Anibunny

1 minute ago, Dashinka said:

I don’t think it will be easy getting into Russia via China anytime soon.  Heck, for most folks it is not easy getting into Russia at all.  Regardless, as @Steeleballz mentioned, who knows what the situation will be in two weeks.  I know two weeks ago, my wife was in Russia, and we were scrambling to find a way home for her (her original path was through South Korea) and hoping we did not have to make a last minute change. We were lucky, Russia was not included in the travel restrictions when they were announced, and she made it home.

 

Good Luck!

Again,  China and Russia were just examples. I meant coming from any banned country to a non-banned country and waiting there for over 2 weeks.  That will exempt you from being banned by the US?

1 hour ago, Steeleballz said:

 

    Possibly. You are not actually bypassing the ban, you are just waiting the 14 day period in a different country. You are taking a chance if you will still be able to get a flight from the other country in 2 weeks, so you do have to evaluate the risk of getting stuck in the 3rd country if things get worse. It's very hard to predict what things will be like going foreward, but the way Russia is handling things ATM, I'm not sure it's a place I'd want to be 2 weeks from now.

Not leaving from china nor staying in Russia but just used that as an example.

I was hoping for more of a definite than a "possibly" , but it seems with this current situation,  nothing is definite right now. Or anytime soon to come

Q:  If you are from a country that has a Corona virus travelban in place, can you first go to another country and stay more than 14 days,  and bypass the travel ban that way??

 The ban states if you have been in any of those countries within the last 14 days, You will be banned from traveling to the US. If you go to a country that is not on the banned list and stay more than 2 weeks, and then enter the US,  you should be ok?

Can we effectively work around the ban that way so that the immigrant visa doesn't expire before it can be used?

Example: If someone from china  goes to a neighboring country that does not have a travel ban against them, and stays for example in russia for 2.5 weeks,  and then immigrates to the US?

Got 4 updates the month of November finally.  Last one was nov 26th and ceac status also changed from the / to or with that last update. Its been a week since then so hoping for word soon. Should be any day now judging by other's similar experiences, no?

Also what happened with the group of individuals from this group whom filed a joint WOM together? How much did each party have to pay? And are there any others interested in perhaps joining together to do the same that have not yet done so?

On 10/29/2019 at 11:59 PM, Forever5432 said:

Anybody here that hasn’t gotten an update since August 15?

I was also wondering about this.  I emiled ambassy Aug 14 to ask about 1yr 2 month AP status and I got immediate update on CEAC on Aug 15. I was shocked to get a quick update until i realized alot of people got an update that day.

Many since then have been contacted by embassy or gotten theie visas or multiple updates since then. 

I have no updates since then...i emailed embassy again several days ago and still no updates. It seems my case never gets updated unless I contact my senator to do an inquiry for me

1 hour ago, DAWme said:

why 6 months or even 1 year? what happened to these laws??

Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706(1): 

Agency Action Unreasonably Delayed or Unlawfully Withheld   

The APA Act requires agencies to “proceed to conclude a matter presented” to the agency “within a reasonable time.” 5 U.S.C. § 555(b).

 

 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003

 Pub. L. 107–228, Div. A, title II, §233

Processing of Visa Applications

Section 233, states "It shall be the policy of the Department to process each visa application from an alien classified as an immediate relative or as a K–1 nonimmigrant within 30 days of the receipt of all necessary documents from the applicant and the Immigration and Naturalization Service." 

After 6 months to a year is recommended if you are still in AP due to being from one of the countries under the presidential proclamation 9645 travel ban. Otherwise...i think 3 to 6 months is sufficient. You must give the agency enough time to prpvess you case. Do background check. Leave a paper trail showing you contacted embassy and senators. It will strengthen your case and likely you will get visa beforw even going to court. Usually within 6 weeks u get the visa bc they dont want to go to court. Costs between 5k to 10k i have heard

10 hours ago, Ali333 said:

I was asked to send my passport to embassy in Amman and they’ve been holding it for 34 days so far with no action on it except some CEAC updates and the last one was on August 15th ! 

I wonder why they asked me to send my passport if it was going to take that long !

my DS-260 and medical exam are valid till next December .

Any thoughts on what’s going on?

i think they are just slow due to backlog. But i think yours is also taking longer than normal. I cant guess why bc every case is different. 

17 minutes ago, Ali333 said:

Do they keep the passport for 6 months before they return it to you!! That’s not practical and not logical !!! Why would they ask for the applicant’s passport if they intend to keep it that long !! How would applicants be able to travel in the mean time then !!! 

They let you keep passport after interview and contact you once they are ready to issue the visa. You have to complete the medical exam again if it has been over 6 months once they ask you to send your passport. Once they get your new medical exam results. They will print the visa

On 8/29/2019 at 3:13 AM, khouloud1 said:

In Abu Dhabi you need to come to the embassy and drop your passport and other document, then after two days your visa would be ready to get.

I got an email from the embassy to re-submit my DS260 and my passport with new medical report and come to US embassy once I have the required docs then hand them the docs by hand, two days later I got my visa issued .

 

things are getting better inshallah for all of Syrians. Hang in there

I have heard you can actually send/receive your passport by courier to Abu Dhabi but if you have to go back after 6 months to repeat the medical than you might as well walk it in by yourself.

On 8/28/2019 at 7:29 AM, mado1983 said:

i sent an inquiry 8 days ago i haven't  got any answer yet 

On 8/28/2019 at 7:43 AM, mado1983 said:

Amman embassy 13 month in AP ...

IR-1 

no they never contacted me nor they asked for the passport 

i got last updated on the 15TH  but in my ceac page they reopened my ds-260

 

 

I sent an inquiry 2 weeks ago to embassy and same inquiry to DOS and never got a response from either yet. Before I would get a very generic response saying you are under AP and it takes awhile. This is the first time no response. But there is an area that says if there are multiple status requests they will ignore or not respond to the email. Per immigration lawyers, just email every month or two to show your paper trail even if they don’t reply. And contact your senators as well.

I am Abu Dhabi embassy, K1 visa, also 13-14 months in AP. Also never contacted for passport yet but had last update August 15th. 

3 hours ago, Yazy said:

July visa issuance are up

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/nonimmigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-nonimmigrant-visa-issuances.html

 

For Syrians, the issues 20 K1 visas which is pretty good 

And Iran had 8 K1 fiance visas issued in July...which is not a whole lot but a big jump up from 0 or 1 a month which has been the case since the beginning of the travel ban 

2 hours ago, Nagham said:

In one of the screenshots shared by @salhasl, it says if applicant is eligible for an exception follow normal processing. 
I have seen this said in several other articles including the official website. Does anyone know what makes a person eligible for an exception? I tried to search but I couldn't find anything about it.
@mado1983 @Muhammad&Mansory @simplykay @NJ515 @Anibunny

Thanks. 

I think this means for those exceptions such as dual nationals, those with valid visas before the proclamation went into effect that were already in the US and such. There is a list of exceptions on state dept website under faqs about the presidential proclamation and all the exceptions are listed there

Anyone notice there were several updates also on the emami v. Neilsen case?? 

What are these new orders?

Still no chance they will reach a decision on this case before 2020?

On 6/13/2019 at 3:39 PM, simplykay said:

that seems a good sign how long have u been in administrative processing  i hope you get a visa atleast we will be happy for someone who has been through this struggle

I got one update after senator Kamala did an inquiry late last month, and then 2 more random updates in early June. That's 3 in less than a month. Hope that's a good sign. 10.5 months in AP so far. 

1 hour ago, Faisal1 said:

You can file after 60 days

You will likely lose if youbtry that fast. Need to give reasonable timeframe for admin processing and such. At least 6 months,  and for travel ban countries at least a year

21 hours ago, fakeeh said:

 Is ds5535 for travel ban countries only? 

No. In fact i noticed just yesterday USCIS just announced that they are now adding an area to request information about all your different social media accounts on the ds-160. Like the screennames for fb, insta, twitter and i think about 15 different social media platforms

9 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

There is no way the government is going to reimburse them for $8k or whatever.  

It was mentioned by the lawyer in the immigrants united group under the discussion of WOM. So if you,win the case, they are required to do so. Which is usually why they say once you file a WOM they make a decision on the case generally before it even reaches the court. That way you get your answer and they don’t have to pay the fees back I assume

On 5/29/2019 at 10:49 AM, mado1983 said:

Ita been 10 months now ... But i cannot afford this kind of mony

You can request in the WOM that the government reimburse you for court n lawyer fees. Often they will make a quick decision once it is filed so they don’t have to waste resources to go to court

On 5/26/2019 at 5:11 AM, NJ515 said:

Hey @salhaslit does say his mother is having brain surgery and that he has been waiting for years.  I know that the embassy told me if it took longer than a year a new interview would be required. Maybe Pars did a WoM?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2286486941390100&id=142864489085700

Thwy were initially also placed in AP it seems but with  Additional pressure from senators and the pars equality center it looks like they were granted the waiver

Just now, NJ515 said:

That's interesting. Anything I send to Frankfurt updates the Case Last Updated field. Keep us updated @simplykay!

It was updated from refused to AP within 2 weeks of interview after submitting additional requested info....and they updated once more only when senator asked to inquire about the case. Since then its been 7 months without updates despite repeated attempts to contact them.

10 hours ago, NJ515 said:

It's normal for CEAC to update whenever they respond to an email you send them. We're nearly to six months in AP... 9 for you?  Ugh

I have sent 2 or 3 emails inquiring about case status within last 7 months that i didnt see any case status updates. They replied to my emails each time but there was no case status updates. Have also been in AP 9 months now.

So that is a good sign at least for you simplykay

On 4/16/2019 at 6:35 PM, salhasl said:

You know, the part that sucks the most is the uncertainty. If they just said - AP will take 1.5 yrs - I'd be OK with it. I would be sad, but it would be bearable. Today, if you are a green card holder, you have to wait a bit longer than if you were a USC to get your spouse here. If you endup in Nebraska instead of Vermont for I-130, it takes longer. Just luck. Life give you lemons you make lemonade. But the problem with this lunacy is that it is a freaking blackhole. I just wish AP was allocated a well defined, reasonable, time frame like every other step in the process. I am all for National security - but it has to be fair. I wish Senator Chris Van Hollen could request the DOS to get this data out like he has with a lot of other data.

The other part that is absolutely insane is that they have banned IR's but F1s are fine. I suspect the universities have a strong lobby that stood to lose a lot of money from the F1 piggy bank and it got an exception added.  So If I were an international student on an F1, my iranian spouse would have been here in no time. But as a US citizen, I have to wait until god knows how long. Is it some how possible to easily vet F2 spouses but not USC spouses? I dont know why the lawsuits are not focusing on this aspect. If the DOS can vet spouses of F1 students without AP, why not spouses of USC's? 99% of the american public does not care. They dont even know this part. I wish media covered this angle more to expose how stupid this whole drama is. So much pain for no discernible benefit. 

 

I agree that it is insane that the mere fact that all immigrant and non-immigrant visas in iran have been halted on grounds of national security and extreme vetting of terrorists,  with exception for student and exchange visitor F, M and J visas totally refutes their entire argument that they are banning people from these countries due to their lack of information sharing. How is it they can get sufficient info on students but not others? How is it students, some with no other ties to the US other than wanting to come here to obtain a degree, are less of a national security risk than a family member of a united states citizen with significant ties trying to be reunited with their family?

If they can sufficiently screen them and allow them entry within a few months, then those seeking waivers of the ban should not be stuck in AP for years.

I wonder why they havent made mention of this either in the case

1 hour ago, salhasl said:

I read it. Its a proposed order, so the judge has not yet ruled. They talk about the future course of action, and its well into 2020. Court cases like this one take a long time. A really long time. I would be very surprised if anything concrete came out of this lawsuit in 2019. But I could be wrong. Anyone with access to pacer can read these btw. I think its like 6 pages so 60 cents. 

 

As much as your replies dishearten a few others on this thread, I think you have done your research and are well informed and looking at this situation realistically. Some might like a more hopeful outlook, but I appreciate the work you put in and your information sharing.

From one of the lawyers working on this case, I heard that the judge said in the dec 2018 hearing that they would be reaching a decision on this case in a relatively shorter time.

I guess in the court system, a decision by 2020 may still fit the definition of shortened time frame.

Anyone following the emami v. Neilsen case??

There was a proposed order and stipulation posted today in court records that i was unable to access. I really like to get a copy if this or understand what this means if.anyone has info