then we got a call from a very nice, well spoken woman that was from the embassy, she explained they needed the transcript to move forward but if it was not available, my wife could pickup her passport at the embassy the next morning showing only her 'green sheet' to the security officer at the door. Which we did, they let her in without delay that next morning, and she was in and out in maybe 10 minutes. The woman that gave her passport back to her at the embassy remembered my wife and she was the same woman that participated (assisted the embassy interview officer) during her interview which took all of less than 5 minutes and consisted of two questions: How did you meet?, how long have you known him? Months and months of planning and income document preparation, proof of a bonafide state of marriage, signed affidavits, and thousands of dollars spent...and we're initially rejected on the difference in two words AND & OR. Also note that all the documents that we have prepared and submitted have a shelf life. Depending on how long this process takes and how long it takes to nest egg another $7-10K for another trip and to what country we have to go and what the silly war is going to do next and those documents will expire. We will then have to renew them at our cost, re-submit them and then go for the visa again. #QuiteFrustrated

@Zoothie "Why do you say the certificate was valid for 1 year? NVC states 2 years since the date of issue.." Because the US Embassy told us that the (Russian) police certificate was only good for a year and it HAD to be renewed. I've learned that it frankly doesn't matter what you read, or where you read it, if the Embassy wants "it" they are going to get it or in simple terms your passport/visa is not going to get processed. And if any of your documents are going to expire anywhere near the interview date, you better get them renewed and uploaded to CEAC well BEFORE your interview at the embassy. Our experience and delay boiled down to two basic events: We did not upload the updated police certificate and birth certificate prior to the interview, even though we were instructed to bring the new transcribed and certified originals to the interview and the officer had them in his hands, he insisted we return to the hotel and upload them and wait an indeterminable amount of time for review and processing. We were asked to also upload a 2021 Federal tax return TRANSCRIPT which I did not have with me. All written instructions said "federal tax return OR transcript" and the embassy decided they wanted the official IRS transcript (required) and the federal return is apparently (optional). Arguing with the embassy officials is going to be fruitless. They have sole ownership of your documents and approval or refused power is entirely theirs. After several weeks that has become clear to my wife and I. My point is that it doesn't really matter what NVC says, what does matter is what the embassy says.

@smoothoperaytor "We've been waiting for over a year and our DQ was a few months ago. I think it'll be another year. We were asked to upload a new police report, which we did. They take about 2-4 weeks to get in her city. I'm guessing we'll need another one by the time we have our interview. The thing is, we don't know when that will be. To be "safe", we could constantly keep an active police report every 6 months, but that's silly." We ran into this problem because the war in Ukraine started and we had to delay and reschedule our interview. The original police certificate that we had previously uploaded to CEAC expired during the waiting and trying to find flights. That took about 4 months. Anyway, the lesson learned is that once you have your interview date, be sure that the police certificate will still be valid at the time of the interview. For us, the Russian certificate was good for 1 year and it had to be translated to English. We got her certificate in 2 weeks in Russia after the Covid 19 period, during the Covid 19 period we got it in like 3-4 days. My suggestion is to determine how long it is going to take to get it, and if it's not in English, get the final one obtained for the interview translated and certified AND UPLOAD IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO CEAC profile so that it is already there during the interview and of course take the original with you to the interview. Translation services was not expensive (I think we paid $150 US for all 5 needed documents) and it took only about 5-7 days total. That way the Embassy CO can not send you away like they did us to upload it then play a 2+ week waiting game for them to just push the silly accept document box.

@slavaskii "We all wish you the best, Steven. I'm certain your wife must be feeling very fortunate to have someone like you consistently on the ball." It has been a great source of strength to return to this post and read the encouragement from others that have either endured this journey or that are on the journey and that have offered their encouragement. Though I have not yet crossed the goal line with the football I feel like I am close but I know its 4th quarter and there are just seconds on the clock. I'm hoping for that hail Mary play that every sage quarterback has in his playbook. "Did you ever tell the Embassy how you wanted the passport returned? As in, either through USTravelDocs or another application? For the K-1, I recall specifically one of the last stages with signing up for the interview was detailing the document delivery information. We either had the choice of mailing to a Polish address or picking up in Warsaw/Krakow. " When we registered on the ustraveldoc.com website (which by the way is a requirement!) it was a step in the registration process for your interview to select your point of delivery. The choices were either 1 of 2 MailboxesETC or a polish address. We picked the MailboxesETC in Warsaw, (about a 20 minute drive by car from the Embassy) option of course since we have no polish address other than our AirBNB apartment home that has changed each week. "USTravelDoc's homescreen. Most certainly, it did not update when the visa was actually ready; we only knew when we got an email from the 'mailbox' pickup location." That is good to know but not reassuring that the people that run and interact with the system are actually maintaining it with the users (visa seekers) best interest in mind. I would like to think that it is a matter of work load, they are just overrun with applicants and short staffed. I'll give them that but on the other hand, I dont think its reasonable to expect someone to wait 1-3 days for a response to a critical question when they are in town for the interview only and having to potentially make extended travel plans to overstay their plan because of extended delays at the embassy processing something seemingly as simple as an updated birth certificate and police report that has been translated AND certified and sealed by the translator and presented to the Consulate Officer during the 90 second interview. This topic we discussed above. I dont believe that the CEAC and ustraveldocs.com systems are directly connected, I THINK that the US Embassy in Warsaw Poland help desk that you call (number above) is acting as an intermediator relay of information between the embassy and CEAC...or it is the Ebbassy personnel that are charged with updating the CEAC system, which they do not seem to be doing. I say this because we still have documents in CEAC system that were uploaded over 2 weeks ago that still show submitted but not 'accepted'...eventhough from the communications we are getting from support-poland@ indicate they have been reviewed. Stay tuned, the saga continues All

Hello Sir or Madam, We can see that the Dashboard for our case has changed recently and that now "Document Delivery Information" appears but there are no instructions and the link does not open another window or browser tab. It is our hope that my wife's passport and US Immigrant Visa has been successfully processed and we are awaiting further instruction on when and where to pick up her passport. We are running VERY close on time to remain in Warsaw, our scheduled flight is Thursday 15th Sept at 9PM, we must leave for the airport by approximately 6PM.

Immigrant Visas Warsaw Fri, Sep 9, 9:13 AM (3 days ago) to me Dear Madam, thank you for your correspondence. We do not have the IRS tax transcript. The tax documents submitted on August 30 include the forms 1040 and 8995. Sincerely, Immigrant Visa Unit Consular Section U.S. Embassy Warsaw /ak ======================== Steven Seale <steven.seale@gmail.com> Sep 9, 2022, 12:00 PM (3 days ago) to support-poland, Goncharova, Immigrant, me Hello, Yes, according to the official written pre-interview instructions received on 27, March 2022 (shown below in red text) the 1040 tax return that was uploaded 30 August as requested is ALSO an acceptable document for the purpose of income verification. The wording indicates either a transcript OR the most recent Federal Income Tax Return (form 1040). This is clearly explained in the written instructions received prior to the interview. Note that for the document qualification phase of our petition the previous year of 2018, form 1040 is accepted as proof of income. To our knowledge there has been no change in the official requirement for a IRS transcript only, a 1040 is apparently still acceptable and we have the written instructions that indicate this to be true. You should be assured that moving forward will be within the official guidelines. There is absolutely no inference or reference to a transcript being the only acceptable evidence. Please continue to process our visa petition unless you can provide some evidence of a recent change to the official processing guidelines indicating that a transcript is the only acceptable proof of income. ======================

@TBoneTX @JayFromTexas @FJinSD It's now Monday the 12th September 5:15PM Warsaw time. No so much as a peep from the Embassy and I sent them a message on Friday last week in response to my Wednesday inquiry about a status on my wife's visa processing. As you might recall on Wednesday I sent them a note indicating that I had previously submitted the week before the requested federal income tax form from 2021. Their response Friday morning was that they had not received the tax "transcript" requested but did confirm they received the form 1040. In my response I indicated that all the pre-interview instructions as well as the green sheet of to-do items my wife received at her interview clearly indicated "OR" I mean that a Federal Tax Return (1040) OR a tax transcript was acceptable as prof of income...that it was not an AND condition. I further detailed and forward the pre-interview instructions with that portion highlighted in red (the OR part) and said that all written communications I had received indicated that a federal tax for 1040 was acceptable as proof of income and that unless they could demonstrate to me that a tax transcript from the IRS was now part of the official immigration document requirements to please continue with the processing as I had fully complied with the previous written instructions. To that communication that I received a confirmation to, I have as of this moment not gotten a reply. This afternoon, while checking the ustraveldocs.com web site for our status, I noticed, much to my surprise that the status area that once said "Your application/passport is currently at the embassy" had been updated to "Document Delivery Instructions" ....but there are no instructions and the link does nothing. So it is possible, but I am withholding great joy that maybe the visa was processed and they are planning to get the visa to the mailboxesETC location or deliver to us the instructions to pick it up at the embassy. So...using the ustraveldocs.com feedback feature, I sent them another email. An email asking if there were further instructions pending the pickup of either her completed passport with US immigrant VISA or just her original passport. We are praying hard that it is a situation where the visa was approved and is being sent to the mailboxesETC for pickup rather than just returning her passport. If they are returning it only, then I take that as a cyber bird finger for telling them that a 1040 was sufficient for income verification based on all my written communications and instructions received. And to that I respond with "Pfffft!" Lets go Brandon! Ill post the communication streams below....