GregandNatty

11 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

“Uganda has a very high visa rejection rate compared to most other countries in the world.  ”. “Most”? No, it doesn’t. That’s what the numbers say. The numbers for the US, not Canada, the numbers for the latest year, not a year like 2020 which was heavily affected by the pandemic. And yes i know the US published the numbers because  I actually gave you the latest link of the one you posted above, but I get that it doesn’t tally nicely with the story you want to tell so you’re ignoring it. Oh well. Good luck anyway.  Little point continuing this conversation, I guess if she gets refused you’ll just blame the “high refusal rate”   🤷‍♀️ 

 

And I analyzed these data you linked.  Uganda is #143 out of 200 countries in the report for B VISA rejections, meaning 142 countries out of 200 have a lower B VISA rejection than Uganda.   My statement is factually correct.  Most other countries have a lower B VISA rejection rate than Uganda.

I'm not blaming the high refusal rate, I'm simply stating it as fact that there is alot of rejection there which is likely due to past fraud.  Therefore, a person going in for a tourist VISA in Uganda will have a much more difficult time getting an approval than coming from, let's say, Israel.   The interviewers in Uganda are used to seeing alot more fraud and therefore they will assume fraud more quickly than someone applying for a B VISA from Israel

1 hour ago, SusieQQQ said:

Sorry you don’t like actual numbers. I have to point out though that the chart you show is for Canada, not the US, so not relevant at all.  Anyway, as the official US link I gave you shows, 60% of Ugandan applicants got Bvisas last year., none of which changes the fact that your SIL needs to show her own ties to home regardless.

 

fwiw I am from sub Saharan Africa originally and have had 4 B visa interviews of my own plus accompanied husband for his first one at one of those, plus got for my 2 kids. I kind of know the drill. 

Indeed you are right in that I linked a Canadian graphic, but the US version is very similar.  I've seen it before and so I grabbed it since it looked much like this one from wikipedia:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_visa_refusal_rate.png    

I am an engineer, so numbers are what I deal with every day.   If I were to plot the data from the link you sent me, it would very likely give the same result as the map I linked.   It's much easier to visualize the results from data in a graph or map like then than tabular numbers.   The point I was trying to make is that Uganda has a very high visa rejection rate compared to most other countries in the world.  

The State Department does publishes B VISA rejection rates:  https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/RefusalRates/FY20.pdf

Uganda, and most of the other Sub Sahara Africa Countries, have B VISA rejection rates of 50% or more.    The Uganda rejection rate is this:  

3 minutes ago, Letspaintcookies said:

For the B2 there's just not much that can be done. You fill the form and pay the fee. Of course you could do that for her but there's no hours of preparation of evidence to send with like you do for an immigrant visa. and if you prepare things for her to bring to the interview then you need to focus on evidence why she has to return and nothing why she has to come.

There is more to it that just filling out a form and paying a fee.  This isn't my first rodeo.  I would agree there's no were near the prep that is required for an immigrant VISA, but there are also some docs that need to be there.

Clearly the people who have responded thus far are saying that it doesn't make a difference going to see a family member.  This is what I was looking for. 

I could have just done without comments like this "No real reason for you to get involved, her money her time," which really provides no tangible help.   My wife's first comment on seeing this:  It's comments like that that I've stayed away from visaforum since getting my visa over a year ago.  

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13 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Um, that’s totally not an accurate statement. First, sub Saharan Africa is not homogeneous (some countries in it actually have refusal rates under 10%). Uganda’s is 39%, which is fairly high, but nowhere near as high as some other countries (outside sub Saharan Africa) with 65% and upwards refusal rates. The data are published, you can verify for yourself. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/RefusalRates/FY21.pdf

I'm more of a visual person.   That band of light purple includes sub Sharan Africa:   https://capacoa.ca/images/stories/news/2018/trv-refusal-rate-map.png

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That aside,  if 39% are refused, well more than half get visas. It will totally depend on your SIL’s ties to home. Yes interviews are usually very brief, because usually they have what they need to know in the application form. 
 

 

I didn't say people don't get VISAs there.  I said that sub Sharan Africa has some of the highest VISA rejection rates in the world and this graphic clearly shows that.

31 minutes ago, Boiler said:

How can you help? Of course there are some situations you can help family members this is not one of them

With my wifes IR1 VISA, I literally did everything except attend the medical exam and the interview.   Her IR1 interview lasted 3 minutes.  I had dozens, if not hundreds, of hours in all the docs and supporting info. 

When she attempted a B2 visa before we started the IR1, the interview was over with  denial in 30 seconds.

Most of the work happens before the interview and I would imagine the interviewer has their mind mostly made up before the interview starts.

So, there's quite alot I can do having access to modern PCs and reliable internet that's not common in Uganda. 

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What I have seen is family members get in the middle and then get blamed when it had nothing to do with them.

I highly doubt my SIL would blame me if I helped her and she was denied.  

16 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I doubt anybody has been refused for not having a valid reason to visit after all most visitors are just regular tourists.

Sub Saharan Africa has some of the highest Tourist Visa rejection rates of anywhere in the world.  I guess it's rather subjective if this rate is due to alot of lying or the interviewers just deny alot more there than other places.  Given what I've read/heard, I believe it's the latter

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No real reason for you to get involved, her money her time.

Really?  It means alot to my wife and I care alot about my sister-in-law?   Isn't helping family members what family does for each other?   Crazy.....

4 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Her sister applies for a visitor visa, nothing to do with your wife.

 

Most Consulates have long waits for applicant’s 

 

Her sister’s situation will determine being issued a visa.

I understand their are long wait times.  This is not an issue since it would just be a huge bonus if her sister could come out at all. 

I guess I was just trying to gauge if it's worth the time.  Given what I know now, after going through the spouse visa process, I would say most Ugandans would get denied in less than 2 minutes of the interview starting just because of all the fraud from there.  

I guess I thought that having her sister with a baby here would give a very valid reason for a visit, but I guess you are saying that doesn't matter. 

My wife got her green card last summer and is here in the US.  We had a baby this spring and she wanted to see about getting her sister our here for a bit on a tourist VISA.  I know that typically getting a tourist VISA for a Ugandan is very difficult.  Are the chances better for my wife's sister since it is her sister and not just some friend?   

Thanks!

1 hour ago, MikiMo said:

Hello, were you able to schedule an appointment with IOM? How long did it take?

Yes, they emailed a few days later and setup the appointment.  My wife completed it and also the interview.  She got her VISA as in fact flying to the US right now. 

On 7/12/2021 at 9:32 AM, retheem said:

Gather everything...and I mean everything. Prepare yourself like you are preparing for KCSE exams. Marriage certificate, Joint property documents, whatsapp messages, beba shared nudes if you have to...you better be over-prepared than underprepared. Alafu go through the 70 common questions that they ask at the interviews. Jua your spouse's details like you would know your mpesa balance.

This isn't what they say to bring with you.  They say to bring:

1. Appointment Letter – The interview appointment letter you received from NVC.
2. Passport – For each applicant, an unexpired passport valid for six months beyond the intended date of entry into the United States
3. Photographs – two identical color photograph(s) for each applicant, which must meet the general Photograph Requirements.
4. DS-260 Confirmation Page
5. Supporting Documents – original or certified copies of all civil documents you uploaded into CEAC."

Why would you need to bring all your whatsapp messages and what not since this would have been submitted during the I-130.  

I'm more asking out of curiosity.  Between the I-130 and the NVC documents, there are hundreds of pages of information.  That's alot to lug into an interview that's probably not going to last more than 30min. 

My received her interview date this week.  We are May 5, 2020 DQ.

Like everyone else, getting an appointment with IOM seems to be the next hurdle.  At least things seem to be moving. 

17 hours ago, Stefanie&Danny said:

Our K-1 petition has been at NVC since May 2020.Is there any way of knowing what month they are processing for London Embassy?

o try to call and get answers and no one will ever give me anything other than the standard “wait until we reach out to you”. 

Is it too late to join the lawsuit?

 

 

 

They won't tell you unless you are very lucky in terms of the who answers the question.

I do know, just from hearing reports, that in the Embassy my wife and I are at (Nairobi), they are working in April 2020 DQs right now. 

On 7/5/2021 at 7:41 AM, MikiMo said:

so no visa statistics for May 2021? Discontinued or what?

I've been looking for them too.  It's strange they aren't up on the site yet!

4 hours ago, Kenyan Couple said:

 

3. Please know that many of us are experiencing the same annoying wait, without any valid explanation. The embassy is not working/progressing CR1 visas at a fast enough pace like the K1 visa. I've seen CR1 people estimating 3-4 months between March 2020 DQs getting interview invites and April interviewees getting interview invites. We have been waiting and are equally very frustrated, to not have been interviewed yet. 

There just hasn't been much information floating around recently about April DQ interviews.  I've heard a couple people getting them, but not like it was when they were processing March.

I don't believe Nairobi is doing any CR1 VISAs by normal processing.   Any CR1s are expedite only.  Any spouse VISAs they issue via regular processing will be IR1 because of how far behind they are.

The May VISA reports are also not out yet.

All of this is very frustrating. 

On 6/17/2021 at 8:20 AM, babito said:

Good Morning,

 

It is my pleasure to update you all that a few minutes ago (10:44am EST - 17th June) we got our interview date for 7th July (SABA SABA 🤣).

Our DQ date was 4th April 2020 (441 days today). We will update you on our journey...

Congrats!!   It's great to hear some April people getting interviews

Is there any CR1/IR1 people with an April DQ who have gotten an interview?

12 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

You probably have the lawsuit bandwagoneers to thank for that.

The April VISA reports for 2021 show K1s from the Nairobi embassy are being issued at a higher rate than pre-covid.   It would seem they are out of valid reasons to sue

11 minutes ago, payxibka said:

Sending March 2021 k1 files to Uganda?

To Nairobi, yes.

What is it with the NVC sending K1 cases with NOA2s as late as March 2021 for interviews while CR1/IR1 cases with DQs from over a year ago are still stuck at NVC?

My wife is on her second 6 month police certificate and we'll need a 3rd with no end in sight.

This just seems insane.  

Has anyone heard if NVC is sending cases to the Kampala embassy for processing due to the backlog in Nairobi?

I see the April VISA reports are now out.  Looks like Nairobi is now issuing nealy 2 times the K1 VISAs in a month than what they were doing pre-covid while the CR1s/IR1s are at about 40% of pre-covid.  Very frustrating.   Those K1 lawsuits really had an impact.

I would encourage you all who are IR1/CR1 to join this whatsapp group.  We have just over 20 couples with a pretty good spread of DQs.  For example, we have 3 in March who have not yet gotten an interview.  The hope is that we can all join together and report our findings, like a live database.  This way we can get some on-ground reporting of how Nariobi is really processing our cases.

Follow this link to join my WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/I3PY7OZCTP091fHreg3qUC

5 hours ago, Kenyan Couple said:

Yes, my assumption is they aren't yet in April dates-those that have heard were expedited or are special circumstances. I'm not sure what the embassy is working on that's taking over a year to get to early April DQs. Yet K1s who filed in 2021 have already heard from them. 

I know of a Kenyan woman who was not an expedite with a DQ in April, CR1.  She got and interview.

On 4/7/2021 at 12:49 PM, MysticGirl said:

Thank you again. Yes I hope he can join me in time but I am also mentally preparing myself not to expect too much. It’s my coping mechanism that I have adopted, where I keep busy and mentally block my mind from thinking/dwelling about the process, otherwise I will lose my mind lol. So Burundi uses the US embassy in Kenya? I would have thought Ruwanda and Burundi had their own embassies. Anyway, that’s great news your husband didn’t miss that special moment and I hope so too that you all get reunited. 
 

As for the “on the ground” info that I get is through a friend of mine who works there. She keeps me updated on the conditions and situations down there. Nothing detailed or intrusive as she has to protect her job. She shares infos like whether or not the embassy is working or not, the whys and even the numbers. Around Nov-Dec she told me how slow things has been and gave me a rough number of about 5000 cases that were pending. Around January she told me that they had started picking up pace and working on all the cancelled appointments. In February I asked her again and she said that she was hopeful. Then around mid March she told me that they went back to phase 1, and are remotely working at home until all staff gets vaccinated. She told me that the vaccines is through the Kenyan govt and I guess they will have to wait their turn. She recently got her first dose and waiting her second dose, but they haven’t gotten the vaccines to all the staff. So until everyone gets vaccinated with both doses, they are unable to return to work. That’s why in one of my posts, I was estimating around end of April-May. 

Do you know if the embassy is doing more interviews now that Kenya is opening up?

On 4/13/2021 at 11:45 AM, Lucky Cat said:

My wife and I were apart for 13 months in pre-Covid times.  Separation is the norm for the immigration process.  It isn't fun, but it won't kill you.  Keep busy, and continue to stay in contact.

Being alone and apart is one thing.  Going through the COVID lockdowns + being separated was as entire new level of difficult.

In my state, we all had to work at home from March - First part of June.  I didn't see or interact with anyone except a trip to the store for food/supplies once or twice a week for 3 months.   This was an extremely dark time.   I was about 13 months without seeing my wife between back end of 2019 and until Dec 2020.

Directly to the OP question of how do you deal with it?   One day at a time....