Cameron2005

Hi all. I just wanted to warn you about a pretty scary and disheartening phone call scam I just received.

15 minutes ago, JobbinsKnobbins said:

We must say, your lawyers are adding stress unnecessarily, as far as we read before is that it's not denied, if the medical gets expired during this, the Embassy will just request that he will retake the medical exam which will extend the visa. Even couples that had been approved for the visa but the medical expired, have to do this (and yes, you will have to pay for it again).

It is messed up that just accessing the files will show as being updated but that's how computer stuff works.
Sorry that there isn't anything else that we can help you with but again, if it's fully denied, they will have to send a reason and also give the passport back either way.
Other thing you can do, is visit him if you can, so you don't focus on checking the CEAC all the time, just focus on each other.

Best wishes.

Thank you so much for all of your help and always responding! I did not know the medical exam could be retaken, so thank you so much for that information. You have no idea how much your messages help!! 

While I say this with an abundance of optimism based on how things have gone, this morning we just received what hopefully turns out to be amazing news. My fiancé got an email from ParisIVPending@state.gov this morning stating that there was an issue with a file within his medical exam that the doctor (is Lisbon) just needs to correct and resend to them, and then the embassy said after that they would print off the visa, and I quote them directly, "He will be notified by email when his passport is leaving the embassy with his visa and sealed envelope."

Admittedly, at this point, I am honestly terrified to get my hopes up again just for things to go cold again (this is the first response we have received from them since his interview in May 5). We have exactly 2 more months until his exam expires, but if all goes according to the embassy's email this morning, then hopefully this was really all that was holding us up & maybe we will even make it in time before his exam expires!!

Our lawyers said this isn't the first client they've had that this has happened to, so I don't know if this helps anyone to know, but I guess it isn't uncommon for there to be mistakes with the medical exam that the doctor needs to fixed, which I think just got so delayed with COVID and otherwise would've been brought to our attention sooner. I don't know how to prevent this since this was just something the doctor needs to fix, but in case anyone else runs into this issue we will of course be updating this forum every step of the way as this issue is hopefully resolved soon.

Again, thank you everyone for your updates and support. I am going to see him in two weeks, so I really do need to focus on the excitement of that and take a break of CEAC and obsessing over this. It is out of our control now and hopefully just something that the doctor can correct and resend. It has truly been a roller coaster of a couple of days after my fiancé and I came to terms yesterday that his visa could just be refused, but I am so happy to see they are at least sending emails (hopefully) now.

I feel I said the word "hope" a million times in this message lol, but it's been all I've had to hold onto and quickly dwindling until this morning. To everyone else holding their breath, just hang in there -- I was at my absolute lowest yesterday, and today gave me a reason to feel like things may really be moving forward. Fingers crossed!!!!! ❤️ 

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?

On 8/3/2021 at 6:26 PM, JobbinsKnobbins said:

For them to refuse absolutely, they have to state the reason for a denial.
Chances are the "Case last updated" happens everytime the case gets accessed.
Remember that they will also need to send back the passport and from what we have seen on a couple of posts, they warn when they are sending the passport plus documents for the fiancé to know around what time it needs to check the mail (due to its sensitivity).

This doesn't look like it got rejected but for clarification is usually from the Embassy side (and we already know how that is going =S).

It will be ok, you guys will be fine! We believe it! 😃

Thank you very much for your words of wisdom/advice!

I checked CEAC.state.gov and saw there was another "update" today, though I would hardly call it that considering it still says the exact same thing as the other two updates (from July 19 & Aug. 3) -- "Refused"

We haven't heard anything from the embassy...nearly 4 months post-interview & my fiancé STILL without his passport.

Is any one else who has already had their interview experiencing the same issue? It is just so worrying and disheartening to see that it is being updated but nothing is actually changing. The NVC confirmed that Paris has all of our required documentation, so why would it just keep updating to refused?? Obviously someone is having to access our case to update this....I don't understand what is still needed from us when we can't even get through to someone at the embassy and they won't contact us or our lawyers...

Thank you all for your continued help & advice. I feel more and more hopeless about this with every passing day, and it's things like this forum that remind me it eventually has to have an end...

PLEASE HELP -- K1 VISA UPDATED TO REFUSED...TWICE???

22 minutes ago, neto-66 said:

Weirdly enough, we got an interview date assigned today.

 

October 20th, 2021

Congrats!! Glad to hear the process is at least moving along instead of totally stagnant 

It does wonders to know you aren't alone in something, though I am so sorry for everyone else dealing with this situation & lack of contact from the U.S. Embassy in Paris. My fiancé had his interview nearly 3 months ago, and they took his passport & everything and were just waiting on the medical exam (which arrived no more than two weeks after his interview). We haven't heard anything from the Embassy since, though our case did get updated the other week to "Refused" for administrative processing (side note: who in the world decided to lump cases still undergoing admin processing in with the "refusal" category?!)

2 hours ago, JobbinsKnobbins said:

Olá Cameron.
You're not alone on this, we have a thread where we are putting our journeys with the US Embassy in Paris, join us: 

The Portuguese don't go to the US Embassy in Lisbon/Ponta Delgada to deal with the visas since 2012 (unfortunately), not due to Covid 19.

And yes, don't be scared about the part saying refused, it is part of the system that it starts as refused when they are working on the case. It will be ok, you guys will have to wait a bit more.

Thank you so much for this link!! Glad (and sad, lol) to hear I'm not alone in what has been the most frustrating situation I've seen. Thank you for the much-needed words of hope

I am an American citizen living and working in Maryland, and my fiancé is  a Portuguese citizen, and we are working towards his K-1 visa.

On May 5, 2021, my fiancé had his K-1 visa interview in Paris (as the U.S. Embassy in his home country of Portugal closed due to COVID-19). After the interview, the interviewer told my fiancé that they had everything they needed for the time being aside from his medical exam results, which were being mailed from Portugal due to the exam documents not being ready by his interview date. Still, the consular took his paperwork & his passport and instructed him that this would all be mailed to his home address in Portugal once the visa was processed/approved.

We haven't heard anything since. We have reached out multiple times to the Embassy (via online contact form, phone, emails to the embassy at multiple email addresses relating to visa processing -- such as ParisIVProcessing, ParisVisas, etc.), but neither ourselves nor our immigration attorneys have received any clear update as to what exactly is going on with our case and his visa.

After months of trying and failing to get an update about our case from the U.S. Embassy in Paris, earlier this month I called the National Visa Center, which was able to confirm from their end that the U.S. Embassy in Paris has received all of the required documents for his case (they said his medical exam arrived about mid-May). The NVC was unable to give me further details and told me to call the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

I called the Embassy’s Non-immigrant visa appointment line a few weeks ago (the only way I could reach someone, as there is no one I could get in touch with specifically for inquiring about visa issues), and the appointment line representative told me to check the status of our visa on ceac.state.gov. However, nothing showed up (just said "No Status" for our case). 

I called the Non-immigrant visa number again, and I was given a new email address to contact (fae_contactus+fr+courier+en@visaops.net) and told to explain our situation in a message and that they might be able to help more.

Upon my initial correspondence (about two & a half weeks ago), I received an automatic reply that my message had been received, and then the next message I received (about a day after the first) was an apology for the inconvenience and said our case had been escalated to the appropriate department. However, I received another email shortly after that stating they had no information/updates that they could give me.

I received another response last week (July 19) from that same email address saying that on May 25, the status of my fiancé’s visa was updated to "Refused", but they said that this “can also mean that the Embassy is still processing your case. We have no other information or contact details to give you.” That was the end of our email chain and the only real correspondence we've had with the Embassy in months.

I called the NVC, and they were able to confirm it was a "soft refusal" under the 221(g), but they said they didn't know why and to contact the Embassy. We still aren't able to get in touch with anyone who can provide any updates regarding our case.

Our immigrations lawyers suggested I contact my state senators for advice, so I did last week & they had me fill out a form and confirmed that they submitted an official inquiry to the Embassy.

I am just wondering if anyone else is in this position with the U.S. Embassy is Paris and/or if anyone has had any luck getting in touch? I have been reading forums where I saw other Portuguese citizens had their interviews on May 5 as well...any insight on timelines? Is there any way to find out what may still be needed from my fiancé?

Thank you so much in advance!!