NineDev

Hey everyone! I'm sorry for coming to this site with my hyper-specific issues, but I'm at a loss right now. Long story short, I had my interview at the end of November and it went really well. My visa was on AP/refused til the 8th of February, where it suddenly became "ISSUED". This was a HUGE relief... until two weeks passed to the current day, and I still haven't received anything. No messages, no notifications, nothing. The tracking website is still on the "appointment" phase of the visa process. I've called the Paris embassy more than thirty times but they've been absolutely no help, constantly throwing me to dead ends on their phone line, being unable to answer my questions and only repeating what the CEAC says: "It says issued on the website, I pray for your patience" type stuff. I've also called the ais.usvisa-info phone line for France, to little avail. They don't have my visa, and they cannot help me. All my emails to both locations go unanswered, and I'm not sure what carrier to call since it just says "La Poste" which is our national postal service. Maybe this is normal and to be expected, but looking over this forum and other places, most people seem to wait at most a few days. With my expiration date on my visa quickly approaching (April 24th), is there *anything* I can do talk to a consular, or anyone that could tell me where my visa is? I'm holding out hope for this week to be THE week, but I won't lie I'm pretty stressed out. The idea of my visa expiring because they printed it out and then just sat on it is making it hard to even sleep.

I don't want to flood the forum with my personal visa issues, so I'll reply to this thread again. My visa was issued on the 8th, as said earlier, and well... the status hasn't moved since. The tracking website is stuck on the "appointment" phase, I've called the embassy, a dedicated visa line, and the usvisa-info line, with no actual helpful information to show for it (just, this is unusually long, we pray for your patience). I've sent emails to every email address I was given, to no reply, or worse, an automated reply saying "can't help, sorry" in short. Is this supposed to take this long? Everywhere on the web, people seem to receive it within a week or 10 days of "Issued", but I haven't had a single word from anyone since my interview, and my visa expires in two months... I'm holding out hope for this week to be THE week, but I won't lie I'm pretty stressed out. The idea of my visa expiring because they printed it out and then just sat on it is making it hard to even sleep. Sorry, this is half-venting, half hoping someone has gone through this and can reassure me, haha.

Good news! I just checked this morning and the CEAC's status is now "READY", so I'm guessing everything is in motion now hehe I'm not expecting anything else, hence the mild panic I might have missed it. There's so many scam texts in France, it's wild lol

Thank you, it's very reassuring to read. The officers were all extremely helpful and nice, so I have faith they will hold true to their words, but reading others say this is normal helps manage my stress a lot haha

What an awful default status, good thing I'm not at risk of heart attacks x) I agree with what you say, but I didn't really want to argue or felt in position to turn down the consular's offer at that moment in time haha I think it'll be fine ultimately, just a bit odd. Okay, I should still be in good time then, I'm already prepared to go and everything... Just need the actual visa and my passport back.

Thank you, it's very reassuring to hear! I appreciate it a lot!

1. Born near Paris, so yes. 2. No, I'm the first person he ever petitioned for. 3. He is a USC by birth. No problem, I appreciate it either way. It seems to be their system, yeah. It's basically just "in progress", but they don't have "in progress" for some reason. I hope I'll receive an update soon. According to the consular at the time of the interview, I should be receiving it soon now, I just hope they didn't forget about me x) They also haven't asked for any documents or anything. Both people I talked to said everything was in order and present, so it should be good on that front.

Yeah I'm the one going through the visa process and I'm a French citizen. Everything went really well up til now. My guess is its delayed administrative processing but it's pretty stressful. I'm sure the consulars meant well but it's hard to reach anyone at the embassy.

The embassy in Paris.

Funny enough, that was actually two different consular who gave me that offer. The first one I met that took my documents and checked if everything was in order, and then the second that gave me the interview. I was a bit too star-struck to be approved to really think through all the details, but it definitely went through several people, so it wasn't just one inexperienced consular making random statements. They told me that as long as it's within the six months of my medical exams, I would be clear to go. They expire in April, so I'm hoping to receive the visa soon, hence why the "refused" almost killed me right now lol Though, now I hope this won't backfire on me, reading through you guys' messages...

The way the consular explained it, it's because they didn't want me to have any trouble in having a difference between the visa being issued before the two years, and entering the US after. They said it was unlikely to cause any issues, but they've had exceptions in the past. Since it coincided with my dates of (planned) departure, they offered me to wait til the 28th. Sorry for the shorthand, it's how I've been explaining it to my family to facilitate it and I guess it's almost automatic now lol

Hey everyone, Thanks for all the help I've received over the course of my "visa journey". I went through the interview process at the end of November, and it went very well. Given my two year marriage anniversary was on January 28th, 2024, the consular offered to have the visa sent after, so I would be able to receive a 10 years green card. Seeing as I was planning to leave around February/March in the first place, this coincided perfectly and I accepted. The consular kept my documents and passport and confirmed several times I had been accepted, and even gave me an email that I could contact just in case I was waiting too long. Fast-forward to today, a few days after my marriage anniversary, and (as I expected), I still haven't received any updates from the embassy. I called them up today for another reason (I received what I assume to be a text scam about a courier service unable to deliver a document to me today, and wanted to make sure it was not related to my visa). During the call, I was advised to check the status of my visa on the CEAC website. When I did, I had a mini-heart attack, as it said REFUSED. I've sent an email to the address I was given, but I'm not sure when (or if) I'll receive a reply. I've read (and it does say on the "REFUSED" notice) that this could be due to administrative processing, but it has three months by now. My rational side wants to believe they were waiting til the 28th to do any work on my visa to be clearly after my second anniversary, but I can't deny an anxious part of myself that is thinking the worst. Has anyone else gone through (or witnessed) such a case? I still haven't received my passport back either, and haven't gotten any letters or email of refusal, which I take as a good sign. Still, being denied so close to the goal, while doing preparations for the final trip, would be pretty devastating. I guess I'm looking for reassurance too, haha.

The 15k is from a personal side business he has, when it comes to lodging, food etc, his family provides for everything in exchange for working with them (effectively his full time job) so the 15k are savings (minus a few monthly bills he pays for), but the main job pays zero as everything goes to the family business, in exchange for them providing everything. I'd say they know my character, but it's hard to convince them the government won't go after them when the first thing they read online are websites saying that the government will do that very thing. I agree I've never heard of such a case, but I don't want them to get into any kind of trouble because of us either. That's what we assumed and why we weren't worried to find a sponsor at first, but the sum ended up being less than that for this year (they're a family of four, which would make it five including me). I'll make sure to tell them everything clearly and concisely. I'm not too comfortable revealing all the details on a public forum, just the "major ones", but I fully intend on being truthful with them. I apologize if I come across as disorganized, I'm not used to share private information like that, even if I appreciate greatly all the help this forum has been!

Thank you for the well wishes! Our shared assets are above five times the difference (since mine is outside of the US, i think it's 5x), so that should technically work. We're working on finding a sponsor, but no luck so far.

Yeah, I can assume so. Without family or friends able to help, and the business tying us down, this is the probably the worst case scenario for us, which is a shame with how smooth everything went up til then.

Of course, that's eventually our plan. Unfortunately his family business relies in great part on him ever since his father had a heart attack and isn't able to work as much anymore, so leaving isn't something easy for him to do. We assumed they'd be able to help us, so it was worth it, but looks like it's not the case which is a shame. It's hard to find a sponsor since a lot of the people I've asked get scared when looking on google the government can sue them for money too. Definitely a tough spot to be in.

So is the message we got just a warning that it could be refused, and not an actual certainty? That's a bit of a relief, even if it's still pretty stressful. We'll see if we can find someone just to be sure, but knowing it's not all over reassures us a bit. We can't say for sure, but probably around the same, maybe up to 15 or 20k? He works with his family and has a private income (the money we declare), and his family basically covers all cost and everything for his work at their business. Thank you both for your quick replies

Hey everyone, Our case has been steadily progressing without any issues until right now. We managed to get an interview secured with NVC, but we recently got an email saying "The income reported as stated on form I-864, I-864A is insufficient to overcome the public charge grounds of inadmissibility for visa issuance." We were pretty sure we did all the right calculations: my husband made approximately only 11k last year (personal reasons), and we needed a 24k yearly income. We read that we needed to match the difference times five, so around 64k. Together, our assets are around 67k, with the majority being on my side (around 60k on my bank account in euros, if that makes any difference). It's over the threshold required, but we were asked to find a sponsor to help us. Unfortunately, while his parents make plenty enough when pooled together with my husband (they work a family business), they don't hit the 32k threshold by themselves. We're not sure we can ask anyone else in his family either, as they can be on the close-minded side of religious, and might not want to sponsor a gay couple. We could probably scrounge together another 5 to 7k, but we're not sure if that would make any difference, and we don't know if sending my 60k to his parents so they can use it in their affidavit would do anything either. Is there anything we can possibly do?