tcc1979

Hey ladies and Gents

I have just returned from the US where we I spent just under 6 months with my american partner. I am now back in Malta where we were living prior to going to the US in September and she is still in the US.
We will be applying for probably the K1 soon and my question is as i am British would i have to return to the UK for medicals and embassy interviews or would these been done elsewhere?
I would love to return but i am aware of the recommendation of staying out the US for a while due to my time there on my B2 visa.
Would the 8 to 10 month timescale still apply even if the application was made out of the UK?

iarnell

They generally process visas based on residence rather than nationality. A quick check on the Maltese US Embassy website shows that they don't process immigrant visas locally - the interview would be handled by the Consulate in Naples. Presumably there's a place to do the medical there too.

ian-mstm

If you are living in Malta, you can interview in Malta - so long as there is a US Consulate in Malta. If not, you may need to find one that will process you... and, as a 3rd party national, they're not obligated to.


Yes - but keep in mind that 8-10 months is the average time it takes.

Ian

ian-mstm

I'm not surprised. No US Embassy does visa processing. That's the purview of the US Consulate and the US Department of State.

Ian

iarnell

Sure they do. Lots of smaller countries don't have a consulate. In Ireland, for example, visas are handled at the embassy in Dublin (along with citizen services and all the other stuff that consulates normally do). Even smaller embassies just palm things off to a consulate in a nearby bigger country.

ian-mstm

No, they don't.


No, they're not - and certainly not in Dublin. Visas in Dublin are handled by the US Consular Service which is located in the same building as the Embassy - but they are completely separate and distinct entities. People also believe that visas are issued by the US Embassy in London - but they're not. They are issued by the US Consular Service which is located in the same compound. Embassies don't deal with visas. Quite simply, it is not their governmental responsibility.

Ian

Noorah101

Your thread title mentions both K-1 and CR-1. But in your post you only mention K-1. Are you also considering the CR-1 visa?

Rene

iarnell

Without trying to get too far off track, that's a distinction without much meaning. And even the State Department disagrees with you - the website of the Embassy in London clearly states that a "visa is issued by a U.S. Embassy or Consulate."

In this context, though, it's all about location. According to their own website, the US Embassy in Valetta has a visa section, but it only deals with non-immigrant visas. For immigrant visas, you deal with the Consulate General in Naples, Italy. I checked on the medical too - that's also done at the medical unit of the consulate the day before the interview.

One final point before I forget, though. There's one gotcha - if you do get processed in a third country, the National Visa Center and/or Consulate will expect to see proof of legal residence in that country. It doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere on document checklists, but I got an RFE for it when I went through the process in Canada. (Might be less of an issue with Malta, though - I guess UK passport counts as proof of legal residence anywhere in EU - at least for the next couple of years. But it doesn't hurt to include a copy of your residence card if you have one).

S Folinsky

My dear sanctimonious prick:

It varies by country. The UK is an obvious example -- AmEbassy LND has a consular section which issues immigrant visas. For non-immigrant visas LND does those also except for Northern Ireland, those go to Belfast. The embasy in Seoul Korea does immigrant visas, Busan does not.

In Canada, Montreal does immigrant visas while non-immigrants are spread around the rest of the country. I seem to recall that Canadian "E" had to go to Toronto only.

ian-mstm

My point exactly - the Embassy doesn't deal with visas... it's the consular service that does it - which is what I wrote.

Ian