gardener

Two items:

1. In our I-129F, line 20, we requested that my Korean fiancee’s visa application be at the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea. She currently lives in London, and has done so for the past 5 years. However, I received the letter this week, stating that the interview will be in London, and our Case Number starts with “LND”, which verifies the U.S. embassy location as London (I assume that’s what it means). I guess the government exercised its option to have her interview in London since there is a Note under line 20 which states “Designation of a U.S. Embassy or consulate outside the country of your fiancé(e)’s last residence does not guarantee acceptance for processing by that foreign post. Acceptance is at the discretion of the designated embassy or consulate.”

My fiancée would have preferred doing the interview in Korea, staying with family during the waiting period. She already quit her job in England in anticipation of returning to Korea for the interview, and bought an airline ticket.

My question: Did the U.S. embassy in Korea exercise its option as noted above, or was an error made? If an error was made, would requesting the interview be done in Seoul seriously delay the visa process?

2. Can someone please provide the following best guesses:

a. Length of time it takes the U.S. Embassy in London to process the Packet 3 paperwork?
b. Once the paperwork is approved, what is the earliest interview date that can be scheduled?

My fiancee’s student visa to stay in England expires in January 2009, so I think she should be okay, even if the K1 process ends up being drawn out.

Thanks,

meauxna

You can still request the file to be moved. It will make *some* delay obviously, but if it's an amount of delay you can deal with and the desire to go to Korea is strong..

If your case is just now leaving NVC for London, it's *probably* about 2 onths to interview time, but these things fluxuate quite a bit. Do you have all the visa application documents ready?

What is it you/your fiancee MOST want to do? You do have *some* say you know.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

It is not a mistake. She currently lives in London and the application goes to place of last residence. I was about to warn you about the procedures for obtain KNP clearances -- but I just looked and they have changed radically -- and are considered "unavailable" for people outside of Korea. One less thing to do.

gardener

meauxna and Folinskyinla,

Thank you for responding. I had to Google “KNP clearances” to figure out what was meant by that phrase. My fiancée called the Korean police, and was told she had to apply for her police report in person -- they would not release one by information given over the phone. My fiancee said that a police report could be gotten in just one day if she was in Korea, but could take more than a month going the embassy route. She asked her sister to mail her the necessary documents to apply for the police report via the US embassy in London. Waiting for the police report shouldn’t create much of a delay on our interview date, since we won’t get Packet 3 until a week or so, and it should take the embassy more than a month to process the paperwork -- unless getting the police report takes longer than two months.

Folinskyinla, you mentioned that police reports “are considered ‘unavailable’ for people outside of Korea. One less thing to do.” When you said “One less thing to do”, are you saying not to waste our time applying for one on our own, and that, other than appearing at the police station in person, the only way to get the police report is by going through the embassy route?

Thanks,

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Go to travel.state.gov -- and through "immigrant visas" and find the "reciprocity tables" -- it has all the information about KNP certificates. The KNPC can be obtained by an individual while IN Korea. For Koreans outside of Korea, it is considered "unavailable."

I used to do a lot visa work through SEO and traveling there quite often [I still haven't used all my SkyPass miles on KAL]. The old procedure for the KNPC was a pain in the ass -- the KNP would not give clearances to individuals -- one had to do a form SEO-63 with an attached copy of an untranslated FCN [ho-juk]. This was submitted to the Consulate where one was applying, and if outside of Korea, the consulate would send it to SEO and SEO would obtain the clearance. This is no longer the case.

However, I would strongly suggest getting a certified copy of the extract from the FCN showing your fiance along with a certified translation.

gardener

Folinskyinla,

Thanks so much for the advice. I will forward your info to my fiancee. We'll still try the embassy route to get her police record, but if it takes more than two months, she might have to go to Korea and get it in person. What a waste!

Always a pleasure posting on this great website.

Sincerely,

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Praytell -- what is the "embassy route"? It was the KNP that mentioned that, NOT the UNITED STATES sources. The State Department says it is "not available." There USED to be an "embassy route" and it no longer exists. The reciprocity table used to have the "embassy procedure" set forth in excruciating detail -- and it was NOT possible for a person in Korea to get their own KNPC. I just looked at the SEO website -- the SEO-63 form no longer exists.

gardener

Folinskyinla,

I went to travel.state.gov, but could not find the link "immigrant visas" that you said would lead me to the "reciprocity tables". Regardless, I interpret your last letter as meaning that there is no way my fiancee can get a KNP clearance, either by requesting one from the Korean Embassy in London, or by going to Korea herself. If that is the case, how is it possible for a Korean national to receive a K1 or K3 visa if it is impossible to get a police report?

Also, what is an FCN? When I googled it, nothing appropriate showed up.

totally confused,

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I was paraphrasing from memory. so --

"Immigrants to the US" somewhat to right of the middle of the home page. The "frequently request visa information" on the left -- then "fees and reciprocity tables" , then "visa fees reciprocity tables."

meauxna

Country Document Finder
Reciprocity by Country

gardner, when a document like a police check is marked 'unavailable', you don't do anything. The Consulate does whatever they do and makes due with what they can get. I think. Bottom line is if it is 'unavailable' you don't have to get it.

Noorah101

I agree. When a police certificate is marked "unavailable", the consulate understands that it's a document they can't get, so they don't expect to see one in your package. My Iranian husband had the same issue...no police certificate available from Iran. We did not get one for his K-1 visa, and it was never mentioned at his interview why it was missing. The consulate understands this.

Rene

Folinskyinla

Hi:

In the mid-80's, the Reciprocity Tables Schedules stated that police clearances were "available" from Iran when they were really not. The Consulates that would take Iranian cases [remember that at the time, there was an institutional hostility to Iranians -- almost all ConOffs personally knew one or more of the hostages] finally worked out a method -- you had to make three unsuccessful attempts to obtain the police clearance spaced one month apart and they would then waive the requirement.

Once they put "unavailable" in there, it became a lot easier. I tend to think that the Table was not changed for many years just out of the existing institutional hostility.

meauxna

So what do you think might be going on with Korea?

That makes big sense about the hostage-era ConOffs; we were at the Embassy on Aug 7 and noted that the staff took an organized meditation in honor of their colleagues in Africa and '98. They take it very personally.

gardener

Folinskyinla, Noorah101 and meauxna,

I just spoke to my fiancée, and she said that the Korean embassy in London told her there are two ways to apply for a police record. One way is to do it herself by coming to the embassy and getting a paper stamped by the embassy, confirming her identity. She would then send this paper, along with a copy of her passport and a return envelope, to the Korean police station. She said this process would take less than a month total to receive the report. The other way is to have her sister in Korea send her “family documents” (I didn’t ask what these were) which she would then take to the Korean embassy in London, pay a fee, and then wait about two months to receive the police report. Obviously, she will try the former method first.

Thanks for all your time on this matter! My fiancée and I will leave this Monday morning to rendezvous in Mexico for a two-week vacation. If there are further input on this thread and I do not respond in a timely manner, that’s the reason.

Thanks again ,

Folinskyinla

Hi:

She will not need a KNPC for UNITED STATES visa processing in London.

As for the "family document" -- did I not tell you that she WILL need the certified extract of her Hojuk along with a certified translation into English. I also told you about the FORMER procedure of attaching the FCN [Hojuk] to the request for a KNPC which was handled by the Embassy in Seoul, no matter where the ROK national applied for a visa.

The UNITED STATES requirement is that a ROK citizen in Korea must now personally get the report, if they are outside of Korea, no KNPC is required. We also used to get an official "Kimpo Check" which recorded all exits and entries into the ROK.