Ailene and Ali

You can look at our timeline. My husband also submitted the DS-5535 and we waited an entire year, several updates but still refused. After we reached the 13th month of waiting, we filed a Mandamus lawsuit in February of this year. Visa was issued in about two months, and he arrived in the US on May 15th. I cannot tell you how many emails I sent and had two of my state senators inquire on our behalf and was told we just have to wait until Washington completed their checks. This doesn't mean yours will take that long. Some as I am sure you have read complete in a few weeks, months or a year. I am sending prayers your way and hopefully it completes soon. 

Wow 13th month is quite a long time. I am happy for you and glad it all worked out for you guys. 

oh yes sorry I submitted the I-134. So I will add the I-864 with his packet. Thank you so much for your help. 

My husband went through the same thing although he is not Turkish. He is Iraqi and was assigned to Ankara embassy. He received the DS-5535 and we waited a year before filing a WOM. Our lawsuit took only 3 months to complete everything, and he is finally here. He only traveled to Turkey (where we would vacation together) and Syria. No one knows how or why people are selected. I read so many cases that their fiance/spouse never traveled and got the DS-5535. Perhaps he has a name that pinged the system. Washington will have to do their checks, as we were told many times this cannot be expedited, just wait and check your emails. Once they are done with their checks then the embassy will proceed. Some cases complete in a few weeks and others, a year or more. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully more couples with this experience will chime in. Sending prayers your way and that you will be reunited soon. 

oh yes sorry I submitted the I-134. So I will add the I-864 with his packet. Thank you so much for your help. 

My husband went through the same thing although he is not Turkish. He is Iraqi and was assigned to Ankara embassy. He received the DS-5535 and we waited a year before filing a WOM. Our lawsuit took only 3 months to complete everything, and he is finally here. He only traveled to Turkey (where we would vacation together) and Syria. No one knows how or why people are selected. I read so many cases that their fiance/spouse never traveled and got the DS-5535. Perhaps he has a name that pinged the system. Washington will have to do their checks, as we were told many times this cannot be expedited, just wait and check your emails. Once they are done with their checks then the embassy will proceed. Some cases complete in a few weeks and others, a year or more. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully more couples with this experience will chime in. Sending prayers your way and that you will be reunited soon. 

My husband went through the same thing although he is not Turkish. He is Iraqi and was assigned to Ankara embassy. He received the DS-5535 and we waited a year before filing a WOM. Our lawsuit took only 3 months to complete everything, and he is finally here. He only traveled to Turkey (where we would vacation together) and Syria. No one knows how or why people are selected. I read so many cases that their fiance/spouse never traveled and got the DS-5535. Perhaps he has a name that pinged the system. Washington will have to do their checks, as we were told many times this cannot be expedited, just wait and check your emails. Once they are done with their checks then the embassy will proceed. Some cases complete in a few weeks and others, a year or more. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully more couples with this experience will chime in. Sending prayers your way and that you will be reunited soon. 

i want to thank you for your help with your recommendation i was able to find a good translator. thanks again. 

My Iraqi fiancé interviewed in Ankara in January and used a referral and he is awesome! He has all the required paperwork and has dealt with Ankara embassy. I emailed his certification and few details to embassy prior to interview. Look for  Omer Ejder on Facebook. 

Same.  I am 21 years older than my husband and we had no issues getting a CR1 visa, I know it's different than a k-1 but when people say that  big of an age difference is a problem, honestly I have rarely seen it be an issue unless you're going through Morocco or Nigeria. We were asked one question about our age difference and what his family thought about it and we answered honesty, his family didn't care. They will look at the totality of the circumstances and even at that, we had some pretty huge so called "red flags" our age difference, different religions, I was divorced with two kids, we married on the first visit and he is from a so called "MENA country". Seriously I can count on one hand the denials I've seen over 10 years on this site for age difference in most countries. I always nod my head in disbelief when I read the naysayers saying you'll never get approved. It's just not true, again, for the majority of countries. I will say that 400 pages of evidence is OVERKILL. We sent the bare minimum and we never even received an RFE once at any point during my husband's visa journey, up to and including ROC and naturalization. Send QUALITY evidence, not quantity. I also attended his interview at the consulate, I think that helped because they were able to ask me a few questions, as well. We have been happily married for 11 and a half years and honestly, our visa journey was smooth sailing from start to finish. I didn't find VJ until my husband's petition was approved and we were mostly done with the NC, we did most of it on our own. No lawyer, either.

Indeed I agree, we would have spent more time together but COVID had other ideas. The good news is I spent 23 years in the foreign service posted oversees (with USAID not State but posted at embassies none the less). I retired from the FS and am now a University professor. He is a lawyer with a masters degree in Economics and very well educated and did some work with some folks for State before we left and as it turns out we have some mutual friends we did not even know about (folks we met through work). He is a fluent English speaker and I am a fluent French and Arabic speaker and we have significant interests in commons (favorite authors, values etc etc) I say all this as he is not typical from his country nor am I. We are able to overcome many of the points raised by the embassy but the age difference is there. Despite that difference, we are very connected and committed.

Sorry but your situation is hardly unique. USCIS is not concerned with long distance relationship hardships, this is a very formal, long and bureaucratic process. Virtually everyone on this forum is separated for long periods of time.
 
Yes.  Or meeting in a third country. That’s what most people are doing. 
 
With this argument, if US citizens are waiting 2-3 years to bring spouses, why would it be less for permanent residents?
 
It’s the last thing anyone wants to do.
 
Immigration takes a great deal of patience. It will test your limits but it is what it is. This is the reality.

It immediately occurs to me that, despite what Biden and Peppermint Patty say, we now have open borders.   This is a disaster......  This will result in even more people illegally entering the US.

Hello,
We have been waiting since Oct 2020. I-129f was filed in Nov 2019 and the case has been at the US embassy in Ankara since Oct 2. My fiancée was denied a student visa to get in Turkey yesterday with no known reason (in respected countries, embassies would send you a formal letter explaining the reason for the rejection, but yeah well, it’s Iraq) so basically no chance at getting the Turkish residency which is required by the US embassy in Ankara which is absurd and ridiculous. If the US embassy in Ankara requires such a thing then they should at least provide a letter to the the beneficiary so they can submit it along other documents to the Turkish consulate in Iraq, but no they don’t do it. They just want things to happen. I emailed our senator today and requested an in person meeting with his staff. I’m not sure where will this go or how long will it take, but completely agree with others here. It’s frustrating and I don’t want to hear a word about covid because this stops being about covid the moment you allow people to come; yet discriminate against others. Our case has been in ready status since Oct 2020 like I mentioned and reading the comment of one of you here stating they plan on getting married soon, well, are you going to start over then? Who guarantees it’ll faster? What’s the point of getting married if you’re not united? I’m not sure if I can share my contact info here. I’d love to stay in touch with you.  
 
 

You are absolutely right. I will make sure that my case not going to us embassy in Turkey and let see what is going on. 
 
I want to share that there is backlog in all US embassies but all most all nationality has high chances to get interview in the US embassy in their countries but for iraqi nationality there is no chance no US embassy in iraq and all other US embassies refuse to take any case not belong to their country of service. I just try to find a way to get solution. As you mentioned it is not about Covid-19 any more because all the world start live with it and there is requirement people follow to make sure no one get covid. Mask, test, vacuum but these embassies refuse under no cause to service! 
 
I try to figure out all possible way to move my case. Until this moment I do not know which embassy it going too! 
 
Final thing I heard that us embassy in iraq might get update news about reopen some where in October 

Hi!! 
I'm the Petitioner and my fiancée from Iraq 
 
I send out I 129f Form on January 21/2021. I got note of received on March 14/2021. And in September 15/2021 I got my case approved from the uscis and it send to NVC.. 
 
My issue is that where my fiancée reside no US embassy and all iraqi immigration visa will be forward to one of the three US Embassies in  Turkey or Qatar or United Arabic Emirates.  Everything so far good. 👋 
              US Embassy in Doha
 I send email to the US embassy in doha and asked them if they will get my case when NVC send it to them and in couple of days they reply to me ( that in this time we will not Processing visa application to third nationality. We processing only for Qatar citizens and Qatar Permanent resident. 
 
Okay 👌 
 
I called you US embassy in Ankara and I asked them the same question they told me to see they website you will find all info you need. I visited they website and it say the US embassy in Ankara are processing visa applications only for turkey citizens or permanent residents. 
 Okay 😭
 I emailed the US embassy in abu dhabi and no answer yet. 
 
Please if any one know which US embassy are correctly processing visa applications for iraqi residents please let me know.. 
 
And just want to ask is there any good to contact my state senator or representative??
 
I am also think about filling law sue against the Embassy that has the case and refused to processing with out reasons. I mean doha or Ankara embassy need to put requirements example third countries residents need to be in the country of interviewing in 20 days before the interview and need to bring Covid-19 negative test before the interview in three days. This requirement will make it hard for third country residents but it better than just keep the case frozen. 
 
Any help of you I will appreciate! Thanks in advance!!! 

Being present for a spousal interview is highly, highly recommended if possible.  It is extremely good evidence......  Even if the interviewee can say "My spouse is waiting outside.  Here is his/her passport" is great evidence of your spending time together.

You always have the option to email the embassy. I can tell you that our case was sent to the Ankara embassy in Turkey this past October 2020, and we are still waiting for an interview date. This was suppose to be the part where everything moves a lot faster, but because of Covid it has taken this long. Hopefully they will start making their way through the backlog, and your embassy requests your case soon. Good luck and I hope you hear something soon. 

USCIS isn't the problem.   Getting consulate interviews is.

You can say the same about 50% of the consulates around the world 

The embassy just closed due to high covid cases. 😡

Worked for me, but then got stuck at NVC for a year. 
Doesnt make since that ppl are waiting YEARS and OP gets through in less than 60 days. 
The system is broken. 

It is how things work in the middle east.  
 
Many interviews from Iraq were conducted in the UAE and the embassy notes this.

How about you work towards getting those 90 year old great grand grand congress men/women  who should be in retirement homes and probably think we are in 1920  out of the office than maybe the new younger folks will change the law to get zoom calls and face time audio calls to confirm interviews ? 
 

This. The longest we went without seeing each other face to face was 2 years, also pre-covid. Don't put your life on pause. Use the physical separation as time to dig deep and really get to know each other and hone your communication skills!
 
We video chatted and texted when we could but our lives went on. Worked through a lot of cultural differences and misunderstandings during our 6 year relationship before we actually were able to tie the knot