YueQian

Hi guys,  I know some still check in.  No updates, no movement.  It's been 19 months,  which is 582 days since we received Noa1.  
 
I hope everyone is doing fine and is safe and happy.  Congrats to everyone who made it to their I do's!!!! 

COVID caused the initial closures but the Trump administration failed to handle the pandemic in general, and more specifically for this thread, they used it as an excuse to keep out more immigrants by refusing to process K-1 visas even while processing thousands of tourists at many embassies and consulates. Even when things were back to normal in many countries.  That's a policy decision, nothing to do with COVID.

Visa statistics are out for November. Our embassy, Addis Ababa, issued 1,600 B1/B2s in the month of November but ZERO K1s, CR1s, etc. It's just super frustrating because when I ask them about visa processing they say it is limited due to covid. So.... people applying for business visas can't carry covid but fiances can? They've also made a statement to resume student visas soon, but no news on K1s. It is so sad how money talks, but not the families of Americans....
 
Just had to get it off my chest to those who understand the struggle.

No, just make it so that on May 1, if we do not have an interview scheduled, we just have to pull the plug on it. 

Happy Holidays, Filers. 
 
Since it's Christmas Day tomorrow, I thought I'd update today, knowing that the USCIS wouldn't be working. 
 
Though they have made SOME progress... so that's good!
 
2537 total March approvals... an increase of 77 since last weekend. 52 fewer RFEs in the system for march, too... which is also great.
 
Have a great festive period, if you celebrate. If you don't, have a great weekend!
 
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I am so sorry to hear that! I really hope when Biden comes into office things will change for the better immigration wise. 

You are among the lucky ones! Canada was one of the first to resume K1 interviews and has issued 86 in November which is no.1 in the world! While China is still under the travel ban BS and sees NO progress

I saw a May approval here on VJ. They are going through April cases fast! March and Feburary noticeably took longer, by a lot. I think it's related to a small number of petitions due to the global lockdown which had started by April.

I saw a May approval here on VJ. They are going through April cases fast! March and Feburary noticeably took longer, by a lot. I think it's related to a small number of petitions due to the global lockdown which had started by April.

Hello! Where are you from? We are still waiting for the interview . Last March our petition was approved and we scheduled for August, but it was cancelled. I know it's silly to compare just it makes feel better if anyone has their K's interviews started!🌺 Good luck at the interview. Here are the questions from this site K 1 interview in Ukraine , so questions can be different.

Armenia and Madrid....and after some further exploring, Vietnam and Ireland....all folks that have been waiting a long time...no plaintiffs and no expedited interviews...as you know, if DOS sends an order to begin, even if they don't announce it, we should start seeing more and more stories here on VJ of folks suddenly getting interviews and visa's.

I'm not too into the rules when it comes to this, but I've heard in facebook groups back when I was active there (this was a while back, though) that doing that is extremely risky. I might be wrong and things might be different now with the pandemic and things being so crazy, but I think I read something about that this might work if you travel as a tourist and then just happen to meet someone and fall in love and get married. And the burden of proof would be on you that there was no intent of marriage as you entered the US. But isn't applying for K1 and going to visit your boyfriend/fiancé making this look really bad if you do it?
 
Just make sure you don't ruin anything for yourselves because of it. ❤️
 
 
I used to think that it would get going right away when the ban lifts, and hopefully it will, but what about all of the embassies in non travel ban countries that aren't issuing K1's? And if they do it's pretty much only expedited cases... I know some embassies, like Canada, have started to work on K1's, but from what I heard this has happened in very few countries. Despite K1 being a priority. 😶
 
Any thoughts on why it's like this? 😟

If they select yes then they will need to provide proof that the previous marriage was terminated or the spouse died. For common law relationships there is no such thing as divorce. There have been a few threads in recent days where this specific issue has gotten people into heaps of almost irrevocable trouble

We're talking and praying about it and will see what we decide in the end. But one thing that I thought about, that at least applies to us, is that every month that we have two households is a month where I'm spending about $1000 on bills and food and other things like that. I'm currently not working so it's all savings right now, but I will most likely start studying some online university courses next semester (that I could do from both here or the US, I assume). So that's something for us that still speaks for joining.
 
But it's still a lot of money, and also with the not knowing what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. It's like... will the travel ban be lifted next week or next month or during the summer or when? And when it's lifted, how fast will they start processing K1's again in Stockholm? A lot of countries aren't processing even though there's no travel ban, which another girl that considers joining from Denmark mentioned to me. So it's all just such a mess and it feels kind of like a gamble. 😶👀
 
I had the interview already back in March, but because of all of this mess my visa was never issued. I'm so tired of this. 😞

Oh I completely agree that it is political. All the travel bans are power plays and not wanting to admit that one country is doing better or worse. Again, that's why I don't see the K-1's getting processed any time soon at all because I don't imagine President Trump or even President Biden will retract the travel bans. But unfortunately, the virus and the vaccine have become political so they are really one-in-the-same now. It seems like the CR-1 is really the only way now, unfortunately. At least for the next few years. 

The October 2020 Visa Statistics are out. I did a quick analysis of the data for fun.

you don't even need to speak english to be a permanent resident

After a long 17 months of AP my husband was issued a visa yesterday 🥳🥳 alhamdulilah! This has been the most stressful thing in my life especially after receiving ds5535 I thought we’d be stuck or possibly never even get a visa! I am so grateful for everybody who was so supportive and everyone who helped so much!🤲🏻🤲🏻 I wish everyone a happy life ahead and may you be reunited with ur loved ones soon AMEEN! 
 
-does anyone know how long it takes to get courier from Islamabad to Karachi? My husband is supposed to get his passport/visa sent to AEG but tracking doesn’t show anything currently. 

You’re absolutely right. However the reason I’m so annoyed with how broken and inconsistent the process is is because the country I’m petitioning for my fiancé for has one of the lowest COVID rates in the world. Yet I’m seeing people from countries with much higher rates scheduling interviews for K1. Makes me think it’s more than COVID.

Schengen Area proclamation (which affects most K-1 applicants there) is in effect indefinitely until ended by a President*. The other proclamations (April 22 and June 22) have a listed end date (subject to change) but don't affect K-1.
 
*Biden's inauguration isn't until Jan. 20. Unknown exactly how quick he'll end this proclamation.

Most consulates just say no without explanation anyway. I feel like whoever replies to you through us travel docs is just like an operator like someone you get when you ring your phone company or bank and they don’t know what they are talking about.
 
Someone probably just thought it was a good excuse and started copy and pasting it and now there is a big court case over it and they need to find a new excuse. 
 
The Sydney consulate just says “we aren’t processing right now and we don’t know when” and there is nothing you can do about it. Sydney basically has 0 restrictions and 0 cases for 2 weeks now. They are at full operations and just refusing to process K1 without an expedite request. 
 
I suppose the benefit will be that it may put heat on the consulates to stop messing everyone around.
 
Unexplained non processing of visas is a nasty unofficial way of having as little people come into the country as possible via stopping family visas. It’s vague and unexplained because it wouldn’t sit with the public if they announced it’s just so they have 0 risk instead of 0.01. 

I originally contemplated using WebWed to get married but after researching extensively, it was much easier, more straightforward, and 90% cheaper to go directly through the Utah Couty Clerk. It's the same jurisdiction WebWed uses and you can do it by yourself. YES, it is completely legal and legitimately recognized across the US and therefore anywhere in the world that registers marriages that occur in the US. NO, your marriage certificate will NOT mention anything about online and will look like any regular marriage certificate. YES, you still have to be in person at some point following the marriage to meet the consummation requirements of USCIS, but that doesn't sound like a problem for you. Don't feel like you're required to explain to all of these people here why you've personally decided that getting married online through the US (Utah). It sounds like you have thought it over and it fits your situation.

Here are instructions based on what I did in September: 
 
Apply for marriage license here :
http://www.utahcounty.gov/Dept/ClerkAud/Marriage.html
  You'll need you Driver's License for the US citizen and a government ID or Passport for the foreigner as well as each a selfie that is clear, similar to passport photos.
Please carefully read the instructions before applying. You will need to put the county clerk's address as the mailing address for the non citizen during this part.
You'll complete the application and pay $70 or $50 if you complete the free Marriage Counseling they offer.
You'll get emailed the marriage license, and if you followed the instructions on the site which tells you to put the Utah County clerk's office as the mailing address for the foreigner , you will then forward the marriage license email back to them asking them to correct the address to the foreigner's actual address. Then you'll receive an updated marriage license.
Once you have the license, you go here :
http://www.utahcounty.gov/Dept/ClerkAud/MarrCeremony.html
  You will schedule the ceremony as web conference. You'll need the marriage license number, the link on the email they sent you, and the names of two witnesses that will appear for the ceremony. You will get a link you can send to as many friends and family as you want to join the Zoom meeting during the ceremony.
24 hours before your ceremony, you'll get a reminder email with a portal to pay the ceremony fee of $35.
During the ceremony, the clerk will send your marriage license in and within 5 minutes, you'll receive an email with a digital certified marriage certificate that you can use for name changes or any other official business in the USA. You'll have a paper copy mailed to the citizen's address.
Additionally, for registering my marriage in the other country, i went and ordered two more paper copies while i was at it so i can mail one back to Utah to get an apostille.
Edit to add what my digital certificate looks like :
https://imgur.com/a/IYAqpma

Relevant order from judge:
 

what did this 20% of visa category arrival Ban really achieve ?  whopping 0.00000 other than making everyone's life miserable while covid flourished through out the country 

I'm not a litigant in this case (didn't even receive my NOA2), but why wouldn't they get what you refer to as 'special treatment'? Not only are they at the final stages of K1, but they're the ones who decided to go to court and take action. So yes, I would expect their particular cases to be looked at right away in a case of a positive outcome. My hope is that as a result of that, the rest of us non-litigants would also get a move on on our cases. Because I'm sure the DOS wouldn't want another lawsuit.