K-1 Visa Help Needed

[negrecita2003]

I recently have become friendly with a girl that I met last year. And
after what she has been through, I decided to post her story and see
if any of you could help out.

She has been in a 2 year relationship with a man from the Dominican
Republic and last September filed for the K-1 Visa. The petition was
approved here in the US and forwarded to the US consulate in the DR.
Packet #3 was rec'd by her fiance and he went and did all of the
necessary things in order to get the interview date. Well, after
calling numerous times, the 800# people were giving both him and her
the run around about him missing some paper and then not missing
anything and then on to him having an open interview, which I found
to be odd, since they assign an interview date and send you the
letter. Well, she decided to fly down and visit the US consulate
just recently and after waiting for 5 hours to be seen, was finally
seen by a consulate officer and he advised that her fiance's case had
been closed because his biological father had been in the US for over
20 years and he should have petitioned for him long ago. They
didn't want to hear a word they had to say and advised that she
needed to wait until she rec'd a letter from them stating the exact
reason for his case being closed before she coudl send out a letter
of appeal here in the US.

So, my question and her's of course, is what does his father's
residence have anything to do with her peitioning him?? HE and his
father have not had a relationship, since the father walked out on
them when he was an infant. She has since sent a 4 page appeal
letter to the Service Center in the US, but is getting very anxious
on what else she should do. She has even thought about going down
there and marrying him to start the K-3 process.

Can someone please advise what add'l information she can do on this
end in the US. This just doesn't seem right.

[stewart]

Originally Posted by negrecita2003

I recently have become friendly with a girl that I met last year. And
after what she has been through, I decided to post her story and see
if any of you could help out.

She has been in a 2 year relationship with a man from the Dominican
Republic and last September filed for the K-1 Visa. The petition was
approved here in the US and forwarded to the US consulate in the DR.
Packet #3 was rec'd by her fiance and he went and did all of the
necessary things in order to get the interview date. Well, after
calling numerous times, the 800# people were giving both him and her
the run around about him missing some paper and then not missing
anything and then on to him having an open interview, which I found
to be odd, since they assign an interview date and send you the
letter. Well, she decided to fly down and visit the US consulate
just recently and after waiting for 5 hours to be seen, was finally
seen by a consulate officer and he advised that her fiance's case had
been closed because his biological father had been in the US for over
20 years and he should have petitioned for him long ago. They
didn't want to hear a word they had to say and advised that she
needed to wait until she rec'd a letter from them stating the exact
reason for his case being closed before she coudl send out a letter
of appeal here in the US.

So, my question and her's of course, is what does his father's
residence have anything to do with her peitioning him?? HE and his
father have not had a relationship, since the father walked out on
them when he was an infant. She has since sent a 4 page appeal
letter to the Service Center in the US, but is getting very anxious
on what else she should do. She has even thought about going down
there and marrying him to start the K-3 process.

Can someone please advise what add'l information she can do on this
end in the US. This just doesn't seem right.

Marrying him will definitely speed things up. It puts him in a different category all together.
The rest just sounds like the typical run-around that dirtbag agency is known for.

[jskr1us]

You need to read between the lines on these things. I would guess (based on experience) that something provided (and they will not tell you what) does not check out. More than likely it is on the Dominican side of the ledger (Birth Dates, places, past marrages etc.) since many records in the DR have been tampered with (for various reasons) the embassy if in its investigation of the provided documents notices that the documents provided or the doccuments on either side of them have been seamingly tampered with. The other reason can be past experiences with family members (even with no contact existing between the parties).
The only help you can get is from your Senators and Congress persons (you will need to put pressure on these people to get them to act though). If the congress person's staff person whohandels immigration cases is contacted and they don't take no for an answer when the embassy tells them know (it does almost everytime the first time they request a hearing) you can get results with in 60 to 90 days. But you need to be sure of all of your facts and that all of the things you told the embassy are truthful and correct or the office will be embarrised and not help you in the future and you will need their help again durring this process trust me. The Dominican Embassy is currently trying to leverage more money out of congress and is claming that they can not handle the current case load, that it is short on funding and personel. Currently they say that they will be scheduling no additional interviews until May. Good luck - Hope my advice helps

[twincactus]

Originally Posted by jskr1us

The Dominican Embassy is currently trying to leverage more money out of congress and is claming that they can not handle the current case load, that it is short on funding and personel. Currently they say that they will be scheduling no additional interviews until May. Good luck - Hope my advice helps

The problem is that the K-1 is adjudicated at the embassy, where the CR-1 is done at the National Visa Center.

I wish you would either post your sources about the interviews, or stop spreading misinformation. There is a very confusing part in there about calling 800 numbers and such. To my knowlege, the embassy phone number is a toll call ( I have called it several times) and if they got an RFE, it would have most likely come from the service center, the NVC doesn't do anything with K visas except send them to the embassy. If they got packet 3.5 or 4, the interview should have been scheduled, and they BOTH should have attended. The embassy will not give out the visa unless the USC is present. The Dominican embassy is one of very few who "require" that.

-Tim

[jskr1us]

Letter from the Chief US Counsel in the DR to Senator Arlen Specter Chairman of the US Senate Justice Committee. I have a photocopy in my possession. I do not spread rumors (I have no need to) only fact and opinion based on the facts or experiences I have had or have in my posession.

[twincactus]

Originally Posted by jskr1us

Letter from the Chief US Counsel in the DR to Senator Arlen Specter Chairman of the US Senate Justice Committee. I have a photocopy in my possession. I do not spread rumors (I have no need to) only fact and opinion based on the facts or experiences I have had or have in my posession.

Specter's office is working with me on my case so I guess thye will let me know if that is indeed the case. Sorry but I just don't want to believe that i will have to wait until May for the interview date. It's been too long already.

-Tim

[jskr1us]

Originally Posted by twincactus

Specter's office is working with me on my case so I guess thye will let me know if that is indeed the case. Sorry but I just don't want to believe that i will have to wait until May for the interview date. It's been too long already.

-Tim

The exact wording of the response to Senator Specter from Mary B. Marshall Counsul General was; "We recieved the case files from the National Visa Center on November _, 2004. We would like to have handled the cases within 60 days of this date. However, because of the heavy caseload and limited personnel resources, we are currently scheduling interviews for cases recieved in May." and it goes on from there. Sorry I cant be more encourageing, believe me I am frustrated also. I do believe that if more pressure is applied the cases can be moved up the trick is applying pressure without getting anyone upset to the point that rather than helping they cause delays. Good luck, if you want any more information and I can be of help please just ask.