Originally Posted by
florens
This situation or rather the lack of positive development is starting to worry me regarding our early 2022 plans.
I have enrolled at a vocational school in Denver where I‘ll be attending a 6 weeks course from March to mid April 2022 to become a FAA Flight Dispatcher. Originally, the plan was to do a road trip before and after this course. I‘ll be traveling with my wife from early February to April 2022 from Switzerland.
Given the uncertainty, at this point I don‘t quite know what is best to do given we have flights booked already.
1) Wait
2) Start the application process for a NIE which I think I could obtain, but I don‘t know if that would be possible for my wife too? Traveling alone is not an option.
3) Start the application process for an M1 student visa for myself and an M2 spouse visa for my wife
Options 2) and 3) require to cancel any touristic activities and would result in change of flights anyway, hence why I am reluctant in doing so and would rather wait out at this point.
I would try the visa route to expand my options. Two weeks ago I renewed my own visa in Madrid (H-1B, not a student visa). Everyone else at the embassy was applying for some flavour of student visa and it looked like they were being approved more or less regularly (if you had managed to get an appointment).
I'm an academic and I had a relatively in-depth interview were I had to describe my work. The NIE was approved (I don't know whether this happens now more or less reliably for all academics with PhDs or whether my doing some COVID-related work was a factor).
Paradoxically, given the increased scrutiny on my own visa, the smaller number of people at the embassy meant that this was by far the occasion I spent the least time there.