7 minute read
A Bona Fide Relationship Doesn’t Always Mean K-1 Visa Approval
Former Consular Officer, Mandy Feuerbacher, Esq.
When I was the acting Immigrant Visa Chief at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, I was fascinated by K-1 fiancé/ fiancée visas, mainly because our decisions on these applications were life-changing for the beneficiaries (and the petitioners). While K-1 visas are technically considered “non-immigrant” visas by the State Department, overseas, they are always interviewed by Consular Officers in the Immigrant Visa Unit, perhaps because the nature of this visa category is permanent relocation to the United States to be with their partner.
42% of K-1 visa applicants have problems
Unfortunately, the stakes are incredibly high for the K-1 visa interview. According to the 2018 statistics from the U.S. Department of State’s website, 42% of K visa applications face visa refusals and administrative processing delays. This means that 42% of K visa applicants who plan to marry an American citizen partner will have hiccups in their journey, and some may even be forced to give up on their relationship and marriage because of a failure at the visa interview. For U.S. immigration attorneys of these K-1 clients, the experience is no better— often they can only watch helplessly as their clients are defeated at the visa interview as they take a hit to their firm’s reputation and word-of-mouth.
One big problem for K-1 practitioners is that when they spend months on a client’s case and have numerous indepth conversations with the couple in love, they don’t view the case through the same lens as a skeptical Consular Officer. I recently worked with an immigration attorney on such a case where the attorney believed the K-1 case was “open and shut with a 99.9% success rate” only to have the K-1 visa refused and revoked. The devastated couple is now working with our team of expert ex-Consular Officers at Argo to give it another try.
The Consular Officer Gatekeeper
As an Immigrant Visa Officer, I learned just how much K-1 visa approvals depend upon American Consular Officers’ subjective perception and understanding of a romantic relationship. Unfortunately, a strong bias exists to view such a relationship through an American lens. In Hong Kong, for example, many K-1 visa applicants were Filipino and Indonesian, as they
resided in Hong Kong as live-in housekeepers in a special status. Any fact patterns unusual from an American perspective, e.g. a significant age difference between the petitioner and beneficiary, limited instances where the couple have seen each other in person, etc., called for more intense scrutiny during the visa interview.
Generally, beneficiaries are nervous about this visa interview, and understandably so. Immigrant visa interviews usually take between 15 to 30 minutes, which is much longer than your usual 3-minute non-immigrant interviews. Consular Officers will ask a lot of questions, and beneficiaries’ answers and how they respond
under the watchful eyes of the Consular Officer will directly affect the decision on the case. Hesitation or delays (even for understandable reasons like lack of language fluency) can be seen as a red flag by Consular Officers, which could mean followup interviews, the involvement of the Fraud Prevention Unit, a request for more documentation, etc. This is where working with an expert exConsular Officer to prepare for the interview can be really beneficial for K-1 beneficiaries. After all, it is not fair to expect K-1 beneficiaries to present themselves and their situations perfectly at such a highstakes interview when they have never done this before, and there are so many hidden tripwires. muster during the interview, it could be a heart-wrenching experience. Consular Officers who don’t believe in the authenticity of a K-1 relationship will usually recommend the K-1 petition for revocation to USCIS. If K-1 petitioners and beneficiaries have the finances to try again, they face an uphill battle of a visa revocation already on the government record and a lengthy processing delay. One option is for the couple to get married overseas and to re-file a I-130 spousal petition, which can take up to a year or more in the current immigrant visa backlog. It is a lot of work and can be a huge financial burden to the couple, only to have their future together hinge again on the next interview, which is likely to be even more suspicious and hostile.
How should beneficiaries present themselves during the K-1 visa interview?
I have always believed that beneficiaries of any visa application should take a very proactive approach to the visa interview. And yet often, immigration attorneys advise their clients to say as little as possible during the visa interview for fear that they would say something wrong.
As a former Consular Officer, the worst interviews I have encountered were the ones where it felt like pulling teeth to get any information out of the beneficiary. I would have to ask 5 questions to get one substantive answer. While I don’t recommend saying too much (or too little), visa applicants should proactively offer the information Consular Officer needs to make an informed decision on the case. K-1 beneficiaries should be proactive, concise, confident, humble, and respectful, all in one interview. They should answer questions in a way that makes sense to the American Consular Officer.
If this seems like too much to expect your clients to get right on the first try and without practice, you are right. For visa applications with as high stakes as a K-1 visa, I recommend that you work with an expert former Consular Officer who can prepare your clients the right way, given the time constraint of the visa interview and the susceptibility for (fatal) misunderstanding and miscommunication.
My time as a Consular Officer gave me many behind-the-scenes insights into the world of consular processing and how Consular Officers like to receive information. In those seven years, I realized that Visa Officers have our own culture of how we look at cases, what questions we ask, and how we come to conclusions about visa applications and petitions.
At Argo Visa, every single one of our consultants is a former Consular Officer with special expertise. We have a small team of ex-Consular Officers who specialize in K-1 fiancé/ fiancée visas, and can help your clients be prepared for this crucial interview. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help your firm succeed in your K-1 practice, please e-mail me at mfeuerbacher@argovisa. com
About the Author
Mandy Feuerbacher is a former Consular Officer with the U.S. Department of State, and has worked at the U.S. Embassy Beijing, China, the U.S. Consulate General Matamoros, Mexico, and the U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong. In her 7+ years working as a Consular Officer, she has interviewed over 100,000 visa applicants. She is also a U.S. immigration attorney and runs Argo Visa, the world’s first company made up of former U.S. Consular Officers who help immigration attorneys with consular processing.
