“Can I transfer my case to another embassy or consulate? Would it make it faster?”
It’s great that people are looking for a way to find a shortcut or to make things move more smoothly. Transferring a spouse or fiancé visa case to another embassy or consulate is something that we actually do pretty frequently in our office. It really just depends though.
There’s a lot of factors to take into consideration regarding whether or not it makes sense to transfer your case to another US embassy or consulate. There are three main instances that an individual might have more than one embassy or consulate available to them where it would make sense that you would transfer your case to a different embassy or consulate where it is faster.
Eligibility for Transferring Cases
The first scenario would be that you are an individual where you are a citizen of one country that you happen to be legally residing in. For example, you’re a citizen of Australia but you have lawful permanent status or a work visa in Canada. Since you’re living in Canada, you could have your interview there.
What we do with clients that have multiple embassies available to them is work with them to decide what location is the best for them. If they’re already living and working in Canada, we can ask for an interview there so they don’t have to take a trip back to Australia.
Right now, with everything that’s going on with COVID, the US embassies in Australia are very slow and in a standstill. The processing times are extremely slow because of COVID and the lockdowns. Canada would be the better option. We would ask for that embassy on the application. If you recently started working or have residency in Canada, you could transfer the case.
That’s one scenario where it would make sense that you would want to transfer the case to that embassy instead. That is just an example. There’s a lot of factors to take into consideration about whether or not it makes sense.
If you are transferring your case, you have to have lawful status in the country where you want to transfer your case. In the example, you would have citizenship in one country and a work permit or lawful permanent resident status in another. You could pick between those two countries which one will be the best option.
You might also be a citizen of multiple countries. We have many clients who are citizens of two or so countries. We would just pick which country would be the best and sometimes, that changes when we get closer to the interview phase.
Another scenario where you’re able to transfer is in situations where there isn’t a US embassy or consulate where you are consular processing for your spouse visa or fiancé visa. For example, the US embassy and consulate in Russia are no longer doing interviews so Poland has been taking those cases. Russia is just one example but there are other countries where there isn’t a US embassy or consulate and so, you can transfer your case to another US embassy or consulate in another country.
Whether or not you should transfer your cases is going to depend on your circumstances. We work with clients to decide what is the place that would be easiest for you. Maybe you have citizenship in multiple countries but it would be too difficult for you with work or obligations for you to go to that country.
The other consideration in moving your case to another US embassy or consulate is that you could be trading one long line for another long line. We pay attention to what are the average wait times, what’s happening at the other US embassies or consulates before we transfer the case.
Transferring cases is definitely an option but it is complicated and there’s a lot of factors to take into consideration.