₦airaland Forum

VisaOfficer:
Your name is on the appointment list for April 2. Don't get a new medical report yet. If you have additional evidence of your relationship, especially evidence from after your initial interview, it's likely a good idea to bring it with you.

VisaOfficer:
I could put you down for April 2 at 10:00 if you're comfortable traveling so close to the holiday weekend.

VisaOfficer:
Unless something new has happened, we're waiting for you to let us know when you can come see us for a follow-up interview.

VisaOfficer:
And Yoruba and Hausa culture?

VisaOfficer:
Contact sheet received! Please don't ask for updates, because as I posted a couple days ago, I can never give additional information about cases under administrative processing. There are many different reasons for administrative processing, and discussing some but not others is simply unfair to everyone. So I'm afraid my answers about people's administrative processing are never going to be satisfactory.

VisaOfficer:
I don't see it in the case notes -- BUT -- as you may have heard we are recovering from a major e-mail and internet outage, so we are behind on processing our messages. Please remind me to check again in a few days.

VisaOfficer:
I don't see it in the case notes -- BUT -- as you may have heard we are recovering from a major e-mail and internet outage, so we are behind on processing our messages. Please remind me to check again in a few days.

VisaOfficer:
It depends. We may be able to issue a visa, or we may need more information. At this point it's too early to say.

VisaOfficer:
We are still processing all the e-mails received over the weekend, so it may take a while for your contact sheet to be associated with your file. Every case is different, but yes, it is likely that the people listed on the contact sheet may be contacted.

There are many types of administrative processing; some are resolved in a matter of days, some take much longer. It depends on many factors. The more accurate and complete the information you provided in the contact sheet is, the more quickly we can use that information.

It is very difficult to expedite administrative processing, but if there is a genuine medical emergency, we'll do our best.

VisaOfficer:
Every officer has his or her own note-taking style. Some write notes down and type them later; others type during the interview. It's a personal decision. I tend to take notes by hand myself, actually.

We often do ask personal questions during the interviews. It's a way of verifying that the beneficiary and the petitioner have the level of knowledge about each other that you would expect of two people in a relationship.

Now that the case is under administrative processing, the more complete and accurate you can be in filling out the contact sheet, the more easily the officers will be able to use it and the more quickly your case can be processed. If you're going to send the contact sheet by e-mail, please scan it and send it as an attachment. Thanks!

VisaOfficer:
No new actions taken. I see you're scheduled for an interview tomorrow at 07:00, but nothing has happened otherwise.

VisaOfficer:
Greetings,

Actually, I have no idea. How the CEAC site updates itself is a mystery to me. I could check your case to see if any action was taken, if you felt comfortable sharing your case number.

VisaOfficer:
The petitioner is free to file a new petition on your behalf, or the two of you could get married and she could file an I-130.

CityNG:
Re question about age difference.

Not sure if the COs frown at it but my Wife was asked why she married someone 22 years older than her.

So the question may come up and you need to be able to answer truthfully.

PS: it wasn't asked condescendingly but just as part of the interview. I thought it was an interesting question.

VisaOfficer:
Applicants need to have had a court or church wedding to submit a certificate to USCIS, so we don't really see spouse cases that only have traditional marriages. We're more interested in whether the person can easily talk about why they did or did not have a traditional marriage than whether they had one or not.



I didn't think that was a racist question at all. Most of the relationship cases we see are between people with Nigerian backgrounds -- often the petitioner is Nigerian-American, or born to Nigerian-American parents. Sometimes the petitioner has no apparent ties to Nigeria. We ask a lot of questions that boil down to "So how did you meet this person who has no ties to Nigeria whatsoever?" -- but we ask that about African-American petitioners too (not just white petitioners). The United States is a very diverse country and it would be hard to find an American of working age who doesn't see interracial relationships as a normal part of our society. We also understand that people do meet and fall in love online.

I've never researched the issuance rate for fiance / spouse visas when the petitioner has ties to Nigeria / does not have ties, but I believe you have just inspired me.



We do review the cases before we call the beneficiary to the window. It's true that we form a general impression when we review a case -- but one of the first things you learn as a Consular officer is how quickly things can change when you're actually talking to the beneficiary! I've had cases that looked great on paper that fell apart at the interview window. I've also had cases that looked terrible on paper, but the beneficiaries were able to explain away everything that looked bad. The interview is absolutely the most important part of an immigrant visa case.



I take it you mean the cases that show up with 2,000 pages of printed e-mails and a stack of photos 10 cm thick? In those cases, the evidence is so excessive that it ends up being neutral. When I see a case like that, I think, "Is this such a good case that they have all that stuff handy, or is it such a bad case that they're trying to overwhelm us with paper?" My personal preference would be for people to not kill so many trees.



On one hand we try to be aware of what's the norm in the countries where we work -- on the other hand, we know that all people are different. Here in Nigeria it seems like having children is a societal norm, and people who choose not to have children are rare. (Correct me if I'm wrong!) On the other hand, I have Nigerian friends who have told me they've decided not to have children. So, to answer your question, we'd never decide a relationship wasn't genuine just because of an age difference or whether the couple had children or not. All our applicants are individuals.



My pleasure! I like it when I have a chance to think through and articulate the reasons we do what we do. Your questions and feedback help make me a better officer.

VisaOfficer:
[b]The good news for you is that our computer records already indicate that we believe your relationship is bona fide and that you are in fact traditionally married. [/b]That means that when you appear for a spouse visa, it's unlikely that anyone will question your relationship with the petitioner. (I know that this doesn't make up for the delay, but I hope it alleviates some of your worries.)

VisaOfficer: Well, Lord knows I've issued visas to plenty of people who only met three months ago online, but I always kind of worry about them afterward. Then again, plenty of people in the world have arranged marriages and only meet on their wedding day and everything turns out fine, so...

VisaOfficer: Greetings and thank you! Yes, it is very difficult to qualify for an expedited appointment. Every applicant we have is eager to reunite with his or her family; every applicant is experiencing some type of hardship as a result of the separation. What you are asking is that your husband should be allowed to move to the front of the queue, in front of the thousands of other spouses whose petitions were filed earlier than your petition was filed. I know it is difficult to wait, but you must wait your turn.

We do approve some expedite requests -- for example, in documented medical emergecies, or when a minor child is here alone because the parents have already traveled for some reason. But not wanting to wait for the case to be processed normally is not a sufficient reason to expedite a case.