neto-66

For the Portuguese beneficiary traveling, you don't need anything if you have a vaccine passport, otherwise PCR is good for 72 hours, Antigen is 48 hours.  In France a negative test is valid as a health pass for the duration of its validity.  Americans traveling to France (in case you want to know) need to be vaccinated, or have a compelling reason to go (the interview doesn't count as a valid reason I believe) and present a negative PCR/Antigen test, or present that they recovered recently. 

The embassy itself didn't have any testing requirements, they just checked passports at the entrance.  They might ask if you are vaccinated at the interview, but I don't think it will negatively impact entry.  They did recommend keeping the vax passport handy when traveling to the US later.  Hope this clears thigs up for you.

Hi all,
 
I am very happy that announce that my fiancees visa was approved. We were part of the bunch that had scheduled interviews on 9/28, but were then postponed to 10/6. From what she told me, the process was pretty straightforward once she was at the embassy. As for the interview, she said the questions were pretty straight forward and general. We even got our pictures from the K1 packet back. After several general questions, the agent said "Felicitations!" and gave her information about the next steps (validity of visa, rights as a visa holder, etc.).
 
Immediately after the interview, the visa status on CEAC was "administrative processing." The next day it was changed to "issued." We are now waiting for any notification that the visa is ready to be picked up (she chose this option because she lives in Paris). 
 
Thank you to you all, you have been so kind and helpful throughout this process. For those who are still waiting, my heart goes out to you! There is light at the end of the tunnel. 

Please, we are so beyond desperate....It has been nearly 4 months now since my fiance's visa interview (May 5, 2021) and they took his passport at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
 
Our case status in CEAC has been updated 4 separate times now to Refused all 4 times, yet they will not get in touch with our laywers or us, and they have not answered ANY means of communication from our end. 
 
His medical exam is going to expire in less than 2 months, and he only has 6 months of validity with that exam to be able to enter the United States.
 
I have contacted senators, journalists, the NVC, USCIS, other immigration lawyers, and sent COUNTLESS requests to the U.S. Embassy in Paris. I have no idea what to do anymore. We are feeling so lost and defeated and hopeless. We just want to know what is going on with his case.
 
What's worse, our lawyers told us they can deny his visa because of the expired med exam, regardless that it wasn't our fault with this. And our lawyers said if his visa is denied for any reason, he won't be able to enter the United States even on a tourism visa. It is like we are being punished for going about this the legal way.
 
What do we do?? I am not eating right, I am not sleeping, I am having panic attacks daily (I have military service-connected mental health disabilities, and this has just magnified all of that so much). 
 
We cannot live like in the dark like this...it is ruining us. Can anyone help or provide words of advice?

It is my understanding that it is not unusual to have your case "updated" several times while in the "Refused" status. Every time someone accesses your case, the "Last Updated" date changes -- for example, if someone looks at your case because of an inquiry you submitted, the date will update even if they didn't actually change anything. I know it's really frustrating to not have any answers, but having the date change multiple times is nothing to be concerned about.

I'm not certain what the relation is, I think the fae email handles technical issues only and this seems to be one. You have your email to prove you were given a date. They always respond within a few days.
 
The Paris embassy will certainly not respond quickly. In over 3 months of emailing them bi weekly then eventually daily I only ever got 2 responses. 
 
You could also try calling the embassy to ask. 

Weirdly enough, we got an interview date assigned today.
 
October 20th, 2021

Weirdly enough, we got an interview date assigned today.
 
October 20th, 2021

I just got a response to my 33rd email asking for a reschedule.
 
"Good Afternoon, 
 
Thanks for your email. We're expreiencing an incredibly high number of requests due to covid. We appreciate your patience as we work to reschedule your appointment.
 
Best Regards, 
US Embassy Paris "

I called the VAC again today to push for a response. As expected, they couldn't help me. They said that the embassy is in a terrible situation now, and they're having to cancel even expedited interviews because they are so overwhelmed with cases. They told me that they have a number of appointment requests higher than they have ever seen before. I asked if there really isn't anything else I can do, and they said that there is nothing other than wait on a response from ParisIVPending. No other emails, no other phone numbers, no other contact forms. 
 
Really wish we could go back and have forced our original interview date to work. They made it seem like a reschedule wouldn't be a big deal. Now I'm starting to accept that we might not be done with this until next year. 

I called the VAC again today to push for a response. As expected, they couldn't help me. They said that the embassy is in a terrible situation now, and they're having to cancel even expedited interviews because they are so overwhelmed with cases. They told me that they have a number of appointment requests higher than they have ever seen before. I asked if there really isn't anything else I can do, and they said that there is nothing other than wait on a response from ParisIVPending. No other emails, no other phone numbers, no other contact forms. 
 
Really wish we could go back and have forced our original interview date to work. They made it seem like a reschedule wouldn't be a big deal. Now I'm starting to accept that we might not be done with this until next year. 

I just came on to see if anyone else is having as much trouble as we are. We first started emailing the embassy to ask for a reschedule in early May, right when we received a June appointment date. They did not respond to any inquiries whatsoever. Because of this, the appointment was missed. This was an entire month ago, and we haven't heard back about getting a new appointment. The "Missed Appointment" request is still "queued", despite the website saying it should take a maximum of 5 days to receive a response. Between my fiancé and I, we have sent over 30 inquiry emails in the last 3 months of our cases being at the embassy. 
 
We had a consultation with a firm specializing in immigration on Monday, and they said that there is nothing they can do that we haven't already done other than a Mandamus, which they quoted at $7500. I am now reaching out to my congressional representative here in the states, and emailing the embassy every weekday.

We're so sorry that you guys are passing through this and we don't know how to help.
 
You guys updated us with good information (and hope) and the only thing we can say is that we've been noticing that the Embassy seems to be kinda delayed on things.
We thought we would get contacted by now and yet we haven't.
We also have read couples (Portuguese and French) that already had their interviews back in May and they still haven't received their passports/visas even thou more than 2 weeks have passed since they had the interview.
Maybe they are having some computer issues or the High Alerts in France are/were affecting the people of the Embassy.

We hope you guys get some answer soon before the 20th and also before us, since we're a month apart (NoA2 acceptance) and you guys should be priority.

Got our interview date for June 22nd!
 
We're going to try and get it postponed by a month to give us a little more time, but still super exciting!

Congrats for the interview, We really appreciate you posting these updates, since we are a bit behind and it gives us peace of mind at the pace things are moving at!

Got our interview date for June 22nd!
 
We're going to try and get it postponed by a month to give us a little more time, but still super exciting!

I hadn't filed the DS-160 by the time the consulate received my case. I did not do anything other than call for a case number from the NVC and check the status online.

Got our interview date for June 22nd!
 
We're going to try and get it postponed by a month to give us a little more time, but still super exciting!

Got our interview date for June 22nd!
 
We're going to try and get it postponed by a month to give us a little more time, but still super exciting!

Got our interview date for June 22nd!
 
We're going to try and get it postponed by a month to give us a little more time, but still super exciting!

NOA1: September 4th, 2020
NOA2: March 29th, 2021 (no RFE)
NVC Received: April 21st, 2021 
NVC Case Number: April 26th, 2021
NVC Left: April 27th, 2021
Consulate Received: April 29th, 2021
 
This part of the process is moving a lot faster than I expected it to! Portuguese citizens have their interview date scheduled for them, so we're waiting on that now. 

NOA1: September 4th, 2020
NOA2: March 29th, 2021 (no RFE)
NVC Received: April 21st, 2021 
NVC Case Number: April 26th, 2021
NVC Left: April 27th, 2021
Consulate Received: April 29th, 2021
 
This part of the process is moving a lot faster than I expected it to! Portuguese citizens have their interview date scheduled for them, so we're waiting on that now. 

NOA1: September 4th, 2020
NOA2: March 29th, 2021 (no RFE)
NVC Received: April 21st, 2021 
NVC Case Number: April 26th, 2021
NVC Left: April 27th, 2021
Consulate Received: April 29th, 2021
 
This part of the process is moving a lot faster than I expected it to! Portuguese citizens have their interview date scheduled for them, so we're waiting on that now. 

Yup! It was $2k to join rounds 2 & 3 of Milligan vs Pompeo, and $4.8k for an individual mandamus.

Yup! It was $2k to join rounds 2 & 3 of Milligan vs Pompeo, and $4.8k for an individual mandamus.

Your time will come eventually, NOA2s are going out to early September filers now. If anything, think of it like this: the sooner interviews resume, the shorter the line will be by the time you're at that stage (probably a few months from now). The deadline to sign up for the final round of the Milligan v Pompeo lawsuit was weeks ago, so it's not like you missed out by a narrow margin.  
 
I think it's great that interviews will now be available for those who can't afford the $2k to join the lawsuit. The backlog you're referring to are all people in the same boat you are -- people separated from their loved one, some of which have been waiting on interviews for over a year now. This is a huge win.