BenNomad

I didn't intend the previous post to be disrespectful in any way. It's hard to believe that really is a doctor's office, but if it is, that sadly says a lot about the Palestinians' situation 😞 Glad to hear the good recommendation for Bethlehem doctor 👍

I looked up both places on Google street view and I see what you mean. Out of curiosity, does the Bethlehem one look right? Neither place looks like a doctor's office, especially the Ramallah one. The address is 100% accurate though, from the embassy contact info. The photo is 6 years old and I hope it doesn't still look like that! I can imagine the reaction I'd get if I told my wife, "yeah just go in there and I'll be back in an hour...."

The embassy in Jerusalem opened up interview dates for December yesterday. Maybe they do that on the last Thursday of each month? Dates were available only on Tuesdays with a few slots (three I think) on each day. Got my wife's interview scheduled, yay! Question on choosing the doctor and the potential issues with going to Bethlehem or Ramallah for the med exam. Who would have an issue with that? Israeli security? What I've read is that it's allowed and fairly safe for foreigners to travel to both places as long as you don't look like an Israeli. I'll try to schedule the med exam in Jerusalem, but if there is better availability in Ramallah, why not go there? Also, do they send the results electronically? I had booked a med exam in Warsaw only 3-4 working days before the interview so I"m wondering why in Jerusalem they need two weeks.

I emailed Jerusalem with a transfer request Sep. 12. On Sep 21 they sent an email asking me to confirm and I replied immediately. Today they sent another email stating that they have requested the transfer from Warsaw. Four hours later I got another email with instructions on how to schedule an appointment. I registed on the site (ais.usvisa-info.com), selected a delivery pickup location, and then got the message that there are no appointments currently available. CEAC still shows Warsaw as the interview location and the case number hasn't changed from WRW yet. Don't know if it's supposed to change. Maybe it will later. So, at least we know we're headed to Israel for sure. Hopefully we won't have to wait months for an appointment.

Yes, that's supposed to happen. In a few days they will give you a new case number and assign you to Warsaw. It took 3-4 days in our case. Just check the CEAC site for messages and proceed in the meantime.

That's great to hear! It must be a relief to you despite the inconvenience and cost of having to travel there from SE Asia. I hope you're able to land an appointment soon. I do check the CEAC site regularly for updates.

I just called the Jerusalem Embassy and talked to an operator. I asked if she could confirm that consular staff are out on holiday and she said "why?" When I explained that their communication kind of dropped off recently, she just said that staff are not on holiday and that I need to wait for a reply. I don't know whether to have my wife send another transfer request from her own email, or whether that will upset them and they might just block us? Any update from your rep on the USCIS/Humanitarian parole front?

I found out that according to the rules, a representative or senator can intervene for you personally ONLY if you are from their district. If Tom McClintock isn't your rep, it's probably asking for the moon to get him to investigate the issue and talk to the State Dept people about it and try to make some policy change. But perhaps worth a try? I would call try calling the office before emailing. Almaty may simply not have the capacity to take on any more cases. I'm afraid that Jerusalem will reach the same point too, of having to turn people away. If the State Dept really wanted to solve the issue, would it be so difficult to transfer staff from one embassy to the other, or hire someone new? Did you contact the embassies in Bishkek (Kyrgystan) or Dushanbe (Tajikistan)? Or even Ashgabat (Turkmenistan). I haven't heard of anyone trying to transfer there, but they would almost certainly have Russian-speaking staff and the US embassies there are operating and issuing visas (mostly diversity visas).

As a follow-up to this thread, my wife did in the end get the Schengen visa for Greece, single-entry with a 17-day validity. It took two weeks to get it. And the visa will get voided as soon as the Greek consulate in Novorossiyk learns that we've cancelled all the hotel reservations and airline tickets (for reasons stated earlier). I'm going to meet my wife and kids in Turkey instead, and so we will finally be together again 🙂 after almsot three months apart!

That makes sense. Sorry to hear about your case apparently going back to the NVC. I thought the hospital in Jakarta had contacted you on Monday with good news! I emailed a transfer request to Jerusalem Monday morning and haven't got a reply yet. Maybe they are out this week. Is this the email you've been using: JerusalemIVInquiries@state.gov ?

From first hand experience, transferring USD via Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan works, but it's up to the receiver to open an account there. Raiffeisen and UniCredit banks still operate in Russia and you can send Euros without huge fees, only I'm not sure such transfers are allowed from the U.S. Another method people are using is sending crypto, but I haven't tried it myself.

Is Jerusalem aware of your passport issue? I was just reading their interview checklist and it says a minimum 8 month validity is required. Surely they would make an exception in your case though. Keep in mind that next weekend is the Jewish New Year and the Embassy may be closed at the end of the week. Not sure exactly when they are open normally. The work week in Israel is Sun-Thurs.

Interesting and very considerate on their part to give you a warning. Other people's cases were transferred without being asked for confirmation or at least nobody mentioned it here. Well, that's good news overall, you (and others like me) have a way out at least. Hurray! But it is a pill to swallow financially with potential months of waiting. Sounds maybe like a good cause crowdfunding 😁

That is discussed in the thread below. You have to schedule yourself after getting the transfer accepted. https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/796677-case-transfer-to-jerusalem-worked-merged-threads/?do=findComment&comment=10894953

I was looking at stats yesterday on the number of visas issued by each embassy. Ho Chi Minh City is one of the busiest in the world. They put out over 3700 visas in July. Jerusalem only 200. So there in Vietnam they surely have the capacity to take on an extra case. This summer I was looking at airbnbs in Israel and yes it is very expensive. Airfare too.

It's one thing to be questioned for two hours at the border and another to be outright rejected. It's also been reported in this forum that by entering Israel together as a couple (where one is a U.S. citizen) one can avoid extra questioning. I'm hoping this is the case because our options have narrowed down to Jerusalem. We lived in Egypt for six months this year but there's a simple explanation if the Israeli border agents decide to question us. DId you get a response from Vietnam and Malaysia yet? My wife's case was denied by Cairo, Almaty and Athens and they all responded within a few hours.

Israel stopped stamping passports years ago because of the issue

I did consider that actually. My wife and I discussed every possible option and we ruled out her going alone to Warsaw. Way too complicated and stressful for her. Besides that, I had to put her name as the guest on all the hotel reservations in order to apply for the Schengen, and the bookings are in hotels all over Greece. I've already cancelled the medical exam in Warsaw, and the hotel reservations there. I had also booked a nice mini-vacation to take us out of Warsaw for the four days between the med exam and the interview, and that turned out to be non-refundable unfortunately. ouch If we had just not had the bad luck of applying to that one particular consulate, the whole thing would have worked out beautifully I think. It is possible to get a Schengen and get to Warsaw in time, but you really just get one chance and then time is up.

My wife (the applicant) was always more hesitant than I was, but your messages today are encouraging and giving me good material to convince her to try for a Jerusalem transfer. One other plus for us, my first name is Benjamin and that's gotta count for something in Israel 😉

We had the choice of either going ahead with the visa application or being black-listed, so far as I understand. Still waiting for the result. I'm half hoping for a rejection now! They will call just the hotels. And if the hotel says that we paid for the night but didn't show up, I think that would look very suspicious. We don't want to be hunted down by national security agents.

That's cool. I wonder if that's one of the reasons they are accepting transfers. My wife and I don't really want to transfer to Jerusalem having heard all the negative stories of border issues, but I'm getting the feeling we may have no other choice at this point. We were in Egypt for six months and many Russians there tried to do visa runs to Israel with mixed success. Husband and wife would show up at the border, one gets in the other doesn't. That kind of thing.

At the Jerusalem embassy is the interview conducted only in English? I don't recall anyone mentioning or asking about that. My wife's English would not be good enough to do the interview without an interpreter.

I requested a transfer to Athens yesterday and got the expected reply this morning. They say I need a Greek passport or Greek ID to be "considered" for a transfer. They also said I need to contact kccdv@state.gov regarding my transfer request. Isn't that the Diversity Visa program? Why the heck would they send me there if they know our case is IR-1??

Do not, whatever you do, apply at the Greek consulate in Novorossiysk.

I wrote to Patty Murray yesterday thorugh her contact form and haven't heard back yet. My request to her was general in nature because I was hoping for a solution that would be helpful to everyone who is in this situation. Now I realize that the system just isn't set up like that.