uapilot

12 minutes ago, uapilot said:

I just saw the announcement today, and I don't know if appointments were available yesterday for K-1, but the appointment list is once again empty. 😒

And now it's telling me "you're approaching the maximum amount of times you can view this page." (referring to the appointment scheduling page) These people really don't want appointments to be scheduled, do they?

I just saw the announcement today, and I don't know if appointments were available yesterday for K-1, but the appointment list is once again empty. 😒

Congrats!!! 🥲 I can imagine how excited the both of you are.

13 hours ago, kmensh18 said:

I am a petitioner and we are in a very similar position. We just missed the cutoff to schedule our appointment for K1 when NVC was forwarding our case to the embassy. They happened to close interviews again (Nov 16th) right before we could get an appointment. I have been writing them asking if there is a way to schedule something, even make an exception for an emergency appointment given that my fiance and I are apart since November 2019 (I had to move back to US and she is in Kyiv). Of course they said that emergency appointments are for life or death situations only...

My question is, what could I say to in my emails to kyivIV to have an unofficial review scheduled like you did?

I mean, me personally, I wrote multiple times to them and got the same templated response as usual, except for the time we extended our I-129F petition.

I can't speak with authority, but my guess is that, best case, they took note that MyLoveAZ was at the ACS town hall WebEx meeting. But it could very likely be that they were doing K-1 interviews unofficially on a very limited basis, and they were next in line, given that their NOA2 was so long ago.

I have chatted with another fellow in the last few days that got his NOA2 in April, but the Embassy only received their application back in September, and they still haven't been able to schedule their interview. Like I said before, very opaque. 😛

1 hour ago, MyLoveAZ said:

We didn't drag our feet, our lawyer would tell us that we needed to wait for a letter. I went to a townhall in August and they informed us that they would be doing limited K interviews. So we waited for letter. Then someone on VJ said not to wait just register and try to schedule it was too late we didn't see any dates in the calendar. So we missed that window and were very disappointed. I missed my fiancés Bday my daughter Bday and Christmas. So no feet dragging just a very broken system due to a pandemic. At the second townhall they hinted around that they were doing very limited appointments and the calendar is not working. They would inform applicants via email. So I sent many emails and got similar answer no K1's due to the pandemic. I didn't give up on the emails and it  paid off. Nothing is easy or free I found out, I just had to keep faith and keep trying no matter the response. And POW!!!!! We got in interview!!!  

Ah, I didn't mean to imply that you were necessarily dragging your feet. 😅 My point is just that with this visa process, they're so opaque and secretive with everything that it's hard to tell what the reason was.

Just out of curiosity, which email did they send the scheduling email to? Was it from the one you entered in the ustraveldocs site? Or from the one you sent your many emails from (if they're different)?

13 hours ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

Pregnancy should not cause any issues, other than risk when travelling at advanced stages.

 

Kyiv has been processing K1 visas before the lockdown in Nov.  It seems you guys got unlucky and the embassy closed just as your petition got there.   I would assume your case would be at or near the top of the queue.  Just keep checking the embassy website to see when they start resuming or partially resuming visa services. 

 

It actually looks like they're scheduling interviews unofficially now: 

However, this couple got their NOA2 in May, which is a troubling sign, but other folks with NOA2 dates as late as August got scheduled for an interview by November. So maybe MyLoveAZ just dragged their feet on scheduling the interview when it was possible. Or maybe they got lost in the shuffle of bureaucracy, and the embassy was doing them a solid.

In any case, I emailed them yesterday, and they were still toeing the line, saying they're not doing K's right now.

22 minutes ago, payxibka said:

Full time job for some of us

And your efforts do not go unnoticed!

1 minute ago, Ivoryguy36 said:

Suskind confirmed to me in an email that non-banned countries could not join round three.  Had I known about this lawsuit, I would have joined round two in a heartbeat.  Suskind estimated $5000 plus for an individual lawsuit.

Yea, I just asked him on one of the latest livestreams, and they said to not bother with a mandamus since it might be grouped with their class-action. I wasn't even keeping track of the suit during round two. Otherwise I would've joined, too.

2 minutes ago, yellowtowo9 said:

Where specifically did you find this information? was it by any chance reddit?

It may have been; I honestly don't remember at this point.

Oh man, you guys got your NOA2 in May. 😅 I guess they're working through the backlog haha.

We got our NOA2 in October, so we probably have to wait some more.

In any case, congrats! I definitely imagine the pain of waiting you've had. You've given me some hope.

I should also note as a dual citizen myself (and I heard this straight from the Ukrainian consul in Washington while getting my Ukrainian passport with their direct knowledge that I'm a US citizen), there is no actual law stating that dual citizenship is not allowed. It only states that any Ukrainian citizen that acquires the citizenship of another country is still only a Ukrainian citizen until such a time that they renounce their citizenship within a 2 year period following you getting the second citizenship; it doesn't indicate what happens if you don't do so within 2 years. And he also told me that there's no well-defined way for Ukrainian citizens to renounce their citizenship, except for the President to do so for you under a declaration before congress (as you may know he's done for various more famous individuals).

From a legal point of view, just know that you're not violating any laws. All it means is that when you're in Ukraine, you are subject to the full legal codex that all Ukrainian citizens are subject to and not the ones for a foreign national in Ukraine.

I've entered Ukraine using either my US or Ukrainian passport and have not heard a word from the on-duty officer about it one way or the other. It's just in your interest to enter on your Ukrainian passport because you can stay longer than 3 months, should you so choose.

9 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

There is a LOT of misinformation out there on FB and Reddit.  There are normally questions here about pregnancy, but I have never seen it delay a case.  Public charge has been in effect for years.

Okay, that makes me feel much more at ease. Thank you!

1 minute ago, Lucky Cat said:

In the 5 years I have been here on VJ, this is very first time I have seen anyone ask or mention this.  

I think maybe it's a more recent concern because of the public charge rule? I really don't have a lot of insight into why. But the whole visa process has been stressful, and I think just hearing this on some forum on the internet made me very risk averse to the prospect of a delay happening.

Anyone else checking the Embassy interview availability page twice a day? 😔 NVC sent our application to the Embassy just days before the Embassy stopped processing K visas back in November. I'm starting to have dreams where I see appointment slots instead of the usual There are currently no appointments available.

My fiance and I are sitting around in Kyiv, Ukraine waiting for K visa interviews to resume. We've been putting off getting pregnant (and moving on with our lives) earlier in the immigration process because I've read around the internet that a pregnancy on the medical exam could be grounds for delaying a visa approval pending a paternity test, and in addition to not wanting us to be here any longer than we have to, I didn't want to risk my fiance giving birth in a country with a less than stellar medical system (putting it mildly).

Now though, we have no good indicator of when the Kyiv embassy will resume interviews. Some sources are suggesting because of the backlog of applications, an interview date could be months away even after interviews resume. So we're rethinking our strategy. Still though, if not getting pregnant means we leave in (let's say) 4 months instead of 13 months, we'd choose the former and not the latter.

And so we'd like a conclusive answer to the question: can a pregnancy delay a visa approval because of the question of paternity? And is it absolute, or only in cases where it's suspected that the child isn't mine? And if it's the latter, what proof do I need to provide? Is there an Affidavit of Support I can fill out for an unborn child?

If I need to provide proof of entry, will ticket stubs be enough? I am in a peculiar situation in that I have passports for both the US and Ukraine, and so I leave the US on my US passport and enter Ukraine on my Ukrainian one. And since neither country stamps their own passport, I don't have any entry stamps into Ukraine (or exits from the US) to indicate that I am in Ukraine right now. I do have an entry/exit stamp in my US passport from when I entered Turkey in March and hopped on a boat to Ukraine.

I appreciate any advice!

Can anyone provide some info for how to write up an individual mandamus for those of us in non-banned countries? Other than paying a lawyer, that is. What kind of info are they looking for?

Thank you everyone and S nastupayushim!

So we might go ahead and do the police records then.

Our CEAC status says that we are ready for an interview, so we thought we'd start getting some of the prep-work done even though the embassy isn't doing K visas at the moment. I know the police report has an expiration of 1 month, but does the medical exam have an expiration? If we do it now, how long will it be eligible for?

On 12/24/2020 at 5:00 PM, Myroslava said:

Thank you for your reply. Wishing you good luck with scheduling your interview! 

 

On January 8 Ukraine is entering strict lockdown which will last till January 24. Maybe after this date they will resume visa issuance. We will see. 

So we've paid the fee and checked, but nothing is available for us unfortunately.

Here's to hoping your IR-1/CR-1 is still eligible for interviews!

Per this page, they seem to still be processing immigrant visas: https://ua.usembassy.gov/visas/

But they do not say it explicitly, so I'm not sure.

We're about to pay the MRV, which would give us access to the interview calendar. We're applying for a K visa so our chances aren't good right now, but maybe we can just see what it looks like.