Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington DC

Dear Sirs,

I wish to file a formal complaint against a consular officer in the Warsaw Embassy in Poland. Unfortunately I do not have the name of this officer despite repeated attempts to contact the embassy and obtain his name. I've been trying to get his name for approximately 4 months now and they simply refuse to give me that information. What I can say is that he was a relatively tall with short blonde hair and appeared to be one of the two American officers working at the windows there. He described his self as the supervisor. The other American consular there was in training at the time.

Here is my the story that explains why I fell compelled to report this consular as abusive and as having shown a prejudice against me and my fiancée. This prejudice is causing me extreme emotional pain as I have been forced into a very lengthy and frustrating battle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and may even be faced with never being able to bring my fiancée here to America to live with me. I realize that filing this complaint will not help my case with the INS however I feel that as an American I must register my grievances so that future Americans will hopefully not need to experience this abuse and prejudice.

My fiancée, Olga Fedoryaka, and I were scheduled for an interview at the Warsaw Embassy on April 23, 2001 so that she could obtain a Fiancée Visa. Shortly after my fiancée's interview started this blonde haired consular pulled me aside to another window and asked me why I wanted my fiancée. I was not aware that it is customary to interview the petitioner at such visa interviews! I told him that I loved her and wanted to bring her to America to be my wife. He then asked if I was aware that my fiancée was in the U.S. before. I responded that she had not been deported. He looked at me very sternly and menacingly, raised his voice and scolded me "Now don't be trying to get legal with me!". I told him I was not trying to get legal with him I was just trying to inform him that she was not deported and apologized. Needless to say at this point I was very nervous and intimidated. I did not feel that I needed to be scolded by him nor intimidated by him however I was worried if I didn't go along with whatever he said that he would deny my petition. In other words I felt very threatened by him.

Next he asked me if I knew that she had been married twice before and that he believed that she was just using me to get a ticket to America. I told him that I was fully aware of her prior marriages and had discussed it with her on many occasions. I told him that I had even spoken with her first ex husband on the phone. He seemed satisfied with that and let me return to my fiancée and the interview.

Later on in the interview my fiancée and the other consular interviewer were discussing her exit from the U.S. in 1997. The blonde supervisor stopped by and joined in the discussion. With four of us there together there started to be a little confusion. The blonde supervisor was now pressing on my fiancée again in an authoritative and threatening manner. He was all confused about the sequence of events. I attempted to interrupt and explain to him what he was misinterpreting. He turned to me and like a dog owner barked at me in a harsh tone and instructed me to go sit down. After a few minutes he motioned for me to return only to explain to me that he was overruling the interviewer and sending this petition back for administrative review.

Now I understand and appreciate that it is the consular's job to weed out undesirable applicants. However I do not feel, as an American citizen, that I need to be threatened, intimidated and told that my choice of a spouse is wrong by members of my own government! Further it seems to me that this blonde haired supervisor had clearly expressed his bias towards my fiancée in the first 5 minutes of the interview way before making any objective decisions. And I do not appreciate having to suffer for somebody else's prejudices!

In my latest attempt to ascertain this consular's name another employee of the Embassy emailed me. Normally they do not identify themselves however this time they did.  It was signed Maria Rudensky Silver, Chief Immigrant Visa Section. I had emailed Ms. Silver back inquiring again for that blonde haired consulars name. As expected she has not responded. I therefore feel compelled to also file a formal complaint against Ms Silver for refusing to provide me this man's name.

Please do whatever is required to file an official complaint against both Ms. Silver and this blonde haired supervisor consular. I want it to be known and logged. I also would like to have confirmation that my complaints were indeed registered. If you need any further assistance from me to do this then feel free to contact me.

I await your response.

Sincerely

Andrew DeFaria  

Other identifying information:

Petitioner:	Andrew DeFaria
Beneficiary:	Olga Fedoryaka
California Service Center ID:	WAC0101653678	Approved January 2, 2001
Warsaw Embassy ID:	WRW2001008031	Interview date April 23, 2001