kelsw

They called my husband my last night. They said it's approved but they want him to do his medical again. The official status on CEAC is still "refused" and for some reason they want him to pick up his passport without the visa tomorrow. My guess is that it's needed for the medical and that he'll have to drop it off at the embassy again later?

 I won't feel at ease until the visa is actually made. But at least something has happened finally. Started filling my petition in 2019, his Interview was April 29th this year got 221g for new translations, new translations were submitted May 3rd, status was updated May 11th, then no CEAC status updates until Nov 8th. Hopefully we'll finally be able to start living our lives together soon.

Hope ya'll start hearing from them soon too.

12 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

It's always good to say what country this is from

i had to go back thru old posts to find it is Sri Lanka

and the 1st birth certificate was not from his country

so,  if he did the translation while traveling or working in a different country ,  means he did a bit of travel

and that can mean extra security checks for travel to other countries

 

patience  is needed

The birth certificate was from his country. Just the translations weren't. The original translations were arranged by our lawyer through a certified translator that she's used for other cases. But we are her first Sri Lankan based case. We both lived in Korea, but he hasn't done much travel outside of that and the translations weren't from Korea. They were from a USA based company.

I know patience was key. I only wanted to know if it was normal not to see even dates change on the CEAC status even after months and occasional correspondence. I haven't seen anyone talk about that. But I've seen many people talk about the date updating but not the status and saying that's normal and can be a good sign. I didn't include the country because I was only wondering about this for the average case, not for us or the consulate in his country specifically. Basically is this something to be worried about or is it normal for some cases in AP and waiting is all that's probably needed.

I've read that when you see the dates update even if the status hasn't changed that's normal and can be a good sign. But is it normal when the date hasn't changed even after months?

My husband had his interview April 29th, they asked for different translations of our marriage and his birth certificate than the ones given to NVC. Husband dropped them off personally following their instructions. Our case was last updated May 11th, 2021. His country just ended a month long curfew on October 1st, although the embassy was still working (giving spouse and humanitarian interviews and visas during this time). The last time I received an email back from the embassy was August 24th. And have had a few email correspondences with them before then.

Thank you for any insight.

16 hours ago, Di & Si said:

But it was updated about 5 times since interview

Then I dunno, that seems like a decent sign though. Ours has only been updated once since the interview. Definitely contact them sometime soon.

On 9/26/2021 at 8:24 PM, Di & Si said:

I went to intervirw on march and mine still says ready. I dont know why

Sounds like they haven't updated your status yet since then. After the 1st I would recommend asking the embassy what your status is and if they need anything from you.

On 9/18/2021 at 12:34 AM, Di & Si said:

Yeah same with ours. It was last updated in end may. Medical is now expired as well. What does your ceac case status say ? Ready or refused ?

refused

14 hours ago, Di & Si said:

Ok we are also IR1, I went to the interview on march. Last case updated was in end of may. No response yet. Dir embassy keep your passport ?

My husband is the applicant. They kept his passport and our original documents. The interview was in April, our case was last updated the 2nd week in May.

On 9/14/2021 at 12:11 AM, Di & Si said:

Hi kelsw is your visa IR1 as well ?

Yes, my husband and I have been married for over 2 years now so we're IR1

12 hours ago, zozomike said:

No kidding, btw I received an auto reply to my begging email. It said that due to Covid, the Colombo Embassy had suspended processing all immigrant and non immigrant visas, as of the end of May. This is the first news of that I have gotten. Someone must still be in the " back room" since they updated us 2 weeks ago. And of course Sri Lanka is in lockdown.....

So I got that email once in July when I sent them an email with the case number as the subject line. But I did get a real response at the end of August that the officer would be in touch after the curfew. Also the embassy's covid-19 page was updated in August to say that they're processing all immediate relative visa's when before that it said they were only doing humanitarian visas. I think they just make that auto-reply email happen when they can't keep up with the emails but who ever is responsible for updating it hasn't. I would try contacting them after the curfew is lifted.

I feel you zozomike. My husband and I have been married since 2019, he had his interview late April of this year. They asked for different translations than the ones the NVC accepted. We gave them and the last time they updated our status was May (probably after they opened the translations they received). It's hard being in the dark for so long. I have this paranoia that we've been waiting this long and we'll just end up denied even though there is no reason. We first met in 2014, have a long history together, married for 2 years now, neither of us have criminal records, I make enough money and he has plenty of savings, and before covid I stayed with him for long periods of time in Sri Lanka.

I'm trying to be understanding. I tell myself they must be having a hard time right now with the travel restrictions and curfews. But the fear and anxiety the wait brings is too real.

We just got an email saying to ignore that email. Whew. Thank you again.

8 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Sounds like they didn’t read your query properly and sent a canned response for those still awaiting interview. Title your email “administrative processing query”.

That is what I'm hoping for. I don't trust this embassy at all though. Considering once when we emailed them we got an automatic response that said they weren't processing visas when I saw people posting how they received their visa at that same time. Thank you for your response. This has been an incredibly stressful experience, as I'm sure a lot can relate.

I'm petitioning for my husband to come live with me in the USA. His interview was in April. They kept his passport and our original marriage certificate and his birth certificate. But they did not accept the translations that were submitted to the NVC because they weren't from Sri Lanka. We had translations we got in 2019 in Sri Lanka luckily, since they kept our documents so we couldn't get new ones, and turned those in. Our status has been "refused" since May 11, 2021. In a past email response to me asking about our case they said the updated documents were being reviewed by the consulate officer and that he would contact the applicant asap.

Aug 23, 2021 my husband received this email to his inquiry

Quote

Thank you for your inquiry, 

  

Your case is currently being processed at the National Visa Center; generally foreign posts receive the Immigrant Visa files only few weeks before the visa interview. Applicants receive their appointment letters from NVC before we receive the immigrant visa files. 

  

Also please note that our office does not have the capacity to handle the usual amount of immigrant visa load yet, we will continue to inform NVC on the number of cases that we can process every month and NVC will continue to schedule that many cases. 

Considering we've had our interview already, we followed their instructions, and as far as we knew we were in administrative processing can anyone understand what this means? Do you think the embassy sent us this response by mistake? Or is our case actually at the NVC again and he will need to be interviewed again? 

They still have his passport and our original documents. I'm baffled, stressed, and honestly feel nauseated after getting this email. Covid there is getting bad, I'm scared for my husband.

Thank you anyone for your insights.
I have sent them an email asking for clarification. Waiting on their response.

On 8/2/2021 at 5:00 AM, abbafan said:

Hey @kelsw, I am from Sri Lanka and we just got our approved K1 visa some time ago and are getting ready to fly to the US this month.

 

The curfew has been lifted since mid July for a while now and the embassy although they are not granting appointments for tourist visas such as B2 anymore (not sure when it will be lifted), they do interviews and issue visas for K1 and CR1.

 

If you can tell me what exactly is needed in your documentation for Sri Lanka, I can help out. Also, did you do the CR1 with an immigration lawyer or did you do it yourself?

 

Contact details for the US Embassy in Colombo are below:

 

Email: ConsularColombo@state.gov (they respond to this)

Number: +94 (0)11.249.8500

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the 

We already turned in the documents they asked for on May 4th. They didn't like the translations that were approved by the NVC that our lawyer helped us get because they weren't from Sri Lanka. They asked for Sri Lankan ones, we already had some which is lucky because they kept our original marriage certificate and his birth certificate so we would have had no way of getting new ones. We didn't originally used those because our lawyer, who worked for the NVC in a non-legal position, said it didn't fit the format that the NVC likes. No where does the embassy say they require translations only from Sri Lanka so we were really blindsided and the NVC should have been aware.


They don't answer the phone, when I posted this they weren't answering emails. Then they answered 1 email we sent after the travel restrictions were lifted that said the consular officer had our case and would contact "the applicant asap". There have been no updates. We sent them an email a week ago asking again, this time an automatic response says "As of May 24, 2021, the United States Embassy in Colombo, has suspended most nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services. The Embassy is currently processing IH/IR3 and IH/IR4 immigrant visas and humanitarian and medical emergencies, and C1/D non-immigrant visas. While the United States Embassy aims to process cases as soon as practicable, there is likely to be increased wait times for completing such services due to substantial backlogs."

So now we can't even get a person to respond to emails. We've been married for over 2 years, I've seen others on here post about how they got their K1 and it's honestly devastating that they're leaving us in the dark. I understand they're very busy. I understand that we are not special, but if feels incredibly unfair.

I'm hoping to hear some stories from people who have experience with embassies that stopped processing visa's due to curfew's and what happened after those curfew's were lifted. Sri Lanka is currently under curfew until at least the 14th and I believe they are only processing humanitarian, medical emergency, and IR/IH3, IR/IH4 (for adoptions?) visas.

My question is did your embassy start processing more types of visa's after the curfew was lifted?  I understand there is going to be a backlog, but I just want to hear other people's stories.

My husband had his interview on April 29th and we have a CR-1 petition. They requested different translations than the ones we brought. Apparently they only accept ones from sworn translators in Sri Lanka, even though the ones we brought were accepted and approved by the NVC. No where does it say on the embassy website that they require that as well and the NVC didn't say anything about it either.


Anyways, we dropped off the Sri Lankan translations May 4th. On May 11th our CEAC status was updated to "refused", and we haven't had any change since then. They haven't been responding to phone calls or emails. I do understand that even without the curfew we would still be in a "normal" time frame if we're in AP. But we can't even get confirmation from them that they received our documents.

Mentally I'm not doing well, but I'm more worried about my husband's mental health. The waiting for an unknown amount of time is killing. I'm looking for slivers of hope that spouse applications have continued at least at other embassies after curfew's were lifted. I know every embassy and country will be different. I'm just desperate for some hope. Married for 2 years as of May14th...

Whether or not you have any experience or hope to give, thank you for reading and understanding. I'm not expecting much in regards to personal experiences... I think I mostly just need to hear from others who understand this feeling.