rikko

I guess telling people ahead of time to bring their birth certificate, prison records, police certificates, and divorce certificates to the interview encourages people to falsify information, too. I also guess some of us know more than the official US Embassy in Israel! Our immigration process discourages fraud at every point. Cost of applying, wait time for applying, harsh punishments for fraud, and a long vetting process. If "law-abiding" folks are suffering (from what, wait times?) you can't just blame it on "bad actors." There will always be bad actors. There will always be fraud. You need the process to vet out the fake applications, and if embassies have higher workloads than they can handle, you need to hire more workers or just let wait times get bad. There is a chance had my fiancé been told to bring his education and research papers to the interview, the officer would have been able to make a decision on the spot. Maybe she would find some other reason to send us into AP, I don't know. I think other Americans with educated fiancés should be advised to bring their research/conference/education info with them. After all, if they avoid the AP process this way, that also frees up time and resources for the embassy to process other applicants!

Yeah... my fiancé: is a Russian national from a military base town has a Chemical degree previously worked as a chemical engineer is now a software developer one of his brothers is low-level ex-military the other one is low-level government Yikes! I think we hit every red flag they have. But hey, they don't seem to doubt our relationship is bona fide! Thank you for letting me know! There was another guy who did a WOM for Warsaw and he got an approval right away, @BeauH. I definitely don't want to force a decision when they "don't have enough info" though and get a denial... but I don't know what else to do if AP ends up taking a year I think it's cool that Israel is looking out for their applicants, that might be why Israeli threads seem few and far between on the forum. The consular officer doing my fiancé's interview in Jerusalem DID ask for his college papers at the interview, and he told her that it wasn't on the list of papers to bring. She said it was the only thing she needed to see to determine whether or not he would be able to support himself in the US/get a skilled job with his qualifications. My income hit the requirements for a household of 3, but because he would be "joining our household", I was expected to hit requirements for a household of 4. (This is also something I wasn't aware of when preparing for the interview and making sure I hit income requirements). We did prepare his bank statements and proof of salary but the officer was insistent on also seeing education. And don't feel bad! It's not well-known info, I didn't find this page until late in my AP journey, and only because I was also at Jerusalem! Had it been a different embassy, that page wouldn't have shown up in my google search results. (It also never showed up in all those "visa help" videos I binged on YouTube). I just thought I would share since it does seem to be useful advice. We're all in it together!

I really just wish I knew why it was taking so long. Every time I email asking for an update, they send an email telling me they can't tell how long it will take, to check the CEAC status website, and sometimes offer their condolences (which actually does make me feel better!). Is it still in the embassy, sitting on someone's desk? Are they processing "easier" cases to get their quota up for the day and ignoring our case? Has our case been sent from the embassy to the FBI to be processed? Is it hard for them to access or check Russian sources from Israel? Has the case switched case officers because of the war? (As of January 24 I think, they've returned to normal processing capacity, so that's one mystery solved). Does it stay with the same officer? Why do they care what high school my partner went to? Are they stalling or is it actually important? Will we have to write a writ of mandamus? They can't tell us. I know they can't tell us. I wish they could tell us.

I came across this page on the Israeli Embassy website that may interest you, millefleur: https://il.usembassy.gov/visas/administrative-processing/ They suggest to Israeli individuals who work or study in scientific and technical fields to come to the embassy with additional documents: Applicants who present detailed information at the time of their interview help U.S. government officials process their cases more expeditiously and efficiently. We suggest applicants prepare the following detailed information (in English) for the interview: Applicant: Name and passport number Work Experience: Detailed description of current and past work; Resume/Curriculum Vitae: A detailed resume/CV that includes: -Present and previous work, including dates. -Educational background, including institution, dates, fields of study, degree, research topic and funding sources. -List of publications including titles, topics, and dates. – Research expertise, military service, computer training or other specialized training. Educational/Research Background: Name of institution(s), dates of attendance, field(s) of study, degree(s) obtained, and research topics; Publication List (as applicable): Titles, topics, dates of publication, and brief abstracts or summaries; Travel: Countries visited in the past 5 years – list the year and country. Trip itinerary: Date(s), location, and purpose of the visit and any relevant addresses, and contact information (as applicable) of companies, conferences, and/or institutions. If the Israeli embassy is suggesting Israelis bring CVs to their interviews, it might be worth telling people coming to the forum to bring it to their interviews, too. Maybe it'll save other poor souls from even entering the 221g process! I definitely wish I had been told to prepare a CV for the interview, but it doesn't seem to be common advice.

They asked for CV 6 months ago, we provided CV and college diploma 5 months ago, they emailed us today asking for a CV that includes his high school education. ??? You can't go to college in Russia without a high school degree? Normal CV's only include high school if you haven't gone to college? They didn't ask for high school education specifically in their initial request, they asked my fiance for college and work which we provided? The frustration is infinite.

This is incredibly helpful information for someone in 221g, albeit for a different area of the world! Thank you!

You don't know ahead of time if she will be put into administrative processing, or how long it will take to issue the visa. I would get refundable tickets if you do decide to stay on your route.

We applied for a Schengen and were given single-entry and argued we could not legally enter Poland and were not willing to break the law, Jerusalem accepted a transfer in our case after that. Others did not have to even get a Schengen visa to obtain transfers. We also cannot apply at our current country of residence (Armenian embassy is small and already overloaded with local and Iranian cases) but we didn't bother mentioning that.

We were told to have our medical done and physically in-hand for when we attended our interview. You should probably do your medical exam and attend the 2nd interview, and bring the medical file with you (or whatever the embassy requested).

Do your best to enter the country with him as having YOU physically there with your US passport seems to sway border control more. As we got off our flight from Armenia, most people (probably also Russian) were being directed to another location (additional screening?) but me and my fiancé were waved through immediately once my passport was shown. My fiancé has a coworker who tried to enter Israel with paperwork confirming he was there for a business visa interview at the US embassy, and he was thrown into a holding cell and deported at his expense at the soonest available flight. Paperwork showing that your fiancé has an interview may not be enough to convince border control there (many Russians and Ukrainians try to enter Israel and overstay). If you are put into administrative processing, and your medical expires (6 months) you will have to do it again. If there are warning signs (sensitive degrees, nationalities, careers, travel history) expect more delays or problems. Also, we were given an exit interview when leaving Israel that was about 15 minutes of multiple people cross-examining my fiancé over what we were in Israel for and why exactly we HAD to go to Bethlehem (for our medical, and because Jerusalem medical location was busy). Anyway, I would avoid Bethlehem/West Bank as of now... Specifically, we were put into AP because while I met the income requirements for a household of 3 (I live in a household of 3), my fiancé would be a 4th member to provide for so I had to meet income requirements for a household of 4. I did not, but the interviewer decided to ask for more information on my fiancé's occupation as he "should be able to provide for himself once in the US" (he is a software engineer). But, with my fiancé holding a chemistry degree, being a software engineer, and being Russian, I think he was put into AP for that. Personally I am optimistic because Israel has good ties with the US, and with the amount of Russian Jews who have made Aliyah, they are sympathetic to Russians with American fiancés. It's a larger embassy and once things get rolling again, we should all be processed quickly enough. Good luck!

Where can you find embassy stats?

You email and ask for a transfer, or use an online portal. It varies from embassy to embassy. Remember to argue your case for transfer well when asking. Many embassies only take cases of extreme hardship. Actual transfers are usually quick, sometimes a reply takes a while, if you get one at all. Serbia has never replied to me once. Small embassies have longer wait and processing times. Jerusalem was processing a lot of Russians pre-war but time will tell when they return to that rate.

gaza isn't near bethlehem, if anything it's closer to jerusalem, they're right next to each other

@Sdsailer If Israel finishes this war soon, I am sure Jerusalem will resume accepting transfers, unless they will resume working at reduced capacity. Many people in this forum transferred their case from Warsaw to Jerusalem.

Serbia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Georgia all denied transfers.

1. Yes, if you have residency. My fiancé has Armenian residency, we applied for a multi-entry Schengen visa to Spain, received a single-entry Schengen that lasted one week. Apparently you can still enter Warsaw on a single-entry Schengen but that's a lot of money to spend on potentially being denied, and it's misrepresenting your intent of travel. 2. Not that I am aware of. Jerusalem did but Israel is now at war and a lot of people got screwed from that. Bishkek is apparently accepting but it's a slow embassy, Manila might have accepted us but they've been really bad at even understanding what we are asking for. At least their response time is really fast. 3. It should be extended. No matter how much this process has set us up to fail, I think most people understand that Russians have trouble entering a country that has banned entry to Russian nationals and issuing visas to them. And that Israel is at war. And that Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan are not accepting transfers. Feel free to DM me if you have more questions.

that piece of paper Военный билет that shows which category you are (not eligible to serve in peacetime, not eligible to serve ever, etc) which also shows military service (my fiance has none)

so how are you guys doing with the ongoing security situation in israel and everything being halted?

Where do you find the number of CO's a consulate has? Is it available on their websites, or on a 3rd party website? Or just how big a consulate is. I want to contact consulates more likely to be capable of processing my fiancé's case. Jerusalem has halted all nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services, and has written on their page how to transfer your case - I'm assuming they don't want new applicants, and/or existing applicants should transfer.

when you apply for your schengen, you have to list your itinerary, places of stay (which must be pre-arranged), etc. back when we did this, we avoided mentioning needing to go to poland for a visa interview due to suggestions we read on visajourney (schengens are primarily for tourism and if you mention any work or study you could be denied and told to apply for the respective country's visa) if you were to get a single-entry schengen visa for spain then cancel all plans and go to poland, it would be extremely harmful if you were to reapply to visit the EU or schengen zone in the future, or potentially any country if they deem you misrepresenting the purpose of your trip as cause for concern. if you were to get a multi-entry schengen visa, you could safely carry out the first visit then legally enter again for whatever purpose in the future, which we were denied. regardless, even if not "illegal" it is "breaking the rules" and we were not willing to do that (and i don't distinguish between the two if it could have lasting consequences for my fiance's future travels) this would all be fixed if they just moved the dang interview location from warsaw to anywhere russians can enter easily. i'd suggest jerusalem, but israel has just declared war for the first time formally since the 1970's! god knows what this means for people who transferred their cases to israel, and for the people of israel/palestine! as if life for russian applicants couldn't get worse, first covid, then russia/ukraine war, now one of the few countries accepting transfers is at war!

That's amazing news! I'm glad it finally all worked out. Can I ask why you were given AP? Did they ask for a CV, did she have a scientific education/career? Did you ever email the embassy and ask if your case was under active review? It is so good to read success stories

Yes, it would've been illegal for us to go to Poland during the single entry stay and it was only viable had we been issued a multi entry visa. Since that was denied we had a pretty good argument to convince the Jerusalem embassy to accept a transfer, and I will always be grateful to Israel for accepting us. We had been trying to transfer before even attempting Schengen but no embassy was willing to let us transfer at that point, so we attempting the Schengen-to-Warsaw route others were taking.

Most Russian cases, or most cases that process through Warsaw?

Hi! I have a Russian fiance and I was put into AP about 2 months ago, but we interviewed in Jerusalem, not Warsaw. Background: My fiance has a chemical degree, previously worked in batteries, and is now a computer programmer. We got asked for a CV and military records (we forgot to take them, its just a piece of paper saying he never served). They DID want to keep his passport after, but we explained we had to leave to obtain documents and they told us how to mail required docs to their office.

Spain accepted us but only single-entry. We were also considering Greece and Italy but decided on Spain because of processing times.